Darwen Vale will retain its individuality from Darwen Academy. A promise made when the Aldridge Foundation took over Darwen Vale and took the monopoly of secondary education in Darwen, a small Lancashire town.  

They are now enforcing changes, without full consultation of parents or students and no clear evidence showing a positive correlation, onto DVHS.  What works at one school does not necessarily mean it will work at another.  Education is not a one size fits all.

The average adult has an attention span of 20 minutes.  A secondary school is not made up of average adults, it has young people, many with varying needs, developing emotionally and under immense pressure to do well in the education system.  Expecting students to sit in one lesson for 2 hours and 40 minutes (where it is back to back) is not acceptable.  We have seen no clear evidence that this improves academic achievement.   We believe that this will cause more disruption to learning, greater pressure on young people and difficulties for staff teaching the same group for this length of time.  

As parents and prospective parents of Darwen Vale students we need to make our voice heard.   We are the stakeholders and deserve to have our say about enforced changes to our child's education.  They only get one opportunity, we need to get it right first time!