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Families struggle for places in schools admission tussle
Fresh calls for new school as parents
find desks are already fully booked
SCORES of families have been told not to panic after being
left without a secondary school place for their children in
the latest admissions struggle.
A new council report confirms that 159 families in living in
the borough have come through the applications process without
a single offer from a Camden school.
But the Town Hall says the backlog is much smaller than previous
years and should be cleared up by September.
Education boss Councillor Lucy Anderson said: “Last year
there was double this number and we managed to sort it all out.
Lots of things can happen, people move away and everybody will
be offered a place. The figure is an improvement from last year.”
Nevertheless, council chiefs remain under pressure to build
a new school to meet the mounting demand in the south and west
of the borough and has begun monitoring developments in Islington
where a new City Academy is due to take its first intake next
September.
Strategists think the new St Mary Magdalene School in Holloway
could go some way to easing the crisis for places in Camden
and reducing the numbers of Islington residents who decide to
send their children to schools across the borough borders.
Ironically, Camden’s Labour group has made a public point
of rebelling against the government’s education policy
and has been steadfastly against the use of City Academies and
Trust Schools. The new model, however, has been embraced in
Liberal Democrat-held Islington and could now help Camden’s
admissions headache.
Cllr Anderson said: “We think the new school could make
a significant difference because so many Islington parents decide
to come across to Camden to send their children to school. I
don’t support the City Academy model, I would prefer a
new community school if you are going to have a new school.
But it is Islington and there is nothing we can do about that.”
She added: “It would help if Islington improved its schools
– then parents would be sending some many children to Camden
schools.”
The new statistics, however, are worrying for Camden parents
who have also been told that all of the borough’s schools
apart from Maria Fidelis in Somers Town are already fully booked
for next year.
Councillors and school governors are due to discuss the problem
at a council meeting tonight (Thursday).
Emma Jones, one of the main organisers for a new school in the
south of the borough, said: “The important thing, apart
from placing children as soon as possible, is for the council
to acknowledge the need for a new school south of the Euston
Road and get on with the job of making it a reality.”
Lib Dem councillor John Bryant, who wants a new secondary in
the north west of the borough, said: “While the Liberal
Democrats and others are campaigning for good schools for everyone,
the Labour Party’s stated ambition through their Children’s
and Young Peoples Plan is to do the minimum required of them
by statute. That is simply not good enough. If New Labour’s
mantra is ‘Education, Education, Education’ then they
need to do something more than their legal requirement.” |
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