PLEAS made by campaigners fighting to keep their school open are to be delivered to Parliament by their MP in time for a Tuesday deadline.
Durham City MP Roberta Blackman-Woods has pledged to take the views of pupils, parents and teachers of The Durham Free School to the Secretary of State for Education Nicky Morgan, who will then make a final decision on its future.
Mrs Blackman-Woods visited the Free School for the first time on Friday evening after accepting an invitation from chairman of governors John Denning.
Mr Denning said: "The parents, teachers and especially the children, who were magnificent, left Mrs Blackman-Woods in no doubt of their commitment to, and support for, The Durham Free School. She listened carefully to the views expressed and promised to take them to Nicky Morgan.
"She didn't promise to fight for the school, but since this was the first time she'd visited, and she has been opposed to the school from the start, it was the best we could hope for.”
Asked if she was ashamed of the behaviour of fellow Labour MP Pat Glass who made false allegations this week against teachers at the school while protected under Parliamentary privilege, she said she "couldn't be held responsible" but would pass on parents' feelings.
When one pupil asked her why she had referred to the school in Parliament as "scary", Mrs Blackman-Woods said it was "a slip of the tongue" that she had then tried to lighten.
The MP, who has been a governor in a variety of schools for 30 years, acknowledged that parents did not agree with Ofsted's conclusions but said it was "very unusual" for inspectors to find fault in so many areas, coupled with findings by the Education Funding Agency, to which governors have responded with an improvement plan.
"I want to get an understanding of why you think the judgement is so terribly wrong," she said.
Parents responded by addressing each issue, including allegations bad behaviour among children, teaching standards, pupil achievement and leadership, giving their full backing to the acting headteacher.
Many explained how they had sent their children to the Free School to escape bullying elsewhere.
Gail Collingwood, of Kirk Merrington, told the MP: "Our son feels safe at this school. He was bullied at the old school for two years and it was only when he reached the point of threatening suicide that they did anything about it."
Student Luke Douglas asked: "We were told by Ofsted that we aren't making significant progress. Last year me and some of my friends won a nationally recognised science competition. If we're not making significant progress, how did that happen?"
Mum Julie Hall asked Mrs Blackman-Woods why she had been opposed to the school from the outset, and why she had "fabricated" the cost of the school, whose accounts are registered at Companies House and available for public viewing.
The MP said: "I opposed it because there were surplus places in Durham. It's nothing about it being a free school; free schools are academies and I was hoping to get a new academy in Durham.
"I had to write five letters to the education minister to try to get information about funding of this school. I didn't fabricate it. I showed the letter I was sent to the press. If the costs were wrong it wasn't my fault."
Mrs Blackman-Woods also emphasised how keen she was to find out if parents were being offered more than one alternative school by the LEA, but the parents said they did not want their children to go anywhere else.
And she confirmed, as the school had suspected, that "it's possible that advance notice was given" to the LEA of Nicky Morgan's intention to close it, before the school was told.
"I don't make the decision. There's no role for either the MP or the local council in what will happen to this school," explained Mrs Blackman-Woods.
She added: "I know why you would want to challenge that Ofsted report. I'm assuming you've got an evidence base to counter what's in it, but my understanding is that the decision about the school was not made only on Ofsted."
Mr Denning added: "We are grateful that Mrs Blackman-Woods gave her time to come and listen to our parents. I hope she left with a clearer understanding of what life is really like at The Durham Free School, of the true experiences of pupils and parents, and that it is worth fighting for."