Date:

29/02/2008

Camden Council welcomes the success of University College London's (UCL) application to sponsor an Academy in the borough.

The Department for Children Schools and Families (DCSF) has today (Friday 29 February) confirmed the University will sponsor the new Academy after the plans were agreed by Camden Council’s Executive in November 2007.

The announcement means that funding has now been released to enable UCL to develop further its plans for the Academy, which will have a comprehensive non-selective intake.

The new Academy will bring 900 much-needed school places to the borough for 11-16 year olds plus an extra 250 sixth form places. It will become a centre of excellence for the teaching of maths and science with an additional focus on global citizenship and languages. The new state of the art school building will be located alongside a brand new special school.

The Academy forms part of Camden's £200m Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme. Through BSF Camden Council will develop and remodel all secondary mainstream and special schools and pupil referral units so they can offer a 21st century standard of education to students across the borough.

UCL will now continue its detailed preparations for the Academy, working closely with the Council, the family of local schools and other relevant groups.

Plans to transform learning in the borough also include an additional 300 school places at an expanded South Camden Community School.

Camden Council has been working with local parents and the DCSF to look at addressing parents' concerns about secondary school places south of the Euston Road outside the BSF programme.(1) This has included seeking the views of neighbouring boroughs about possible joint solutions, while continuing to deliver the BSF programme on schedule, according to the government's timetable.

There are two main difficulties about developing a school south of the Euston Road. Firstly, that, despite extensive site searches, the Council is unaware of any site in the area that is available for development as a school. Secondly, if a site were identified it would come with significant cost to the Council, tens of millions in addition to the building costs which the government would consider funding if the case for additional school places were successful, and we would have to explore with central government how this cost could be met. The Council will continue to work with the parents and government on developing solutions to meet their needs.(2)

While the Council also welcomes today’s commitment from government to work together to create more secondary places in the south of the borough, discussions have not been focusing on the type of school.

Cllr Andrew Mennear, Executive Member for Schools, said: "UCL is one of the top ten universities in the world and today's announcement on its successful bid is fantastic news for the future of education in Camden.

"We haven't lost sight of the need for more secondary school places in the south of the borough - we have been working closely with parents and neighbouring boroughs for many months - and our commitment to find a solution there remains as strong as ever. While we welcome the generous commitment from the Government to work with us in creating more secondary places in the south of Camden, we'll need to find the site and funds for a new secondary school before seeking views on the particular type of school that will be created."

Cllr John Bryant, Executive Member for Children, said: "We welcome the decision by government to support the UCL application for sponsorship of Camden's new Academy. This is a major step forward for Camden Council’s commitment to build a new school.

"I'm sure this new Academy will make a positive addition to Camden's existing family of schools. Pupils will have the opportunity to take advantage of UCL’s world class specialisms of maths and science. At the same time it will provide additional much needed places for Camden pupils to attend a Camden school."

Notes to editors

(1) At a meeting on 25 July, 2007 Camden Council’s Executive also made an additional commitment to continuing to work to address the need for additional school places south of the Euston Road, outside of the BSF programme. Officers were instructed to work with the Holborn and St Pancras Secondary School Campaign the DCSF, the office of the schools commissions and neighbouring boroughs to seek central London solutions to the need for additional secondary places in the south of the borough, outside of BSF.

(2) Camden undertook a comprehensive cross-borough review of potential sites for a new secondary school in summer 2006. None other than Adelaide Road have been identified that are available, suitable or affordable. The review included: the Eastman Dental Hospital, Grays Inn Road; Mount Pleasant Post Office Site, Phoenix Place; Land to rear of British Library, Phoenix Road; Liddell Road Industrial Estate; Swiss Cottage/Frank Barnes School Sites; 02 Centre Car Park; Cockpit Yard and adjoining Council owned land, including library; 21-31 New Oxford Street; St Martins Art College of Art & Design, including Cochrane Theatre, Southampton Row; 156 West End Lane; 131-179 Belsize Road (Belsize Road Car Park); Cedar Way Industrial Estate.

Approval of the Expression of Interest (EoI) submission from UCL is the first step in the establishment of a new Academy. The approval given by the Minister enables the next stage of feasibility work to take place. This is not final agreement to the establishment of the Academy. The Minister will consider the results of the feasibility stage and then decide whether or not to agree that the proposed Academy should be established and whether to enter into the appropriate funding agreement with UCL.

Building Schools for the Future (BSF) is the largest single schools capital investment programme for over 50 years. The aim is to rebuild or renew every one of England's 3,500 state secondary schools during the 15-year lifetime of the £40 billion programme.

Services for children run by Camden Council have been awarded the highest possible rating in a national evaluation. The services have been rated ‘excellent’ with 'outstanding’ capacity for improvement in the Government Annual Performance Assessment 200 7

For more information about UCL’s proposals for the Academy in Camden, please visit:

www.ucl.ac.uk/global_citizenship/academy.html