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New academy will offer opportunities to pupils from all backgrounds
• I DISAGREE very strongly with Fiona Millar’s long-standing attempts to block the new academy school at Swiss Cottage (Millar’s tale of ‘backroom deal’ stirs up academy row, October 30).
Camden has a serious shortage of secondary school places, especially in the Swiss Cottage, Kilburn, Belsize and West Hampstead areas, and this new school will really help parents and future pupils in those areas.
Although I am a vocal opponent of the government in general, I do think that the academy school programme is a step in the right direction.
It’s not a big enough step (there will only be 400 academies out of about 4,000 secondary schools in the UK) but at least it’s a step.
I believe that all schools should be given the freedom and support given to academies, not just 10 per cent.
But 10 per cent is still better than 0 per cent, and I won’t unthinkingly oppose the government when children’s futures are at stake.
I came through the London state school system myself and, against the odds, made it to Oxford.
Schools like the new academy at Swiss Cottage will help create opportunities for children from less privileged backgrounds, who would otherwise not get those opportunities. In some parts of the UK today, the only way to guarantee a good education is to pay for it. That’s simply wrong. Reform is urgently needed. Schools like the new one at Swiss Cottage will at least start help to fix the problem.
The road to the new academy hasn’t been perfect.
I think that the process of selecting University College London as the sponsor could have been more open and involved more interested parties (for example, the Church of England, or indeed anyone else). But overall I congratulate my colleague Andrew Mennear, the councillor responsible for bringing the academy to Camden, for his work.
Future generations of children and parents will thank him too.
This academy will bring new school places and new opportunity to pupils from all backgrounds. This is a good thing, which is why I have supported the new academy in Camden’s council chamber.
Fiona Millar and some of her local Labour Party colleagues are wrong to try to deny children in Camden opportunity on the grounds of narrow ideology. I call on her now to join me in supporting this important new school.
Cllr Chris Philp
Conservative Parliamentary Candidate, Hampstead & Kilburn |
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