Local Schools for Local Children

The Location

This analysis focuses on three areas of North London; East Finchley (N2), Hampstead Garden Suburb (N11) and Finchley Central (N3).

The Problem

A group of parents from East Finchley were frustrated with the lack of good community secondary schools in their area and decided to unite and demand for a change. The group, Local Schools for Local Children, expanded and has now more than 1,000 supportive local parents, who are campaigning for a new Free School – The Archer Academy.

The Mapping

The Local Schools for Local Children group has been working with Barnet Council in order to tackle this problem and construct the new school. As part of the application process, the group requested us to provide a map which displays Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD) data and the home postcode of students, separated by grade level. This allowed Local Schools For Local Children to form a much clearer picture about the level of deprivation of the children they are campaigning for.

The map was created on Geocommons using Geographical Information System (GIS) analysis of the socioeconomic background of school children.

What Next?

Local Schools for Local Children group used the map with GIS analysis to provide evidence of the lack of co-educational, non-denominational and non-selective secondary schools in their area to support its application for the Archer Academy school.

The application was submitted to the Department of Education on 24th February 2012 and if it gets through the interview stage, the final decision regarding the support and funding will be known in the summer. The whole process can be found at The Archer Academy’s website.

Update

Local Schools for Local Children group has just heard that their proposal to set up The Archer Academy has progressed to the next stage. They have been invited to interview at the Department for Education at the end of May. The number of supporters for their application are increasing, which will undoubtedly help their application.