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Tories: We’ll reverse rise of ‘super-sized’ schools in London
Tim Ross, Education Correspondent9 Mar 2010
The number of “Titan” schools in London has trebled since Labour came to power, figures showed today.
Thirteen years ago there were 15 state schools in the city with more than 1,500 pupils. By last year there were 43, including four secondaries with more than 2,000 pupils each.
The Conservatives said such super-sized schools made it harder for teachers to keep order and give children the attention they need.
Shadow children's secretary Michael Gove told the Standard: “The size of schools is increasing and we must change direction. We will give parents the power to stop the closure of local schools. Parents want schools where the headteachers and teachers know the names of the children.”
The Tories are promising to create “a new generation of independent, free, and non-selective state schools” funded by taxpayers and run by teachers.
The government figures, obtained by Mr Gove, show there was only one school with more than 2,000 pupils in London 13 years ago. By last year there were four: Bexleyheath School; JFS and Kingsbury High School in Brent; and Haydon School in Hillingdon.
Headteachers rejected the idea that large comprehensives provide a worse standard of education.
Ofsted rates Haydon School as “outstanding” and it attracts more than 1,000 applications for 300 places every year. Headteacher Steve Robson said bigger schools could give pupils more choice over courses. “(Success) is not down to the size of the school at all. It's more down to the quality of management and staff in it,” he said.
Bexleyheath School was London's largest with 2,070 pupils last year. It recently emerged from “special measures” after Ofsted found staff had begun to turn around weaknesses in teaching.
Schools Minister Vernon Coaker accused the Tories of “making false promises to parents”.
He added: “They have no idea how they would pay for hundreds of new free market schools' with hundreds of thousands of surplus places, without big cuts to existing schools.”
Reader views (3)
Schools are controlled by local councils most of which are Tory run! So why have they not already done this?
Yet again the Tories show their ignorance of London and the pure scale of the city.
Anyone know how many pupils doh'th Eton has?
- Melvyn Windebank, Canvey Island, Essex, 09/03/2010 11:36
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"The Tories are promising to create “a new generation of independent, free, and non-selective state schools” funded by taxpayers and run by teachers."
Great. They can promise all they like, but where is the money going to come from for all these extra schools? By cutting funds for the existing ones? Presumably giving more money to pushy middle-class parents at the expense of those from poorer backgrounds.
Cameron, soundbite politics at its very worst.
- Robert C, London UK, 09/03/2010 11:35
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What is it with Labour's love and obsession with shovelling people into super sized institutions. Super sized schools, super sized GP surgeries... and the rest of it.
Don't they realise that herding people into battery like conditions is a dehumanising process? No matter how much money is saved, the RESULTS are dire. Haven't they learned lessons from the large high rise and the sprawling estates in large cities and on the edges of provincial/rural towns? That way of living has been disastrous and is responsible for incubating and hatching conditions which have given way to violence, drugs and high crime rates.
Our education system for the masses is failing so many already. What kind of standards can school leavers and employers expect from these factory style super schools? As a nation, we just cannot afford to let our education standards sink any lower than they already have.
- M Robinson, South London, 09/03/2010 10:05
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