ANGLICAN plans for a new Church of England secondary school in Islington will be discussed at a top-level meeting between the council and the Bishop of London.
The London diocesan education board has pledged pound;1 million towards the cost of the scheme - long campaigned for by parents. Tony Blair famously rejected the borough’s schools for his children.
News of the meeting emerged just 11 days after Islington’s education commission of inquiry, headed by Tim Brighouse, Birmingham’s chief education officer, reported its findings.
Its recommendations include a programme to bring the borough’s schools up to a higher standar and a deal that, in return for 95 per cent attendance, schools would promise children top GCSE marks.
The commission made no recommendation regarding the proposal for the C of E secondary, but said it required further examination.
Nine C of E primary schools in the area send 270 pupils annually into secondary schools. And some 40 per cent of parents of secondary-school pupils send them to schools outside the borough.
The Rt Rev Richard Chartres, bishop of London, said: “We believe that the establishment of a C of E school would attract many concerned parents to educate their children within the borough.”