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Frank Dobson at the meeting |
Scramble for the Academy
C of E and private sponsors jostle for school position
PRIVATE sponsors eager to open a City Academy in Camden are jostling for position in the race to seize control of a new school planned for Swiss Cottage.
The Church of England began their hard sell at a public meeting on Monday night when leading representatives laid claim to the new school on the basis that it already runs a third of all Camden’s primaries. But it is in direct competition with a rival bid from University College London (UCL), which wants the new school to become a specialist science academy.
UCL’s ability to stump up the £2 million needed for the scheme is unclear with suggestions emerging that it is in talks with a secret fund-raiser.
Lucy Heller, managing director from Ark (Absolute Return for Kids) – the charity financed by a hedge fund which is in control of a City Academy in neighbouring Westminster – attended Monday’s debate at Haverstock School but left without comment.
Camden MPs Frank Dobson and Glenda Jackson pledged to campaign for new schools in their halves of the borough but have warned all parties that they will not support any form of City Academy.
HOLBORN and St Pancras MP Frank Dobson has told the Church of England to forget about sponsoring a new City Academy in Swiss Cottage.
Priests are eager to establish a secondary school with an admissions policy favouring worshippers and have seized on the Town Hall’s plans to open a new school in Adelaide Road.
But Mr Dobson told a public meeting that he opposed the whole principle of outside sponsorship and City Academies, and that he was wary of the Church of England buying into the project.
He said: “I don’t think it would be right to have a religious school. I don’t think there is any pre-existing substantial demand anywhere in Camden for a religious school.
“In this diverse area, I think it would be divisive. We should be trying to bring people together, not separate them out.”
Mr Dobson was one of the speakers at a lively public meeting at Haverstock School on Monday night which ultimately exposed the competition developing between the Church of England and University College London over possible sponsorship.
The audience of nearly 200 included priests, scores of governors and local politicians. Camden has been offered government money to build a new school under the Buildings School for the Future programme, investment which some critics believe hinges on the Town Hall using the City Academy model of attracting outside sponsors.
Mr Dobson also tried to ward off UCL from getting involved, adding: “I really don’t see why they should do anything other than help all the schools, maybe a little bit more for some, but I’m not quite sure why they should want to take on any management of any schools. Evidence in recent times has been that actually running University College London has been pretty difficult in itself.”
UCL provost Malcolm Grant missed the meeting. He had been due to explain why the university had contacted the council to make sure it was on the final shortlist.
But his absence left a free run for the Church of England to make their case. It is based on its control of a third of Camden’s primary schools and the church’s belief in demand for a similar secondary.
Tom Peryer, Director of Education for the Diocese of London, said: “We have a track record not only in Camden but as London as a whole of working supportively, cooperatively with local authorities and with the community of schools to create good schools that parents do want.”
He added: “There is an issue about admissions and one of the issues about is that there are insufficient places at secondary level for those who would like to continue the broad inclusive approach that the C of E takes.”
UCL, meanwhile, has been told they will have to explain how they will raise the £2 million needed to join the Academies programme and who will help them find the money. Insiders have raised concerns that the university will enter into deals with private companies in order to win the contract.
Council chiefs said they would consider all “serious” bids but so far had a shortlist of just two.
Negotiations with other parties, however, have not been ruled out and several potential sponsors were thought to be at Monday’s meeting – even if they did not take the opportunity to speak.
Lucy Heller, the managing director of Absolute Return for Kids (Ark), signed her name on the register and listened to most of the debate before leaving without comment.
Ark was once in the running to sponsor an Academy in Islington – interest which dropped soon after a protest at their West End offices – and has since taken control of a school in Westminster. It is a charity partly financed by cash from a hedge fund and its close ties with directors of city firms.
The meeting, held in Haverstock’s refurbished assembly hall, was organised by the Camden branch of the Campaign for State Education, which is resolutely against the government’s City Academies programme and wants any new school to be a traditional community model.
Hampstead and Highgate MP Glenda Jackson said: “It is undoubtedly the case, the government is obsessed with the ideas of academies and pressure is being put on local authorities and there are financial benefits for going down the academy road.”
She added: “Perhaps I’m a foolish optimist but I’m hoping that when the present Prime Minister is out of Number 10 then perhaps there will be a subtle change to the education of our children.”
Campaigners have their work cut out if they want to stop the council using the Academy model.
At this stage, education chiefs say they have a duty to consider sponsorship but, despite the MPs’ objections, clearly discussions are already taking place with potential backers. Tory councillor Andrew Mennear, the Town Hall’s education chief, said: “I’m neutral any which way. I’m after good schools. I’m not ideologically opposed to academies, I’m not ideologically in favour of academies either. We have to make sure we are able to get the best deal possible.”
The row over who will control a new school has stretched the debate over whether the school should be in Swiss Cottage in the first place.
Ms Jackson said that her surgeries were full of parents unable to get their children into schools and welcomed the choice of Swiss Cottage. But Mr Dobson said he also wanted a school in the south of the borough where families have put together a spirited case of their own.
He said the council should stop working to government guidelines and restrictions and ask for special treatment for Camden.
While Cllr Mennear said that the only viable site was Swiss Cottage, Emma Jones, one of the organisers of the campaign south of the Euston Road, said it was time to reconsider the chance of converting the Eastman Dental Hospital in Gray’s Inn Road into a new school.
She said: “For 17 months we have been working with all parties involved.
“I can’t help feeling now after this amount of time that there is a lack of political leadership driving this forward. Since everybody seems to be agreed that we need a school south of the Euston Road. Why is this not at the top of the agenda?”
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