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Legal threat to rule that bars cross-border pupils
Education boss pledges to back parents
who stage court challenge
EDUCATION bosses at the Town Hall have begun investigating
whether they can take legal action against neighbouring Westminster
City Council over the way it reserves secondary school places
for pupils who attend its primary schools.
The controversial policy has led to a fight for places on the
borough boundaries – particularly around Quinton Kynaston
School in Swiss Cottage, which, although just inside Westminster,
remains the closest secondary for many families living in adjacent
neighbourhoods in Camden.
Rigid rules in Conservative-held Westminster, introduced three
years ago, prioritise places for pupils who attend its primary
schools. The system is supposed to improve student performance
by smoothing the transition between primary and secondary schools.
Labour Party members in Camden now say Westminster’s policy
is unfair and is harming attempts to reduce the huge pressure
on places at Camden’s secondary schools.
As the New Journal revealed last week, more than 150 families
in Camden have come through the latest admissions scramble without
an offer of a place at a Camden secondary school.
Fiona Millar, a parent governor at Gospel Oak Primary School,
said: “It appears that if you live on one side of the border
of Camden and Westminster then you can go to schools in Westminster,
but if you live on the other side of the road then you can’t.
That seems unfair and should be looked at.”
Ironically, Camden’s Labour Party attempted to introduce
an identical policy two years ago in a bid to protect places
at its own coveted secondaries against applications from residents
who live outside the borough.
The plan – dubbed ‘Fortress Camden’ – was
ditched after Islington Council complained that its primary
school pupils would be excluded, particularly at Acland Burghley
School, which is just inside the Camden border in Tufnell Park.
The schools adjudicator later ruled that the policy could not
be introduced in Camden. Ms Millar, a campaigning education
journalist who previously worked as a Downing Street adviser,
added: “I wasn’t particularly in favour of it when
Camden proposed it. I don’t think you can draw a line down
borough boundaries. London is too big to be divided up.
“If parents just over the border want to send their children
to Acland Burghley then they should be allowed to.”
Camden’s new Labour education chief, Councillor Lucy Anderson,
ordered an investigation into Westminster’s policy at a
meeting of the Town Hall’s schools organisation committee
on Thursday. She said: “We have to look at whether something
can be done about this.
“It would probably need a legal test case, somebody to
challenge Westminster’s policy. If a parent wanted to do
that, we would offer our support.” |
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