PM under fire over state schools slur - MP Karen Buck joins headteachers in comdemnation

Published: 16 July 2010
by JAMIE WELHAM

SCHOOLS chiefs, headteachers and MP Karen Buck have joined forces to defend education standards in Westminster after David Cameron said he was “terrified” of sending his children to a secondary school in the borough.

Councillor Nickie Aiken, who is in charge of education at the Conservative-controlled authority, said Westminster’s 10 secondary schools “delivered first-rate education every day”. She has written to the Prime Minister and his family, inviting them on a tour of its schools.

In an interview with the News of the World, when asked whether he sympathised with parents who can’t get their children into a decent school, the Prime Minister said: “Totally, I’ve got a six-year-old and a four-year-old and I’m terrified living in central London. Am I going to find a good secondary school for my children? I feel it as a parent let alone a politician.”

The comments were seized upon by Ms Buck, MP for Westminster North, who challenged  Mr Cameron to “swallow his fear and acknowledge the enormous progress that has been made” in a feisty exchange during Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday.

In an apparent softening of his standpoint, the Prime Minister responded: “I am pleased to say that my children attend a local school in Conservative-controlled Kensington and the other part of her constituency, Conservative-controlled Westminster. Of course there are good schools in London and of course progress is being made, but like any parent looking at the state of secondary education, you want to know that there are going to be really good schools, really good choice and a diversity of provision.”

The closest secondary schools to Downing Street are Westminster City School, Pimlico Academy and Grey Coat Hospital. The latter is ­rated outstanding by Ofsted. 

In the letter Cllr Aiken said: “I was sorry to read of your concerns regarding central London secondary schools in a recent newspaper interview. 

“I would like to assure you that Westminster has a number of outstanding primary and secondary schools. This is not merely in our parents’ and pupils’ opinion, but  officially recognised by Ofsted. I would welcome the opportunity to show you and your family a selection of our schools.”

Jo Shuter, headteacher at Quintin Kynaston School in St John’s Wood, said: “It undermines all the work we are trying to do – the hard work and dedication of teachers in Westminster schools. With a comment like that you can really reduce people to feeling unvalued.”

Paul Dimoldenberg, leader of the Labour group, said: “For too many Conservatives, state secondary schools are for other people’s children.”