brendapermaul

Thanks you Renata. It seems that the Council is already doing some sensible planning and that the Harris development could be superfluous. Could this be communicated more widely, so that people are reassured and not panicked into supporting something when they do not know of alternatives. I would also be interested in giving support to locally based Community School options.

Obviously you are not - or never have been a local parent ! My children went to Goodrich and then Sydenham Girls - along with a lot of their class mates. The boys went to Forest Hill - but a lot of the middle classes went to Alleyns and Dulwich College, Sydenham High. Prendergast and Askes were other destinations for the selected few. So are these Southwark schools ? Don't think so ! People chose these options when what they really wanted was a good local mixed school - and instead we got Harris !!!

Actually I have live in this area for over 30 years - so really am a local - and not a snob. I grew up on a council estate in Stockwell and went to the local comprehensive - then to university ! I actually work in education with vulnerable children - one of the reasons I dislike Harris - they do not deal with them well. However, I see few children from Harris walking home an most children here go out of the borough or into the private sector at secondary. From the author of the remark about Harris Boys / Girls not being for local children !!!

And to undermine other local schools in the process. Long term problems need proper answers - not short term fixes that will cause problems in the longer term.

Don't sign. Harris undermine local schools. This is just s cheap stunt to get votes> Where is the 'underused site' they think they are going to build it on ? I can't see any. Do they think they are going to close the East Dulwich Community Centre. Expand your local school - it will be much better in the long term. If Harris Schools are so great why aren't more local people,using their secondary schools in the area ?

Harris has a track record of getting on badly with local authorities and local authority schools. They do not co-operate with them and can be aggressive towards them. Other local authorities have managed and expanding primary population by increasing the size of their existing schools. I cannot see where there is space to build a local school in this area. Those of us who campaigned against the Harris secondary a few years ago predicted it would not be a local school - and indeed it is not. What we have is an intrusive eyesore, not a school that local people send their children too. Far better to work with schools that are already here and want to meet the needs of the local population.

This sounds so like a political party line ! I would be so surprised if a really good school emerged from that hideous overcrowded site ! My wider experience of Harris is that much improvement is achieved by removing kids who don't fit the bill - obviously the quickest way to show improved results, behaviour etc !!!

Anyone got any views on the new building as it is emerging. From my viewpoint it is a hideous oversized monstrosity, that will ruin the view from Peckham Rye, let alone my back window. It will be even worse when it is occupied !

EDGE got together a petition of over 500 signatures against a school of this size being built on this site. This took only two days - with more time we could have at least doubled this - and it wasn't difficult. Local parents won't send their children to a school of this size on this site - one Parent I spoke to said to her son " You don't have to convince me - you're not going there " Local residents don't want the whole character of the area changed. Local shopkeeper ( who collected signatures for us ) don't want their businesses affected. Yet this was ignored and we were presented only with generalised, but not quantified evidence of 'local support'. Tessa Jowell's survey did not demonstrate support - we got copies under the Freedom of Information Act- people wanted a school but not one of this size on that site. Yet our local councillors all decided to impose this school on us - and some have been particularly unpleasant in their dealings with us. However, I am not convinced that we have to accept this decision yet- there are ways to make challenge. One final point EDGE is not a small group of fanatics. There are divers views about academies within the group - but we were all interested in building s good local school, which residents and parents wanted. Sadly our local council has approved something else !

Well, despite all of our efforts and 513 signatures on the petition, we lost. The behaviour of our local councillors was pretty awful and needs to be reported ! Councillor Toby Eccersly (Conservative) was very keen to support the school - but equally keen to make sure that the coaches taking the pupils off site for sport didn't upset his constituents in Dulwich VIllage. Councillors Richard Thomas ( Lib Dem) and Robert Smeath (Labour ) spoke about their support for the school and how the public wanted it. However, when asked about what they had heard from their constituents, Smeath nervously talked about them being less concerned about this design than the previous one. Thomas made his usual accusation about people opposing the school being a coalition of minorities - 500 isn't a minority !He never mentioned the number of emails he had been sent in favour of the school - so draw your own conclusions! Finally 'local resident' George Leahy, also spoke in favour of the school. He neglected to mention that he is also a long term member of the Labour Party and heavily linked with Tessa Jowell. He also talked about how he had wanted to send his boy to a local school, but couldn't because there wasn't one. Again, he forget to mention that he could have sent his daughter to Waverly, now Harris Girls, but actually CHOSE to send her to a Lewisham school. Where do these people come from and why do we elect them ? Surely there must be other candidates to vote for in two years time. In the meantime, any ideas for continuing the campaign ?

Update on the petition - we have about 250 signatures, with more to come - we also have new people coming to the lobby - come and join us - numbers are important.

I have just been out petitioning local people. The overwhelming view is that they want a school, but do not want a 950 boys school on this site. Join the lobby tomorrow and let's get a decant local school !