The new school - fact and fiction.

There’s been a lot in the local press recently about our plans to build a new secondary school, not all of it correct, so I wanted to let you know what we’re really thinking.

Camden does not have enough secondary school places at present. There are two areas of the borough that are particularly short – the south and the north-west. When we were elected we wanted to build two new secondary schools, but we now understand that this is unrealistic for financial, timeline and procedural reasons. To be honest, even building one school by 2010 will be a challenge.

We cannot afford to buy a new campus, especially not south of the Euston Road, so we have to use an existing site. There is no Camden Council owned building south of the Euston Road which could be reworked to accommodate a new secondary school. The site with the most potential in the north-west appears to be in Swiss Cottage on the grounds of the specialist Frank Barnes school for the deaf which serves the whole of London (although it only has three Camden pupils).

The next question is what sort of secondary school should it be? The government wants to see local authorities opening more academies which thus far have been partially financed by private groups and so have had more money than community schools. They have also had considerable freedom to decide how to run their affairs although they are not allowed to be selective. The Liberal Democrats have consistently opposed academies, which we believe to be unfairly favoured and unproven as a way of raising standards.

Indeed earlier this year results were published showing teenagers at three-quarters of city academies are failing to meet expected standards in English, Maths and Science. As Lib Dem Shadow Education Secretary, Sarah Teather MP said: "Academies have only existed for a year or two, so it would be unfair to expect instant improvements when their pupils may have been taught poorly for years. But it is hypocritical of the government to insist community schools must be closed if they don’t turn around a failing situation within a year, and yet lavish money and praise on academies that perform no better.”

However we have to be realistic and understand that in the current climate the government is likely to try to force an academy upon us because we don’t have one in Camden. And at the moment our secondary community schools, although good for Inner London, are only achieving national average results at GCSE and could be a lot better. So we are in favour of joining forces with an outside institution with a proven track record.

Three organisations have expressed an interest in the new secondary school: The Church of England, University College London (UCL) and the relatively new educational charity ARK (http://www.arkonline.org/). We think most parents are concerned about standards, ethos and behaviour, which is why we understand that many non-religious residents will look favourably on an application by the Church of England. I myself would prefer to see us partner with UCL, which is a world class university.

So that’s where we are – we have three potential providers and lots of views about which one and why. At this stage no decision has been taken so if you want to have a say, then please get in touch.