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REBEL YELL
OVER SCHOOLS
Governors and heads unite with
Town Hall to fight reforms
SCHOOL Governors, head teachers and councillors have united
in a bid to fight the government’s education reforms “tooth
and nail”.
They have formed a united front because they believe the government’s
Bill – published on Tuesday – will undermine Camden’s
high standards.
In an outright rebellion the Labour-run Town Hall is to cool
its traditionally warm relationship with Whitehall and campaign
with schools against the government’s controversial Bill,
which critics say will introduce selection by the back door.
Education chief Councillor Lucy Anderson sounded the battle
cry on Tuesday night when she told the New Journal: “Camden
will get involved in London-wide lobbying. I want substantial
amendments to Education Bill. We want to save our community
schools.”
Penny Wild, chair of governors at Camden School for Girls, added:
“I do not see that the system needs any more fiddling.
We have fiddling up to our eyeballs.
“We need to concentrate on what is happening in the classroom
– teaching techniques and improving resources, not yet
more reforms.”
Her views were echoed by Dorothea Hackman, chairwoman of Camden
Schools Governors.
She told the New Journal that an emergency meeting with a governors
steering group would convene tonight (Thursday) to discuss reaction
to the Bill. Made up of Camden School For Girls chairwoman Penny
Wild, Chalcot school’s Gillian Roy, South Camden’s
Hilary Paterson and Alan Chesters and Fleet’s Jan Toporowski,
they will discuss how best to force the government into making
a series of amendments.
Ms Hackman said: “This is not good news for Camden. There
is the worry that the financial incentives will be strong for
schools and they will become Trusts – to the detriment
of other schools near-by.”
She said the bill showed an underlying misunderstanding of state
education by MPs.
She added: “The majority of MPs went to good schools. They
have no inkling of the education experience of the majority
of the country. Tony Blair has a rosy vision of Trust schools
but it is not how the real world works. If he wants to improve
them, he should start by reducing class sizes.”
The thrust of the policy change is give more power to schools
to make decisions on how they are run. Business groups, parents,
universities and faith organisations will get the chance to
sponsor new schools or get involved with existing schools. Many
will be able to run their own affairs, free from the current
controls retained by local authorities.
The increasingly vocal cries for a secondary school to cover
Holborn, King’s Cross and Covent Garden has ramped up the
issue because the government will want any new school to be
in the City Academy model.
Cllr Anderson said that new schools in Camden should be community
schools and warned that Camden will not accept any form of pupil
selection or reduction in the role of the council, parents and
governors in the running of schools.
She added: “It seems they want all schools to stop being
community schools and become independent state schools instead.
This undermines all we have done. Our schools work together
and we do not want a system where schools act as an independent
entity.”
The issue has major focus in Holborn, King’s Cross, Bloomsbury
and Covent Garden where there is a shortage of secondary places
at Camden’s schools.
Cllr Anderson added: “It should be made easier to open
new schools. This has not happened in the Bill.”
• The stiff opposition was echoed at a meeting on Thursday
– organised by the National Union of Teachers and Unison
at the Town Hall – by former Downing Street advisor Fiona
Millar.
She said parents should be careful about who they let run their
schools.
Ms Millar, who lives in Gospel Oak and is the partner of Tony
Blair’s former spin chief Alastair Campbell, told the meeting:
“Parents need to think hard about who will be running the
schools. You could have religious fundamentalists running a
school. You could have Nestlé running a school.”
Ms Kelly was this week trumpeting Labour’s national performance
on education but added: “More than 40 per cent of children
do not get 5 A* to C GCSEs, so we cannot afford to stand still.
Specialist schools have become a mass movement for higher standards,
now outperforming non-specialists by 11 percentage points at
GCSE.
“Attainment at Academies which have replaced failing schools
is rising at a much faster rate than in other schools. These
schools and their pupils have benefited from greater autonomy,
greater freedom, a strong individual ethos, and the involvement
of community partners from business, charities and higher education
institutions.” |
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