| |
Our children are losing out on their right to education
Belsize is a ‘black hole’ for the provision of primary school places, argues Dr Liz Taylor, ‘as a health professional as well as a mother’
IN Belsize and neighbouring wards, parents of pre-school children are very frustrated.
The reason for the frustration is pretty simple: for the majority of parents there is no local community primary school for them to send their children to.
As a mother facing this problem, last week I presented a petition to the mayor of Camden and called on the council to address the issue as a matter of urgency.
I did this because, as a health professional as well as a mother, I have been horrified by the state of primary school provision in my community and the health impact of this on children, parents and families.
The problem is that Belsize is a “black hole” for primary school provision.
The majority of Belsize residents are not within the “variable” catchment areas for our closest four community schools, none of which are within our ward.
Based on last year’s catchments (they change slightly every year), Belsize children would be offered a school 13th furthest away from their home or even further away!
Fourteen four-year-old Belsize children had no acceptable school space at the start of September 2008 – the highest number for any ward in Camden. This is half a class of children.
The problem is particularly acute – I would hazard unique – to those residents who are Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, non-practising Christian, agnostic or atheist.
This is in Camden, a borough which, according to its own borough profile, states that it has significantly more residents of a faith other than Christian and a higher proportion of those with no religion than either London or England.
Only 15 children were admitted on distance criteria to some of my closest faith schools out of an intake of 162 children.
I personally have visited 13 of my closest schools investigating the issue.
Starting school is a rite of passage for children in our communities.
Instead 14 four-year-old children in Belsize had no local school space. This number was 29 for NW3 postcodes as a whole and 43 for children within about a 0.8 mile radius of my house.
Most local parents are forced to make stark choices.
• They can move – despite wanting to stay in the community they have lived in for years.
• They can plan ahead and try to be religious.
• They can accept a place at a school a 50-minute trip away where there happen to be “left over” places.
I would say this is not a choice and makes an absolute mockery of green travel policies, let alone the impact on young children and on working parents of three-and-a-half hours travelling too and from school a day.
• They can go private.
• Or they can sit on the school waiting lists, with their child missing much of the early years foundation stage which many have already started.
Unfortunately there is still no guarantee of a place if you wait as anyone who moves into the area can beat you to a place by moving in closer to the school.
Length of time waiting does not help.
Our Director of Children, Schools and Families for Camden, Ann Baxter, has already admitted that there is a problem for Belsize children.
Camden’s own figures predict that things are going to get a lot worse for Belsize children.
Two of our closest community schools are in planning area one, where the numbers of children are increasing rapidly over the next 10 years.
Frankly, an extra 10 non-faith places at Emmanuel School the year after next are a drop in the ocean, way too late and too far away to help local residents.
The Education and Inspection Act of 2006 requires local authorities to respond to representation from parents who are not satisfied with local provision of schools. It also places a duty on local authorities to fulfil every child’s educational potential and promote fair access to educational opportunity.
I will leave you to consider whether this is happening in the circumstances outlined above.
What we would like to happen now is first an acceptable short-term plan for children without school places to be educated within their local community and secondly a medium-term plan to provide a local community primary school or acceptable solution for Belsize children that would also serve neighbouring wards with similar problems.
|
 |
|
|
| |
| |
