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Ex-No10 aide: Schools vision lacks boldness
FORMER Downing Street aide Fiona Millar has warned the Town Hall not to bank on government support for its masterplan to refurbish all Camden’s secondary schools and to build a completely new one.
She said the council plans lacked imagination and could yet be spiked by the Department of Education and Skills (DfES).
While Camden education chiefs have spent the last month showcasing their plan in press conferences and at public meetings, the scheme still hinges on £200 million worth of investment, on offer under the government’s nationwide Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme.
Central to the project is a proposal to build a school in Adelaide Road, Swiss Cottage. A shortage of school places in the south of the borough is to be tackled by expanding South Camden Community School in Somers Town, a move which sceptics argue will not solve the problem.
Ms Millar, a governor at Gospel Oak School, warned on Thursday that ministers could still send Camden back to the drawing board.
She added: “BSF is supposed to be about being bold and imaginative. Camden’s plans are not bold and imaginative.”
Ms Millar, an ex-adviser to Cherie Blair, said that the sticking point could be the government strategy of setting more vocational timetables for older students.
She added: “They (the plans) do not take in changes to the 14 to 19 curriculum and how the government wants things to work. Camden hasn’t approached it like that.
“This is what BSF is all about and could ultimately be the flaw in the plans that means they get turned down.”
Ms Millar was speaking at a meeting of Camden branch of the Campaign for State Education at Haverstock School in Chalk Farm.
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