School refuses girl five days off for ballet tour

A ten-year-old dancer has had to cancel a tour as an ambassador for the Royal Ballet School because she is not allowed five days off school.

Paje Campbell from south Kilburn was selected from hundreds of children to perform at primary schools as part of the ballet school's outreach programme.

But despite being absent from her school, St Mary's Roman Catholic primary school in Kilburn, for only one day a week for five weeks, she was refused permission just days before the tour started.

The ban comes after Gillian Low, president of the Girls School Association, called for schools to give pupils more time off to play sport. Mrs Low, headteacher at The Lady Eleanor Holles School in Hampton, said teachers should give more support to pupils who are at the top of their game in sports clubs outside school.

more... http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23885977-school-refuses-girl-five-days-off-for-ballet-tour.do

The Evening Standard
08.10.10

Teachers from St Mary's Roman Catholic primary school in Kilburn who expressed complaints that Gordon Brown's Labour government have intervened in a dispute to allow a black pupil to miss extensive schooling for extra curricular activities.

Paje Campbell from south Kilburn was selected from hundreds of children to perform at primary schools as part of the ballet school's outreach programme.

Teachers have revealled that Paje has already been absent from her school St Mary's Roman Catholic primary school in Kilburn, for one day a week for five weeks. A school spokesperson commented that allowing a further five days off school would seriously jeopardise Paje's education.

Tory spokesman Michael Gove attacked the government's decision to override St. Mary's Roman Catholic school as an "unacceptable interference by a socialistic nanny state in the affairs of a successful school."

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