Camden News: Emmanuel School | West Hampstead | Mill Lane | Sington Nursery | Demolish

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Camden News - by CHARLOTTE CHAMBERS
Published: 5 March 2009

The four houses that will be pulled down to make way for the expanded school

Houses make way for bigger school

Expansion outlined at public meeting as residents tell of fears over double number of pupils

EMMANUEL School leaders faced the public on Tuesday to discuss their plans to double in size and demolish a row of houses in West Hampstead.
The church school in Mill Lane, rated “outstanding” by Ofsted, has long been oversubscribed with around 80 children applying for every 15 places.
Under the proposals, class sizes will increase to 30 and the school roll will grow from 100 to more than 200.
At this week’s meeting, the school explained its hopes to demolish four houses standing opposite, running from 152-158 Mill Lane and Sington Nursery in the Mill Lane open space behind the houses. They have pledged to create a pond and say a tree nursery in the open space will be untouched.
Camden Council’s assets and schools organisation manager Mark Kemp said the move had been planned for more than 40 years but was suddenly made possible after the government offered cash through its Primary Capital programme.
Due to space shortages, pupils in different years must currently share classrooms and teachers in the cramped Victorian building.
Chairman of governors John Ward said: “Camden has decided Emmanuel should be its number one priority for expansion. There’s money, we’re a good school, and there’s need.”
But the plans have prompted concerns from neighbours, as well as Dilys Hoffman, the head of nearby Beckford primary school. They fear that doubling the size of Emmanuel would make the area noisier and busier and have questioned whether it would offer the places to local children. Under the school’s admission policy, 20 children per class would meet its faith-based criteria while 10 would be from the wider community.
Ms Hoffman said: “I can see the need [for Emmanuel to expand] but my concern is the impact it’s going to have on Beckford. If our roll goes down our budget will decrease.”
She is demanding that the council guarantees her budget regardless of whether Beckford’s admissions fall.
Sue Fox, a resident who lives nearby, said: “In five years’ time it will be twice the size. That means twice the footfall, twice the traffic. I can see this is going to be a major change for residents.”
Mr Ward said that plans to increase housing in West Hampstead meant a growth in families was likely.
“We feel all our spaces will be needed, and it’s only 15 extra pupils per [each] year,” he said.

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