Camden schools today reported that they have no failing schools and have 95% rated good or outstanding. This is in London where schools are already known to be performing well especially for deprived pupils. And yet in Camden have only ONE secondary academy. NONE of their primaries converted to academy status and they have just two new primary free schools.
The one academy is the UCL academy.This school hit the headlines last year as it was discovered that most of the pupils had to re-sit exams. See http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/10310582/Majority-of-pupils-forced-to-resit-at-flagship-academy.html for full story.
Today the local paper ran the story about the great results in the borough http://www.hamhigh.co.uk/news/top_marks_for_camden_schools_as_ofsted_says_95_per_cent_are_good_or_outstanding_1_3537006
Yet we are told over and over that academy status is the way to achieve success. The Camden story shows this is not true. The local authority works closely with schools and with trade unions to ensure that community schools succeed. Instead of Gove looking to Singapore and China for models of education we suggest he looks no further than the borough next door to where he works.
