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School looks to ‘poach’ posh pupils
Secondary feels heat from academy
A TOUGH Highbury secondary school wants to poach would-be pupils from posh Hampstead as it battles competition from new city academies.
The Tribune has learned that Highbury Grove School, in Highbury Grove, Highbury, is feeling the heat as the new St Mary Magdalene Academy one mile away prepares to open this September.
Applications by parents for a maximum of 210 Year 7 places at Highbury Grove have slumped to only 100.
But at St Mary Magdalene, in Liverpool Road, Holloway, the 180 available places are already four times over subscribed.
Most of the parents who are applying for St Mary Magdalene live within Highbury Grove’s catchment area.
St Mary Magdalene, which has the Diocese of London as its £2 million sponsors, will take 180 Year 7 children, aged between 11 and 12, when it opens in September.
The rules stipulate that 70 per cent have to live within one mile of the academy and 100 per cent must live within a mile-and-a-half.
School sources say that Truda White, Highbury Grove’s headteacher, hopes to make up the shortfall by recruiting Hampstead youngsters and wants to start advertising in the local press soon.
She hopes to receive up to 200 applications, which will be whittled down to 100, from Camden parents who might normally opt for well-regarded local schools such as Hampstead secondary or William Ellis.
There are also reports that Highbury Grove’s slump in applications has been affected by the opening of three new academies in neighbouring Hackney.
Unions fear a sell-fulfilling prophecy after warning for years that the new academies will act as a “honeypot” for parents and other local schools will lose out.
Despite improving GCSE results, Highbury Grove – one of the worst-performing in Islington – is still considered a tough school with a number of pupils from deprived backgrounds.
There is a dedicated police officer at the school and incidents of anti-social behaviour, fights and weapon seizures are an almost weekly occurrence.
Last year, 47 per cent of pupils scored five A* to C grades at GSCE but only 27 per cent gained five A* to Cs including the vital English and maths subjects.
But this year Highbury Grove will benefit from the first wave of Building Schools for the Future money, which will see the site completely rebuilt.
Ken Muller, spokesman for Islington’s National Union of Teachers, said: “There is no conclusive evidence to say that the academies are responsible for parents not choosing Highbury Grove.
“However, if you are a parents and you’ve got the choice between Highbury Grove or sending your children to a brand new school, designed by a world-famous architect then it’s obviously going to be a huge factor.
“This is precisely what has happened in Hackney and I have been saying this could happen from day one.
“We are certainly very concerned this could happen in Islington.”
A spokeswoman for CEA@Islington, the company that runs the borough’s schools, said: “It’s very well known that schools promote themselves widely and this is a positive move.
“It’s perfectly appropriate for Highbury Grove to be promoting their school to a wide variety of students.
“There are close links between Islington and Camden and kids move across boundaries.”
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