Village leaders are angry about the way teachers will be recruited to a new school.

Denholme Town Council have lobbied for a secondary school to be created in its part of the district.

And councillors were delighted when Bradford Council announced that Parkside Middle School in nearby Cullingworth would become a secondary school as part of its education shake-up.

But they are unhappy with the system which has been set up for teachers to apply for jobs there.

About 1,500 teachers in the district will lose their jobs under the shake-up, which will abolish middle schools.

They will apply anonymously for new jobs by filling in forms which will carry no names, ages or even genders.

Denholme's Town Mayor, Coun Russell Driver, said villagers had waited for a long time for a secondary school in the area and wanted it to be the best possible for pupils.

"If we are talking about excellence which is one of the reasons why we've had to go back to the two-tier system, then surely this is not the best way forward," he said.

The council has agreed to write to Bradford Council urging it to scrap the system for appointing staff anonymously.

The new school in Cullingworth will have a capacity of 900. Interviews will be conducted to appoint its head teacher but the system adopted by Bradford Council means that jobs at newly-created schools will be allocated solely on the basis of the teaching qualifications and experience of those who have been displaced in the shake-up.

Posts will be filled by governors at a meeting with union and local authority inspectorate representatives when they will consider a list of applicants whose personal details have been removed from forms.

Unions have welcomed the system. The Association of Teachers and Lecturers says it will stop discrimination against good teachers who happen to be working in failing schools.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.