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Both schools to lose out
• I WRITE in response to the letter from Suzanne Cornell whose child attends Highgate Primary which is co-located with Blanche Nevile School for Deaf Children (Merger can be a positive move, July 17).
I completely agree that, in the correct circumstances, the co-location of a deaf and hearing school can be beneficial to both schools’ pupils. However, there are many differences between the co-location of Highgate Primary and Blanche Nevile and the proposed forced co-location of Frank Barnes and Edith Neville.
The co-location with Blanche Nevile works because its children communicate orally and aurally instead of being a silent, British Sign Language-only school like Frank Barnes. This means communication and integration between Blanche Neville and Highgate pupils is feasible. In Edith Neville, with 100 per cent of our nursery intake last year not speaking English as a first language, the benefits to BSL -only children trying to integrate and learn English is not feasible.
The co-location with Blanche Nevile works because it was not forced, rushed, or ill-conceived in the way that Camden is trying to force their co-location timetable onto Edith Neville and Frank Barnes.
Highgate Primary’s intake is reduced by four pupils in each year group to accommodate the co-location, with the local authority, Haringey, fully funding these places.
Camden has neither proposed this place adjustment nor offered to fund it. Indeed, the co-location works so well between Blanche Nevile and Highgate Primary that Blanche Nevile was Camden’s first choice of school with which to co-locate Frank Barnes. While originally recommended by Camden officers as the best option, this has now been dropped.
Camden then chose and rejected three other primary schools for co-location with Frank Barnes before landing on Edith Neville as a last-ditch attempt to try and keep to their self-imposed timetable at the expense of both schools’ pupils. There has been no attempt by Camden to assess the educational impact of the move.
ROBIN NASH
Parent Governor, Edith Neville Primary
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