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Sadie Frost protests with children from the Frank Barnes School |
100 march against proposals to close
deaf school for kids
Pupils, parents and supporters in street protest over threat to specialist centre
ACTRESS and fashion designer Sadie Frost and her sister Jessica joined a 100-strong demonstration through the streets of Camden Town last night (Wednesday) in protest at plans to close a school for deaf children.
She called on education chiefs to halt plans to close Frank Barnes School for Deaf Children in Swiss Cottage so that it can replace it with Camden’s first city academy.
In a crucial night at the Town Hall, the Liberal Democrat and Conservative cabinet signed off plans for the new school, which will be sponsored by University College London, despite a deluge of protests.
Not only did scores of deaf children and their parents appeal for a change in policy, parents living south of Euston Road who say they have been ignored by the choice of site also made their feelings known.
The protest was swelled further by campaigners railing against the use of sponsorship and UCL lecturers unhappy that their bosses are involved in the project.
Through it all, Camden’s inner cabal of senior councillors who have the final say on policy stuck to their guns.
Their vote means UCL is free to begin work on the chosen site in Adelaide Road while pupils, parents and teachers at Frank Barnes face an uncertain future. Conservative education chief Councillor Andrew Mennear said he would look at all the options, but the school’s supporters are concerned the council is still considering a merger with Blanche Nevile – a deaf school in Muswell Hill which councillors only visited for the first time on Tuesday – or tacking it on to one of Camden’s primary schools. Torriano School in Kentish Town is the most likely choice if the second strategy is chosen.
Ms Frost, who has a nine-year-old nephew, Sean, at the school, joined the marchers with her two children.
She said: “I know Sean has hugely benefited from it [Frank Barnes], from being taught to sign. The facilities are amazing. It’s such a shame they’re not offering an alternative. The only other options are sending them to boarding schools. I feel very passionately that it’s a great school.”
Ms Frost, who lives in Primrose Hill, said most of her family had learned to sign at the school, which offers courses for adults.
She added: “It’s good that the children have the choice of a deaf school when they are younger. They can be taught a lot more. When they’re older they can be integrated into a hearing school.”
Jessica Frost said: “It gives children an identity – they need it to make them confident. They cannot be taught alongside hearing kids, so in a hearing school they’re still segregated.”
Deaf parent Tomato Lichy, whose child attends Frank Barnes, said sending deaf pupils to a hearing school is proven to lower their abilities. When they leave school at 16, their average reading age is eight, he warned.
Mr Lichy said: “Myself and my partner – who is also deaf – were both educated in a normal manner and it was awful.”
Stephen Phillips, the chair of governors at Frank Barnes, accused the council chiefs of abdicating their “moral responsibilities” towards the pupils.
He described Blanche Nevile as “just about the most unsuitable site which you could conceive”.
Luca Salice, the chairman of governors at Torriano School, accused Camden’s academy proposals of dividing schools in the borough.
He said Torriano did not want to be blamed for not welcoming deaf children, but said governors were worried about losing existing playground space.
He added: “We have been put in a very difficult position.”
Labour leader Councillor Anna Stewart said: “The choice to go full-steam ahead with the academy at any cost, and without thinking through the consequences of demolishing existing schools, has left the future of Frank Barnes School for the Deaf hanging in the air.”
Cllr Mennear said: “The agenda was not to close Frank Barnes and set up an academy instead.
“We set up a working group with the school in spring 2006 before the borough elections and before the plans to open a new school. The key thing is appropriate education and it will be the heart of what we talk about with Blanche Nevile.”
He added: “We promised to continue to work with the school to ensure an outcome that we can all be proud of. This is exactly what we are doing so we can make sure Camden’s deaf students get the best possible specialist education.” |
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