Harris Academy for boys on Peckham Rye approved

[Rico]

Good news.

For those who find it horrilble and hugely significant, I'm sure you were there last night to speak. Typical that consultation goes on for years and once completed, hords come out on chat boards to talk about how horrible it was and no one was asked. We consult too long in this country. That's why things never get done or take years.

[Tony.London Suburbs]

Bring back Peckham Manor:)...my school had some charming encounters with those adorable Chaps back in the good old dayz:(

[nunheadbelle]

I can see that part of East Dulwich will become a much noisier area. It's very quiet and peaceful right now but with the arrival of some 800 or so boys... The local parade of shops (including the new coffee shop everyone's been talking about) will probably become haunts for the boys wanting to buy lunch, the papershop will have a "only 2 school kids" sign up, with queues of boys waiting to enter. The 63 bus will become over-popular as it is the nearest bus to the school, there will be gangs of boys roaming through the local streets and Peckham Rye Park. I remember when it was a girls' school but I'm sure there weren't as many pupils as planned for this new school. The problem I do remember is the one of girls getting knocked down crossing the main road but boys are even more boisterous and rumbustious.

I would imagine pupils will be coming from all the surrounding areas, especially this side of Peckham and local housing estate just across the park and not just the well-to-do areas of East Dulwich and Nunhead.

It's nice to have a new school in the area but I can see soooo many problems that come with it.

[dc]

The Charter is a larger school - 900 pupils (11 to 16) plus a sixth form. Only one bus passes the school - the single decker P4 - although the 37 and the 42 come close. The catchment area is so tight that most pupils walk.

I expect the same would be true of the new boys' school. In any case, given that it will take five years for the school to get up to capacity, it should be possible to make adjustments to bus routes within the time frame.

Since the death of a student on Peckham Rye (the road) a number of years ago, two speed cameras and a pedestrian crossing have been installed.

Interestingly, a significant driving force in the design of the new school was the need to keep external road noise out in this "quiet and peaceful" area so that pupils would be able to study in a suitable environment.

Indeed, I imagine that pupils will be coming from all the surrounding areas including the local housing estate across the park - in the same way that many pupils at the Charter come from the housing estates along Denmark Hill etc. That's because it will be a community school that serves the local community of which we are all, whether we like to acknowledge it or not, a part. Some people think that local children mixing in this way is a good thing.

[AllforNun]

In an attempt to clear up the confused. 750 full time students, and 200 6th formers. Anyone who has attended 6th form will know it is a far more relaxed environment than being a compulsory pupil and there are lots of blocks of personal study time built in.

translates as 200 pupils will not be using the school grounds, day in day out 6-7 hours a day.

So really 750 physical full time. And hopefully 200+ 6th Form mentors around the place to give the kids some guidance.

[themarkedman]

Hi I'm 'local resident' George Leahy. Brenda's e-mail in the previous and now locked thread seems to imply I'm not local. My right to speak at the Planning Committee in favour of the proposal was because I live within 100 yards of the proposed new school - I'm as local as anyone else.

i did not neglect to mention I'm a long-time Labour supporter and have an association with Tessa Jowell - it was not materially relevant. I've have never hidden my asociation with the Labour party and when I was leading the EDEN campaign this was considered rather useful!

Brenda seems to be suggesting that my speaking at the Planning Committee was politically motivated. It was not. I would not have spent more than 3 hours of a lovely evening at a committee meeting if I didn't believe what i said.

As someone who campaigned for a new school in the area for 4-5 years I strongly believe that the boys in the area need the school and the community needs it to (I was rather dismayed to see an earlier posting referring 'gangs of boys' - we must stop this demonising of young people).

Finally my daughter. I didn't send my daughter to Waverley because it wasn't good enough. It was the parlous state of the school that was the catalyst for the EDEN campaign. Waverley had successfully resisted a proposal to go co-ed when the Charter got approval. That happened because we all missed a trick or two - we all thought we would get in to teh Charter and ignored the Waverley co-ed element of it. If as a community we had concentrated on both, we wouldn't have this situation. The failure at that point made it impossible to get Waverley to change - they weren't even technically a failing school according Ofsted, so we had no power over them at all.

That was how EDEN happened, that is why we are going to get a new school for the area and the area will be better for it.

[Muttley]

George, I respect you for being prepared to put the case for the academy on Wednesday, especially since it was quite a hostile environment. My impression was that most of the people who presented on both sides were sincere, and acting in what they felt are the best interests of the area. I really do hope the school succeeds, and as others have said, now the decision on size looks irreversible, we're going to have to try to make the most of it. I still feel that Tessa Jowell's claim that the majority of the local area supported the Harris plan (with the implication that everyone knew about the scale) was disingenuous.

[the-e-dealer]

Well done George - My son was ill otherwise I'd have been fighting for the chance to speak in favour.

No its not perfect, but there aren't any other local sites and there's not much alternative money so I am very happy to see a school - where my son can go ! in 5 years time ... HL

[brendapermaul]

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 !

[blinder999]

brendapermaul Wrote:

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> Local parents won't send their children to a

> school of this size on this site

I understand that residents in the immediate vicinity may be really annoyed by this school (and perhaps with good reason), but there can be little doubt that if the school is any good, it will be massively oversubscribed.

And in my opinion, whether it's any good or not will have very little to do with the number of square metres per child.

After all these years of waiting, it's great news for local parents that we're finally going to have a local boys' secondary school.

[Amelie]

If TJMP has misrepresented the contents of a survey she should be reported to the Parliamentary Commissioner and the NEC of the Labour Party, if Councillors have been abusive they should be reported both to the Leader of the Council and to the Committee on Standards in Public Life. Moreover, if a committee as a whole has not properly dealt with information presented to it, the committee should be reported to the CoSPL as well. There is also the possibility of a complaint to the Local Government Ombudsman.

The best thing to do is to seek expert advice from a Planning/Local Government lawyer.

[dc]

The survey referred to above by 'brendapermaul' was in connection with last year's, later withdrawn, planning application whilst the survey referred to by the Chair at the meeting on Wednesday was one carried out in connection with this year's application. Two surveys - two applications - different results - hardly surprising.

And believe me, it wasn't the councillors who were being abusive at the meeting on Wednesday. A handful of people - certainly by no means the majority - really did their case no favours by their thoroughly obnoxious behaviour.

[EKB2]

Why shouldn't we compare Alleyns with a Harris Academy? This country loses a lot because we don't think to make that comparison. The only ones who benefit from the way things are, are the dimmer rich kids and their parents. (Yeuch, just realised I'm in that category)

I'm livid about the decision because I think it's yet another instance of teenagers, who are given so little decent space - both literally and metaphorically - being betrayed or 'failed' by the rest of us. Seems like a pathetic political system that gives them nothing better than a so-called choice between being cooped up on that site and commuting miles away. Surely we can do better.

And I really can't see that 950, even 750, on that site has any hope of becoming a good school. National government, Southwark council and the Harris Federation all say they're confident that they can deliver. Well they would! I'd like to see evidence from a disinterested party that persuades me that the cramped and harsh urban schools that have sprung up in the last few years, and that seem to be the justification for doing it here too, aren't going to be a long-term disaster.

I say, let's not give up on getting the council to drop the numbers. That way we'll get better teachers, more outdoor space (less car parking for the staff!) and, I'm sure, happier kids and happier neighbours. Oh yes, and they do say a prerequisite for a good school is a good relationship with the community. Great start: 112 or something responsese to the planning department opposing, 16 or something in favour.

EKB2

[louisiana]

I'm not a parent, but I do live nearby, and I have taught in a London secondary school.

I think the sale of playing fields has been disastrous, and this kind of attempt to cram lots of boys onto a small site is also a recipe for disaster. What boys have is energy. And what we are doing as a society - in this and other ways - is preventing them from using it up. Bussing kids off site for a few formal sessions is not a solution.

And I agree with the comments made earlier on this thread about the quality of what is offered in public sector education. Just because it's public, doesn't mean it has to be crap, that we should have to accept crap. The students will pick up instantly on those differences. It will inform the way they think about the world around them. In the long term, such economies may come back to bite, in ways that were not expected.

Some other countries not too far from us manage to provide far better quality state schools. Why is it so difficult here? Why, when presented with an opportunity to build anew a good school, do we decide not to?

[AllforNun]

Can't wait till the school is built and you actually get to walk around it. Suddenly the bubble will burst and it will strike you that you never actually had the qualifications or aptitude to train as an architect.

[clive3300]

What size grounds is it going to have? Cant imagine how so many kids will fit in what looks a tiny space.

[the-e-dealer]

FACT - Internal space is above minimum requirement

FACT - Many Schools bus to sports grounds regularly

FACT - We need a School

FACT - Many non Local Government Schools are good

FACT - Many of those adjoining the school are in favour of it going ahead.

FACT - Making Carpets does not make you any more foolish or greedy than say Banking, Building, Broadcasting, Making Hifis or Running Airlines.

[clive3300]

FACT - saying FACT all the time is annoying

[louisiana]

AllforNun Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Can't wait till the school is built and you

> actually get to walk around it. Suddenly the

> bubble will burst and it will strike you that you

> never actually had the qualifications or aptitude

> to train as an architect.

Was that aimed at me? (not sure)

Design - interaction, wayfinding, service, environment, etc. etc. - is what I do for a living. No, I'm not an architect (though I did spend a couple of years hunkered down in the Barlett). But I do unfortunately get called in a lot to sort out the mess when environments of various kinds 'fail' (more often than not after millions of ??? have been spent). If they did not go wrong, I would be on the dole.

[the-e-dealer]

Not aimed at anyone - I'm just emphasising the positive

And If I were a teacher I'd be worried about erosion of national pay , conditions

etc. And worried about the non standard approach of Academys and yes 950 seems a lot

but I went to a comprehensive with 1500 and I didnt like it.It didnt do me too much harm.

But we still have a chance to influence the numbers

and quite honestly I hope once its open the Academy Scheme is brought under greater control but lets give it a chance.

[AllforNun]

Not aimed at you as you are just a series of digital configurations floating around the ether !

Olive oil, feathers, velvet masks, Military uniforms, brazil nuts & bronzed midgets, thats what i do for a living. If there were not bored husbands + wives then I too would be out of a living.

So between the pair of us no direct experience of starting up a much needed boys school in ED.

[Muttley]

A digger was breaking up the ground next to the old school today. Looks like Harris Academy is on its way at last.

[Dulwich_ Park_ Fairy]

They reckon they're going to build the new school in 10 months, seems a bit ambitious. Have also heard that once (if) the school becomes oversubscribed that it will become selective, like Haberdashers and the Crystal Palace Academy.

[Vik]

They will be taking boys from September '09, but the new school won't actually open until September 2010. The new intake will spend the first year at Langbourne Primary School up on the Kingswood Estate. They will only be taking in one year at a time, so the school won't reach its full capacity for 5 years. That said, they aren't guaranteeing (SP?) a Sep09 intake yet, but you can apply for a place.

[Adam Glasser]

The following should not be forgotten with regard to the new Harris Boys Academy:

??independent architects as well as the Southwark Review Design panel made the same criticisms of the size and quality of the building: having to accomodate so many pupils means it is too big for the miniscule site. I am not aware of any independent architect who is publically willing to discuss the details and endorse the design.

?? the vast majority of supporters of the school did not examine the architectural and building issues in detail and directly address the criticisms in public. Instead the implicit overwhelming argument was that the school must go ahead at all costs in its current form or else there would be no school at all. And that it would be absolutely disastrous if the school were not to go ahead for any reason.

??This last argument is a very difficult one to refute and it must be said that, now that the school is definitely going ahead, every effort should be made to support and not to sabotage the Harris Federation's sincere commitment to building a good school

??However, all those in local government and central government, especially those who supported the school, should keep an eye on the project and make sure that school really does live up to what its supporters claim it to be.

I sincerely hope that those of us who have our doubts about it are proved wrong for the benefit of all those children who will be passing through its doors for years to come.