Expert panel to lead commission on local education
There has been a reprieve for Hurlingham and Chelsea School after it was announced that a Commission is to be put together to look at the issue of secondary schools in the Fulham area. The council's application for formal adjudication of its proposal to close Hurlingham and Chelsea school is being withdrawn as a result.
The commission will be headed by Baroness Perry of Southwark. Baroness Perry is a former Chief Inspector of Schools, (head of the government's schools' standards watchdog), and has been the Vice-Chancellor of Southbank Polytechnic and then Pro-Vice Chancellor of Surrey University. Other experts on the Commission will include Bob Litchfield, former Deputy Chief Executive and Director of Education at Camden Council, John McIntosh, who was the head of the highly successful London Oratory School in Fulham for 30 years, and William Atkinson, the head at rapidly improving Phoenix High in the north of the borough.
The Council say that everyone with a stake in education, from parents to teachers, governors and the church authorities, will be consulted by the Commission before it makes its recommendation to the council in the summer.
"The Commission will start with a clean slate, and look at all the options for secondary schools in Fulham," says Council Leader, Cllr Stephen Greenhalgh. "Our proposals to bring in some of the country's most respected and experienced professionals will allow a fresh eye to be cast over the background data. Any recommendations the Commission makes to us have to be treated extremely seriously and I am confident that it is going to be a successful route to a shared vision for our schools."
Baroness Perry says, "I come to this with a completely open mind. It is a fantastic opportunity to play a part, with expert colleagues, in shaping the future of Fulham's secondary schools for the 21st century."
MP Andrew Slaughter, who had been campaigning to keep Hurlingham and Chelsea open described the decision to appoint a commission as political and questioned its independence pointing out that Baroness Perry is a Tory peeress. He said, "It is absolutely clear to me that this proposal has not been thought through but is a knee-jerk response to cover the council's embarrassment at being forced to withdraw the closure notice. So in place of a threat to one school we now have a threat to all secondary schools in H&F."
Bob Litchfield will be managing the day-to-day work of the commission and his first task will be to review the background data and check the statistics. The commission will then listen to, and evaluate, the views of all interested parties and look at evidence of good practice elsewhere. All written submissions will be welcome and there will be public meetings in the early summer. Recommendations will be made to the council by the end of July, in time to meet the timetable for deciding on the allocation of investment from the Building Schools for the Future programme.
April 24, 2007
|