|
|
 |
| |
Academies: decision was a pragmatic one
• FACED with a situation in which Westminster City Council’s secondary education had been allowed to drift towards the bottom of the whole country’s ‘value added’ league tables (those adjusted for differences in intake), doing nothing was not, and is not, an option.
For many reasons, and despite the often heroic efforts of many heads, teachers and pupils, a number of Westminster’s secondary schools have struggled, and some, like the old North Westminster School, had declined to an unacceptable degree, local authority control or no local authority control.
As our schools are already quite diverse, with Catholic and Church of England schools as well as a number of community schools, a diverse set of solutions seems to make sense. These include academy schools, the re-build-plus that is Building Schools of the Future, London Challenge projects, the new personalised learning programme and more.
My support for North Westminster Community School’s replacement by what will soon be three new academy schools was a pragmatic one, based on what offered the best hope for local children. Experience as a parent during that last, woeful year at NWCS cured me of any sentimental attachment to a school purely because of its institutional status (and once again, I would state that this is despite the extraordinary efforts of many of those involved in the school).
My anger over last year’s botched transition between NWCS and, in particular, Paddington Academy, was not ideological, but practical. The children deserved better than they got, in terms of the quality of their learning environment and the level of upheaval, and I came to the conclusion that I could not champion the school effectively whilst faced with the conflict of interest that being a parent, as well as an MP, represented. Had we as parents gone ahead with the change of schools, that would have been a pragmatic, rather than an ideological decision, and, as it happens, the fact that we ended up remaining at Paddington Academy is exactly the same. We did not apply to an academy school for ideological/political reasons, nor decide to leave for those reasons, nor eventually stay for those reasons.
The fact is that the academies’ concept has strengths and weaknesses, and each individual academy has its own unique strengths and weaknesses as well. I continue to believe that our local academies offer a better prospect for our children than NWCS as it had been allowed to become. The new buildings are spectacular, the staff team comprises many new and some experienced teachers, and some important freedoms to experiment with the curriculum – but within a context that will continue to be inspected and judged on performance. I see signs of real progress already.
Will there be an overnight transformation, given the exceptionally challenging circumstances our academies inherited, compounded by building delays and very long-term, structural financial pressures? Unlikely, but it looks like we are on the way.
Are there still challenges? Certainly. The upheaval involved in changing head teachers at Paddington Academy is not something I would have chosen, and the onus is firmly on the United Learning Trust to make sure this is properly handled. Liaison between school and home needs to be substantially strengthened, as do community links – academies are part of the community and the broader family of local schools and must behave as such.
ULT must also demonstrate depth and strength in learning support and practical back up for their schools, and so on. No doubt a different mix of comments could apply to other academies, and indeed, to other types of school, with the important difference being that academies must choose to confound their actual and potential critics by being transparent and accountable, without having this thrust upon them.
In its turn, the Department of Education must make sure these schools deliver, quickly. We may not be able to expect instant success, but our children only have one chance and too slow an improvement is unacceptable.
KAREN BUBK (Lab)
MP for Regent’s Park and Kensington North.
• THE government’s plan for academies was that they would replace failing schools. I was a governor of North Westminster Community School (NWCS) for about 12 years, right up to the time of its forced closure.
The school had its ups and downs but it was never judged to be a ‘failing school’, and so never met the criteria for closure. For Westminster City Council, this was a mere technicality. Spurred on perhaps by the rocketing property values of the NWCS sites and by what seemed to be an urge to give up all responsibility for secondary schooling in the borough, they pressed ahead with the closure.
Look what’s happened. Your front page report last week and Jane Eades’ graphic letter show that even if I’m wrong in my assessment of Westminster’s motives and they were concerned about the education of their secondary students, they’ve failed miserably. These students would have been much better served had NWCS continued, and better still had the school been funded a quarter as lavishly as the new academies. Watch out Pimlico parents!
MICHAEL POUNTNEY
Rokeby House
WC1N
|
 |
|
| |
| |
| |
|
|
|
