Camden New Journal - Letters: Secondary school will have high standards

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Camden New Journal - LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Published: 23 August 2007

Secondary school will have high standards

• PARENTS in Camden should welcome the proposal that University College London should manage the new secondary school in Camden.
UCL’s business is education and its outstanding academic standards place it among the best universities in the world.
There is no reason to suppose that UCL’s high standards will not be sustained in a secondary school. There has been much scaremongoring regarding a UCL managed school, including the suggestion that UCL would give preference to pupils at the school for university entrance over those at other Camden secondary schools. This is spurious as UCL would not be able to sustain its reputation as an international university if it did not continue to select students on their academic ability without regard to the school they attended.
Although the Church of England has a number of schools which are very successful, its prime purpose is the propagation of the protestant faith. Camden Council also is responsible for a number of good schools, but education is only one area within its remit, not its reason for existence.
Many correspondents have expressed concern that the new school is likely to be an academy, at least in the initial stages. Over recent years schools with different governance structures have been established, for example, foundation schools and grant-maintained schools. These have been reorganised by successive governments.
The ‘label’ given to the new school is much less important than the standard of education it will provide.
I also support the proposal that the new school should be built at Swiss Cottage. I have been a governor of Fitzjohn’s Primary School in Hampstead for over 20 years and, in each of those years, a number of children leaving the school who were residents of Camden, have been unable to find a place at a Camden secondary school.
This is because children who live near enough to be allocated a place at an over-subscribed Hampstead primary school, usually do not live near to a Camden secondary school, all of which are located around the perimeter of the borough. Although Quintin Kynaston School is very near to the Swiss Cottage site, it is in the borough of Westminster and, unlike Camden, gives priority to children living in that borough.
I am not familiar with the situation in regard to secondary school places south of the Euston Road, but time and other constraints make it practicable to take this opportunity to build the school at Swiss Cottage.
If this is not done, it is possible that Camden will lose this chance for a new secondary school.
PAT TRAYNOR
Address supplied

Send your letters to: The Letters Editor, Camden New Journal, 40 Camden Road, London, NW1 9DR or email to letters@camdennewjournal.co.uk. The deadline for letters is midday Tuesday. The editor regrets that anonymous letters cannot be published, although names and addresses can be withheld. Please include a full name, postal address and telephone number. Letters may be edited for reasons of space.

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