A new church secondary school for Kingston?
Everyone is hoping that the axe doesn't fall on the plans for a new secondary school in North Kingston. I think it highly likely that it will be funded by the Government since the pupil numbers now fully justify it. I hope I am proved right.
Several bodies are interested in running the new school, including the Church of England through the Diocese of Southwark. The Bishop of Kingston is endorsing their proposal on www.kingstonchurchschool.org.
Now you might think that I would be fully supporting such a proposal. After all, I am an active Anglican and was Chair of Governors of our local church primary school. But I am yet to be convinced that it is the right way forward in North Kingston.
I do understand, and have some sympathy for, the view that a Church of England secondary school in the borough would add choice for parents, and would complement the church primary schools. In fact, when I was the Executive member for Children's Services I was actively encouraging the Diocese to think about taking on and turning around the then failing Beverley Boys School. In the end nothing came of it, partly because the Head of the school, who was a Catholic, was not happy with the idea and the Governors supported him on that.
But North Kingston is a totally different situation. Parents have been campaigning for a new school for years, because the only school in the area is Tiffin Girls, which, as we all know, is selective and takes 75% of its pupils from outside the borough. I would happily convert Tiffin into a mixed comprehensive community school, but unfortunately that option is not available to Kingston Council. (Grammar schools can only change their admissions on a ballot, instigated by parents, of all the parents in the feeder schools, which means that the decision would effectively be taken by people who live outside the borough and who have every incentive to keep the grammar schools going in Kingston).
So back to the reality of the situation. Parents in North Kingston want a secondary school that serves them - all of them. A church school, however good and welcoming it might be, would not achieve that.
First, it would have an admissions policy that would give preference to children of church going families. It is not clear from the website what proportion of children would be admitted under this criterion, but I have heard that they are thinking of setting it at 20%. The remaining 80% of places would be offered to those living closest to the school.
Now I have a problem with the admissions policies of many church schools - and I'm talking about Anglican schools here. When parish schools were first set up in the nineteenth century their purpose was laudably to improve the life chances of all children. Over the years, the requirement to live in the parish became hardened into a requirement to attend church - so church schools began to look far less inclusive as church attendance reduced.
I would prefer all church schools to drop the religious criterion and simply admit children on the basis of geography.
The Diocese engages in other forms of social action without feeling the need to check the faith of the users. Many years ago I was on the Board of Kingston WelCare - an excellent organisation that provides social care to families. I'm sure that most of those families are completely unaware that WelCare is a charitable arm of the church. Through WelCare the Christian community serves the wider community, of all faiths and none, because that is what it should be doing.
Second, even if the new school did adopt a 100% community admissions policy, it would still not be acceptable to all parents. There are quite a few people who would not choose a church school, however open it might be, simply because it would conflict with their own beliefs and values. It is not enough to say that the school would be inclusive, as I am sure it would attempt to be; what matters here is the judgement that some parents would make that they do not wish their children to be educated in a church environment. Those parents would be severely disadvantaged if the longed-for school in North Kingston was one that they could not, in all conscience, use.
So reluctantly I cannot add my support ot the campaign for a church school for North Kingston.
I should end by mentioning that the Kingston Church School Appeal has been holding some public meetings so people can hear about the proposals and ask questions. The final meeting is on Tuesday 29th June at 7pm at Christ Church Primary, Elm Road, New Malden.
Comments
What a ridiculous reason for objecting. Surely the point is there should be choice and rather in the same way North Kingston parents have little choice so it is the case that Christian families do not have a choice in Kingston. In fact, if you do not want to send your child to a church school based in North Kingston then they could go to the Richmond schools in Ham or continue to go to Coombe or Hollyfield.
I presume that your somewhat outdated views mean that you also object to your Government's proposals to let schools become Academies. At least if they become academies it will stop local authorities and councillors meddling in schools. I gather that 6 of the 10 secondaries in Kingston are opting to become academies and a good thing to. It also means they get nearly ten percent extra money to spend on things that matter instead of on bureaucrats and inspectors that have done nothing to improve standards of education.
As for your views on Tiffin girls - well they are beneath contempt and I hope they are one of the six getting out from under your destructive grasp. The fact is both the Tiffin schools are serving KIngston children well and the contsant rhetoric that they are not there for local children is outdated and in fact plain wrong.
I thought the Lib Dems got the new politics they signed up to with the Tories but it appears not - interesting time ahead!
I won't reply to all your points, but I would ask you what happens to children with special needs if that 10% is diverted from local authorities to academies? The education money that is skimmed from the schools budget is largely used to assess, support and in many cases pay for the highly specialist care that these children need. There is real fear amongst parents of children with special needs that they will lose all that they have gained in the past in terms of education in mainstream schools. They will have no right of access to academies, and local authorities will not be able to provide special schools themselves.
Back to church schools - if the parents in North Kingston come out in favour of the proposal then that is fine by me. I don't oppose church schools as such. I was simply trying to read how I think the parents will take it.
By the way, I don't usually publish anonymous comments, so I'd be grateful if you could identify yourself another time.
I am very surprised you appear to want to miselad people by claiming that moving away from local authority control is going to affect Special Needs. You know full well that SEN is a statutory obligation for the local authority to fund, in line with their code of practice, and the local authority will just have to find the money for SEN by scrapping some of its more ridiculous expenditure on things it should not be doing. The reality is that I am sure a Lib Dem Council will not want to be cutting funding to the most vulnerable groups in the Borough. As it is SEN accounts for 2.8% of pupils of which half are in mainstream education. You need to be very careful about pandering to people's 'fear' when there is no need to. In any case this is your Government's policy so if you don't like it I am at a loss as to why you are not campaigning or lobbying against it?
Church schools - surely if, as you argued, only 20% of the admissions was done on the basis of faith and 80% was done on distance you cannot possible argue that this will exclude North Kingston children. In fact, this is pretty much in line with what happens in very large numbers of schools where the sibling rule applies.
BTW, much rubbish is spoken about the admissions of the Grammar Schools. I saw the admissions of Tiffin Boys and was surprised to find that the furthest distance a boy in that years intake travelled was from Molesey and as you well know a very large number of students travel to CCC and Coombe Boy's from out of the Borough. In my view we should let parents decide not local authorities.
Both the Tories and the Lib Dems both believe in localism. The difference is that the Lib Dems think localism is about local authorities whereas the Tories think it is about people power. Given what I have seen of local authorities I much prefer people were in charge!
Mary, well done you for being brave enough to make such fair and lucid points. I too am a Christian and ex-church governor. I agree with the points you make from a position of knowledge. It's no surprise that people immediately lambast you for telling the truth, though.
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