Protests put school rebuilds at risk

Published: 09 July, 2010
by RÓISÍN GADELRAB

PARENTS and teachers have been warned that their opposition to St Aloysius College’s new building could jeopardise the rest of the borough’s schools rebuilding programme.

They pleaded with Islington Council’s executive on Tuesday to help stall the planned demolition of an older block until they are satisfied with the Archway boys’ school’s new building.

But Islington’s Labour education chief Councillor Richard Watts said the council was anxious not to upset relations with developer Balfour Beatty (BB), which holds the contract for the rest of the borough’s Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme.

He said the council would continue to mediate between the school and BB, adding: “BSF is a once-in-a-lifetime op­portunity to rebuild secondary schools. There are always some snagging issues but we recognise that the issues at St Aloysius go beyond that and need to be resolved.” 

He added that plans to demolish the building, Block B, were agreed in 2007 and legally binding contracts signed. “There are significant costs in changing that,” he warned.

The school could face financial penalties if it blocked the demolition of the building, which teachers believe is perfectly usable.

They have staged a one-day strike over the issue, with talks continuing about a second, two-day stoppage.

Cllr Watts said neighbouring Camden’s BSF contracts were cancelled but Islington had escaped a similar fate because its scheme was so far advanced. “If we were to walk away from BB now we would instantly lose all our contracts with all the other schools,” he warned.

Parents complain that the new St Aloysius building has small, dark classrooms, that there is not enough storage room for chemicals in science labs and that the L-shaped design-and-technology rooms mean teachers cannot supervise pupils using tools.

Lorraine Whitbread, whose son Thomas is in Year 7 at the school, said a science club had been cancelled because “it’s not safe to conduct experiments”. She asked how Year 10 and 11 pupils would be able to get through their GCSE courses if they could not carry out experiments.

She said no space had been allocated for special education or for the sixth form, adding: “My son has to get changed in a shower because there’s not enough room.”

Earlier, her son Thomas and fellow pupil Jordann Webb, both in St Aloysius uniforms, held up a banner on the Town Hall steps as they joined staff, parents and National Union of Teachers representatives to call for a solution to the buildings row.

Jordann’s mother Tina Lord said: “They could do something with Block B. Jordann kept pushing me to come. He’s very political and passionate about St Aloysius. He said the building means a lot to the school’s history. He’s upset that it’s going. The boys feel very strongly about the whole thing.”