Lambeth Education: School places

How Labour’s providing more school places
When Labour was elected by local people in May 2006, plans had not been finalised for a single new secondary school or for the expansion of any existing school. Labour has made it a priority to provide the additional school places Lambeth’s children need. Our goal is to provide a place in a good local secondary school for every child that wants one.

A new secondary school for West Norwood
The Labour-led council approved planning for a new school for West Norwood towards the end of 2006. Elmgreen School will be built on the former site of a special school on Elmcourt Road. The school will open in temporary accommodation in 2007 and will move to its permanent new site by 2009.

Elmgreen School is a new community school, and is the first school in the country to open as a ‘parent promoted’ school, meaning that it is led by a group of parents who first launched the campaign for a new school in West Norwood. A governing body has been appointed and has recruited a head teacher who is now preparing for the school to open. The school campaign has long enjoyed the support of Labour councillors and the local Labour MP Tessa Jowell. Elmgreen will be the first new school to open under the newly elected Labour Council as the Administration sets about providing the extra school places needed in the Borough.

A new secondary school for Brixton and Herne Hill
The Council has identified the current waste depot site on Shakespeare Road as the site for a brand new secondary school after the Tories and Liberals had originally tried to fob local people off with an undersized site alongside a railway track. The school will be a City Academy, and the sponsors will be the well established educational charity ARK (www.arkonline.org), who have a strong track record of running successful secondary schools in inner city areas.

The school could already be well on the way to opening, but the Tories and Liberals refused to find a new site for the waste trucks to be relocated. Labour quickly sorted out the problem after winning the Council elections in May, approving plans within weeks to purchase a new permanent site. Because getting that site ready will take several years to complete, the waste trucks will be temporarily dispersed to a number of sites so the school can go ahead as quickly as possible. The new school will open on a temporary site in 2008 while building work continues, and will move to its permanent site on Shakespeare Road ready for the new academic year in 2009. With six forms of entry as well as a sixth-form, the new school will provide 180 new Year-11 places.

Do we need a third new secondary school?
Labour is exploring the possibility of opening a third new secondary school. A project team that includes parent campaigners is reviewing sites in central and south Brixton. Once the feasibility for paying for and building on the various sites is known, the Council will use that information to take a final decision. With Labour’s two new schools already agreed and a major expansion of existing schools under way, the Council will need the approval of the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) to confirm whether further new school places are needed. While the Council would like to open this additional new school, the DfES will not fund it if they believe the Council already has enough school places to meet demand thanks to Labour’s massive expansion programme.

Expanding existing secondary schools
As part of its ‘Building Schools for the Future’ (BSF) programme, the Labour Government has offered Lambeth over £230 million to rebuild, refurbish or expand every existing secondary school. That means more chances for parents to secure a place for their child at one of Lambeth’s most popular secondary schools. The Council is now in discussions with the Government about when the work will begin, and the Council is hopeful it can start next year. With the biggest-ever investment in Lambeth’s schools, Labour is confident that the extra places being created will solve the shortage of places that Lambeth’s defeated Tory-Liberal coalition left behind.

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