Stories + Views
A wonderful school in North Hackney, we need more like it!
My twin daughters are two and a half, and I’m delighted to say, there is a wonderful community primary on my doorstep. My friend’s daughters went there many years ago, as did some of the lovely staff at their nursery. The local secondary heads rate it. Ofsted gave it Outstanding across the board. It’s diverse, multilingual, ambitious yet friendly. It teaches creatively with a topic-based approach, actively includes parents and takes 7-year olds to the opera. It even has a bit of outdoor play space which has been brilliantly designed to create a variety of active and quiet zones.
I’m so pleased, I won’t need to uproot my family and move. I love Hackney, I love my home and living in this community.
Ah. There’s a catch. Since the school is popular, only children living less than 245 metres from the front door can get a place. All the kids from the council estate we live in are excluded, although this is the nearest school. Hackney lacks nearly 2000 primary places, and the Council have known about it for at least seven years. Hundreds of new flats have been built near our home recently, the balconies bulge with trikes and buggies. It doesn’t take a genius to work out that the problem is not going to go away soon.
So, what next? What does a sensible parent do?
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I think that since Hackney’s LA has been dismantled forward planning has also been dismantled…I haven’t looked into the situation in detail but clearly there actually needs to be a new school, or an expanded school, from what you say. At the LSN, we are a broad church and believe we need to meet local needs.
Personally I believe the best way to meet local needs is by creating schools that are accountable to all local parents and come within the local authority family so I hope Hackney will be able to resolve this situation by using the limited capital now available and working with neighbouring schools.
I hope so too Fiona. By Hackney, I hope you mean “the people of Hackney” not the LA, who are, well … let’s just say they have a lot of challenges already bless ‘em …
Hackney has huge social and entrepreneurial capital in its people (the kids included) and I think there might just be an opportunity now for direct community-led delivery, with the requisite accountability, fairness, inclusion and partnering with the other schools. These things are surely not being beyond the wit of man or woman, even if I share your concerns that the FS model is hardly set up with those four as priorities…
Let’s not knock Hackney too much. The council actually does a pretty good job nowadays & the Learning Trust has overseen a transformation in Hackney’s schools over the last 8 years.
Is a governor in Hackney I’m not aware of a shortfall of 2,000 places. Can you say where you got your figures from.
The irony of the current situation is that there is so much that is shared between those who support the concept of Free Schools as a mechanism to achieve outstanding local schools and those who oppose the concept. There are not enough of the schools you describe, Pascale, and there should be more. If parents (or any one else) establish these, will the end result be an outstanding local school for every child, which I believe has always been your driver, Fiona.
Pascale, I’ve checked with the Learning Trust and they reckon they found a place for every child in the borough for primary school. In total there are 2,673 places so the figure of 2,000 short is a bit unlikely.
Hi Henry
Thanks for your response.
I’ve also met with the Learning Trust and the answer I got was very different. My figures are based on published GLA figures and the Learning Trust’s published admissions guides, which we discussed at the meeting. The Head of Jubilee School also confirmed in person that children living on my council estate would not get a place at her school, although it is the closest school and the only one with an Ofsted Outstanding rating within walking distance. (Not that Ofsted ratings are everything of course.)
Perhaps it is the interpretation of what is acceptable that differs. Hackney is a huge borough so a school within borough may be unacceptably far, particularly for Primary. Significant numbers of families don’t get any of their 6 choices. Is that acceptable? Many others opt out of the system by going independent or leaving the borough. Effectively voting with their feet (which poorer families cannot afford to do) and solving the problem for the LT – but does that impact negatively on the borough and its residents overall?
I have no desire to knock our Borough, the LT or our local schools. I have few answers, but many questions…
Henry – the figure of just under 2000 is for Primary overall. Your figure of 2673 is for a single year, I assume, since there are over 50 primaries in the borough. The figure was from GLA pupil projection from 2003 (pre-BSF) so you can no doubt google it. It was the most up to date I could find.
The LT’s PCP info confirms numbers of places need to rise. Several schools will be required to go from 2FE to 3FE – is that in the best interests of the kids at those schools?
Here is the link for the LT’s Primary Admissions publication:
http://www.learningtrust.co.uk/schools/primary_schools/docs/ps_brochure_2011/ps_brochure_2011_pdf4.pdf
Jubliee, as an example, takes 60 kids each year. 36 places went to high-priority kids and siblings. Leaving 24 places for 156 applicants (=189-36). All allocated to children living within 168 metres of school gate (even less far than last year, although total number of applicants slightly down). So I don’t think Jubilee would be overly concerned by a new school opening nearby.
Why shouldn’t I, and my neighbours, want our kids to go to a proven successful school, on our doorstep, if the school’s approach suits our kids’ personalities and aptitudes? Is that really so unreasonable?
Enough essays, perhaps we should meet. I would be very happy to be convinced that there is no need for a Free School here.
Even if there is a need for new schools in some areas, why do they need to be ‘free’? I hope we can persuade parents that they should be campaigning for local schools that sit within the local family of schools rather than outside it and certainly NOT with freedoms in areas like admissions, exclusion, provision for SEN pupils and teachers pay and conditions that other schools don’t have. In the long run I believe setting up two tiers of schools will be divisive and lead to more, rather than less segregation. If there is a problem in Hackney or anywhere else let’s try and solve it by involving all schools and all parents to ensure that resources are being used fairly, rather than letting individual groups of parents decide what they think is best for them, possibly at the expense of the rest.