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Cllr Paul Dimoldenberg |
Private solution to Pimlico problem
Lupus St school suffering from ‘neglect’
PARENTS at a school on special measures are considering privatisation claiming: “It can’t be worse than Westminster Council”.
Pimlico School has attracted five offers from sponsors to turn it into an academy.
The proposals include an application from Absolute Return for Kids (Ark) raising funds through hedge funds and private equity schemes.
Under the academy system schools are taken out of the control of the local authority and parents governors are axed.
At the launch of the Keep Pimlico Comprehensive campaign in the school’s main hall on Thursday, attended by education commentator Melissa Benn and the General Secretary of the NUT Baljeet Ghale, parents told how democracy left Pimlico along time ago.
Parent Nick Rutland, who is against academies on principle, said: “I feel completely cut adrift from the school. From my experience here there is no accountability in Westminster. Why should we support Westminster City Council? Why should we cling on to this abusive relationship?”
Guardian journalist Melissa Benn, who campaigns for state education with Compass, said: “That is a dangerous argument. Academies are fundamentally undemocratic. The wider political context is important to understand. You must not be divided. You must keep fighting.”
Many believe the Lupus Street community school has suffered from years of neglect that in January led to special measures.
Steve Barlow, NUT rep and 25 years a teacher, said the school had suffered after parents fought a successful ten-year campaign against PFI proposals from former parent governor and government minister Jack Straw.
The council will on June 1 decide whether Pimlico should become a trust, an academy or a “federation” with Quintin Kynaston in St John’s Wood.
Parents at the meeting complained that the consultation documents were handed out to pupils at the school, not posted to homes, and that non-Westminster residents may not be involved.
Fears that the future of the school is already a done-deal were aggravated when Westminster’s leader, Councillor Simon Milton said in March he would “like to see the school become Westminster’s fourth academy”.
Opposition leader Cllr Paul Dimoldenberg in a council meeting last week asked Cllr Milton whether he regretted the statement. “No,” he replied. |
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Your Comments:
The meeting was very useful in pointing out all the political pressures on schools and local authorities to give in to the bulldozing of Blair's agenda to make schools academies with less accountability and local governance than before. Pimlico has a strong and creative tradition and its pupils have often done extremely well in its ethos. We do not want a
business with little or no interest in education and supporting comprehensives in their true form taking over control. The risks are huge and the ethos of Pimlico as an all-inclusive diverse and stimulating environment will be lost to business. A very dangerous step. My children have both enjoyed, thrived and achieved at Pimlico and as a comprehensive
pupil myself I believe in true equality for all pupils not selected out or creamed off.
Merryn Jones
I was at the same meeting and I heard no parent speak in favour of privatisation, as the article implies. Most parents and staff are opposed to privatisation whether this be in the form of an Academy or Trust. The consultion document which the Council has yet to send to all parents, asks whether the school should remain a community comprehensive or become a trust school or an academy. I beleive that if parents are properly consulted, then they will overwhelmingly vote to keep Pimlico Comprehensive.
Padraic Finn |
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