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Annalisa Coppolaro is an active member of the Pimlico School Association
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What’s so wrong with Pimlico School then?
Annalisa Coppolaro asks how putting the school in the hands of private sponsors will be a change for the better
THE wonderful, crystalline voice singing Hanavera from Carmen sends waves of emotion through the audience in St Saviour’s Church, Pimlico. Talent is written all over this Pimlico School Special Music concert.
My son sings in the choir, plays the piano and the violin, and has brilliant teachers.
Is this the “failing school” the papers are talking about? Is it really possible to imprison this amazingly iconic school into a one-line title “Pimlico School in Special Measures”?
It is well known that its Special Music course attracts people from distant boroughs, hopeful to join the scheme. But the future of Pimlico Community Comprehensive remains unclear. Will it stay a community school? Will it become a trust school? Or, worse, will it become an academy?
Academies have been in the air since the 1990s, but recently our government is trying to present them as the future of our schools.
Private sponsors, often not even remotely connected to education, will own these schools, appoint the majority of governors and control the school curriculum.
The parents, and even the national curriculum, will be mostly ignored. That is why the government’s enthusiasm for these schools convinces few people.
In fact, a large Anti- Academies Alliance is famously opposing this idea all over the country.
A surprise Ofsted report last December described Pimlico as “failing in many areas”. Meanwhile, its loved headmaster Philip Barnard resigned, leaving everybody stunned and without a sense of direction. An interim headteacher, Jo Shuter, is in place, but she has frequently underlined the “failing” side of Pimlico.
It has 1,400 students from different parts of London with different languages and origins, a good staff, arts and music as main subjects, and students off to Oxbridge every year. So what is wrong with this school?
It has many faces – one is the brilliance of Special Music: the Easter concerts, the Jazz band, the Folk Ensemble, the Classical Orchestra, the 100-strong School Choir, and the concerts abroad.
There is another face: teenagers flooding the streets at lunchtime; swearwords, noise, litter; shops filled with rather rough children in their blue jumpers; old ladies shopping and office workers trying to get some lunch are not impressed.
Never mind the concerts and the beautiful music, the students gaining Oxford and Cambridge places every year. People prefer to see the messy side, and whatever else gives this school its bad reputation.
Most of the parents say NO to an academy, NO to a private sponsor; NO to a school outside the national curriculum; NO to a school without space for freedom and community links. In April, the campaign was born: Keep Pimlico Comprehensive and a sizeable group of parents has helped to form the Pimlico School Association (PSA), which is leading the campaign.
Many people know that the richness of Pimlico School is in its strong diversity: children from different cultures and backgrounds study here every day. Will giving this school a name of ‘Academy’ and putting it in the hands of private sponsors who don’t know much about teaching make it a better school?
The PSA and many parents and children don’t think so. The spectre of an academy is much too scary for the majority of those who love this school, which has been a a lively and glorious comprehensive for 35 years.
Their fight is also a symbol of changing times in our schools. It could happen to any of us. Supporting their fight is by far the best option for all parents who want to keep their children away from a sadly imposed way of ‘buying’ and manipulating our education system.
The government target is to multiply the number of academies by 10 – to reach 400 or more. But all over the UK, parents are in opposition to this. In London, campaigns like Pimlico’s are achieving results.
To join the campaign, write to local MPs; check www.antiacademies.org.uk;
subscribe to keeppimlicocomprehensive@yahoo.co. uk, and visit the website
www.pimlicopsa.org.uk
There is also a petition on the Downing Street website with many signatures but it needs more: http://petitions.pmgov.uk/pimlico
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