Dr Anne Bamford, director of the Archdiocese of Southwark's education
commission, last week said Trinity Academy, to be based in Clapham,
south London, "is not a Catholic school", adding that there are plenty
of places in local Catholic secondary schools and that the area is well
served by other Catholic secondaries.
This week, Dennis Sewell, the writer and former broadcaster, who is
chairman designate of Trinity's governors, said he and his colleagues
were "very surprised" by Dr Bamford's comments, adding: "It's really
quite unusual in education for people to go about bad-mouthing one
another."
Mr Sewell, who lives in Clapham, said that he did not believe his
area was well served by good local Catholic schools.
He also said the
best Catholic schools were heavily oversubscribed and there was an issue
with allocation of places.