Professor AC Grayling

Published: 15 August, 2013
by RICHARD OSLEY

RENOWNED philosopher AC Grayling has conceded defeat in his  attempt to open a new secondary school in Camden after telling the New Journal the plan had failed.

He said yesterday (Wednesday): “It is disappointing that we were not successful on this occasion, though we knew that the challenge of finding a site in the area we proposed was always going to be difficult.”

In his role of master of the New College of Humanities (NCH) – the £18,000-a-year university he set up two years ago in Bloomsbury – he hired a PR firm in January to announce that an application had gone into the Department for Education asking for permission to open a free school.

It caused a stir of excitement in national newspapers – notably The Guardian – by showing a leading academic name was interested in harnessing the government’s prized scheme of opening new schools.

But the move irritated senior Labour councillors in Camden, who said he had not discussed the idea with the Town Hall, which tries to plot where pupil places are needed most, before going public in the press.  

Professor Grayling’s problem of finding a site for a new school is a familiar one.

Camden Council has run up against the same difficulty with its own attempts over three decades to open a secondary school.

After relentless parent-led campaigns, however, the Town Hall finally answered the call last month by unveiling a plan to open a school on a council-owned site in Wren Street, Holborn, currently home to artisan workshops and studios.

The NCH has been built up as a London rival to the Oxbridge universities but its fees attracted criticism and claims of elitism. During preparations for the opening, one of Professor Grayling’s bookshop talks was interrupted by smoke-bomb protesters.

Undeterred, he said in January that he wanted to spread the idea of the NCH – a specialism in the humanities – to secondary school education.

The press pack, which enabled him to score weighty coverage in the broadsheets, said the hope was to have the new school operating by 2014. It was planned to grow to cater for 740 pupils.

Professor Grayling said at the time: “Personal enrichment is a highly important educational value and New School of the Humanities will provide a thorough grounding in the curriculum while allowing students to develop as imaginative and well-rounded individuals.

“We are each neighbours, friends, travellers, readers: we need to be aware of the story of humankind. New School of the Humanities will address these needs by offering a rich formative education with genuine depth.”

But Camden schools chief Labour councillor Angela Mason said: “I’m afraid I don’t know anything about Master Grayling’s plans. I read about them in The Guardian. I understand that his private university hasn’t been madly successful so this may be another income stream he is seeking to develop.

“I very much regret that he hasn’t consulted with the campaign for a secondary school south of the Euston Road.”

In the race to get Wren Street open, it is understood councillors and campaigners were keenly aware that the DfE was unlikely to approve two new schools in the south of the borough and there was a desire to pip Professor Grayling to the post.

The new school in Wren Street will be run by the Institute of Education and used as a teacher training resource.

In a statement released to the New Journal yesterday, Professor Gray­ling said: “The New School of the Humanities was envisaged as another way to share NCH’s expertise and passion for a well-rounded education in the humanities to the benefit of the whole community. 

“We will continue to look for similar opportunities – joining our open lectures series and scholarship programme – to further build this commitment and broaden participation.”