THE former Gedling School was set to close due to dwindling student numbers in late 2010.

More than 1,000 parents packed into a meeting hall to oppose the plans by Notts County Council which said the recommendation was due to a surplus of school places in Gedling borough.

A campaign called 40 Days to Save Gedling was launched, backed by MP Vernon Coaker.

Councillors from Gedling pledged to save the school as the County Council held crunch talks over its future. But a damning report was issued by the council which blamed a £2.28m hole in school funding on 702 unallocated school places in the borough – 357 at the Gedling School. It was then recommended for closure.

Vernon Coaker wrote to county chiefs to plead for the school to stay open and met with Education Secretary Michael Gove to thrash it out.

The turning point came when the school was told it was not doomed if it was happy to work in tandem with nearby schools.

When E-Act opened talks about turning the school into an academy, the future of Gedling School looked secure.

Following record GCSE results, it was decided the school would become an academy and changed its name to Sherwood E-Act at the start of the 2012-2013 year.

AN academy has hired two co-principals as it looks to build on exams success and increase student numbers.

Sherwood E-Act Academy, in Wollaton Avenue, Gedling has brought in Peter Kingham and Kelly McKay to lead the academy – which changed from the Gedling School in September 2012.

The duo, who will both work three days a week, hope to increase the number of students from 432 to around 750 and then think about adding a sixth form.

Currently, Sherwood E-Act is the smallest non-independent secondary in the county.

"What the kids get is two different skill sets and two separate personalities," said Mr Kingham.

With a track record of bringing schools' Ofsted reports up, he aims to continue that in his new role.

He said: "The results are going to go up. They will rise and continue to rise. This school has a reputation for being very caring and you can see that in the kids. We want to push them to be the best they can be."

"We are a small school but we are big enough to deliver," added Miss McKay.

Mr Kingham said he will set up A to A* clubs for the highest achievers and have focus groups for struggling pupils.

"Our commitment is to celebrate and reward every child as long as they work their socks off in return," he added.

Incentivised learning will be introduced, with pupils handed rewards ranging from school merchandise to discounted prom tickets.

"I have used schemes like this in previous schools and they have always been successful," said Mr Kingham.

And to attract more children to the school he plans to work with primary schools, inviting pupils to take part in science lessons – the academy's specialism.

Miss McKay said the students are among the friendliest she has worked with. She added: "I asked them to come and say 'hi' when I took over. Now, almost every one of them has introduced themselves."

She is keen to work with existing staff rather than making wholesale changes.

"We want the school to be proud of what it does," added Miss McKay. "There's been a lot of hard work going on here and they need to shout about it from the rooftops. We want to build that self-confidence and belief in the students and staff."

The two co-principals have worked together before.

When Mr Kingham was an executive head, looking after two schools in Nuneaton, McKay was one of his associate principals.

Mr Kingham moved to take on a struggling school in Cheltenham, where he stayed for three years – improving the Ofsted report to "good".

Meanwhile, Miss McKay has had a baby and is pleased to be back in a leading role.

She said: "I'm in school three days a week but I'm still working full-time. It's a really good balance."

NOTTINGHAM Forest have not won at the City Ground since September, but the omens look good that they could bring an end to this run on Saturday.

The Reds fans last saw their team win when fierce-rivals Derby County were the visitors two-and-a-half months ago, when Jack Hobbs' goal was enough for a 1-0 victory.

Since then, Billy Davies' men have drawn twice and lost twice at home in the Championship and have picked up more points on the road – 11 in total from six games, including wins at Brighton, Leicester and Sheffield Wednesday.

Conceding late goals in the 1-1 draw with Bournemouth and during the 1-0 defeat to Blackpool were followed by a 1-1 scoreline against league leaders Burnley and a 3-2 loss to Reading – when Forest made a poor start to the game.

Ipswich are the visitors to the City Ground this weekend and are bang in form, having won four of their last five games and scored ten goals in this time.

They also have former Reds players Luke Chambers, Paul Anderson and David McGoldrick in their ranks and the latter says the happy mood in the Tractor Boys' camp at present is helping them push for the top six themselves.

"There's a good bunch of lads here and the spirit is fantastic around the place," the former Forest striker said.

"Even when I first arrived here on loan in January, the mood in the camp was superb and we were fighting relegation at that point.

"The gaffer (Mick McCarthy) and TC (Terry Connor) have created that environment.

"Obviously we are all serious and down to business when training and on matchdays.

"But they like to have a laugh around the place as well and it's just enjoyable coming into work every day.

"Obviously the results have helped and we've just got to keep pushing on now."

You would think this would all stack up against the Reds this weekend, but Ipswich would need to break a run of poor results at the City Ground to leapfrog fifth-placed Forest in the table.

Town have not won at Forest since 1999 and have only come away from the City Ground with a victory on six occasions in history.

Furthermore, Forest have won six of the last seven games between the clubs and have scored in all of the last ten meetings between the two sides – while Ipswich only have a win ratio of 28 per cent when they face the Reds.

And while Davies' side have not won recently at home, those two losses in the last four home outings are the only time they have lost at the City Ground this season out of 11 games played.

Add into the equation the fact Ipswich have only won twice in nine away league games this season and only managed to score more than one goal in two of those matches and the statistics start to look favourable for the Tricky Trees.

But, as we all know, football is rarely that black and white . . .

A TEAM of education specialists and city leaders has been set up to tackle the crisis in Nottingham's schools.

The "A-Team", which will visit the schools and meet once a month, has promised results within two years.

The Post revealed last month that, following a week-long blitz of inspections by Ofsted, six secondaries in the city were set to be given the worst-possible grading of "inadequate".

They were understood to be Djanogly City Academy, in Forest Fields, the Nottingham University Samworth Academy, Hadden Park High, in Bilborough, Bulwell Academy, Farnborough School, in Clifton, and Big Wood School, in Warren Hill. The Post now understands Ellis Guilford School in Basford has been added to the list, meaning half of the city's secondaries are in Ofsted's bottom category.

Ofsted has yet to finalise its reports, but the city council has now decided to take action by setting up the Nottingham Challenge Board.

The 12-strong team will include Louise Soden, Ofsted's regional director for the East Midlands, city council leader Councillor Jon Collins, Councillor David Mellen, council chief executive Ian Curryer and Alison Michalska, the authority's director of children's services. It will also be made up of representatives from the Department for Education.

It is likely to meet for the first time later this month.

Ms Michalska said: "This is a model that has worked elsewhere, namely in London and Manchester."

The board will ask the "inadequate" schools and academies to come up with improvement plans so they gain the second-best rating of "good" by the end of 2015.

And members of the board will visit the schools to see how the work is progressing.

The "inadequate" rating sees schools placed into special measures, meaning they are subject to monitoring inspections once a term.

RALPH Surman, of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers Union, who has worked in Nottingham schools, said: "I believe that school accountability is essential. I also believe that the current inspection system is not working and is a fundamentally-flawed product.

"Now is the right time to decommission this mass weapon of destruction that terrorises every educational professional across England.

"Readers might think this is an overreaction. Football managers are generally allowed three bad results before being put in danger of dismissal. School leader careers are completely ruined after one failure with the data-mad Ofsted who will not consider contextual factors and treat every school against the same blunt criteria that is itself built on a misconception.

"I want to propose a medium and long-term solution for accountability. A locally-based system that monitors and challenges schools on an ongoing basis, then providing support for improvement, should be an interim step.

"This combined approach of inspection and support should be carried out by experts with an education background who develop a relationship with the school."

THE outcome of Ofsted's raid last month on several secondary schools came as a shock to heads, teachers, governors, parents – and to Nottingham as a whole.

Half of the city's secondaries are about to be formally branded "inadequate" – a designation that invariably results in the improve-or-else status dreaded by all concerned: special measures.

The news broke last week – and the atmosphere initially was rancorous.

Education professionals and politicians including North Notts MP Graham Allen questioned the motive, timing and extent of the schools inspectors' intervention.

They have a point.

And with several independent academies among the schools slated by Ofsted, critics of the Government had ammunition to fire at academies champion Michael Gove, the Education Secretary. Their argument: self-governing status is not necessarily a panacea.

They, too, have a point.

But the time for rancour is over.

The time for correction has begun. This is far too important for further delay.

Failing schools are shackles that impede Nottingham's progress.

The job of turning these schools round – for the long-term benefit of the entire city, but especially for struggling neighbourhoods – goes to the newly-appointed Nottingham Challenge Board.

The board brings together high powered representatives of every interested party: the city leadership and senior officials, Ofsted and the Department for Education.

A broad-based, collegiate approach is exactly what is needed and the board deserves the support and co-operation of everyone in the schools it will be examining and everyone in the wider community.

It's not all gloom.

Nottingham's primaries are performing comparatively well, suggesting that when secondaries are up to standard, successive cohorts of 11-year-olds will be ready to take full advantage.

Furthermore the Challenge Board approach has had results elsewhere.

And independent academics have told us that city schools are packed with superb teachers.

Turning "inadequate" schools into "good" ones in just two years will require a massive collective effort.

But a massive communal problem deserves no less a response.

THE challenge board being set up in Nottingham is nothing new.

A similar group was set up in London ten years ago to turn around under-performance in many schools.

Ofsted chief Sir Michael Wilshaw earlier this year suggested other local authority areas with many struggling schools could follow suit.

The scheme started the idea of getting outstanding schools and head teachers working very closely with the less successful.

The policy, set up under the Labour government, has since been scrapped but an Ofsted report in 2010 found it had been a great success.

Among the highlights found in the report were good leadership, improvement programmes which matched the needs of individual schools, a good range of support, and the continuing development of teachers.

One school saw a dramatic increase in results as a result of the London Challenge.

In 1997, only 16 per cent of students gained five GCSE grades of C or above, but this climbed to 71 per cent last year.

A FOOTPATH which was believed to have been in use for 1,000 years has been reopened after campaigners won their case at a public inquiry.

The path between Park Road and Lenton Road on the edge of the Park Estate in Nottingham city centre was gated in 2009 after complaints about anti- social behaviour.

The Park Estate claimed the path was used by revellers late at night causing disturbance.

However, residents from Lenton, supported by Nottingham City Council and the Ramblers' Association, objected and they have now won their fight to have the 750-metre route designated a public footpath and, as a result, their access has been secured.

Nottinghamshire Ramblers' footpath secretary Chris Thompson, who was one of the 16 people who testified at the inquiry in support of the path, said: "We welcome the recognition of this important and historic path as a public right of way. The city council and concerned citizens are to be congratulated on their tenacity in saving this path for posterity."

Community activist Robert Howard, of Devonshire Promenade, Lenton, was central to the campaign to have the path reopened. He said: "They were just trying to block out the hoi polloi who live in Lenton."

Mr Howard, former chairman of the Dunkirk and Lenton Partnership Forum, said closure of the path added 20 minutes to the journey of people walking between Lenton and the city.

He has researched the history of the area and said the path had probably been used since Lenton came into existence almost 1,000 years ago.

This is because it avoids climbing the hill to what is now Canning Circus, or walking in what would have been the wetlands between Lenton and the River Trent.

The Park Estate began closing the footpath in 1999, according to the Ramblers' Association. In 2009, an electronic gate automatically locked at 11pm and reopened at 5am.

Residents spoken to by the Post welcomed the opening of the footpath.

Lucy Platt, 21, a pharmacy student from Lenton, said: "The gate being shut actually led to more disturbance for me, and so probably for the residents. I heard and saw people climbing over it late at night but now it is open there might even be less disturbance."

Cat Usherwood, 21, a student who lives in Lenton, said: "It is more convenient for it to be open all the time. It was a pain when you didn't know if it was going to be shut or not."

Simon Waterfield, expert in property litigation and a partner at Nelsons Solicitors, who has been advising The Park Estate, said: "We are obviously very disappointed with the decision. Our client is currently considering their position."

I REMEMBER thinking something wasn't right.

Sat in complete silence alongside my Forest team-mates in the away dressing-room in Anderlecht's Astrid Park Stadium, I felt something wrong had just taken place, but I didn't know what. None of us did.

The last thing on my mind was the match had been fixed, the referee had been bribed.

Maybe it was because I was brought up to be honest that I thought – and still do think – the best of everybody and I just couldn't comprehend that terrible possibility.

A referee bribed in a UEFA Cup semi final? No way. Not a chance. Absolutely not. There is no way that would ever happen. Not in the beautiful game, the game I love. But he had.

The gaffer was the first to twig.

Our dressing room door was open and it was situated opposite the ref's room and Cloughie had seen Anderlecht officials going in and out of there, but we couldn't prove anything and we were out of Europe.

It wasn't until 1997 that they finally admitted we'd been cheated, that they'd paid Spanish ref Emilio Guruceta Muro £20,000.

It still rankles with me now, almost 30 years on from that fateful game in 1984.

I actually had to commentate on Anderlecht against Olympiakos in the Champions League on Tuesday night and have done a few more times in the past and their name always sticks in my throat.

It also makes me sick to my stomach that their stadium is named after the guy who bribed the referee all those years ago, Constant Vanden Stock.

How can that be right?

Leading 2-0 after the first leg at the City Ground, thanks to a couple of goals from Steve Hodge, we went to Belgium believing we were going to reach the final only to lose 3-0 in the second leg in what must still be one of the most controversial games of football ever.

I can still see Paul Hart rising to score a free header from a corner – a perfectly good goal – only for it to be disallowed by the ref.

And it was – and still is – for people like Harty that I felt mostly sorry for because I had won a couple of European Cups only a few years earlier, but for players like him a UEFA Cup final would have represented the chance to win a medal in Europe and they were cheated out of it.

We would have played Tottenham in the final as well, and what an all-English showpiece that would have been.

I don't think my feelings will ever go away and they've been brought back to the surface this week with allegations of spot-fixing in English Football.

On the same day as the world's best players Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi and Franck Ribery were shortlisted for the 2013 Ballon d'Or, I – and I'm sure all fans of the game – were hearing of players being arrested for alleged spot-fixing in Football League games.

Talk about the best and the worst of the game.

Instead of celebrating the greatest players in the modern game, which we certainly should be, English football was being dragged through the mud.

I would never have done anything like it when I was a player – it's not in my make up.

I was living my dream, I'd gone from laying floors to winning European Cups with Forest.

I could have been absolutely skint, but I would still never have done anything to bring shame on myself, my family and the game I loved – and still love today and will do forever.

For me, there's only one way to deal with anyone found guilty of spot-fixing or match fixing and that's to ban them. Not for a season, not for five years, not for ten years, but for life.

Anyone found guilty of such terrible things should never play the game again. They wouldn't deserve a second chance.

Life bans is the only way for football to send out a strong message that it will not tolerate corruption.

It took 13 years for Anderlecht to admit they'd cheated us out of a European final and even then they escaped any punishment as UEFA tried to ban them from Europe for a year only for that to be scandalously overturned.

Any punishment dished out to anyone found guilty of fixing in football today must be a hell of a lot swifter – and harsher.

NEW owners have taken on a Nottingham city centre restaurant, just weeks after it had closed down.

The Sinatra bar and restaurant, known as Sinatra's, in Chapel Bar, closed in October – with its former owner blaming car parking charges in the city for a loss of trade.

Now the restaurant is back in business, thanks to the efforts of entrepreneur Simon Patterson.

The 46-year-old, of The Park, has been a fixture of the city's pub and restaurant scene for more than two decades.

In a career twist, Mr Patterson spent 21 years competing against Sinatra in Chapel Bar while he was a director of the Fat Cat Group.

He said: "I knew Sinatra very well from my time at Fat Cat.

"I used to be very envious of its frontage and outside space, especially in the summer.

"I've been looking for something else to do for myself for the last five or six months.

"I was approached to say Sinatra was up for grabs and made an offer.

"It's all gone very quickly."

Mr Patterson is also a director of the Moleface Pub Company, which runs The Wollaton pub, the Larwood and Voce, in West Bridgford, the Royal Oak, in Radcliffe-on-Trent, and the Lord Nelson, in Burton Joyce.

He has now reopened Sinatra, having completed the deal to take on the business on December 3.

Despite a low-key reopening, Mr Patterson said word-of-mouth had meant business was brisk.

"We had about 75 covers walk through the door on our opening night, which was amazing," he said.

"It's been all hands on deck really."

He added: "Sinatra was always known for its food, and it will remain a key part of our service.

"Our head chef used to work for me at Fat Cat so I know the food is good. But we are also trying to do what Sinatra didn't before, which was have more of an area where people can come for a coffee and a drink.

"Another thing that's massively different is we now allow children. Before they weren't allowed either inside or out, but we now have a children's menu and also do Sunday roasts."

As for changes to the familiar decor at Sinatra – which has walls covered in photos of film stars and household names – Mr Patterson said: "For now we'll leave it as it is for Christmas. We'll take a look again in January and I imagine we'll have a refit, but nothing too major."

Sixteen people lost their jobs when Sinatra closed, but the reopening has so far created 16 new posts.

The changes at Sinatra continue a period of flux among businesses in Chapel Bar in 2013.

In April, Fat Cat went into administration but is still currently operating.

Cafe Olive Tree, next door to Sinatra, then began trading in July.

A new restaurant called Caribbean Dream also opened on the site of the old Tonic bar in October.

That new restaurant recruited five members of staff from Sinatra when it closed.

Of the area's array of restaurants, Mr Patterson said: "Chapel Bar is a great little area for food. There's a lot of businesses around and there's a lot of footfall into town. I think it's the perfect spot."

Is a new business opening up near you? Let us know by e-mailing newsdesk@nottinghampost.com.