Building Schools for the Future - update 12 July 2010
Categories: School News
Do you feel strongly about the possible cancellation of Dunraven's BSF project?
Write to Michael Gove, Chuku Umunna or your local councillor! Click here for details.
| A number of families have expressed the desire to support the school by wriing to MPs and Councillors about the BSF situation. This link will take you to a suggested letter that you could adapt and/or send to your local MP and councillors. It is likely that Michael Gove, the Secretary of State for Education, and his team will begin the decision making process shortly so it would be helpful to send the letter as quickly as possible. Every contact from a family will make a difference: the MPs and councillors have been elected to represent their community and will take action when a number of people contact them about the same issue. |
Following the announcement on 5 July by the Secretary of State for Education, Michael Gove, on the future of BSF, the schemes for Dunraven and Norwood (as Lambeth's 'sample' schools) are 'for discussion' which means that they could still go ahead providing our case is strong enough - and it is. All the other schemes for existing Lambeth secondary schools are to be 'stopped' with immediate effect. We will know more following a review by an independent panel and we will keep families updated.
In the meantime, please contact your local councillors and MP to make the case to support the project at Dunraven. We'll provide details of what you might say to persuade them if that would help.
| Write or email The secretary of State for Education
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| Chuka Umunna MP (Streatham) | Kate Hoey MP (Vauxhall) | Tessa Jowell MP (Dulwich and West Norwood) |
See the full list of affected schools.
Extract from the Education Funding statement in the House of Commons on 5 July:
Chuka Umunna (Streatham, Labour)
We are in the absurd position of constantly having to ask the Secretary of State to read from his list. I know precisely which schools in my area have not reached financial close, but I do not know if they have got to the close of dialogue stage. Those three schools are La Retraite, Dunraven and Bishop Thomas Grant. Can he tell me from his list whether they will go ahead?
Michael Gove (Secretary of State, Education; Surrey Heath, Conservative)
Again, I hope that hon. Members appreciate that the confusion that exists about whether schools have reached financial close, close of dialogue or another position is a consequence of the way in which the whole BSF project was designed. Their confusion is a direct result of the bureaucracy. Dunraven school is a sample school, and therefore falls within the group of local authority schools that we will look at. Elm Court, a special school in his constituency, has already opened under BSF. I believe that two other schools have not reached financial close, and I will confirm that in my letter to him. A full list of all schools is being placed in the Library-[Hon. Members: "When?"] It is in the Library now.
http://www.theyworkforyou.com/debates/?id=2010-07-05a.47.0&s=speaker%3A24950#g65.3
School building programme scrapped in latest round of cuts (Guardian, 5 July)
A schools policy not fit for purpose (Guardian - letter - 7 July)
Michael Gove freezes rebuilding of schools in £3.5bn savings (Guardian, 4 July)
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