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Protesters make their feelings known outside UCL about the college’s plans to sponsor an academy |
Judge’s ruling clears way for academy
High Court challenge to Town Hall’s new school sponsor selection process is rejected despite campaign by parents
IT was a win for Camden’s Conservative education chief. It was a win for the Liberal Democrat council bosses he works with. And it was a win for the Labour Education Secretary Ed Balls, who is relishing the prospect of a shining example of the government’s academy programme being built.
After all, University College London – the sponsor – is in the top 10 universities in the world, a centre of academic achievement. But it wasn’t a win-win for everyone.
A High Court judge’s ruling that the Town Hall and UCL can press ahead with opening the borough’s first academy school on Friday was not a victory for Camden’s families and children, according to the campaigners who forced the matter to a judicial review – an army of parents, teachers and governors who remain staunchly opposed to the principles of academies.
In their eyes, the first new school in Camden for a generation, planned for Swiss Cottage, should have been a traditional comprehensive.
Instead, they fear – whatever the assurances from those in charge or the welcoming words from UCL – there is a risk the new academy will operate beyond Camden’s well-established and close-knit family of secondary schools, picking off the brightest pupils already on the path to high achievement. As an academy, the new school will be able to choose its own admissions policy and make all management decisions on its own.
Camden Council’s high command was dragged to the High Court in November for a five-day hearing in which they were effectively accused of hatching a backroom deal to ensure a UCL got to sponsor the academy. It was suggested European Union procurement rules had been bypassed.
The case was brought on behalf of concerned parents and headed by Gillian Chandler, a parent from Kentish Town.
Under the microscope was the council’s decision to opt out of holding an open competition for control of the school, which would almost certainly have lead to the merits of a council-run school being compared to the academy. The Church of England also felt sidelined by the process, having harboured hopes that they could sponsor the school.
In a brief hearing at the Royal Courts of Justice on Friday morning, Mr Justice Forbes handed down a judgement clearing Camden’s work.
He said: “The evidence plainly shows that the council’s decision was entirely based on the view that the UCL proposal offered ‘lasting benefit to the education of pupils in the borough’. As it seems to me, given that the two separate routes for the establishment of a new school are provided for by statute, the council was fully entitled to consider the differences between the two routes and to choose the one that it considered best for Camden.”
A separate action against Mr Balls, as head of the Department for Children, Schools and Families, was also thrown out by the judge.
The celebrations began soon after. Mr Balls went first, his statement: “I very much welcome the Court’s ruling. We defended this case vigorously and the judge has vindicated our decision to do so.”
Next, Liberal Democrat council chief Keith Moffitt, who said he was “very pleased” with the decision. It was suggested that delight over the prospect of Camden gaining an academy did not tally with recent Lib Dem calls for changes to the academy programme from central office and party leader Nick Clegg.
“We have to work within the framework,” he told the New Journal. “I’d welcome a review on a national level of academies, but in Camden we have to work with what we have got.”
And then there was Conservative schools chief Councillor Andrew Mennear, who has copped a lot of the public flak over the project when he might have thought he would be cheered for getting a new school project off the ground.
“We have to get on with this project, so it is a good result and I am pleased,” he said. “The fact is that this can improve the lives of families in Camden and it will be welcome in what it will do for school places in the borough.
“You have to be pragmatic. I have not always been the greatest fan of the government, but you have to do what’s best for Camden. This is how we have been able to get a new school. The national debate over academies should be held at national level.”
But there were glum faces among the campaigners on the ground, many close to the running of Camden’s schools. They could not hide their disappointment and did not mince their words.
Kevin Courtney, of Camden NUT and the Anti-Academies Alliance, said: “The council and Andew Adonis have together undermined the will of Parliament by using the undemocratic preferred bidder route.
“In 2006, Labour Party backbench MPs mounted the biggest ever rebellion against a Labour government bill. That rebellion secured a significant concession which has been totally undermined by the council’s actions that high-performing local authorities could put forward community schools in competitions for new schools. Since then almost all academy schools have opened by a preferred bidder route, cutting parents out.”
He added: “We want UCL to share their expertise with all Camden schools and not just the chosen few in their school which is situated in one of the most exclusive streets in London. We fear that the school will cream off the brightest students and this will damage other Camden schools and therefore have a negative effect on education overall.”
There must have a been a sigh of relief in a few offices at UCL in Bloomsbury as the news of the council’s court victory filtered through. It has faced criticism of its own part in the deal – albeit not challenged in court – after issuing a gun-to-the-head warning that it would drop out of the project if it wasn’t given preferred bidder status and asked to fight it out with everyone else.
UCL management haven’t even convinced their own staff or students that the academy adventure makes sense. Its own consultation project on the scheme drew just 49 responses and during public meetings that it held on the subject, senior figures were forced on to the back foot over the location.
It is a huge sore point among families in the south of the borough – close to the UCL campus – that the school will be built in the north-east of the borough, and not the south where demand for school places is notorious.
Vice-provost Michael Worton said: “We are very pleased by the clear judgments handed down by the High Court.
“Our aim is, and always has been, to contribute to secondary education in Camden by sponsoring an academy that will offer young people the best possible education in science, maths and foreign languages, whatever their ability and aptitude.”
Cllr Mennear and his colleagues have still some ironing out to do. The future of Frank Barnes School for Deaf Children, which will leave the academy site in Adelaide Road, Swiss Cottage, has not been completely resolved – and there are fears the delays that could be caused by an appeal to the High Court ruling.
But this ruling – a “landmark” according to the council’s press office – was essentially the final hurdle to getting the UCL academy started.
“We just want to get on building it now. The sooner it is open, the sooner we will get the benefits,” said Cllr Mennear.
Under the current schedule it will open in 2011.
‘Advantages for all!’ Why objectors opposed uni’ academy
Former Town Hall education chief Lucy Anderson:
“It seems they want all schools to stop being community schools and become independent state schools instead. Our schools work together and we do not want a system where schools act as an independent entity.”
UCL lecturer SIMON Renton:
“We had serious doubts over whether the management team at UCL could spare the time and energy required to run another academic institution when they were stumbling over the running of an institution they did know about.”
Solicitor Richard Stein:
“University College London by all accounts do a very good job of running a university – but they have no experience of running a secondary school.
It is a weird and silly idea that just because you are successful in one field you will be in another.”
Secretary of Camden NUT Kevin Courtney:
“It will damage Quintin Kynaston, Haverstock and Hampstead schools. We want the advantages for all the schools not just one. We want UCL’s ideas, we want them for every school.”
Education journalist Fiona Millar:
“The process by which UCL was ‘given’ this school was wholly undemocratic. The local authority refused to hold an open competition for the new school, largely because UCL stated publicly that it would refuse to enter.” |
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