Cllr Peter Graham, of Fulham Reach ward, gave the following speech at last night's Council meeting.
Madam Mayor, this September will see the opening of three new schools in Hammersmith and Fulham: three new schools that will provide choice for our parents, places for our children, and opportunity for our borough.
For too long, parents have faced a lottery of over-subscribed schools. Right now, more than half of our secondary-age children aren’t educated in our borough’s schools at all – unable to get into the school they want, they’ve been forced to travel elsewhere.
Well, this September, we go from a minority in our schools to a majority.
Through this motion, I am delighted to welcome the Hammersmith Academy, the West London Free School and the Ark Conway Primary School to the borough. Together, they mean an extra 240 children will attend one of our secondary schools each year. Another hundred or so will be joining Hammersmith Academy’s new sixth form. And 30 children will start primary school at Ark Conway.
These are the places parents have been waiting for – and the applications have proved it. In a year where all but one of our existing secondary schools were oversubscribed, the West London Free School could have filled its places four times over, the Hammersmith Academy three times and Ark Conway twice. That proves that even three new schools of choice are not enough to meet demand, but they are more than a mere beginning: at secondary level, at last more children in our schools than out of them – 57 per cent this September; and at primary level, capacity to meet the demographic wave heading for school gates.
Madam Mayor, as our existing schools go from strength to strength, we have been able to add three outstanding new ones, and all in a single year. Parents can at last feel the benefit of both a Council and a Government that are fully on their side.
In the case of Hammersmith Academy, we can, of course, give some credit to the previous administration – and, yes, even to the Blair government. But in itself, that just demonstrates how slow their progress was. Under the Labour system, it’s taken six years to finally get one school: under a Conservative Secretary of State, we’ve got two more in less than 12 months.
And while they can take some credit for the excellent Hammersmith Academy, when it comes to our free schools, their record is one of shameful opposition. Their party voted against the legislation last July. Their own MP has since raised free schools on six occasions in Parliament, each and every time to make a snide attack.
In public they carp and in private they threaten, but it’s clear that with either a Labour council or a Labour government, parents in Hammersmith and Fulham would be two schools short.
How extraordinary, that 150 children will put on a new uniform this autumn, excited about a new beginning; will learn from inspirational teachers; will have the chance – whatever their background – to excel; will see their life chances transformed: and the Labour Party is against their local state school, and wanted to bung them on a bus heading out of the borough.
No wonder, nationally, that small band of Labour modernisers has begun to disown them. First, Andrew Adonis, who designed the Academies programme. Then Peter Hyman, who is setting up a free school in Newham. And now even Tony Blair himself. They should recall Mr Blair, he’s the man they used to support back in the days when they won elections – even he has come out in favour.
Faced with this, is there any sign of remorse? It doesn’t appear so. Here is their spokesman in the latest edition of Total Politics magazine: “Andy Burnham. Interview. Why Michael Gove is wrong on Free Schools.” After a dozen contradictions, the interviewer despairingly asks: “But surely giving parents the power to create schools is the ultimate empowerment?” To which we get this jaw-dropping reply. Burnham: “Most parents just need to be protected on a daily basis.”
We don’t believe parents need protection from themselves, we believe they need a choice of good schools – a choice that the Labour Party would deny.
Madam Mayor, I’m not going to waste any more of my speech on them: we’ll judge them on how they vote tonight. Instead, I want to praise the work of all those involved in setting up the schools. No new school opens without a massive amount of hard work and dedication, whether primary or secondary, academy or free school. Their head teachers, sponsors, governors and parents all deserve our thanks.
We are proud they are opening in our borough; proud they will join the excellent schools we already have. That’s why we not only back the Hammersmith Academy, but warmly welcome Ark Conway and the West London Free School, and hope they are the first of many.
The Opposition appears to believe in taking the side of militant unions and producer interests.
We believe in giving parents the school of their choice, in a borough of opportunity.
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