I am one of the parents who has sent my child to Dowdales and was initially completely against sending my child to Chetwynde when I heard about the free school when this poll first appeared. When our Labour MP indicated he supported it I chose to do some research to understand what a free school is. That research included Batley Grammar school website (a former private school) who are a free school in there second year now and there website has lots of information. They have provided 300 more places to the local population as a free school than they did when private and are still achieving excellent results. I now realise what an opportunity this is for my child and have filled out a Chetwynde form to take the place up if I am lucky enough to secure a place for him. I would urge all parents to understand what a great opportunity this is and do similarly do some research.
I would have sympathised with Ron Cs comments this time last week, other than recognising a poll is not support but an option to be for or against!. i now want to thank NWEM for keeping this issue live (understandably given both the number of votes and comments made showing its newsworthiness!) as it has allowed me to become informed upon the matter upon something that is clear to me is in the towns best interests. This is the chance to open up an excellent school for the benefit of the whole town (or lose it if the town stays uninformed). Please make the right choice Barrovians as improving state education for all in the town is in all of our interests!

Fact 1: the NWEM keeps polls in support of Chetwynde on here longer than on any other topic.
Fact 2: the NWEM deletes posts criticising its position.

Guess: this post will never appear on the site.