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There is a site big enough for a school in the south
• COUNCILLOR Arthur Graves agrees there is a need for a secondary school south of Euston Road (See sense, Frank, February 21).
We at whereismyschool. org.uk thank him for his support.
It has always been important to this campaign that our support in the borough is cross-party.
It’s not surprising that he, as a governor of Christopher Hatton Primary School, understands our need.
He also confidently claims there is an equal need in the north-west, but how can any of us know this for sure?
The council has yet to provide a scrap of statistically valid evidence on comparative need in different areas of the borough.
When we started this campaign in 2005 no research had been done.
There was some recent demand for school places in the north-west, mainly voiced by Councillor John Bryant (who, incidentally, told me at the time “they could go to Quintin Kynaston, they just don’t want to”), and by some CofE parents. And a 30-year history of demand in the south.
We looked at the figures and told the (then Labour) council that only 47 per cent of Camden kids got into a Camden secondary.
I wish we hadn’t.
Why?
Because that figure is consistently quoted back at us as the statistical justification for building a six-form entry school at Swiss Cottage, down the road from Quintin Kynaston, and for the reckless expansion of South Camden Community School.
But how does this justification make sense?
Our children are not heaped up in the middle of the borough ready to join any school as long as it is a Camden one.
They are clustered in very different communities with very different needs.
And 10 per cent of them (and rising) live in the south an area of social deprivation, with no local school, Camden or otherwise.
We thank our MP Frank Dobson for approaching the education secretary Ed Balls MP on this matter, and here’s why: Camden says it doesn’t own a site for a six-form entry school in the south, but campaign architects have found at least one council-owned site in the south big enough for a four-form entry school.
Ed Balls says the government will accept two four-form entry schools, so what’s to stop Camden building one in the south and one in the north-west, if they can prove a need in both areas?
Cllr Graves, we appeal to you and to all Camden councillors:
Political back-biting is missing the point.
Please channel all your energy into getting Camden schools right for the people who really matter – the children of Camden.
Emma Jones
www.whereismyschool.org.uk
Millman Street,
WC1
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