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Swiss Cottage school site ticks all the boxes
• YOUR Comment section stated that “the real need in Camden is for a school in the south of the borough, not Swiss Cottage” (Has education become a commodity? March 8). Obviously, the CNJ is entitled to hold this position, but this “fact”, as you put it, is not so cut-and-dried.
For example, if we look at Camden students who are, as yet, unplaced with regards to secondary school entry in September 2007, we find that 50 come from the north- west area, which includes Kilburn and Hampstead Town wards, 41 from the area which includes Swiss Cottage and Belsize wards, and 34 from the area which includes Regent’s Park and St Pancras and Somers Town wards.
There are just 12 students from wards south of Euston Road who remain unplaced.
We did not start with a preference for a new secondary school in the north-west of the borough ahead of the south of the borough – just with the strong belief that there are not enough school places in Camden and that addressing this would require at least one new secondary school rather than simply expanding our existing schools, which are mostly positioned on the borough boundaries.
Therefore, we began an extensive search of all the possible locations for a new school and assessed them on the basis of size, affordability and availability.
The Adelaide Road site was the only site which met all three criteria. Happily, it is also located in an area with a high demand for new secondary school places. You also reported MP Glenda Jackson as saying her surgeries are “full of parents unable to get their children into schools” and she “welcomed the choice of Swiss Cottage”.
A new school at Adelaide Road, plus two new forms of entry at South Camden Community School, will provide some relief for families living south of Euston Road. If not directly then by freeing up places at other schools.
Camden’s partnership administration remains committed to working with interested parties to look closely at issues as they impact on families living south of Euston Road.
The Building Schools for the Future bid is worth around £200 million to Camden’s schools and our children. There is no guarantee this money will still be available to us if we have to wait until additional sites become available, and we cannot afford to lose out again on the opportunity for substantial investment as the previous administration did in failing to secure money from the government to invest in our housing stock.
CLLR ANDREW MENNEAR
(Con) Town Hall
Judd Street
WC1
• FIONA Millar is quite right to point out that “there are many unanswered questions about the evidence base” for building a new secondary school at Swiss Cottage (They will waste cash for school in a haste, March 15).
Not one bit of serious, statistically valid evidence has been presented to support the building of a secondary school in this location.
During the children’s schools and families scrutiny committee last week, some councillors were using irrelevant statistics to “prove” a need.
They referred to the numbers of Camden students as yet unplaced at a secondary school, but until detailed analysis is done of these figures it is impossible to tell why children are unplaced and whether this is an indicator of a demand.
The evidence from the one piece of consultation the council has carried out so far – the parental survey, the results of which have been quietly published – paints a rather different picture of Camden.
By far the highest number of responses came from Holborn and Covent Garden ward – 75, compared to 20 from Swiss Cottage – and of the 110 parents who took the trouble to point out that Camden needs another secondary school, 89 per cent thought it should be in the south of the borough.
It’s hardly a ringing endorsement for the Swiss Cottage site. Perhaps this explains why these results are completely missing from the report on the council’s website?
Children in our area without a sibling already at a Camden secondary school have a one-in-four chance of getting a school place in this borough.
If you don’t live in the catchment area for a school, you can only hope to get into undersubscribed schools. This year, for the first time, a mysterious blip in the admissions figures leaves South Camden Community School undersubscribed by 20 places.
This is irrelevant in the long term, given the population explosion of this area. It should not be used to deny the fact that there is a persistent problem in the provision of secondary school places for children living south of the Euston Road, and that the problem is worsening.
If there was a political will behind it, our area could have the school it so desperately needs. Sadly, the needs of the children of this community seem to be at the bottom of the council’s agenda.
POLLY SHIELDS
Holborn and St Pancras Secondary School Campaign
Millman Street, WC1
• TWO correspondents are concerned by the proposed closure of Frank Barnes School for Deaf Children (They will waste cash for school in a haste, March 15).
Camden’s reason for demolishing this school is not an educational issue but a commercial one. Camden wants to sell the site for housing.
At a meeting with school staff last month, one of Camden’s education chiefs, Andy Knowles, boasted that there would “probably be a tower block” of flats on the Frank Barnes site. There is no firm commitment from Camden that the school will survive.
To close a school for deaf children just to profit from the sale of the site is shameful. Save Frank Barnes from the asset-strippers.
STEVE MCKERNAN
Needham Terrace, NW2
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