Camden New Journal
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By RICHARD OSLEY
 
Legal threat to rule that bars cross-border pupils

Education boss pledges to back parents who stage court challenge

EDUCATION bosses at the Town Hall have begun investigating whether they can take legal action against neighbouring Westminster City Council over the way it reserves secondary school places for pupils who attend its primary schools.
The controversial policy has led to a fight for places on the borough boundaries – particularly around Quinton Kynaston School in Swiss Cottage, which, although just inside Westminster, remains the closest secondary for many families living in adjacent neighbourhoods in Camden.
Rigid rules in Conservative-held Westminster, introduced three years ago, prioritise places for pupils who attend its primary schools. The system is supposed to improve student performance by smoothing the transition between primary and secondary schools.
Labour Party members in Camden now say Westminster’s policy is unfair and is harming attempts to reduce the huge pressure on places at Camden’s secondary schools.
As the New Journal revealed last week, more than 150 families in Camden have come through the latest admissions scramble without an offer of a place at a Camden secondary school.
Fiona Millar, a parent governor at Gospel Oak Primary School, said: “It appears that if you live on one side of the border of Camden and Westminster then you can go to schools in Westminster, but if you live on the other side of the road then you can’t. That seems unfair and should be looked at.”
Ironically, Camden’s Labour Party attempted to introduce an identical policy two years ago in a bid to protect places at its own coveted secondaries against applications from residents who live outside the borough.
The plan – dubbed ‘Fortress Camden’ – was ditched after Islington Council complained that its primary school pupils would be excluded, particularly at Acland Burghley School, which is just inside the Camden border in Tufnell Park. The schools adjudicator later ruled that the policy could not be introduced in Camden. Ms Millar, a campaigning education journalist who previously worked as a Downing Street adviser, added: “I wasn’t particularly in favour of it when Camden proposed it. I don’t think you can draw a line down borough boundaries. London is too big to be divided up.
“If parents just over the border want to send their children to Acland Burghley then they should be allowed to.”
Camden’s new Labour education chief, Councillor Lucy Anderson, ordered an investigation into Westminster’s policy at a meeting of the Town Hall’s schools organisation committee on Thursday. She said: “We have to look at whether something can be done about this.
“It would probably need a legal test case, somebody to challenge Westminster’s policy. If a parent wanted to do that, we would offer our support.”
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