St Dominic’s Primary School to close after 154 years

• IN a few days’ time Camden parents will find out at which secondary school their children will get a place, but how many of them have applied to go to a Camden local authority school?

Now we have over half of our secondary-age children either attending fee-paying secondary schools or going to schools outside the borough, (Official: Final bell for primary school shut down after 154 years, March 30).

Four of our primary schools have closed recently. Just what is happening to education in Camden? A decade ago we had some of the best education provision for children in England.

When the closure of St Dominic’s was announced last year, the cabinet member for schools stated that our schools “are fantastic”.

We have yet to see the evidence for the cabinet member’s claim and the plan to attract parents back into our council-run schools.

With 55 per cent of secondary pupils and a third of primary pupils not using them, the total council education system would seem on the brink of collapse.

Why is this being allowed to happen? Individual school funding depends largely on the number of pupils. Thus for each school there is a critical number below which a school is no longer viable and is forced to close. If pupils did not attend fee-paying schools or go out of borough there would not be a problem.

As a former chair of governors of a fantastic Camden school, the present neglect of what once was a brilliant system greatly saddens me. Just what is happening to education in Camden?

MICK FARRANT, NW5