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We must have extra places for south of borough
• AS I write we are already five weeks through an eight week consultation period on Camden’s Building Schools for the Future proposals.
As five of those eight weeks were in the school holidays, during which (to my knowledge) no consultation occurred, Camden now has only three weeks to consult fully on their plans to spend £25 million on a UCL-sponsored academy on the Swiss Cottage site.
The inadequacy of this doesn’t come as any surprise to those of us campaigning for a school for the south of the borough.
From the moment the initial proposals were published, 11 months ago, it has been clear that the council had already decided what was best for us and would plough on with that plan regardless.
Questionnaires have been circulated; public meetings held; consultants have turned up at a few primary school coffee mornings to see what parents want from BSF.
And to what end?
The proposals agreed on July 25 by the executive are identical to those published on October 5 last year.
The only difference is that now we all know that the school will be run by UCL, whereas last October only the executive and officers knew that.
Had Camden been interested in the whole borough’s best interests, things would have been different. Proper statistically-valid analysis would have shown the detail of patterns of school place distribution, and would have confirmed a huge and growing need for a school in the south of the borough. Once this was clear, research into sites and availability could have been carried out and used to shape the initial BSF bid to government, which might have imaginatively included a solution to the shortage of school places in both the north west and the south – two smaller schools.
Not only would this have been fairer for the children living south of the Euston Road – and let’s not forget this is the most deprived part of the borough – it would also have meant that Frank Barnes and Swiss Cottage schools’ futures would be secure.
Instead, on election this administration lurched immediately into an ill-researched bid for one big new academy at Swiss Cottage.
It has failed to guarantee a secure future for its special schools, and has admitted that there is nothing in BSF for children living south of the Euston Road.
But the good news is that at the July executive meeting where the ‘backroom deal’ with UCL was made public, our campaign had a significant victory.
The executive instructed officers to carry out work to “seek a central London solution to the need for extra school places in the south of the borough, outside of the BSF programme”.
Officers will need to be working with our campaign, the Department for Children, Schools and Families and neighbouring boroughs to this end.
It would be preferable if the solution to our area’s need for a school was integral to Camden’s BSF plans.
However, we are determined that a solution not only be sought but found, and are looking forward to working with all relevant parties to ensure that this happens.
POLLY SHIELDS
www.whereismyschool.org.uk
Millman Street, WC1
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