Conservatives praise new Head of White Hart Lane School 28/02/06

Haringey Conservatives have welcomed the decision of Joan McVittie, the new headteacher at White Hart Lane secondary school, to ditch bilingual lessons on the grounds that “Children need to speak English.”

Local Conservatives first condemned David Daniel’s, the school’s Head, in 2002 when it was announced that key subjects such as Maths and Science would be taught in Turkish to Turkish-speaking pupils. Stephen Twigg, who was Schools Minister at the time, joined local Labour councillors and David Lammy, MP, to the praise scheme. Tories argued that it would do little to encourage integration or to enhance pupils’ future prospects in the workplace.

Four years on, only 22 percent of pupils achieved at least a C in GCSE science and Turkish pupils performed no better than the rest.

Welcoming the switch back to English, Justin Hinchcliffe, the Chairman of Tottenham Conservatives and himself a Council candidate for White Hart Lane in May’s elections, said:

“Joan McVittie is entirely right to revert subject lessons back to English. Schools should use English as their medium of instruction because that is what their pupils need in order to live and work in this country. Anything that encourages pupils to delay or avoid learning English well is a mistake with potentially disastrous implications for those children’s future.  Joan McVittie should be praised for her sound judgement – this is good new for the school’s pupils.”

ENDS.

Notes to the Editors:

Bilingual teaching was first promoted in the US but is now seen as holding back Spanish speakers. US schools must ensure that lesson in English will take precedence.

David Daniels, the former headteacher, who introduced the scheme, has been recruited to a ‘City Academy’ school in Hackney.

White Hart Lane School will revert subjects back into English from September 2006.