• IN your report covering the creation of a unit at Haverstock School for children at risk of exclusion, intervening before problems are entrenched, you rightly celebrated Camden and its schools working together, in particular drawing on the expertise of Camden Centre for Learning (CCfL), a Pupil Referral Unit (PRU) and special school, in working with the most difficult to engage children, (New unit in Camden for pupils at risk of being kicked out of classroom, June 27).

How sad, therefore, that on the facing page, in a story about the very welcome research project establishing at the Kantor Centre, a contrast was drawn with PRUs as if they were centres of failure, (Pioneering centre with a mission: to break the cycle of school exclusions, gangs and knife crime).

As a governor at CCfL I was proud to attend the Year 11 leavers’ barbecue last week, to hear about the children’s achievements and their plans for next year – in work experience, apprenticeships and colleges.

When results are released over the summer and compiled, the statistics may not be impressive compared with a mainstream setting. But given where the children were before transferring to CCfL, and the paths they were on, they will be little short of miraculous and a testament to the staff and to the boys and girls there.

The picture may not be the same everywhere in the country. But CCfL is a school where children learn. Children who were not well served by mainstream schools achieve and lay the foundations for positive, fulfilling futures. Camden should be proud of its specialist educational centres.

MATTHEW KIRK
Lady Margaret Road, NW5