West End Letters - Pimlico School farce

Publications by New Journal Enterprises

Home

Archive

Competition

West End Extra - LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Published: 28 March 2008

So much for democracy as academy is waved through

• WHAT farce was the cabinet meeting about the proposed closure of Pimlico School and reopening as an academy in September.
Everyone involved knew the outcome was a done deal (they rubber-stamped the academy proposal). The cabinet’s ridiculous reasoning included praise given to parents’ measured responses – used as evidence we had been properly consulted – and the fact that Pimlico had been reported in the local and national press cited as proof that a real debate had taken place.
Any information I and others gleaned was not because of Westminster’s efforts, but through our own independent research. Westminster’s “consultation” was woefully inadequate.
I would have been interested to have seen or heard such “measured” responses from the cabinet, but none was forthcoming. Simply using empty rhetoric – by stating that academy status was the best way forward – belittles all the responses from parents who actually use the school, while the cabinet looks on and pontificate about it.
The latest Ofsted report, incidentally, judged the sixth form as “outstanding”, something we knew already and have always felt was reason alone for the school not to have been put into special measures in the first place.
Meanwhile, Westminster has dictated that there is to be no more 10 per cent selection on musical aptitude. The Department for Children, Schools and Families has suggested it could come up with a funding package to ensure the current music students can complete their studies but only if Pimlico becomes an academy.
The DCSF is on the verge of agreeing to release funding for the highly-flawed new building, which the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment has deemed as “not fit for purpose”. These are the compromises made by Westminster to our children’s education that we know about. Who knows what will be in the secret funding agreement between the academy sponsor, the DCSF and Westminster.
No one wrote in support of the academy proposal in the final consultation period. Three cheers for democracy!
Name and address supplied

Send your letters to: The Letters Editor, West End Extra, 40 Camden Road, London, NW1 9DR or email to letters@westendextra.co.uk. The deadline for letters is midday Wednesday. The editor regrets that anonymous letters cannot be published, although names and addresses can be withheld. Please include a full name, postal address and telephone number.
Letters may be edited for reasons of space.

Comment on this article.
(You must supply your full name and email address for your comment to be published)

Name:

Email:

Comment:

Your comments: