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Camden New Journal - By SIMON WROE
Published: 27 March 2008

Head: School could take 600 more students

A HEADTEACHER has defended controversial plans to expand her Somers Town secondary rather than build a new school south of Euston Road.
South Camden Community School head Rosemary Leeke faced a volley of criticism from parents, governors and Labour MP Frank Dobson when she publicly backed the proposals at a consultation meeting at the Charrington Street school on Tuesday.
Camden’s education chiefs say they cannot find a site for a new school in the south of the borough and are instead trying to ease massive demand for places by expanding South Camden.
Ms Leeke acknowledged the pressing need for more places in the south of the borough but felt her school could handle an increase in admissions by up to 600 students. “We have to think about how education is going to develop,” she said. “It might seem a contradiction to talk about a bigger school providing better education but I know it can work.”
Critics remain convinced that expansion would not end the shortage of secondary places.
Emma Jones, of the Where Is My School? campaign, said: “I don’t think anyone’s got any argument with the idea of improving the school. The thing is that it is being muddled in with expansion as if those two are parts of the same thing.
“No other school in Camden is getting expanded apart from this one. If you expand South Camden and completely ignore the need for a school south of Euston Road then you are completely ignoring what people are asking for.”
Mr Dobson, MP for Holborn and St Pancras, said: “An extra two forms of entry on this site would make the school much more difficult to run, much more overcrowded and much less satisfactory for children and teachers. It would be too big for the school’s interest and too small to resolve the problem of shortage of places.”

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