Last updated 13:48, Tuesday, 07 October 2008

NEW measures have been introduced to improve safety at the Richard Rose Central Academy in Harraby, Carlisle.

• View more pictures...

Share concerns: Mark Yearsley with director of education Carol Grey

By Kelly Eve

It follows a fault in the fire alarm which caused it to go off repeatedly on Friday.

Pupils had to be evacuated four times in a hour due to a problem in the fire alarm’s electrical panel. Software is needed to rectify the situation.

Fire chiefs, site managers and academy director Mark Yearsley have held meetings every day since the fault was discovered to ensure problems are addressed and resolved. Two extra wardens have been appointed to provide added cover at the large two-storey temporary classroom block at the 1,500-pupil school.

The alarm problems surfaced on Friday, the day an officer from Cumbria Fire Service had an appointment to carry out an audit of the new school’s fire regulations. Fire service station manager Bruce Wilson said: “After liaising with the head and having various meetings we are happy that they are operating to the highest possible standards.”

The Richard Rose Federation, which runs the central academy and its sister school in Morton, is also to get its own fire safety liaison officer, appointed into a similar role to that of the school’s onsite police officer Phil Bell.

In addition to tackling the fire alarm problems, the academy has taken on a number of supervisors to sit on board buses being used to transport hundreds of children to and from the Edgehill Road site in a bid to address recurring reports of problems.

Reports include damage being caused on board buses as well as missiles being thrown by youths. Dozens of varying concerns and opinions about the academy have been placed by parents and staff anonymously on the News & Star’s website.

Parents are concerned about children’s safety and some have also commented on truancy levels and the numbers of children seen wandering around the Harraby area, claiming they are considering their child’s future at the academy.

Others ask people to rally around and support the school as minor teething problems are resolved and comment on the positive progress made by youngsters.

Academy director Mark Yearsley said: “I have read a number of these and can categorically state that the large majority of them are based on speculation and rumour. Comments on lack of safety, assaults, parents taking their children out of school, high truancy levels and so on are simply not true.

“We have our own police liaison officer, who is in school 35 hours a week who would be the first to pick up on any unlawful behaviour and have received a green light for our safety measures both before and after Friday’s fire alarm fault.”

On truancy, Mr Yearsley claimed that levels were lower than at the two predecessor schools of North Cumbria Technology College and St Aidan’s School.

“We have not had formal requests to take children out of school – quite the reverse in that we have received a number of request for places,” he said.

“I would hope parents will now pick up the phone or write to me instead of approaching the press. It can’t be helpful for children to continually see and hear negative stories about their school in the press.”

In the last six months, the academy’s website has received only three messages from parents.

The central academy can be contacted on 01228 822060 or via www.richardrosecentralacademy.org.