In August 2006 we came back to London. There were many things to be sorted out. One that now seemed simple and obvious was that Joe should go to Pimlico. It was on our doorstep, it was probably all right, if not we would find out and could do something about it. The only question in my mind was whether there would be a place for him.
There wasn’t a place for Francesco at St Gabriel’s, so he went to Churchill Gardens Primary instead, with the understanding that he was likely to go back to St Gabriels if a place became free. That did happen after a couple of months, and in the meantime it wasn’t so awful. When I first looked at Churchill Gardens Primary over ten years ago it was in a pretty bad way. But since then it has had strong leadership from Mr Pye. He has told me that he spends up to two full working days a week researching and applying for grants and funding, and it shows in the way he has transformed the school. He also says that he gets no support from Westminster City Council. I can believe that.
For Joe at Pimlico there was no problem getting a place. We went to see the head of year 7, and in general conversation it came up that Joe plays the piano. “Oh, he should go on the Special Music Scheme, then.” And he did. As simple as that.
So in the first term, everything seemed to be going well.
