Pickman's model
Starry Wisdom
Mail on Sunday (London)
October 26, 2003
Diane Abbott, Left-wing firebrand, sends her son to 10,000 private school
BYLINE: MARTIN DELGADO
SECTION: STH1; Pg. 11
LENGTH: 684 words
HARD-LEFT Labour MP Diane Abbotthas opted out of the state education system and sent her son to a 10,000a-year independent secondary school.
Ms Abbott, who belongs to the Socialist Campaign Group of MPs, has rejected comprehensives in Hackney one of the country's poorest boroughs and sent James, 12, to the City of London School, a boys' day school with an entrance examination, excellent league table results and sporting and academic facilities to match.
Earlier this month Ministers hailed Hackney's improved GCSE results as vindication of their decision to take responsibility for schools away from the local council and give it to a Learning Trust chaired by former Chief Inspector of Schools Mike Tomlinson.
But in an apparent snub to the Government, Britain's first black woman MP has apparently concluded that educational standards in the borough are still unacceptably low. She has told friends her priority is to ensure that James receives a good education, even if this leaves her open to charges of abandoning her political beliefs.
Ms Abbott, 50, a Cambridge graduate who was elected MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington 16 years ago, has been a constant irritant to New Labour.
She criticised Tony Blair for choosing a selective school outside his area for his children; she rounded on Labour colleague Harriet Harman for doing the same; and only last month she wrote that a good education should not be dependent on the ability to pay.
Ms Abbott's decision is sure to fuel the row over Private v State education in the wake of Shadow Home Secretary Oliver Letwin's declaration that he would rather beg in the streets than send his children to their local comprehensive in Lambeth.
It could also alienate friends one of her closest political allies, Leftwing MP Jeremy Corbyn, broke up with his wife Claudia over her insistence that their son went to a grammar school rather than an Islington comprehensive.
James's school, which dates from the 15th Century, is situated next to the Thames with views of St Paul's Cathedral. It has a 200-seat theatre and large sports hall with indoor cricket nets, three squash courts, a climbing wall and a 25-metre swimming pool.
Head Dr David Levin says the school has achieved 'academic success of the highest order' and offers 'an altogether inspiring environment in which to study and grow up'. Boys who get high marks in the entrance exam but whose parents cannot afford the fees can get a bursary. The school came 43rd out of 287 in this year's independent school A-Level league table, with 85.4 per cent of pupils achieving A or B grades.
In Hackney the number of state pupils achieving at least five good GCSE grades rose this year to 36.8 per cent still below the national average of 51 per cent.
The borough is one of five identified by the Government as having the worst education standards. Comprehensives close to Ms Abbott's home include two church schools Hackney Free and Cardinal Pole and Homerton, which is boys-only.
The Mail on Sunday made several attempts by telephone, in writing and in person to ask Ms Abbott about her choice of school for her son but she declined to discuss the matter.
James's father is Ghanaian architect David Thompson, who was married to Ms Abbott in the early Nineties.
Don't do as I do...her views on education
"The people of Brent East, like others elsewhere in Britain, need education on the basis of merit, not ability to pay" Diane Abbott last month after Labour's defeat in the Brent-East by-election
"She made the Labour Party look as if we do one thing and say another" Criticising Labour colleague Harriet Harman in 1996 for sending her son to the opted-out London Oratory school, where Tony Blair's sons have been educated
"Education in this country is debated around class and to a lot of Labour supporters these issues of equality and egalitarianism go to the core of why they are Labour voters and find these things difficult" Reaction to Blair's plans for second son Nicky to follow Euan to London Oratory
