As free schools become an issue in Brent, Anne Clarke writes a Guest Blog on the West Hampstead International School on our borders
Campaigners for the West Hampstead International Free School
(WHIFS), an all-through (ages 4-19) free school hoping to open in 2015 or 2016,
say that West Hampstead is a black hole when it comes to secondary school
provision and the available local schools are not good enough. According to Dr.
Clare Craig, the group's lead petitioner:
There are no good schools just over the borough borders and children end up travelling a long way to attend Barnet grammar schools or church schools elsewhere.
In fact, NW6 is home to St. Augustine's Cof E School which OFSTED
deems to be "outstanding" and Queen's Park Community School which is
a solidly "good" school. The local comprehensive, Hampstead School,
in Camden and just outside the NW6 postcode is "good with some outstanding
features" according to OFSTED and is now in the top 2% of the country for
A-level results.
Dr. Craig repeatedly claims that there simply are not enough
secondary places for an incoming population boom. She has all sorts of graphs
and charts with data modelled herself based on GP birth records in Camden,
Brent and the NW6 post code. Predicting student numbers is very difficult and
the GLA and Camden spend a lot of time and money hiring people to do this work
on their behalf.
Camden insist there will be sufficient secondary places
until 2022/2023, their numbers can be found HERE.
Schools are funded on a per head basis so undersubscribed
schools suffer from funding shortfalls. To build schools 8 years before they
are needed would be catastrophic for all local schools, including new ones.
The addition of the primary offer from WHIFS came after
Camden identified Liddell Road as the site where they plan to expand Kingsgate
School. Camden does face a current shortfall of primary places and they need to
add more places urgently. Regulation from the current government means Camden
cannot simply open a new community school but are restricted to free schools or
academies. However, they can expand an "outstanding" school such as
Kingsgate. Camden's plans to expand Kingsgate School on Liddell Road will
provide an additional 420 primary places.
Camden's own plan is not without controversy as in order to
pay for the new school, they will need to raise the money themselves as central
government will not fund a community school expansion. They plan to build flats
and the additional Kingsgate School building on Liddell Road which is currently
an industrial estate. This will mean the loss of 250 jobs according to the Save
Liddell Road campaign.
If the free school builds on Liddell Road, they will also
lose the same businesses and jobs because of the larger school buildings they
would require. The total area of the Liddell Road site is just over 3 acres, by
contrast, Hampstead School sits on just over 4. To put this in local
perspective, WHIFS would like to squeeze the student population of Emmanuel and
Hampstead schools onto a site only 3 times that of Beckford School. The
facilities needed for both a primary and secondary are extensive. WHIFS has
said they expect theirs will be a tall building in order to accommodate their
needs.
It is hard to imagine that the WHIFS campaign is just about
numbers as it would be Camden's legal obligation to address any shortfall of
places. Dr. Craig is quoted in the Ham and High on 5/9/13 that Hampstead School
is simply too big. "One of the problems people have with Hampstead School
is that it is a massive school. It has 210 children in each year group.That is
not much bigger than your average Camden school but a lot of people want a
smaller, community school for their children. Part of going to school is being
part of a community, but if your community is 1,500 people, it’s hard to feel
like you belong.”
It is interesting that the school Dr. Craig now proposes is
a two form primary (60 per year) with a 6 form secondary (180 per year)
plus a sixth form. WHIFS would be the largest school in Camden and her
secondary would only be one form short of Hampstead School. Dr. Craig has her
numbers wrong again, the actual number of pupils in Hampstead School is 1,280,
WHIFS would total 1,570.
As Brent residents have seen, all 3 of the free secondary
schools due to open in September 2014 are still advertising for applicants.
Only one has a confirmed site which is not looking in good shape. In an unusual
twist, the College of North West London building on Priory Park Road, Kilburn
will host Marylebone Boys School for two years whilst they build their
permanent site on their secret Marylebone location.
Currently Camden has 170 unfilled Year 7 places and
neighbouring Brent and Barnet have around 200 each. The addition of 3 new free
schools in Brent and an academy in Barnet opening this September, on top of the
free school added in Barnet in September 2013, add a total of over 700
additional secondary places per year group from September 2014.
The DfE final sign off on free schools is unpredictable.
Many free schools have failed to open after being given initial funding to
proceed, including the Institute of Education bid south of the Euston Road in
Camden. Jeopardising the expansion of an outstanding primary school in order to
make way for an all-through free school will deepen the primary place crisis.
Ultimately, the quality of education WHIFS would provide is
unknown. What we do know is that Camden has an excellent record of running
schools, with 95% rated as "good" or "outstanding" by
OFSTED. The one school requiring improvement is nowhere near West Hampstead and
Camden is working very hard to improve that school.
By contrast, one of WHIFS partner schools is an academy in
Hertfordshire requiring improvement.
