A local branch of the National Union of Teachers is proposing that the failing Hackney Downs boys’ school should eventually become a co-educational school specialising in the arts.
The country’s first educational association - the “hit squad” created by the Government to tackle failing schools - will be consulting staff, students and parents later this month. It has three main options: closure; keeping the north London school as single-sex; or a “fresh start”, effectively closure and re-opening with new staff.
The association’s six-member team, led by Richard Painter, chief executive of the ADT city technology college in south London, has already met representatives of the 1,000-strong Hackney NUT.
Mark Lushington, associate secretary, said he thought the school would have a real future as a magnet school, as it had a lot of strengths in the expressive arts.
