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Padraic Finn speaking out against plans for a city academy |
Don’t kill off this school
Plans to hand over a £35 million school paid for by the taxpayer to a private firm is a significant step “in the privatisation of public services”, Padraic Finn
WEST MINISTER City Council is proposing to close Pimlico School and hand it over to Future, a charitable trust set up by private equity financier John Nash.
Mr Nash operates a number of private schools, both primary and secondary.
The proposal would give a £35 million new building, paid for by taxpayers, to Mr Nash’s charity, on a lease of 125 years.
This is effectively a government subsidy to private schools and represents a further step in the privatisation of public services characteristic of New Labour.
The council officer report’s assertion that the proposed academy will be a “comprehensive” completely degrades the meaning of comprehensive, given that it is proposed to hand the school over to the operator of a private school.
Mr Nash contributed to the campaign fund of David Davis in the Conservative Party’s last leadership election.
Together with Westminster councillors, he sat on Conservative Party policy review bodies.
This is significant, given council leader Sir Simon Milton’s statement in early March 2007 (before the consultation on the future of the school had begun), that he wished to see Pimlico School turned into an academy.
Sir Simon later chaired the council cabinet meeting which made the decision.
Academies set their own admission policies though they are required to comply with a government code.
Pimlico currently takes pupils from more than 70 feeder primaries.
It is far from clear how the admissions policies will affect siblings of those currently in the school or children from outside the borough.
Before the closure of North Westminster Community School, five of the eight secondary schools in Westminster were Christian-run.
NWCS was replaced by two academies, one of which is run by the United Learning Trust, an offshoot of the Church of England’s Church Schools Society.
Though Westminster City Council chooses to designate ULT Paddington as a non-faith school, for all practical purposes it is another Christian faith school despite the high proportion of non-Christian or non-faith pupils it inherited from NWCS.
Parents who wish to send their children to a non-faith school may find their choice dimished even further by the Pimlico proposals.
Future’s Expression of Interest document betrays a complete ignorance or disregard for Pimlico School’s ethic and history: “The sponsor intends that the academy will devote considerable energy to building the social capital of pupils, introducing them to worlds that, despite often lying in close proximity to them, may at first be unfamiliar and intimidating.”
The whole section, patronising in tone, suggests neither the sponsor nor their advisers in Westminster City Council know very much about Pimlico School or its long-standing close connections with a wide variety of organisations or its rich programme of annual trips, visits and activities.
The number of parent and staff representatives on the governing body is likely to be much lower than at present.
Other academies in Westminster and elsewhere have one elected parent rep and one staff rep.
Westminster City Concil has continuously ignored the views of parents, staff and pupils. Only 4 per cent of respondents in its own consultation exercise favoured turning Pimlico into an academy. They are shocked and dismayed at the most recent proposal.
The council has used the opportunity provided by special measures to take over direct running of the school – the director for schools is also chairman of the interim executive board running the school as well as advising the council on turning Pimlico into an academy.
The board consistenly refuses to consult with parents, operating a secretive “focus group” approach with a small number of parents. Pimlico’s record exam results in a very turbulent year show the real character and spirit of the school.
We will not allow it to be killed off at a whim. Following the anticipated early exit from special measures, we are calling on the council to create a new governing body with parental representation on the scale of the outgoing one.
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