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Richmond upon Thames Liberal Democrats:Covering the constituencies of Twickenham and Richmond Park |
What to do with the Clifden road site: A message from Vince Cable
November 26, 2011 6:46 PM
• [Nov 25] Vince Cable writes: THIS issue is creating strong feelings in Twickenham's faith schools. I have always taken the view that freedom of choice is the key factor. If parents want their children to be educated in a state school with religious values, their choice should be.respected. Our local faith primary schools - Anglican and Catholic - are popular, high quality, and, to my knowledge, create no social division. I once lived in Glasgow where there was a real sectarian divide, but this is not true locally.
Two factors are now upsetting this comfortable balance. A rising population of parents with young children is creating pressure on places. Those who cannot get into their local school become angry when they are told they don't have the right religion, or are not observant enough. The numbers are small but growing.
Another pressure is the bid by the Catholic community backed by the Council for a secondary school on the Clifden Road (Adult College) site. I support the ambition of local Catholics to have a local secondary school rather than have to travel to Hounslow or further for an education of their choice. The problem is growing pressure on secondary school places. The Government wants to encourage faith school academies with mixed admissions but the new law [the Education Act 2011] has not yet come into force.
The current local proposals are proving quite divisive and I don't want to see this issue becoming political. There is no money or land for two secondaries. So, I have written to the Church welcoming their school, but asking them to volunteer a mixed admission policy to help meet some community concerns. I hope religious tolerance will prevail, all round.
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