Parents get through to ‘interview’ stage in bid to set up Wapping high school

Parents have got through the interview stage at the Department of Education in Whitehall today (Weds) in their campaign for a new secondary school in London’s East End.

It has left them confident for their plans to set up a Wapping high school after being shortlisted for the government’s ‘Free School’ programme.

“We had an interview for an hour-and-a-half with education consultants and finance experts,” parent-campaigner Kerstyn Comley told the East London Advertiser.

“It was quite vigorous—they grilled us for 60 minutes about our application and were quite robust and comprehensive, but seemed excited by the ideas we had. We think we’ve cracked it.”

The 1,000 youngsters in five neighbourhood primary schools have “no obvious secondary school when they reach 11,” with The Highway effectively cutting off the entire district from the rest of Tower Hamlets, the delegation told the panel.

The nearest secondary schools are either single sex, which doesn’t meet needs of families preferring co-education and wanting to send brothers and sisters to one school, or faith-based which doesn’t meet needs of those of other religions.

Now the parent-campaigners have to wait till the end of September to know if their bid is successful.