Haberdashers' East Dulwich - 751 families supporting

[littlek1cker]

The Charter School has also written to Michael Gove about the need for a secondary school on the hospital site. Letter attached for info.

Simon Tucker

The Charter School New School Working Group

[James Barber]

Hi First mate,

No the new health facilities are not currently planned to have hospital beds or half way facilities. They will house support for people being looked after in their homes. I've personal experience of this as my mother had it and it meant she could spend the last months of her life in her home. It really made a positive difference to her and us.

I can assure you no political pressure has been brought to bare on the CCG. We have if anything been encouraging them to maximise health provision on this site. BUT we can't go another 21 years of inaction by past governments with such a valuable community asset.

[littlek1cker]

***Public Meeting - Thursday 19th June***

The Charter School Educational Trust will be holding an open meeting where we will set out our thinking about the proposed Charter School East Dulwich and would like to get feedback from the local community. The meeting will take place at 7pm on Thursday 19th June at the United Reform Church, East Dulwich Grove (corner of Melbourne Grove) East Dulwich SE22 8RH. The topics for discussion will include the admissions policy and the educational vision. The intention is for the proposed new school to build on the strengths of the existing Charter school but to add some complementary features so that both schools benefit from their proximity to each other and the potential for collaboration. We have been working hard on all aspects of the new school but are also keen that it reflects the needs and preferences of the local community.

If you have children in Year 4 or below, or are just interested to learn more, please do come along and contribute.

[Shuggy]

Tessa Jowell on the case on Twitter:

‏@jowellt I've followed up on this with M Gove on need for a secondary school. I'll put my letter to him up online soon

[Belle]

Here's Tessa Jowell's reply to Michael Gove:

http://www.tessajowell.net/uploads/f00a48ee-7141-f7f4-994c-6433c2027fb9.pdf

[sophiesofa]

Here's a link to the haberdashers' aske's knights academy section 8 ofsted report (after their recent 4 inadequate rating) for anyone who's interested.

http://www.ofsted.gov.uk/filedownloading/?id=2389453&type=1&refer=0

Sounds like they're improving. I personally think a big factor in that is the increase in exclusions they mention.

[first mate]

James,

I too have experience of elderly relatives being cared for in the home and my experience was not positive.

Extremely poorly paid care workers, often allotted only 10 minutes to look after the needs of the client/ patient who should really have been in hospital - a cottage hospital. Not everyone will have family close by who can step in, as necessary. Additionally, a few months may work, for many it is much longer.

Who knows what goes on behind closed doors and the politically driven agenda around NHS resources but it has to be a massive mistake to use only a tiny proportion of land available for healthcare when we have an exploding population, what with local surgeries closing too. Sorry, don't see how the maths works...

Barber Wrote:

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

> Hi First mate,

> No the new health facilities are not currently

> planned to have hospital beds or half way

> facilities. They will house support for people

> being looked after in their homes. I've personal

> experience of this as my mother had it and it

> meant she could spend the last months of her life

> in her home. It really made a positive difference

> to her and us.

>

> I can assure you no political pressure has been

> brought to bare on the CCG. We have if anything

> been encouraging them to maximise health provision

> on this site. BUT we can't go another 21 years of

> inaction by past governments with such a valuable

> community asset.

[James Barber]

Hi first mate,

But currently only 2,500m2 of floor space is being used for health facilities spread out over a 27,000m2 of site land. The proposal it to use 5,200m2 going forward spread over 7,000m2 of land. So the new building would need around 1,700m2 of space leaving lots of landscaping and apparnetly 100 car parking spaces!

So a huge expansion in health faciltilities being provided but also great new local school/s.

[Belle]

Readers of this thread may be interested in the recent correspondence between the Harris Federation and the New Secondary School East Dulwich parent steering group. Letter from Harris attached (word document), and link to the New Secondary School East Dulwich Facebook page for our response. I'm also pasting the text of our response below in case the link doesn't work.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1526078214279320&set=a.1519943881559420.1073741828.1476809155872893&type=1&theater

Mr Chris Randall

Director of New Developments

Harris Federation

4th Floor, Norfolk House

Wellesley Road

Croydon

CR0 1LU

25 June 2014

Dear Chris,

New secondary school for East Dulwich; the Dulwich Hospital site.

Thank you for your letter dated June 13th; it provides a very concise summary of your current position in relation to the DfE?s indicative approval of your bid to open a new primary free school for Nunhead families under ?Wave 5? of free school applications.

The steering group agree with your own clear assessment that a primary school for Nunhead families located on the Dulwich Hospital site would indeed be the least ideal outcome for those Nunhead families. We also recognise that the two other preferred outcomes that you are seeking to explore - expansion on / or adjacent to the grounds of the Harris Girls Academy, or another suitable site in Nunhead - are solutions that will take a significant amount of effort and commitment to deliver.

Whilst free school applications are not site specific prior to approval, we trust that a dynamic and experienced federation such the Harris Federation would have fully appraised these site options at the point that the bid was developed. Your case for a primary school for Nunhead must have been made based on identified local support for the new school and a clear demand for future primary places in Nunhead. It would therefore fall someway short of your own aspirations; the needs of those local families and indeed the broader principles of the whole free school framework if you were unable to do so in the way you intended. This is something that you as the applicant are in a position to convey most strongly to the DfE and the EFA.

Our own campaign has gathered significant levels of local support due to the sheer numbers of families that will be directly affected by the projected shortfall of secondary school places for Sept 2016 and beyond. This shortage is now the most pressing local educational need. You will be aware that in addition to your own Harris East Dulwich primary free school approved for the site of the former police station Lordship Lane there has been another primary free school on Bellenden Road approved recently. There is also a significant programme of primary school place expansion within a number of existing local Southwark schools.

Along with the parents that make up our steering group, you will understand more than any other stakeholder that local primary and secondary schools are an integral part of any area. They are not branch outlets of franchises that can go anywhere within reason on a map. They are all unique, varied and vital parts of a local community?s infrastructure; the fabric of a specific place where young and vulnerable children live and learn. We don?t believe that this should ever be compromised for any outcome that is anything less than ideal.

But as you correctly point out you are not the decision makers, the EFA as the facilitating agency for site acquisitions and Southwark Council as the local planning authority and broader education authority are the two key stakeholders that you must engage with in order to find a way to resolve this. Your letter gives us some confidence that this is indeed your intention.

We hope that this is the start of a constructive dialogue between the Harris Federation and the parent steering group. As part of that dialogue the steering group would like to share with you the clear views of our supporting families on the type of local school they would like to see. At a recent public consultation event, held at Goose Green on May 11th, people were asked to provide feedback on what they felt was important for a new secondary school for the area. The overwhelming message (97%) from respondents was that adequate space for sports facilities and playgrounds were an important priority for a new secondary school. All respondents (100%) considered that a school should be of adequate size to ensure that it had classrooms, drama facilities, technology labs and spaces to provide a broad and full curriculum. Local opinion was overwhelmingly supportive (93%) of the Dulwich hospital site as the best/only local option as a site for a new secondary school.

The steering group believes that given the strength of local opinion, the entire site (disposed of by the NHS once they have determined their requirements for a new health centre) should be purchased for the sole purpose of a local secondary school. The site is large, but not vast.

Our steering group membership and supporters are drawn from approximately a dozen of the primary schools closest to the site. We actively support all our local schools; we also support choice when it comes to this opportunity to determine who the new provider might be to address the acute need for secondary places in the area. We appreciate that you acknowledge this yourselves; with an existing family of three academies already, you tell us you have no plans to establish a new through school or secondary school in the area.

The success and achievements of your existing schools is a credit to the hard work of pupils, teachers and staff of your federation and its ethos. We wish them all bright futures.

Yours Sincerely

C Rose

Parent Steering Group

[Coach Beth]

Well done Belle and all the members of the parent steering group. You have shown great leadership. A thoughtful and reflective response which also stays well clear of any divisive politics. Excellent points.

Primary school places have expanded greately - a expamstion of form entry at Bessemer Grange, a new harris primary on Lordship Lane, a new primary on Bellenden Road as well. So within 20 minutes walk we quite a substantial increase in primary school places WITHOUT even mentioning the planned expansion of Ivydale. Or the Judith Kerr Free School. Surely it is common sense that a new secondary to accommodate all these primary school students is what is needed. I sincerely hope that someone at Harris sees sense and if they don't someone at the department of education does.

[James Barber]

Hi Coach Beth,

Perhaps worth pointing out that the Harris Nunhead free primary school was applied for and agreed before the other expansions you've highlighted. So those other provisions were agreed on top of Harris Nunhead places.

We need all those new schools and expansions if we're to fulfil the gap GLA and council forecasts of primary place demand predict.

So it's now for Southwark Council to solve. They are the planning authority. The Harris Federation would prefer to build their new primary school on the Harris Girls Academy and Sotuhwark COuncil will grant or refuse this. That site was always one of the main options when I was leading the campaign for new primary schools. If Southwark Council refuse planning permission then practically the Education Funding Agency (pasrt of the Dept for Education) will have to look to permanently place them at the Dulwich Hospital Site.

So fingers crossed for Harris building where we'd all like them to build!

This would also ensure maximum space for the new East Dulwich secondary school at the hopsital site which I've also led the campaign for with my ward colleagues and since Feb with the Paretns Steering Group.

[Renata Hamvas]

Hi James, please can you show me the evidence than any consultation or collection of signatures was done for the proposed Harris Nunhead Primary school from parents resident in the Nunhead area ie SE152 or SE153. It is my belief, but please show me otherwise that the original signatures for the Harris East Dulwich were used for the Nunhead application. As two Nunhead primaries, well thought of by local parents were undersubscribed this year, can you show me any evidence that there is need or demand for a Harris Free School Nunhead? There will indeed be increase in demand for primary school places for the centre and north of the Borough over the next few years. As has been shown by Southwark Free School moving significantly from it's original proposed location near Borough High Street to the Ledbury TRA Hall, Harris could look for a site for Harris Free School "Nunhead" elsewhere in the Borough.

I don't know how familiar you are with the Harris Girl's Site. The only "free" space is what was an outdoor sports area, was temporarily used to house some 6th formers (now in the 6th form building) and being used for Harris Free School ED for the next two years. The temporary classrooms will fill the space, so it's got a very small footprint. It is also metropolitan open land. This site couldn't even be used to house Harris Free School "Nunhead" on a temporary basis. It also is 4 minutes walk from the Stuart Road site of Ivydale, so there will be an extra 2 forms of primary intake in this area at an established, popular local school.

You are disingenuous about this all, Harris are not keen to attempt to get a school on the Harris Girl's Site. The Head has also said there is no free space to accommodate a new school there. I do think there would be difficultly to be granted planning permission for putting a school on the site, due to lack of space and as it's metropolitan open land. This would be true of any local authority, and as you know planning committees are not whipped and can not be politically biased in their decisions.

The recent and soon to come extra primary places at Bessemer Grange, St Anthony's, Dulwich Wood, Ivydale, Belham, Judith Kerr and Harris East Dulwich means that there are many more primary places for residents in the south of the Borough. The main issue is to secure the hospital site for a much needed secondary school, and I agree with what is said above it needs space for good facilities.

Renata

[James Barber]

Hi Renata,

Please see the letter from the Harris Federation attached 3 posts earlier by Belle.

Harris clearly state they would like to build a primary school on the Harris Girls East Dulwich Academy. You keep saying they don't want to I keep telling you they do. We have it in writing. But the alternative would be shoe horning it onto the Dulwioch Hospital site along side a new secondary school. Hopefully common sense will prevail.

The original campaign my colleagues and I started and way back in 2011 had a huge response from the Peckham Rye and Nunhead area. The Educational Funding Agency accepted all that support and agreed to fund a second new primary school. Your administration have since, knowing this was approved, decided to expand other schools. So your administration must accept the demand is/will be there or why would you plan to add further places?

Officers reports show the wider Dulwich area as having a primary reception place shortfall of 215-235 places.

When we started our various campaigns and practical support for other free schools your administration had no plans to solve this crisis. We filled that vacuum with a lot of hlp from local families.

[kristymac1]

Shoe-horning a primary school permanently onto the Harris Girls site would be of total detriment to the facilities available to the pupils at Harris Girls. I am a supporter of the proposed co-ed secondary school (with certain caveats) but I think there is a danger that those leading the campaign for the co-ed secondary are not considering the impact on the other secondary schools in the area. Campaigning against putting a primary school on the hospital site in addition to the secondary school is fine but not if their answer is to simply shove the primary onto the site of another secondary school which quite clearly does not have the space.

Why are the space needs of the proposed new secondary school considered to be more important than those of existing schools?

[James Barber]

Hi kirstmac1,

My personal preference for the 2nd local Harris primary school would be at the former Harvester pub 520 Lordship Lane. But the freehold is with the Dulwich Estate which makes this extremely tricky - the Judith Kerr Bilingual School has been ruthlessly treated by the Dulwich Estate - effectively ensuring private schools gain at the expense of this state school. So I can see the EFA avoiding this site.

But Harris Federation themselves are stating they would prefer to place the primary school on the girls academy site. They are an immensely successful organisation I can not imagine they would risk the success of the girls academy.

Harris have always said they'd like to build a primary school on the girls academy grounds and the proposed ED secondary school would not and has not changed their views.

My understanding from Harris is that they see great crossover between two such schools sharing facilities. It's exactly what several of the private schools do. They also use the primary school to give opportunities for the secondary school children to mentor younger children and gain community experience.

But the final decision will be down to Southwark Labour and Southwark Council as the planning authority.

[Otta]

Surely what with a new primary school to be opened on the police station site, there is just no need to build another one school in dulwich. Saying it's for Nunhead is stupid if none of them will meet distance criteria.

Harris Nunhead on the hospital site is just a plain stupid idea. I get that options are limited, but that is no excuse for doing something stupid.

[loveED86]

I agree Otta

A nunhead school in Dulwich?

So would that mean the children in Dulwich who live by the hospital would not get in because they dont live in Nunhead-doesnt make sense?!

My daughter will be starting secondary school in September 2016 and I am of course supporting the need for a new secondary school.

[Laur]

http://www.standard.co.uk/news/education/six-disused-london-police-stations-to-become-free-schools-9564276.html

[clux]

My daughter will also be starting secondary school in 2016. We live in Nunhead but will be too far from the proposed site to get a place. So Nunhead School will not be for people living in Nunhead. Ridiculous.

[samstopit]

Clux - if Haberdashers (or Charter) manage to open a secondary school on the Dulwich hospital site, there is a chance the catchment could reach as far as Nunhead for the first year of entry. I think James has said this elsewhere in this thread. A new school would be less well known and so the catchment would be wider for Y1. Obviously not guaranteed but it's a possibility for your daughter.

The Harris Nunhead primary is clearly not in the right spot for Nunhead families if it does open on the hospital site. Younger children need their school to be closer. Let's hope that doesn't happen.

[mrs.lotte]

Clux, the "Nunhead" school proposed on the site is a primary school - I agree it's absurd to place a Nunhead primary school there when it is not needed and would take away space for an urgently needed secondary.

If we get a secondary school on the site it will (it seems) either be Charter who propose as the crow flies admission (so no you probably wont get in from Nunhead) or Haberdashers that adopt a banding system which mean the admissions cover a wider geographical area.

I believe Habs are to hold a public meeting in the next couple of weeks so doubtless they will be able to expand on that.

[clux]

Sorry, I'm getting confused with all the talk of various schools! Just incredibly frustrated that I live in a total black hole for secondary schools

[LondonMix]

In my view, the parties involved with Nunhead primary planning are being disingenuous all around.

James, if Harris really desire to have the Nunhead primary on Harris Girls ED site, why haven't they put in a planning application for it? They have had years to submit a plan for the council to assess and to date haven't made any real effort to illustrate that the Harris ED Girls site is feasible for the Nunhead primary. Harris make it clear in their letter that they may need to expand Harris Girls to help with secondary places in future as a reason not to put the Nunhead primary there and only you seem to suggest they are actively petitioning for this location right now.

However, Renata, James is right about Iveydale. The council was aware of the plans to create an Harris Nunhead before the decision was made to expand Ivydale by two forms based on the discussions on this forum. If you really feel there is no need for additional places in Nunhead (and I tend to agree with you having looked at the projections), why did the council take the decision to expand Ivydale so much with the plans for Harris Nunhead underway? Certainly, by the councils own figures, a single form expansion would have been more appropriate at Ivydale. Was this to undermine the creation of the Harris Nunhead by removing the need for places?

James, the campaign that people signed up for was an ED Harris Primary which is being opened on the police site- a great result. A separate campaign for a Nunhead school should have been carried out and wasn't and I think that's wrong. There are 600 signatures for a Dulwich secondary, which is far more than is needed to support the secondary school application. However, I think people would be aghast if this overwhelming support was used to justify the creation of 2 secondary schools nearby without additional consultation as the numbers show only one new secondary is needed in this part of the borough. People sign up based on specific facts and using overwhelming support for one campaign to circumvent the need to consult on the creation of another school seems like using a loophole. The signatories in SE15 for the ED primary may have lent their support because they understood a new primary in ED would ease pressure in Nunhead. Without a separate campaign its impossible to say.

The situation feels like a terrible waste of tax payer money both by Harris and the council. That Harris would accept the Dulwich Hospital site and compromise the facilities available to a secondary school just to create a primary school in an area that has no need for one is shameful and not the way one would expect an educational charity to behave. They should look at the greater good regarding local education and if they can't open in Nunhead (and it is questionable anyhow if that is still necessary), they should simply not open. The council should be more respectful of tax payers money and instead of getting into political battles with free schools work to coordinate efforts regarding pupil numbers and strengthen its oversite role via its Admission Forum.

[LondonMix]

Mrs. Lotte I agree. If Habs adopt banding combined with distance criteria, it would give the greatest number of people a chance to get in and result in a wider catchment than distance alone.

Have Habs officially stated the criteria they will propose for the school?

I believe most of the local schools use banding and banding is most effective when all schools in a geographical area adopt it.

[intexasatthe moment]

But only if they all use the same type of banding .As far as I know the admissions policies for Habs ,Kingsdale and Harris are all different .