Theresa Villiers, MP for Chipping Barnet, has stepped in to assist Ashmole Greek School reach agreement with the Ashmole Academy to enable them to carry on renting school facilities at weekends.
The local MP was approached by concerned members of the British Cypriot community who believed that the Ashmole Greek School might have its rental arrangements terminated at short notice because of complications over delivering a Covid-secure environment.
Theresa contacted Derrick Brown, the head teacher of Ashmole Academy, and a meeting was rapidly set up to hammer out a solution. Taking place at the school in N14 earlier this month, attendees included the Chipping Barnet MP; Panayiotis Yiakoumis, chair of the Greek Parents Association representing the Greek School; and Tim Sullivan, Associate Head Teacher of Ashmole Academy.
“This was an excellent discussion and resolved almost all the queries regarding how to operate the Greek School at Ashmole in accordance with Covid-secure procedures,“ Theresa said following the meeting.
“Both sides engaged in a really positive way,” she continued. “There was a shared determination to find a solution to enable the Greek School to stay at Ashmole and to ensure that Covid safety measures were clearly understood and implemented.”
“I want to thank the head teacher and associate head teacher of Ashmole Academy for their help in securing the future of the Greek School which had appeared to be in jeopardy.”
“I realise that this is not the only Greek school to be experiencing problems in renewing rental arrangements with local state schools who have hosted them for many years. I am keen to help these schools and try to get them back into their classrooms soon.”
Classes commenced at the Ashmole Greek School on Saturday. Work continues on resolving some remaining issues relating to use of Academy premises, but both sides are confident that agreement will be reached.
