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Camden New Journal - by RICHARD OSLEY
Published: 14 June 2007

Campaigners protesting outside the Mount Pleasant Post Office site last November

Bulging primary schools ‘show real need
is in south’

Figures released by MP show that number of pupils has ‘rocketed’

NEW research has revealed the scale of the fight parents in the south of the borough face in the search for a secondary school place for their children.
Figures circulated by Holborn and St Pancras Labour MP Frank Dobson on Monday show the number of pupils at primary schools in southern wards such as Holborn and Bloomsbury has rocketed.
But, while the primaries have been teaching more pupils, there has been no effort to provide extra secondary places for them when they are old enough to switch schools.
Camden Council plans to use government money – funding known as BSF or Building Schools for the Future investment – to open a new school in Swiss Cottage.
Mr Dobson wants education chiefs to switch their attention to the south and has traced the problem back to 1979 when he was convenor of a similar campaign to open a new primary school to meet growing demand. He is now joining parents calling for a new secondary.
The figures, initially collated by David Bieda, a community activist in Covent Garden, show that, since 1979, Argyle School in King’s Cross has doubled in size from 201 pupils to 402.
St Albans had 40 pupils in 1979 and was threatened with closure. It now has 183.
In 1979, Christopher Hatton, in Holborn, had actually been closed because of lack of pupils. It now has 194 and is highly-regarded for its performance.
Mr Dobson said the trend was similar at nearby primary schools on the Westminster side of the borough boundary, with St Clement Danes, All Souls and Soho Parish all having bigger rolls.
He said: “These figures show that strength of feeling about the lack of a local secondary school has lasted for a generation.
“We said at the time the number of families and children would grow and it has. Our problem then was that there was no money for a new school and no site.
“Today, the government’s Building Schools for the Future programme provides money for a new school and there will be two publicly-owned surplus sites in the area – the Eastman Dental Hospital site (Gray’s Inn Road) and the Post Office land at Mount Pleasant.
“The council has a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to put right this injustice to local children and parents and help strengthen the ties that bind our communities together.”
Polly Shields, from the Where is My School? campaign, said: “Frank Dobson’s figures strengthen our case that the real need for places is in the south of the borough. Building a secondary school where there is much less demonstrated need is a scandalous way to treat the children of the most deprived part of Camden.
“Why should they accept the crumbs from the BSF table?”
She added: “Our primary schools are all oversubscribed now, and the population of this part of the borough is expanding faster than that of any other area of Camden.”
Mr Bieda said: “The results are quite extraordinary and demonstrate a vast increase in pupil numbers in our city centre primary schools.”

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