Visited Malden Manor primary School today. I visited first about 18 months ago when they were discussing what do with a bunch of old buildings spread across a fairly large campus. At the time there were discussions about whether to knock down the nursery and sell it to a developer. Instead they made their plans and won money from the Government to carry these works out.
I am delighted for the school but it does reveal one of the real problems of the way this Government allocates money. A few years ago the Department for education discovered it had a capital underspend and called for plans to be submitted for funding with a six week deadline for close of applications. One Kingston school, by co-incidence, had just finished planning and costing a scheme for the school and therefore submitted and it was funded. That was great for the school but others looked on aghast as no account was taken of need or any other aspect.
Malden Manor is a great school that will have a wonderful school site in about 18 months time and they raised their funds without political help! Maybe there is a lesson there for us all.
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