Go-ahead for Southwark college

THE setting up of Southwark's second Catholic sixth form college has been given the goahead by Education Secretary, Kenneth Clarke.
Christ the King College, which will cater for 750 students, will open next September in Lewisham, south London. Proposed by the archdiocese of Southwark, it will replace the present sixth form centre and occupy the buildings of St Theresa's, a local girls college due to close at the end of the previous summer term.
Diane Fuller, working for the diocese on the project, said that the new college would "have the scope and resources to respond to the new challenges thrown up by recent changes in further education funding".
"The present 420-student sixth form centre is unable to meet existing demands," she continued. "It is getting to the stage where we are having to turn people away. Furthermore, it is proving highly expensive to run."
Ms Fuller added that the new college will soon be advertising for a principal, but that other posts will be "ring-fenced" filled mainly from displaced staff in the diocese's schools.
"As far as possible, we wish to protect jobs that already exist." She commented that the diocese was disappointed that the DES had not consented to a further part of its proposal the expansion of places in local schools.
The new college will complement St Francis Xavier College, Clapham which was the first sixth form college in inner London when it opened in 1985. Christ the King will serve schools in the boroughs of Lewisham and Greenwich.