The school was told it could not open as planned on September 8 because of a row over buildings.
The decision triggered a bitter war of words between the school, Hammersmith and Fulham council and the Department for Education, with each side blaming the other for the fiasco. The school was due to open in temporary accommodation at Gibbs Green estate in north Fulham for two years and was then expected to move on to a site vacated by Sulivan Primary school when it merged with New King’s primary school. However, Hammersmith and Fulham’s new Labour administration is reviewing the decision to close Sulivan and it could stay open.
The DfE blamed “difficulties in securing a permanent site” for the decision.
Parents today said their children were being used as “pawns” in the battle.
Office manager Evie Hambi, 46, from Fulham, whose son Steven, 11, was due to start at the school in September, said: “If there had been the slightest risk that it wasn’t going to go ahead we wouldn’t have put his name down.
“The children are being used as pawns stuck in the middle of this.”
Peter Myres, 46, and his wife Emma, 46, selected the school for son James, 11, because of its Christian ethos.
Mr Myres, a church administrator who lives near Wandsworth Common, said: “It’s a Church of England school and has those values, the head teacher is outstanding, and around here there are relatively few options for boys.
“All the children are so upset, and also a lot of the teachers who had handed in their notice from old jobs.”
A spokeswoman for the DfE said: “We will work with the local authority to help parents find other secondary schools for their children.”
