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Farce of school snow decision
* LAST Thursday was beautiful. On the Heath, the snow wrapped the tree in white.
And for a moment, north London became a winter wonderland.
The wonder of the morning, however, was compromised by the mismanagement of my daughter’s primary school, New End Primary School. In a full-sized A4 letter sent home with children on Wednesday afternoon, we were informed that all efforts were being made to keep the school open if snow fell on Thursday and that if the situation changed that we would be informed.
Thursday morning at 8am, we had not received any new information, thus we rang the school and the same old message was on the answer-phone. New End does not have a working web site that we could have viewed.
Thinking that school was in session, we walked and sledged across the heath and proceeded to the school. Coming around the corner to Strechley Place, we were greeted by a mob of smoking teacher aids who said: “There ain’t no school, today. Take your children home.” Another parent was greeted earlier by the school custodian with “I would prefere it if your child did not come to school today.” The parent said that if there was school, then she wished her child to attend. The custodian was insistent that he prefered the child and parent to leave.
We found this odd, since numerous letters have been sent by the school reprimanding parents who take their children out of school for non-academic reasons. We went home and my daughter had fun sledging with her sister and her sister’s friends.
While on Parliament Hill, we learned that the parents of Christchurch Primary School were informed by telephone tree and by the internet on Wednesday evening that classes at Christchurch Primary had been cancelled for Thursday.
No bother, no problems. I ask myself why the parents of New End have to suffer so. Is it that the head teacher and staff are passed their sell-by date? Is it that the puppet governing body does not question the present state of affairs?
Or is it Camden LEA really does not care what happens in their schools, because “They are only there to advise!”?
Maybe a combination of the all of the above. Paying some of the highest council taxes in all of London, I believe the parents of Camden school students deserve a little better than this mismanagement.
Obviously, the present coalition of Lib Dems and Cons are really not better at managing education in the borough than the previous lot. Heaven preserve us.
William Nawrocki
Savernake Road, NW3 |
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