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Academy plan ‘silly’
Pimlico School is set to be turned into a city academy
THE leader of Westminster Council wants to turn Pimlico School into a city academy.
Sir Simon Milton made the announcement on Wednesday in the Council House in Marylebone.
The move would make Quintin Kynaston the last secondary school in Westminster accountable to the local authority. Sir Simon said: “My personal belief is we need to make a fresh start and that can be best achieved by making Pimlico into our fourth city academy.”
But former school governor Mair Gairside blamed the council for neglecting Pimlico. She said: “We had no help from City Hall and we did not deserve to be on special measures. I would hope the decision will be made independently of Sir Simon’s preference. I am against academies because local authorities should have responsibility for their schools. It’s a silly idea.”
The declaration follows a snap Ofsted inspection which put the Lupus Street community school on special measures – despite pupils winning the best grades in decades.
The Ofsted bombshell allowed the council to replace Pimlico’s existing board of governors.
The board, along with long standing head Philip Bernard who resigned in January, had battled for five years against central and local government pressure to enter Pimlico into the academy system.
But the new Interim Executive Board is made up of the council’s children’s services chief Julie Jones, Interim Director of Building Schools for the Future Paul Doherty and a representative from the Department of Education and Skills (DfES).
Westminster Council’s deputy cabinet member for children’s services councillor Phillipa Roe, said: “The introduction of an IEB is vital to us progressing these plans and we welcome the support of the DfES.
Sir Simon announced a £6.5million windfall for improving ailing secondary schools in Westminster. And the council has as part of next year’s budget earmarked £1 million a special high-paid task force earning £1million over three years after it was revealed that Westminster’s secondary schools are the third worst performing in the country.
Councillor Dimoldenberg, leader of the opposition, said: “Westminster appears to have adopted academies as a way of washing its hands of responsibility for its secondary schools.” |
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