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Two distinct schools
• HAVING attended the meeting organised by CASE at Edith Neville School on July 19, it is clear that a number of Edith Neville parents do not have a clear picture of what it means for Frank Barnes School to relocate to the Edith Neville site alongside their school.
I am therefore currently writing to parents to invite them to a meeting, but in addition I would like to make the following points:
Edith Neville and Frank Barnes will remain two distinct schools with their own classrooms and offices. We would foresee them sharing kitchens/dining facilities and other areas where this makes sense to the schools.
The council will itself provide £10million to rebuild the two schools. The rebuilding of Edith Neville will take place up to five years before it would have done under the council’s primary capital strategy.
The council has agreed to Edith Neville’s request to see whether additional land can be incorporated into the rebuilding work. We believe that the rebuild, even with Frank Barnes, can provide more usable outdoor space than Edith Neville currently has access to.
Edith Neville School will have a leading role in the design process, along with Frank Barnes and the council. We believe that the work Edith Neville has already done to draw up plans for its future redevelopment are an excellent starting-point for this work.
The governing bodies of the two schools would of course have to agree detailed working relationships between themselves. The council has no plans to merge the two schools.
We fully recognise that Edith Neville needs to spend time to develop the design and are keen to appoint architects so that the school can sit down with them as soon as possible.
Having been approached by worried parents this weekend, I also need to address briefly the Adelaide Road academy. The academy is not delayed as it was never intended to open before the next council elections in May 2010.
September 2011 remains the date for which it is planned that the UCL academy will admit its first pupils. While the government’s timescale for Building Schools for the Future is very challenging, Camden’s plans remain on track to deliver the £200 million of investment our secondary schools so badly need.
CLLR ANDREW MENNEAR
Executive Member for Schools
Against merger
• AT a meeting of CASE at Edith Neville School there were many legitimate heartfelt reasons put forward to Andrew Mennear, the Conservative councilor for education.
As an ex-teacher at Edith Neville I am totally against the forced merger of two quite different schools onto this site. Edith Neville school was built by another Conservative, Maggie Thatcher, at the cost of £114,000.
This was to prove it could be done.
A series of patchwork improvements has never disguised the fact that the school never was fit for use. But to my mind the way Camden is trying to reverse the governors’ decisions which have been carefully and thoughtfully worked on by staff and governors is setting a precedent which must be even more frightening to the hundreds and thousands of governors across this country who work for hours and some whole days each week fulfilling what they believe to be in the best interest of all our children for no recompense and rarely a thank you.
These volunteers come from all political parties, parents and the community.
Why have we bothered to attend meetings, discuss, learn, change, build, supervise and heaven only knows what, only to be told we are to be ignored?
Cllr Mennear’s excuse was that Camden owns the land and therefore can do what they want.
Don’t most councils own the schools? Is this a unique position for Camden.
Am I missing something?
LINDA STARKEY
Tanza Road. NW3
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