AS the last community school in Westminster and with a new Camden academy to be built just up the road in Swiss Cottage, Jo Shuter could be forgiven for feeling Quintin Kynaston (QK) has been put in a vulnerable position and action needed to be taken. She

AS the last community school in Westminster and with a new Camden academy to be built just up the road in Swiss Cottage, Jo Shuter could be forgiven for feeling Quintin Kynaston (QK) has been put in a vulnerable position and action needed to be taken.

She told reporter Susanna Wilkey: "When Pimlico School becomes an academy, QK will be the only community school left in Westminster and the governors were concerned about that.

"We would be the only school having to follow an admissions criteria set by an outside force and we would be the only school forced to take students by Westminster Council - including a higher than average proportion of hard to place pupils."

"If there are no other community schools in the borough, the expertise at Westminster would also be reduced and there would be less support - so we thought it was better to become a foundation school and take control of certain things ourselves."

A key part of the change to foundation status at the 122-year-old school in Marlborough Hill is admissions policy - and Ms Shuter plans to have a 'walk to school' criteria.

See more on this interview in this week's Ham&High and Wood&Vale editions.