COMMENT: No Academy Awards for Lambeth? (Lambeth Liberal Democrats)

COMMENT: No Academy Awards for Lambeth?

June 5, 2010 6:09 PM

Oscar Lambeth Labour's new man in charge of Education, Cllr Pete Robbins, has barely got behind his desk and already he's firing-off missives that Lambeth Schools should not co-operate with the new Government if they offer any Lambeth schools Academy status.

Indeed he's so quick to rush off a condemnation of these nasty new Tory confections that his outburst ends mid-sentence on the Labour Party website. Maybe he got hot news that one of 'his' schools was about to break ranks and dashed off to put them on the naughty step?

This instant reaction is interesting from a number of viewpoints. Firstly it shows that Lambeth Labour has not wasted a single second getting into opposition mode so far as the new Government is concerned. No longer are they able to put up their hands fervently like the class swot eager to show their credentials as teacher's pet to every New Labour Government edict.

Instead everything they don't like in future will be greeted with " it's not my fault Miss, the bad boys made me." Indeed the swingeing cuts being made to the current year's Council budget, which we fully predicted before the election, are already being blamed on a national financial review that hasn't happened yet.

Meanwhile, Lambeth Labour's new Head Boy has turned his back on creating any Academies here in Sarf London. Which is odd, not least because several of them are up and running already in Vauxhall, Norwood and Clapham and have more Labour cheer leaders than you could throw a well-aimed chalk-board duster at.

Currently rising rapidly up out of the ashes of the Council's former dust-cart depot in Brixton's Shakespeare Road is the new state-of-the-art Evelyn Grace - wait for it - Academy. Which is going to make life really interesting for Young Robbins when he's asked to cut the ribbon at the opening ceremony. " What Me, Sir? I'm dead against those ghastly places, Sir."

Nobody should forget, either, the infamously divisive Sardine Academy? This fast-forwarded Labour project of only just a few months ago sought to transform a small Primary School (Fenstanton) on the busy South Circular into a brave new Primary School and Academy on the same site. There was even talk of having it sponsored by that symbol of hated Tory privilege - a Public School.

Curiouser and curiouser.

According to Cllr Pete, "if schools break away from LEA control there will be a real danger of a two tier education system and academies could cherry pick pupils by implementing through the back-door selective admissions policies. As Labour led council that's not what we want - we believe in equal opportunities for all."

Or, maybe, Pete's virulent opposition is simply because he could just find himself out of a well-paid new cabinet job?

The really interesting bit will be to see if any go-ahead Lambeth schools, with their independently-minded Boards of Governors, actually decide to embark on a new course away from Local Authority control.

Such a defiant action could really set the cat amongst the Robbins.

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