'School closure will hurt parents' (From Times Series)

'School closure will hurt parents'

11:52am Wednesday 22nd December 2004 in

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Parents who want to send their children to a Church of England secondary school will be faced with a black hole' next year, a leading clergyman warned this week.

The comments came from The Reverend Adrian Benjamin, chairman of governors at Christ Church School, in North Finchley, which will close next September, despite a recent glowing Ofsted report.

"The inspection says the school transforms lives," he said. "It is improving in all key stages and this should not be lost. It would be a shame if it was airbrushed out of the picture totally. There is going to be a black hole in the middle of the borough when it comes to good C of E education after primary level."

Rev Benjamin said an entirely new option ought to be considered, such as a new school which streamed boys and girls until years ten and eleven.

Christ Church was taken out of special measures at the end of October and the report, was released at the end of last week, identified the school as providing an acceptable standard of education with well-improved results and an impressive and decisive leadership. It also highlighted pupils' attendance figures which are at around 93 per cent and above the Barnet average all the more impressive as many of them live in Camden or Haringey.

Paul Salter, Christ Church's headteacher, praised his staff for their team effort' in dragging the school back up to scratch.

"We had to change the ethos and transform the attitudes of the students," he said. It took a lot of hours, but I made sure I patrolled every single day and emphasized the positive. You need a good reward system, that's what works, not sanctions or punishments, and that is what transforms."

But Christ Church was earmarked for closure at the beginning of this year after struggling in special measures for more than four years.

Barnet Council announced last January that it had joint plans with the London Diocese to open London's largest Church of England school by shutting down and then reopening a merged version of Christ Church with St Mary's C of E High School in Downage, Hendon, which was also officially failing.

The idea was to open two new single-sex sites, but this has since been dismissed and a new proposal has been made to close Christ Church in September next year and reopen St Mary's on the site of the Town Hall redevelopment in The Burroughs, Hendon.

Mr Salter said that, while he was committed to bringing the school to a close, there was an enormous need for good secondary Church of England education in Barnet.

He said: "The C of E primary schools here do so well, there is a real need for a secondary school to pick up where they leave off. That is why I came here in 2003: because I had a vision for C of E education here. We have made a lot of progress and that will be cut short."

But Tory councillor John Marshall, the cabinet member for education, said there was no chance the school in Hilton Avenue would be reopened.

He said: "I would like to congratulate the headteacher in getting the school out of special measures, but there is no way the council will revisit the question of closure. The school does not appeal to Barnet parents, while hopefully St Mary's in Hendon will be out of special measures in the next 12 to 18 months.