Many Camden parents have been struggling to get their kids into primary schools over the last 4 or 5 years. With our increased birth rate and less families moving out of London, the situation is not getting better. And so with the advent of free schools and the ability for parents, teachers and other groups to start free schools and provide additional places for kids, you would have thought that Camden would be overjoyed at a possible solution to its primary school crisis. You would also think that that every effort would be made to help and encourage the formation of new free schools.
But it seems not to be the case. As shown in an answer to a question in Full Council: “.... The Council does not actively support the establishment of Free Schools and Academies”. It has offered senior officer support to the new Swiss Cottage Academy and provided traded services and advice to the already opened St Luke’s Free School but it seems unlikely to offer assistance in the creation of a new free school even though more primary places are genuinely needed in Camden.
Camden’s new free school has already shown promise in offering an enhanced curriculum introducing Spanish and soon Mandarin to primary aged pupils. It has helped to fill the need for primary places in a short space of time and is offering a good quality of education. However, these achievements do not seem to be valued by our Labour Camden administration.
It seems that control of local schools is the upper most priority for Labour Camden no matter how good the free school programme proves to be. There is no reason to believe that the local authority is the repository of all knowledge where schools are concerned. Parents and teachers are much closer to the needs of their kids and can start and run schools offering a good quality education attuned to the needs of their kids.
I can only implore the current administration to re-look at their schools policy and embrace the free school programme so as to provide the necessary school places with quality education in the shortest possible time.