Scruffy Mummy

Wish there was a 'like' button brezzo! lots of people give teachers gifts at our child's state inner city school - chocs, flowers, etc. Or cards - it doesn't have to be super expensive but it's nice to give the teacher and teaching assistants something nice. If the children liked their teacher, they like to be involved in choosing the gift. I will be honest now and one year their was a teacher that neither my child nor me got on with AT ALL and I did a very passive-agressive gifting of the most horrid 'worlds greatest teacher' mug that I found for 50p in the local charity shop!

The new secondary school at the Dulwich Hospital site should help. But one of the key reasons IMO why the current Charter site has shrunk so dramatically in the last year is that more and more people with children about to go into secondary school have been buying houses ever closer to the school. One family I know has kept their original house they in East Dulwich, rented this house out AND then bought a 2nd one really near Charter so they could be assured a place at Charter. Personally, this is one of the pitfalls of a distance only admissions policy. Yes, you can get your kids into Charter - only if you can afford to pay the premium on property. Is it more ethical or high minded to do this than sending your child to a private school - to send your kids to a local good state school through buying a 2nd home - thus denying a place to another child whose parents can't afford to buy nearer Charter?? Anyway, I agree with posters above - other secondary school are also doing very well in the area. And in six years, who knows what will happen? Harris Boys and Harris Girls are already doing extremely well in terms of results and progress but perhaps they will bow to pressure to offer some sort of Co-ed education across their two sites making them more attractive to local parents.

I've only heard positive things from a few friends who boys are at the school. I've got my eye on it as next year we have to apply for secondary schools. My view is that we are lucky to have an outstanding school so near - within walking distance. It shouldn't really come as a surprise that local children are allocated a place at the school since it is on our doorstep and since as we all know, there is a severe crisis in school places.

Charming priests and teachers are not strangers. Most abuse is done by people on a position of trust - be that family members or teachers or priests.

People who abuse children are often charming and charismatic - otherwise they would never gain access. Although he was arrested for downloading child porn, not child abuse.

Here is the full advert on the TES website. https://www.tes.co.uk/jobs/vacancy/headteacher-east-dulwich-283452/

Lump of coal & clementine. Seriously, we spend max ?100 & give young scruff three presents plus stocking. Grandparent & other family usually give 4 - 5 more presents.

If you scroll down to the bottom of the page on the MirrorCity Website, you can leave a comment.

Yes, I know the group. One of the boys did intimidate my 8 year old son, saying he was going to 'bust him up' - no reason except my son was kicking a ball near where they were. Unfortunately I was at the other end of playground and when son ran away to get me, they decided to move on before I got there. It almost put my son off going to playground again but me and his dad went back with him the very next day and he played near the group under our watchful eyes and now he is fine.

Yes it's all up to the dept of education now. They will use their criteria and decide. I just hope that they pick a provider who can have it up and running by September 2016!

No I don't believe that is true.

Any group of people can get together and put a bid together to run a free school. As long as you have the required signatories and the ability to run a school you cando it. You coujd run it - as I believe Judith Kerr is - yourself and the founders become the trustees or work with a provider. The dfe then decide on the bid now As we can see, Charter can do the same and sounds like they are going to do this now! Good on them but they are no more representative then the steering group! As far I understand, steering group was not legally obligated to take a number of providers into consideration. Harris have been extremely canny at this game. They see a need and offer to fill it. Done and dusted. No competitive process. Again, could someone explain why is Charter and it's unelected board of govenors(except for parent govenors) a more representative body? I just don't get it.

I am glad there will be a state secondary school. There is clearly a need. I am saddened by personal attacks both on James and on the steering group members -many of whom are good concerned people who deeply care about the community Again, I can't see that Charter School - supported by Price Waterhouse Coopers - can claim to be more representative then the steering group (many of whom I know, to be transparent) The only school governors on charters board to be elected are the parent governors - the rest not democractically elected. PWC is a private company. I am happy for either charter or haberdashers to run the new school. I feel slightly concerned that Charter had to be forced to abide by its own admissions code and recognise Wanley road as a walking route. Effectively children from the Champion Hill estate had had there chances of gaining admissions to that school severely reduced. I hope if Charter if they are successful will engage with parents interested in this school and seriously listen and respect parents views. However, being belligerent to parents who are supporting a new school does not feel like its very respectful nor like it is a good start in this new venture.

I don't think the steering group was a waste of time at all - the steering group are the people who are bringing the need to a new school to light and got the ball rolling. It seems true that Charter had thought about expanding and therefore, I think it is a good thing that there is an alternative possible school as Charters admissions policy is problematic I feel. In terms of admissions, to be perfectly honest, admissions on distance one only would suit me down to a T as I am currently only 400 meters from the site. HOWEVER, I do believe that diversity and the importance of keeping this new secondary from being one that you have to buy property next to in order to get a place (as is the current situation at Charter) - is more important than my individual situation and therefore I want a school with an admissions policy that will not JUST be based on distance alone.

Ok maybe I'm being dim. BUT, how is a bid by Charter School, supported by a private company (PWC) without a steering group of parents, albeit with promises of consultation, submitted straight to the Dept of Education considered to be more representative of local opinion than having a local steering group of 20 parents, supported by our democractically elected counsellor? Sure, it is not perfect (I really know the flaws in the system) - but I trust the local steering group more than I do a school and a private company! As far as I can see, as someone posted earlier on in the discussion, not one person who has fed into this discussion wanted: A Harris school, a single sex school or a faith school. Many (although not all) wanted a school that would be up when the current year 4 students reach secondary school age - the reason for this is well-documented. Most who fed into the discussion were not happy with admissions on distance only. And the steering group considered the options, heard from providers and made a choice. That is more than seems to be happening with all the Harris primary schools springing up here there and everywhere! Another one in Nunhead now in addition to the one at the ED police station! That all seems to have happened without a pip from anyone! Anyhow, I have spent far too much time on the EDF today!

I think the vote was for a combo of distance & another criteria actually - reading the thread you can see that people weren't happy with distance only. And no one said Peckham was far flung - simply that there weren't going to be enough spaces at either Peckham Academy Peckham (particularly now they have their very own feeder primary school) or at Harris Boys Peckham. Well, good luck to both new schools schools! I believe that with the expanding numbers of children in South London, it won't be a problem filling the schools frankly. Herne Hill & Brixton has a growing young family population as does Peckham & East Dulwich - and all those areas lie on the 37 bus route so very accessible! And perhaps the new schools will also cream off some of those people who might have gone private - as opposed to the private schools in our area creaming off the state school students - who knows???

I'm not on the steering committee so I don't know anything about the decision and what went on at all! But I do know that many parents who were supporting a school on this forum also did not want the admissions criteria to be on distance only. Clearly Charter School is very committed to a distance only policy - which has made that school very restricted in terms of access. Many people buy or rent near Charter to get in but many people simply can't afford to do this. Many, many people on this forum did not want to replicate the restricted admissions policy of Charter but rather wanted a school which would use other criteria in addition to distance. My understanding of Haberdashers they is that they use banding as well as distance. Banding will widen the scope of the admissions to the school. And personally, I feel Haberdashers has a track record in setting up and running different schools - East Dulwich school needs to be up by 2016 and would need a provider that has experience doing this. I know how difficult managing capital projects is from my work - and believe you me, it can be very messy and expensive if you don't get it right! I urge Charter to hire a sound capital projects manager to manage the new school build if they go ahead. And for that matter Haberdashers too! (seen too many things go wrong in the charity sector when people without capital building project management experience try to mange it themselves!) Well done to the steering committee for getting this off the ground! If Charter thinks it can open another secondary school, fair play to them - I don't think there is a shortage of students based on the population figures.

I tend to agree with Redjam and surely it won't do much for your partners confidence as a father that you are more confident in a total stranger to care for your child? What a great opportunity for him to get to know his child even more than he does while you are away.

Good on you londonmix - I'm curious if the woman who went to the Evening Standard to complain that because her child didn't get into Heber but was allocated another local school that apparently didn't meet her academic criteria (or could it be the demographics?) was being forced to send her child privately is reading this thread?

Well said LondonMix!

LOL Loves ED Deli - yeah that's really what is important after all - having a 'good demographic'. How dare ofsted come in and comment on teaching & leadership when the school has such a good demographic? Really now. There are children at that school that know the difference between hummus and taramasalata.

In my experience they move the children around as others have said. It is also unlikely that the teacher in your son's class is labeling the sets so overtly as to correspond to ability - i.e. just because you son is in a group named group 3 is is unlikely to be the 'average' group. Likewise if he was in group 1, this would be unlikely to be the top group.

I agree with VAL above - I think the big chains can get things much cheaper from suppliers as they buy in bulk and the small independents can't because they just don't have the negiotating power. I do like the range in Just William - again my son can buy lots of Pocket Money items for ?2 or under. I also find it totally invaluable for birthday presents for other kids particuarly as I am chronically disorganised and always leave it to the date of the party to get something. There is always something I can get under ?10.00 and they sell wrapping paper/gift bags so hey presto, birthday presents sorted! I remember someone on here asking where they can buy a micro scooter here urgently as they needed to get one for their son's birthday the next day and Just William was recommended. The problem with the rents and landlords on LL can't be under-estimated. Soup Dragon which had been a popular shop for ages on LL went under because of a problem with the landlord and the lease. The clothes they sold were alittle pricey for me but I often bought a few items in the sale now and again & again they had a nice range of toys too - including pocket money toys. So I was sad to see them go - particuarly as they had a great community noticeboard and I could always count on seeing someone I knew and I could chat to while browsing. Basically, toys are 'non essential items of expenditure' in our household and so we don't spend tons of money on new toys for my sprog (even at x-mas, mini scruff gets a max three presents from us, a stocking full of stocking fillers from Santa and then a few from grandparents overseas)_. HOWEVER, I don't mind spending abit more from a local shop when we do buy because without a car, I would hate the inconvience of trucking off to a big shop.

One question I have is that there are other academy chains - for example Ark and also something called the Cooperative Academy which runs three schools http://www.co-operativeacademy.coop/ and, if this is the way things are going to go, why is the process of schools becoming academies not being widely tendered out to other academies? For example, it appears in the case mentioned above, the local secondary school which is a academy offered to sponsor the primary school and Gove said no, it had to be Harris. Surely, it would be better to have a tendering process to open up to a number of potential canditates? I know that if you are a charity and you get a grant from any statutory funder over a nominal amount of a few thousand pounds - i.e. the Department of Health you have to show how you have put a tender out to at least 3 bidders or you lose the grant! From a purely commerical perspective, surely it isn't right that one supplier is given complete preferriential treatment in the market place?

Cheerful teachers leading a group of 5 year olds in a bout of impromptu singing on a bus? tsk, tsk, tsk - what is the world coming to?? Surely children need to be educated in the correct bus etiquette in London i.e. no smiling at strangers and instead, maintain a distainful and aloof expression on one's face at all times. This isn't one of those kind, cheerful friendly places to live after all - we're not Canadians for goodness sakes!