Camden New Journal - News: A head full of lentils?

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Camden New Journal - by SIMON WROE
Published: 27 September 2007

A head full of lentils?

UNFAVOURABLE comparisons with lentils may not be life-ending, but a successful Kentish Town school does not appreciate the smear.
Eleanor Palmer Primary School in Lupton Street, one of the top achieving schools in Camden, is keen to clear its name and assure parents it does not indulge “lentil politics” after columnist Lisa Freedman mocked its politically correct “jargon” in an article in this weekend’s Mail on Sunday.
Inverted commas in the piece around descriptions of the school’s ‘diversity’ and ‘creativity’ (sic) in an area with “a whiff of lentils” roused the ire of the school’s head, Kate Frood.
Ms Frood said: “Everything they said about the school itself is true. We do champion these principles, but it is not jargon. These are very important principles. I thought the use of inverted commas around concepts like ‘equal opportunities’ was unnecessarily patronising.”
Ms Frood said the notion her school ran on “lentil politics” was “totally untrue”.
She added: “I’m a voracious meat eater and I’ll happily watch Desperate Housewives on the telly.”
The head also said Ms Freedman, who runs school advice service At The School Gates, had “not done her homework”, explaining that both the properties listed “for sale in the catchment area” were not in the catchment area at all, and that risk assessment (also in inverted commas) procedures were common practice in all schools.
“A school that didn’t do risk assessments would be breaking the law as far as I’m concerned,” she added.
“My abiding principle is common sense. The idea that we run a school on jargon is misguided and ridiculous, but then I don’t look for the approval of the Daily Mail.”

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