The Conservative council in Hammersmith & Fulham has backed down from closing Hurlingham and Chelsea secondary school to prevent an embarrassing rejection of the closure plan by the schools adjudicator.
In an attempt to save face, the Tories have set up a so-called independent commission to review the future of secondary schools in Fulham - thereby putting them all under threat. The Commission will be chaired by a Tory peer, Baroness Perry!
For some reason the secondary schools in the north of the borough are not included in the review even though their catchment areas for pupils overlap with the Fulham schools.
In trying to save themselves huge embarrassment, the Tories have demonstrated with this kneejerk reaction that their policies for the borough's secondary schools are in complete chaos. Now watch out for the Tories' primary schools strategy and see how quickly that unravels (see previous blogs).
This back down will give great heart to campaigners fighting Tory cuts in services and funding for the voluntary sector in Hammersmith & Fulham.
3 comments:
Parents, staff and pupils will welcome the U-turn taken by H&F Council on the closure of Hurlingham & Chelsea School.Why is it that it took so long for the Council to realize that it had made a mistake? Did they not speak to the Head teacher Phil Cross, read the Ofsted Reports and talk to parents before producing their embarrassing recommendation? It has casued an enormous amount of stress to parents and puils which could be reflected in exam results shortly. H&C School has improverd over the years and this is because of the hard work of Phil and his dedicated staff, if the school was to be closed then this was not the time to do it. One would hope that there are lessons to be learned from this PR disaster, the most important being that Councillors should learn to scrutinize their own recommendations before they try to implement them.
Agreed. Having wound up all the secondary schools in the borough, the council is now causing mayhem with primary schools. Another set of proposals that have not been properly thought through. Watch this space for more soon.
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I hope you could make it easier for people to contact you.
Let me know, as always.
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