Haringey News
Department for Education welcomes Coleraine Park Primary School academy agreement
2:40pm Tuesday 14th February 2012
The decision by a Tottenham primary school who said it had been “bullied” into agreeing to become an academy has been welcomed by the Government.
The Department for Education said that the move by governors at Coleraine Park Primary School in Glendish Road to become an academy sponsored by the Harris Federation “was the right course to take”.
Earlier, the school hit out at Education Secretary Michael Gove, who warned four schools in December they must agree to convert, for “actively preventing dialogue” with other sponsors and insisting the Harris Federation was the only acceptable choice.
In a statement, the Department for Education said: “Sponsored academy status will give the school the impetus it needs to help pupils meet the national standards for literacy and numeracy.
“Academies have already turned around hundreds of struggling secondary schools across the country and are improving their results at twice the national average rate.
“We have been clear that we will look to secure sponsored academy status to those schools we find to be consistently underperforming.”
An Ofsted inspection of Coleraine Park in December recommended that the school be placed into special measures – the worst rating – and said improvements that had been made were “fragile”.
The Harris Federation runs 13 academies in south London and is sponsored by Conservative peer Lord Harris, whose Carpetright store was burned down by looters during the riots last August.
Last month, the Haringey Independent revealed that a group of parents and teachers campaigning to set up a sport-based free school in Tottenham, dubbed the Academy of Entrepreneurial and Sporting Excellence, had won its backing and could open to children aged between four and 19 by next September if the Department for Education approves the bid.