News
Bitter disappointment for schools
Tuesday, 13 July 2010
Disappointment for Archbishop Tenison's School, Kennington Oval
Eight projects to refurbish and rebuild secondary schools in Lambeth were axed in sweeping Government education cuts last week.
While no school building works in Southwark and Lewisham were affected by the cuts, all the school building projects in Lambeth were either axed or put on hold.
Education Secretary Michael Gove announced the Labour Building Schools for the Future (BSF) fund would be cut, meaning the cancellation of more than 700 school rebuilds and refurbishments nationally.
Mr Gove said the cuts would help to plug Britain’s £155billion deficit.
He said: “Throughout its life, [BSF] has been characterised by massive overspends, tragic delays, botched construction projects and needless bureaucracy.”
But Lambeth headteachers said using “dilapidated” classrooms would affect pupils’ morale.
Elizabeth Sims, head at Archbishop Tenison’s School in Kennington Oval, has seen a £14million project to refurbish the school’s existing Victorian building and demolish 1960s prefabricated classrooms axed.
She said: “We have a very dilapidated and run-down building, which we call the ‘link building’.
“It really needs to be modernised to accommodate the growing number of children in the school.
“We also would have had a new sports hall. We were very much looking forward to transforming the buildings.
“The students are devastated – they feel like they are in the most dilapidated school in Lambeth.
“The classrooms were designed for children in the 1920s. They need modernisation. It really was devastating news.
“We have to soldier on and continue to provide an excellent education for our students.
“We live in the 21st century and we need to have a building that reflects that.”
School revamps at Lambeth borough’s Archbishop Tenison’s; Bishop Thomas Grant, Streatham; Charles Edward Brooke, Stockwell; La Retraite, Clapham Park; Lansdowne, Stockwell; London Nautical, Southwark; St Martin in the Fields, Tulse Hill; and Turney, West Dulwich, have all been axed.
Building projects at Dunraven School in Leigham Court Road, Streatham; Lilian Baylis school in Kennington Lane, Oval; and Norwood School in Crown Dale, Norwood, were days away from securing funding.
They are all now subject to a Department for Education spending review. That review will be carried out by a panel that includes Lewisham council chief executive Barry Quirk.
Lilian Baylis headteacher Gary Phillips said he believed his school would have its bid for BSF cash approved despite being subject to the review.
He said: “Ours is to build a small SEN [special educational needs] unit. It is not huge or going to cost billions.
“A piling contractor was in last week. Somebody will have to issue a letter from the Department for Education to the contractor saying, ‘Don’t worry, you have got the money’.”
Four schools in Lambeth have already been given BSF cash.
They were Elm Court in Brixton Hill; Elmgreen in West Norwood; Michael Tippet in Herne Hill; and the Park Campus pupil referral unit in Gipsy Hill.
A new £26million campus for Elmgreen was opened in September, paid for with BSF money.
The secondary was the borough’s first “parent-promoted” school and has seen an 85 per cent decrease in fixed-term exclusions since the kids moved into the state-of-the-art building from its first, temporary home in a Victorian building in Gipsy Road.
Sandy Nuttgen, a school governor and chairman of the Parent Promoters Foundation, said:
“I feel enormous sympathy for them. It is heartbreaking.
“It’s tragic. My hope is that the Government will review its decision and see the value of the projects that would have transformed the educational experience of kids in Lambeth.
“We have all got fantastic new buildings here. The staff did a huge amount of work to ensure this was the kind of school we wanted.
“We were very clear that what we were building was a school and not just a fantastic building.
“For the last 50 years before BSF, there was very little school building in the UK. There may be little more in the future.
“It has transformed our learning environment.
“In the old Victorian building it was very hard to maintain discipline when you have got narrow corridors with everyone on top of each other.
“The new building has had a massive effect. The kids are utterly proud of it.
“The teachers love coming in here too. It affects how well you can teach.
“We’ve had no damage to the building and only a tiny bit of graffiti since September.
“It does transform their learning. You can’t help it. It feels light and like a good place to be. It is quiet, open and clean.”
Chuka Umunna, Labour MP for Streatham, slammed the coalition Government’s decision to cut two school building projects in Streatham.
He said: “I am bitterly disappointed that these projects have been cancelled and I feel that local students, teachers and school governors have been betrayed.
“Our young people deserve the very best, and the BSF school-building programme meant an education in 21st century surroundings for all.
“I am concerned that our children are being sold short.”
Councillor Pete Robbins, Lambeth’s cabinet member for children and young people, said:
“We are incredibly disappointed at the decision to pull the plug on what are much-needed projects.
“Some of these schools are in an incredibly poor condition with children in temporary classrooms.
“We put a lot of money, time and effort to create designs for these eight secondary schools and now that’s all gone.”
Charles Edward Brooke Girls’ School in Langton Road, Stockwell, was due to have a new building and a substantial refurbishment of its current classrooms with BSF funding.
Headteacher Wendy Cooper said: “I am very disappointed.
“We were very close to having the money signed off for a complete rebuild.
“We are a school that is performing among the very best nationally.
“Schools that are less successful appear to be receiving better treatment.
“Our students deserve the best and are very disappointed. Some of them were carrying around the list of schools that didn’t get funding yesterday.
“We are still going to be refurbishing the building that is reaching the end of its shelf life. I don’t know where the funding is going to come from though.
“It really is a bitter disappointment. It is going to make the challenge of continuing improvement that bit more difficult.”
Sara Tomlinson, co-branch secretary of Lambeth’s National Union of Teachers, said:
“It is shocking that schools that have waited for years to be rebuilt and repaired will now be left with substandard buildings.
“This Government is cutting money needed for vital school rebuilding but putting money into increasing the bureaucracy in schools.
“The academy and free school bill would see schools each taking on business managers instead of teachers.
“Billions will be spent on making sure these schools are bribed to opt out and be put in the hands of the private sector, while inner-city children will have crumbling buildings.
“This budget is about attacking the most deprived and unions will need to join together to defend those people and our public services.”
Email: sam.masters@slp.co.uk
http://www.southlondonpress.co.uk/tn/news.cfm?id=24826&headline=Bitter%20disappointment%20for%20schools
No comments:
Post a Comment