Parents defend new free school

The man leading plans to establish a free school with a Catholic ethos has accused the local diocesan schools commission director of “unprovoked hostility” in her comments on the move in The Tablet last week, writes Paul Wilkinson.

Dr Anne Bamford, director of the Archdiocese of Southwark’s education commission, said Trinity Academy, to be based in Clapham, south London, “is not a Catholic school”, adding that there are plenty of places in local Catholic secondary schools and that the area is well served by other Catholic secondaries.

This week, Dennis Sewell, the writer and former broadcaster, who is chairman designate of Trinity’s governors, said he and his colleagues were “very surprised” by Dr Bamford’s comments.

Mr Sewell, who lives in Clapham, said that he did not believe his area was well served by good local Catholic schools. He also said the best Catholic schools were heavily oversubscribed and there was an issue with allocation of places.

“Our parent group first met on an offers day when there were tearful scenes at the primary school gates when one family we all knew found they had been refused by all six Catholic schools they’d applied to,” said Mr Sewell.

He said that there was also a concern about how the Catholic community should be serving the common good, adding: “Some of us actually believe that Catholic education should be opened up to members of all faiths and none.”

Oversubscribed free schools are required to admit half of pupils from non-faith backgrounds. For this reason the Catholic Education Service is opposed to the creation of Catholic free schools.

Mr Sewell said numbers of potential students for the school’s planned launch next year were faring “very nicely”.