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LETTERS
 
No school divisions on class

The government must compromise on the Education White paper. A free market is not the way to improve the chances of pupils across the community.
A free market, with semi-independent trust schools under parental control will benefit those students from more affluent homes across London, able to gain entry to the highest performing schools, at the expense of local children from less affluent homes.
Other schools will suffer. The quickest way to move a school up the league tables is to exclude all difficult or low-performing students, but is this what education is about?
Such pupils are exactly the children who need a good education to give them a good start in life. A local authority such as Camden can help schools which face considerable challenges in an inner-city area, because the council is committed to educational improvement for all, as part of community regeneration and challenging social inequalities. Schools in inner-city areas which have a mix of students (as in Camden) benefit all pupils. We do not want schools which divide pupils on the basis on social class.
Camden has invested heavily in education and works in collaboration with schools, parents and governors to ensure that all pupils benefit and all schools benefit. I know from past experience as Executive member for Education that headteachers in Camden appreciate the support they receive from Camden education staff.
Camden facilitates collaboration between its schools. The government should be supporting Councils in their role in improving education in their areas, not reducing their function to that of monitoring results.
While the government has indeed done much to improve education, greatly increasing resources available, we must build on this improvement with those positive aspects of the White Paper, not undermine the means of delivering a decent and fair education to all pupils in our schools.
Cllr Deirdre Krymer (Lab)
Town Hall
 
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