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Pimlico set for Academy
Five proposals lodged already
THE council has received five proposals from sponsors wanting to turn Pimlico School into an academy or a trust.
The proposals include interest from Absolute Return for Kids (Ark), which sponsors the King Solomon Academy in Paddington.
Ark, one of the largest sponsors of academies in the country, raises money through hedge funds and private equity.
The leader of the council last month said he would like Pimlico – which failed an Ofsted inspection and was put on special measures in January – to become Westminster’s fourth academy.
Under the academy system the school is no longer accountable to the local authority.
Parents, teachers and pupils at the school met yesterday (Thursday) for the second round of crunch talks after last month voting unanimously in favour of maintaining community school status.
Campaign coordinator Bridget Chapman said: “I am not in favour of an Academy or a Trust. Both would represent, essentially, the privatisation of our school. Academies and Trusts can both set their own admission criteria which would mean that Pimlico would probably no longer be comprehensive in its intake. Both options would also mean handing over community assets to a private company.”
Ms Chapman added: “Academies can also deviate from the National Curriculum and from the Teacher’s Pay and Conditions Act.”
NUT secretary Padraic Finn said: “It is interesting that the council has revealed Ark and the RSA. More interesting is that the council has not revealed the others. Either they are so discredited that they would be even less acceptable or the council wants to lever them in at a later stage under the threat of closing the school – the tactic involved in other boroughs more recently in Islington Green.”
The council said it was considering plans to merge Pimlico, in south Westminster, with Quintin Kynaston in the north. The ‘federation’ system has been designed to improve management, bad behaviour and truancy in schools. Cllr Sarah Richardson, Westminster City Council’s Cabinet Member for Children’s Services, said: “Our priority is to improve the performance of Pimlico. The good work has already begun on this but there is still plenty to do.
“It is vital that as many people as possible have their say on the future of the school and I urge anyone who is interested to make their views known.”
The PSA and Westminster NUT are holding a joint public meeting in the school on May 3.
Journalist Melissa Benn, Alasdair Smith from the Anti-Academies Alliance and Baljeet Ghale, the new President of the NUT, have confirmed.
A Downing Street petition to keep Pimlico School as a community comprehensive is now available to sign on the Number 10 website http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/Pimlico. |
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