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By RICHARD OSLEY
 
Parents forced to go it alone in school search

PARENTS are being forced to “fend for themselves” in the struggle to find a secondary school place for children, campaigners have warned.
The alert came as families stepped up their campaign for a new secondary school to be built south of the Euston Road.
They warned that, due to lack of provision in Camden, some parents feel forced to opt out of state education and find a private school alternative.
In a deputation to the Town Hall’s schools organisation committee on Thursday night, Emma Jones, one of the campaign’s chief organisers, said: “In Camden, it is assumed that 26 per cent of families will opt out of the state school system. This is four times the national average.
“The question to be asked is whether these residents are choosing to opt out of local authority-maintained schools, or whether they feel they have no choice. In the Hollywood film Field of Dreams a man says of his project ‘if we build it they will come’. Camden’s policy seems to be ‘if we don’t build it they will go away’. This is extremely socially divisive and has gone on too long.”
The protest is the latest in a series of deputations aimed at convincing education chiefs that a new school is needed to meet the huge demand for places in southern wards such as Covent Garden, Bloomsbury and Holborn.
On several occasions, councillors have been warned that parents move out of the area to improve their chances of finding a school for their children.
Ms Jones told the meeting: “At every Camden school we visit we are told: ‘Be realistic. People living as far away as you are unlikely to be offered a place.’ We are also strongly advised that the only appeals likely to succeed are on medical or social need grounds, not preference. The message parents receive before they even apply is ‘fend for yourselves’.”
Council officials said they are looking at potential sites for a new school but, for commercial reasons, could not reveal possible locations.
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