It’s pupils who matter

Published: 20 May, 2010

• WITH all this talk of bats in the belfry and anthills at the foot of Primrose Hill it is all too easy to forget that it is the children of St Paul’s who matter (Letters May 13).
As parents, of course we care first about our children. But we also care about the children who we hope will follow and be able to share in what is special about our beloved school.

All this talk of rebuilding is shifting focus from what really matters, educational standards, welfare and protection, the loss of key staff, and securing fair funding for the future. 
As an architectural firm spends £50,000 of council taxpayers’ money in drawing up plans for a vastly expanded school, no one has explained where the children are expected to go while their school is turned into a construction zone.

We have been very clear that if there are other schools facing real deprivation in Camden (see Comment, May 6) then new capital funding should go to the children who need it the most. But this should not disguise the need for sufficient revenue funding for children across Camden, including St Paul’s.
With a new administration elected, and deep public spending cuts likely, we call for a strategic review of Camden’s education policies and a halt to the indecent rush to the July deadline for decisions on the future of St Paul’s and other schools.

There are indeed local pockets of demand, but not close to St Paul’s, and it far from clear that this demand will be sustained. Far better, surely, to recognise where there are real pressures, in the south of the borough and around the Finchley Road area, and take long-term decisions to meet those needs, while making short-term provision.

Like the former governor of our school Nick Williams, we suspect that the basic strategy is to drive this through, a view reinforced by private discussions with governors, politicians, candidates, and staff (who have been told not to talk to parents).
Surely it is now time for the freshly minted Labour administration in Camden to draw a line under a deeply flawed process of expansion, and find an alternative plan better suited to meet the needs of all Camden’s children.
STEVE McCAULEY
TONY MANWARING
St Paul’s Parents Group, NW5