|
|
 |
| |
Parents gather at the class places meeting that was held at Swiss Cottage School |
‘Must do better!’ Parents’ fury over children left without school places
Emergency meeting fails to find solution for the 133 youngsters locked out of the classroom
POLITE impatience, then sharp questioning, then frustration, then anger.
A summit called to allay the fears of parents whose four-year-old children have been left without a school place this autumn ended with sharp criticism of both government and local policy which has left gaps in secular primary school provision in the NW3 postcode area, particularly Belsize ward.
Sadat Simmons, whose daughter Samira was rejected by all four schools within a mile of her West Hampstead home and is currently “unplaced”, said: “We are more frustrated than before the meeting. I was hoping, if I’m honest, that they would have had some sort of plan to put on the table, telling us where our children would be going to school. But we’re all in the same situation that we were in the day before.”
More than 100 parents filled the assembly hall of Swiss Cottage School in Avenue Road on Thursday night to hear the Town Hall’s education chiefs explain why 133 children in the borough do not have a primary school place for this September.
As maps circulated at the packed meeting demonstrated, this year’s primary school crisis is concentrated in the north-west of the borough, falling most heavily on parents in Swiss Cottage, Belsize, West Hampstead and Frognal and Fitzjohns wards. Nearly half of the four-year-olds in Belsize are “unplaced”.
The council’s schools director Richard Lewin pointed out that a similar number of children were unplaced every year, but many ended up with a place when they were five.
“We do understand this is a very stressful time for parents,” he added. “We’re here to try and find solutions in the short and medium term.
“At the moment for you now is a very anxious time and I’m certainly not saying that it is going to improve dramatically. Most of our schools are on extremely tight sites and putting additional classes in our schools is a very difficult issue.”
Education chief Cllr Andrew Mennear added: “We think that there are very good reasons for saying, now, that there has been a sea change.”
Dr Liz Taylor, a young mother who has led the campaign for the council to create a new primary school in the Belsize area, said: “You are not providing for our children and people feel very strongly about that.”
Frustration centred on the failure of the council to anticipate a surge in demand, then to the fact that new places are being built in King’s Cross, a long commute for most of the affected parents, then to the system which sees children who live just half a mile from the most popular community schools losing out.
The area is rich in popular faith schools, which draw their funds from the same pot as secular community schools, but are allowed to set their own admissions criteria based on religion.
“If you live in Belsize and you’re not Anglican or Catholic you’re not going to get a school place – and that is unacceptable,” called out one father, as Cllr Mennear explained that the law prevented the council from tampering with Anglican schools’ admissions.
Dr Taylor said: “The high number of faith schools in the local area means that a disproportionate number of children without school offers come from families with no religion or a religion other than actively practising Christian. Camden Council seems to think that they can do nothing about this.”
The short-term solution to the population boom in NW3 will almost certainly be temporary classrooms in primary school playgrounds.
“At some point we will have to make a decision about whether we are going to put in extra classes,” added Mr Lewin. “But we can’t provide classrooms in some of our schools because they are very small. We will be looking for temporary accommodation.”
A working group of parents and Town Hall officials was set up to look at where the extra children can be taught. |
 |
|
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
|
