Parents join school row as 'unruly' boy returns

Thirty parents yesterday withdrew their children from a Nottinghamshire primary school in protest against the presence of an allegedly unruly boy.

Teachers at Manton School in Worksop, Nottinghamshire had threatened to strike rather than teach Matthew Wilson, 10.

Members of the National Association of Schoolmasters/ Union of Women Teachers withdrew the threat after Nottinghamshire County Council agreed to pay pounds 14,000 a year for Matthew to be taught separately from other pupils.

When Matthew returned to school yesterday, he was escorted into the building while other pupils were having lessons - part of the agreement made with the union. However, 30 parents withdrew around 40 children from school and others signed a petition for him to be permanently removed.

The local authority said the school's headteacher expected more parents to withdraw their children today. The escalating protest threw into confusion a compromise deal brokered last week by the county council, which appeared to have averted a teachers' strike.

One mother in a crowd gathered at the school gates early today said: "They have taken our children's money for him to have a one-to-one teacher. Why should our children suffer for one child?

"These children will not go back to school until he is out of school. The mothers of this school are going to be listened to. We have had no say and we are going to be listened to."

More than 150 parents have now signed a petition calling for Matthew to be expelled and the school governors to resign.

The parents' revolt left headteacher Bill Skelley and the governors and local education authority facing a crisis, with no clear plans for resolving it.

Mr Skelley refused to comment, leaving a spokesman for the county council to say it was believed that he planned talks "soon - possibly tomorrow" with the rebel parents. The county council itself had no comment on the latest position.

Under last week's agreement, Matthew is due to be assessed in five weeks as to the possibility of returning him to mainstream education.

Yesterday's actions by parents, on top of the entrenched views of teachers at Manton Junior School, make it difficult to see how he could resume normal lessons there.

Eileen Bennett, chair of the school governors, greeted the news of the parents' revolt with "horror" The governors were all in agreement and not prepared to resign, she said.

"We have been set up like sitting ducks," she said. "The parents should look to the staff for answers. Nobody is supporting that poor child. If only they could have seen his face this morning, that child was crucified. He was absolutely bewildered.

"... I don't know who can do anything now. We are not happy with the compromise reached but it seems to be a stalemate. We need the wisdom of Solomon."

The boy's mother, Pamela Cliffe, denies that he is disruptive and has let it be known that she only agreed to the arrangement to avoid the school's closure.

Nigel de Gruchy, the union's general secretary, said he understood the concerns of the parents who had withdrawn their children. "The solution to the problem posed by the continued presence of the pupil in question at the school is very far from ideal," he said.