Education union urges Lib Dems to act against 'bankers free school' in Battersea

By akadri | Sunday, December 19, 2010, 17:36

Education union GMB is urging the Lib Dems in the coalition government to resist what they have dubbed a “bankers ‘free’ school.” Wandsworth Council wants to spend £13 million building the school on the old Bolingbroke Hospital site in the Northcote ward of Battersea.

GBM dub the Bolingbroke Academy a 'bankers free school' - but the NSC insists it's not elitist

The union has concerns that the Bolingbroke Academy will be elitist, as it will be built in a moneyed neighbourhood and has the support of some bankers.

Paul Maloney GMB Regional Officer says: “The bankers who were “bailed out” with £850 billions of public funds have acquired a taste for using public money to fund their pet projects. 30 of them have gone public on the council’s website supporting the “bankers “free” school” in Battersea.”

He and others opposing the school feel existing schools should be funded rather than a brand new one. They say that millions have been cut from the Building Schools for the Future programme which would have revitalised several Wandsworth schools including Chestnut Grove, Graveney, Elliott and Burntwood.

They also fear that the free school will select people from affluent families e.g. from Wix Lane School rather than the poorer Winstanley estate, even though the former is further away. GMB have said they may call on the Equality and Human Rights Commission to investigate the proposed exclusion of the children of poorer families.

But members of the Neighbourhood School Campaign for Wandsworth (NSC), all of whom support the plans for the Bolingbroke Academy believe it will be “non-selective, socially inclusive [and] non-denominational,” as written on their website. You may want to take a look at our interview with Jon De Maria, one of the figures in the NSC here.

There is tension as to whether there are surplus places in Wandsworth schools with the NSC saying that there aren’t many and opposition to the Bolingbroke school, which includes the Wandsworth Save Our Schools campaign saying that there are.

The GMB want the Lib Dems in government to stand against free schools as the party has previously described them as establishments "increasing social divisiveness”.

Be sure to let Battersea People know how you feel about the school. All comments are welcome. We embrace freedom of speech here at www.batterseapeople.co.uk.

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Comments

feeder schools are a kind of admissions policy to be used if the school is over subscribed (that is there are more applications than places available). In most london schools the criteria for admission if there are more applications than places are that after admitting chilren in care and with special needs (and sometimes siblings of existing pupils) then applications are ranked in order of the proximity of their home to the school. As this could restrict access to the school to a fairly narrow and better off area the NSC proposed instead that priority in the admissions system should be given to applicants who attend four local primary schools (again prioritising children in care and with special needs first), thus extending both the geoographic and demographic group who had access to the school,
DS

By deborahsouth at 23:30 on 19/01/11
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Gosh, you got this story out on the 19th Dec and it only just is making the nationals. I think this story has got so much attention because of localism and the big society - i reckon we need to see what these free schools are all about to see if we can give them a chance. i think because the school is in a nice area, it is likely to have lots of middle class kids going to it. But I like to think there will be a mix of backgrounds, otherwise people won't be happy, and I, for one, will demonstrate, but i am willing to give it a chance. what are feeders deborah?

By KPJimbob at 22:50 on 18/01/11
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If the equality and human rights commission took this up they'd be following up every admissions policy in Britain.
First the criteria only apply if the school is over subscribed.

Second adopting a straight line distance to the school admissions criteria (as is standard in much of london) would restrict admission to those closest to the school which is a) a middle class area and b) includes children at a number of private schools (some of which are list to right of this). feeder policy maybe imperfect but extends rather than reduces opportunity.

Third: Of the schools in discussion as feeder schools or potential feeder schools Falconbrook (a really good primary) happens to be closer to another (also perfectly good) secondary school, Battersea Park, than the other primaries on the list so can see why it isn't a lead contender for feeder status given that the parents of kids at the other primaries are complaining that there isn't a secondary school close to them and that that's the gap this is meant to plug
Of the schools on the feeder list, Highview and Wix have 41% and 31% of their pupils respectively entitled to free school meals – well above the national and the London averages – suggesting a far broader income mix than the GMB suggest. Quite a number of pupils come from the Peabody and Winstanley Estates, exactly the children that the campaigners against feeders claim to want to have access. Without feeders these are the children that would lose out to more affluent children closer to the school....

By deborahsouth at 22:16 on 17/01/11
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