Consultation for the Charter School East Dulwich

[littlek1cker]

The public consultation for The Charter School East Dulwich starts today.

The Charter School Educational Trust would like to offer the local community the opportunity to comment on our plans to open a secondary school, The Charter School East Dulwich, to serve East Dulwich and the surrounding areas.

In March 2015 the DfE gave the green light to our bid to open a new secondary school in East Dulwich. The school will open in September 2016. Information about the school, its Vision and Ethos, Curriculum Offer and Admissions Policy are all available for review on the website at www.charter.southwark.sch.uk.

The Charter School East Dulwich will be a co-educational, non-selective, non-faith, inclusive 11-18 secondary school, delivering the highest quality education for young people in its immediate diverse locality, where there is a shortage of secondary school places from 2016 onwards. Run by The Charter School Educational Trust, it will build on the success of The Charter School on Red Post Hill, rated ?Outstanding? by Ofsted.

Our consultation period runs from 18th May 2015 and ends on 26th June 2015. The consultation is part of the process that every Free School must undertake to secure funding and will allow us to respond to community issues.

As part of the consultation process we have prepared a questionnaire which is available through https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/3VXSTRR or on The Charter School website at www.charter.southwark.sch.uk. Paper copies of the questionnaire will be available at our Public Consultation Events or by email reply. Alternatively you can collect one from reception at The Charter School on Red Post Hill. Please call 07836 702812 for telephone enquiries.

If you would like to meet members of the Trust, local parents involved in the new school, or the newly appointed Head Teacher of The Charter School East Dulwich please join us at one of our Public Consultation Events:

3rd June 2015 at St John?s & St Clement?s Primary School, Adys Road, SE15 4DY

9th June 2015 at Albrighton Centre, Albrighton Road, Dog Kennel Hill Estate, SE22 8AH

18th June 2015 at Heber Primary School, Heber Road, SE22 9LA

Each event will run from 7pm to 9pm. Your voice matters to us. Please join us to hear our vision and share your views.

[Trine Adams]

That's great news. Will this information be sent to the mailing list? I subscribed and attended the recent meeting to express interest and volunteer assistance however I haven't received any communication.

Many thanks

[littlek1cker]

Hi Trine,

You should receive an e-mail today if you haven't already. PM me if you don't.

Thanks,

Simon

[littlek1cker]

Hi Trine,

You should receive an e-mail today if you haven't already. PM me if you don't.

Thanks,

Simon

[esme]

Bumping as incredibly crucial we get another good secondary school in East Dulwich - please pass the message on so as many people as possible complete the survey / public consultation! Only took a few mins to complete.

[littlek1cker]

Our first public consultation event is tonight at 7pm at St Johns and St Clements, Adys Road SE15 4DY. Please do come along and express your views about the new school. Alternatively, fill in our online questionnaire: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/3VXSTRR

[landsberger]

I'm interested to know how they are going to open this school by September 2016, given that no works have started, the amount of room on the existing Charter site is small, and getting hold of 8 (?) portakabins for the 1st tranche of admissions will not be that easy. Where will the children eat/play/socialise/be collected to and from?

[barrybarry]

Does anyone know if it is a drop in event or a presentation-type affair? Could I come along at 8pm or will I miss important information if I do that?

Thanks

[confusedbyitall]

I got there late, it was a presentation style event and ran until 9pm. There were a lot of questions asked especially around admissions!!!!

Their heat map (which shows their supporters) does not reflect the need for a secondary school in ED, I think majority were existing parents.

The new head came across well, good business head with a passion for education.

Worrying thing is where the new temp site will be! As yet they do not know but will by the time parents submit their applications next school year (2015 October)they hope to have a good idea.

Please go to the next meetings if you can if you want to ask questions.

[MsMaz]

Thanks for that feedback. What was the response given about admissions, seeing that their heat map and the Haberdashers one seems different? I will try and make one of next 2 meetings. It would be great if they tried not to overlap with existing Charter catchment.

[confusedbyitall]

I think that's the view of most of the parents in the room - obviously cant speak for everyone! No or little overlapping, a nodal point not on site was discussed.

I think once everyone has submitted the consultation papers they intend to have another meeting, I guess if there is a majority on admissions criteria (banding or distance) and where the nodal point is they will have to listen and perhaps alter their plans. They would like to be transparent as possible but as a community we need to make our voices heard.

There were around 30 or more parents last night, good turn out I think.

[simonethebeaver]

I've noticed that the proposed admissions criteria unusually puts children with an EHC and social/medical needs below siblings. I've heard about some remarks made last night about this that, as the parent of a child with SEN, I find worrying, but obviously I wasn't there. Can someone clarify whether Charter explained the reasoning behind the priority order?

[bawdy-nan]

I haven't seen anything at all about their SEN policy or seen any published statement on accessibility etc in the documentation - was anything available at the event? I don't think they can put EHC lower can they, if the school is named?

I imagine that this will take shape as the school sets up its policies and procedures but it is a little disappointing to see no mention of SEN or admission of children with EHC plans information or in the admissions or statement of "ethos".

[simonethebeaver]

Bawdy-Nan, the proposed admissions criteria are on the Charter website and there's a link ont

[simonethebeaver]

Bawdy-Nan, the proposed admissions criteria are on the Charter website and there's a link on the consultation questionnaire. I agree on the named EHC but I guess it's up to the school how they prioritise kids with a medical or social need. Most schools place this as second priority after looked after or adopted children, which is why I was surprised to see it lower.

[samstopit]

They have placed children with SEN / medical or social need below siblings in their criteria for admissions should the school be oversubscribed. You should be able to see it here http://www.charter.southwark.sch.uk/_files/8C9BF13CE2F442A35187158B2F6BD1C5.pdf

[bawdy-nan]

Yes, I read that and saw that that is what they have done. But if a child has an EHC plan which names the school that is different to this no, given that these admissions are dealt with differently.

My main disappointment was that in the ethos statement there is no mention at all of SEN - in terms of approach, assertion of inclusion etc. I do understand that the school hasn't published everything it will but considering that just shy of 20% of children have SEN (whether EHC plan or otherwise) then this is a little troubling. This is especially the case when there's room found to talk specifically about children with a special talent in music or languages. Certainly this is my perspective as a parent of a child with SEN. I wondered if this had perhaps been addressed at the presentation?

[bawdy-nan]

I wonder if anyone can feedback on whether any SEN questions were raised at the consultation?

Simon/ littlekicker is there anything you can add about the decision to alter the standard admissions priority ordering and also is there any information on the new school's proposed approach to SEN?

Obviously there'll have to be a document eventually but there must have been a discussion around lowering the priority of SEN on admissions, for example. At this stage it does feel very worrying for parents of children with SEN (EHC plan or otherwise) and it would be good to have some reassurance on this.

[littlek1cker]

Just to clarify, the proposed admissions policy (available on the Charter website) gives top priority to children with an EHC plan naming the school. This is easy to miss in the actual policy because it is in the paragraph above the numbered oversubscription criteria rather than in the list itself. EHC plans are what until recently were called SEN statements.

If your child doesn't have an EHC plan but does have an exceptional medical, psychological or social need then they would have priority over children who get in on distance alone but lower priority than looked after children and siblings.To be honest, I wasn't involved in the discussion about the priority order for this criterion so I will have to speak to others to properly understand the rationale. In the meantime, if this is something you have a view on please do include it in your comments when answering the consultation questionnaire.

As for the lack of any mention of SEN in the vision and ethos document I do agree that this is an unfortunate oversight and it should have been covered.

[simonethebeaver]

Most schools that I'm aware of place children with medical/social need above siblings, including the current Charter School. so it's quite a striking difference, and I think I'm not the only person a bit nervous at what it means in terms of attitudes towards inclusivity in the new school. If you could let us know what the reasoning behind this is, I'd be grateful.

[bawdy-nan]

Thanks Simon for responding so quickly.

[LondonMix]

I too would be interested in learning more about the rationale behind the priority ranking.

On a separate not, if the catchment of the 2nd Charter is 1 mile (similar to the existing Charter school which is in Herne Hill NOT Dulwich), the new school will accept students in all of SE22, all of Dulwich Village, the bits of Nunhead just East of Peckham Rye Park , Peckham all the way down to Peckham Road, Denmark Hill and some bits Loughborough Junction and Herne Hill.

Who feels at risk that they won?t get in without a nodal point? What additional areas do people believe the school should serve and why?

[samstopit]

There will be a significant overlap between the existing Charter catchment and the new school which enriches an area already well served and leaves others out of catchment. Unfair and unnecessary. A nodal point would reduce the overlap and put families in catchment who currently don't have a co-ed school nearby.

I don't think families in Peckham rye / nunhead would otherwise be in catchment, what with a projected population surge, siblings, and a nodal point to the north of the site.

[brezzo]

LondonMix, the Charter's postcode is SE21 and its next to North Dulwich station. Definitely not Herne Hill which is SE24.

[colabottle]

Simon/littlek1cker, could you please clarify a catchment question for me? Is it possible to say, from the intake for September 2015, what was the further distance offered from the current Charter, Red Post Hill, to a child who did not fall into either a sibling, cared for/looked after or SEN/EHC category? It would be really helpful to know, as the anecdotal information about furthest distance doesn't seem to tally with the 1100 metres that I think has been cited by Charter, and I'm wondering whether that 1100 metre place might have been offered to a sibling for example?