Frank Barnes School Parent Action Group
November 2007 Update Newsletter
Polly Burton, a parent of a child at Frank Barnes School has set up a Parent Action Group to support the work of Frank Barnes School.
Polly has organised a campaign with other parents to secure the future of Frank Barnes School. The Parents Action Group meets each Wednesday between 12.30pm and 1.30pm. With the support of Tomato Lichy, they have created a new website called
The website will give up to date information on the parent’s campaign. It will also explain the different ways that parent/carers and other members of the deaf and hearing community can support the school.
Building Schools for the Future – update
Council officers have prepared a paper on Frank Barnes School for the Executive meeting on 21st November 2007 at 7.00pm. The officers have recommended that they consult with all stakeholders on the 2 following options for the school:
1.Frank Barnes School is closed and the children transfer to Blanche Nevile School in Haringay.
(NB Frank Barnes parents are concerned that this means that the children would be absorbed into Blanche Nevile School and the council will not give any assurances about the direct delivery of the curriculum in BSL for our children nor any increase in space on their site. Also the school is further away and our children would have very long journeys to and from school).
2.If the above is not achievable, the other option is to transfer Frank Barnes School onto the site of a Camden Infants and Junior school.
(NB It is our understanding that the governing body of these schools have at this stage refused this proposal because of loss of playground space. Both schools fully support Frank School’s need for a secure future for our children.)
Camden Council Scrutiny Working Group
Please note that the Council’s Children Schools and Families Scrutiny committee have planned to establish a working party charged with exploring all the options fully, including the feasibility of co-location on other Camden primary school sites, before a decision is made by the Council Executive in March 2008.
A Regional Centre of Excellence
We are quite clear that Frank Barnes needs to be re-built as a Regional Centre of Excellence. This would attract greater funding and offer high quality deaf education to a broader range of deaf children, including those already in Camden.
Parents believe this would give families with deaf children everything they need to succeed such as a home/school communication service, parents signing classes and parenting skills courses, drop-in pre-school, speech and language therapy and Audiology services, as well as high quality deaf education for a broader range of deaf children.
Please note that we are currently getting very good press coverage, so you will be seeing a lot of Frank Barnes School on the news and in the papers.
We need as much support as we can get from both the deaf and hearing community to ensure that the high quality deaf education provided at Frank Barnes continues into the 21st Century.
If you would like to help us with our campaign please go to the website and it will give you all the information you need.
Thank you so much on behalf of the children, parents and governors of Frank Barnes School.
Polly Burton
Parent Action Group co-ordinator
