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No school internet for weeks after workers axe cables

Emma Scott
20/ 7/2006

YOUNGSTERS and staff at a Didsbury school have been left without the internet for more than a month, after bungling workmen cut through their connection.

Headteacher Matt Whitehead said the botch-up had caused children at Didsbury CE Primary School to miss out on computer lessons and left staff unable to update vital information needed by Ofsted school inspectors.

Workmen accidentally cut through cables outside the Elm Grove school last month as they carried out work linked to a scheme to create a new bus corridor system in Didsbury village.

Mr Whitehead said that as a result the school had been unable to send administrative e-mails for four weeks - including results from the pupils' Key Stage 2 assessments.

He added: "We will not fulfil certain requirements for the government because there's work I'm required to send off by e-mail that I can't.

"We have had to send them by hand and by post to various government departments.

"They will get the results somewhere along the line. But it's very inefficient and inconvenient.

"If I count up all the time I have spent on the phone trying to sort this out, it adds-up to at least a day. It's aggravating and annoying."

The school has also been unable to update its school evaluation form which is supposed to be put on-line and forms part of its Ofsted inspection.

And it has also been unable to complete a school profile, a report from the governors, which parents can access online.

Mr Whitehead said that the children's education is suffering because they are unable to access the internet during lessons.

"Staff have had to alter computer lessons because we have no internet. The children are having to do more desktop publishing and work with the Word software instead.

It's curtailed some of activities that have been planned for them."

This week, spokesman for Manchester City Council, which is carrying out the roadworks, said: "The school has been dealing, through our IT team, with BT who are working to resolve the situation. And Manchester City Council is currently investigating the cause of the problem to see if there is anything we can do to assist."