A community school demanded by a community

The Holborn and St. Pancras Secondary School Campaign is organised by parents and families living south of the Euston Road in the three Camden wards of King's Cross, Bloomsbury and Holborn & Covent Garden, who need a secondary school for their children.

King's Cross, Bloomsbury, and Holborn & Covent Garden have a total population of 31,000 : the number of secondary schools is 0. There are approximately 262 children of secondary school application age (Year 6) living there. That's just this year’s secondary intake.

It is chilling that education, regarded as available, if inadequate at many levels is, in truth, not even available to children living in central London. What might be going on in the rest of the country ? Does anyone have collated details on the denial of schools to such large and motivated communities; and worse, to smaller and more deferent areas?

What follows is taken from their admirable campaign.

Camden council's own figures show that there is a real need for a school here. The Secondary School Places questionnaire gives the following results although, as it was inadequately worded and circulated, the response was very poor across the borough as a whole (only 510 of the returned questionnaires were filled in , or returned, correctly).

There are also grave concerns about the way Camden’s parental survey on secondary school places was distributed. For example:
the Thomas Coram Children’s Centre in King’s Cross was not sent its copies until the Council was contacted and demands made that they be couriered over – 3 days before the closing date.
Many residents report that Your Camden, in which the survey was distributed, never reached their homes.
Furthermore, despite reassurance that the Council would look into ways of contacting local residents whose children don’t attend Camden primary schools, nothing has been done. Camden then argued 'the very small number of responses when broken down to ward level means that this data should only be interpreted with caution'.

Nevertheless, some key points from the survey show:
parents specifically mentioning the need for a new school in Camden, and of these 81% favouring a school in the south of the borough.
In Holborn and Covent Garden, only 13% of parents said they were very or fairly confident that their child would be able to attend a Camden secondary school.
Again in Holborn and Covent Garden, the biggest factor prioritised by parents when choosing a secondary school was distance fom home. This was far higher than in other wards and reflects the fact that distance is what prevents Holborn and St Pancras children from getting into Camden schools.

If a child doesn't have a sibling already at secondary school, and isn't a Catholic girl, s/he has a 1 in 4 chance of getting into a Camden secondary school. Almost all the children who do get a place in a Camden secondary live in the King's Cross ward, part of which (at the moment ) falls into the SCCS catchment area.

These findings, based on Camden's own data, demonstrate the ‘massive need and desire for a secondary school to be built south of the Euston Road. The tipping point is here and now: if a site can be bought with capital receipts from part of the Swiss Cottage site, a school can be built. We just need to make sure that this is the conclusion reached by our elected representatives on the Council's Executive.’

One of the governors of Swiss Cottage School has said that the Governing Body (and the nearby residents) are so unhappy about having a secondary school built on their site they have had a meeting with councillors and officers. At this meeting they offered that, rather than build on their site, 2 of its 5 acres could be sold, releasing (they estimate) £40m. Then the council could purchase a site for a school elsewhere in the borough, the special schools could keep their site, (and wealthy neighbours wouldn't have noisy teenagers anywhere near their homes, this last was actually stated) .

Ian Patterson (head of BSF) has confirmed that this offer has been made, and that the council will be commissioning a valuation of the site (and the Eastman site in the Gray’s Inn Road). However, he emphasised that although, 'in theory', money raised could buy the Eastman, this was by no means the only option, and that 'there is still a need in the north west of the borough'.
An interesting meeting with Professor Malcolm Grant, Provost of University College London and the Vice- Provost Michael Worton revealed that they approached Camden council over a year ago with their plan for a UCL sponsored secondary school within walking distance of UCL, whose main site is in Gower Street but whose campus is also in the area of the Eastman site in the Gray’s Inn Road.

There have also been meetings with Tom Peryer, Director of the London Diocesan Board for Schools to discuss his ‘stated desire to build a secondary school in Camden. In both meetings we presented our document: The case for a new secondary school south of the Euston Road.’ This booklet was originally produced for meetings with the DfES in December 2006 but has since been distributed to all chairs of governors of Camden schools. It will soon be available on the campaign website. It contains all current research on pupil numbers, the make up of the community, the position on access to surrounding schools, and evidence of the huge amount of new housing planned in the area.

Further meetings with the DfES have been arranged.

Camden Council has promised to carry out a feasibility study on the Eastman Dental Hospital site. In the meantime 6A Architects of Orde Hall Street have generously donated their time and expertise to the campaign and have begun a detailed study of the Eastman.

The need and demand for a school in the area, has been proven clearly, often, and for decades. Crucial for the community and the secondary school is the provision of a site by Camden council.

Once this is achieved, the issue for local families will be what kind of school it will be, particularly in relation to its admissions policy. All that is needed and wanted, as has been said always, is ‘a school down the road, open to all families living in its radius. This is equivalent to the admissions structure of the traditional LEA run community school.’

However, all the current signs from central and local government suggest that a community school will not be on offer in their ‘Building Schools for the Future’ plans. So, what new model of school could be created to ensure that the community has a real say in its admissions policy and governance ? It is of the essence of this community that any new school should be inclusive and accessible to all their children.

There are Parent Promoted Trust Schools (Elmgreen in Norwood is a recent example). If, as the recent Education Bill states, the Council has to open up the building of new schools to competition, this would mean that local parents representing the community would have to form a trust which would potentially compete against other organisations wanting to start a school in the area. The forming of such a trust and the setting up of a school would be an enormous responsibility for the parents involved.

The core campaigners think there are enough committed parents ‘out there willing to go one step further in this fight for the educational rights of local children.’ They ask the community ‘what do you think about parent promoted schools?’ and request emailed comments and suggestions to the campaign website. admin@whereismyschool.org.uk

They ask ‘If you are a Camden parent or governor, please make sure that your governing body discusses the campaign. All Chairs of Governors have been sent information. If the governors support the campaign they ask them to ‘let Camden know that any new school in the borough should be south of the Euston Road.’

They have called a CASE, (the Campaign for State Education) consultation meeting on Camden’s plans for its secondary schools with Frank Dobson MP, Glenda Jackson MP, Professor Malcolm Grant (of UCL) and Camden’s executive councillor for schools among the speakers. They have organised press coverage for the campaign.
They can be contacted here:
Contact us:
admin@whereismyschool.org.uk
The Campaign for a Secondary School in Holborn and St. Pancras

It is heart-warming and salutary to see this kind of motivated, competent, clear-sighted, organised insistence. But if the provision of state education has come to this then heaven help the hindmost.