'Charter East Dulwich' Consultation - call for unity

[Trine Adams]

Having lived in SE22 for the last decade, (before and after having children), I'm delighted with the proposed new 'Charter East Dulwich' co-ed secondary on the hospital site. It will provide a great need for co-ed secondary places and bring new employment to the area. Charter are currently consulting with the community regarding the admissions policy and the vision and ethos of the school.

What I am not delighted about is that the community don't appear to be working together. There are schools trying to sway opinions and rumours of 'a movement seeking to persuade the new Charter School to change its nodal (centre) point from the north east of the school site to a new location, off-site, near to the Actress up on Crystal Palace Road'.

There is no 'movement', however there are members of the community who are questioning the proposed admissions policy as at present it will have a large overlap with the provision of the current Charter. They are entitled to question this policy, after all that is what a consultation is all about.

There is also SPACE Southwark, which is the steering group (set up via this forum) made up of East Dulwich school representatives to campaign for a co-ed Secondary school and the Dulwich Hospital site. Charter won the bid to provide this school. The SPACE campaign group does not want to exclude families from any particular school or section of the community, and would like to help find a nodal point / points which stretches the catchment as fairly as possible and reduces the overlap of provision.

When SPACE Southwark were set up, the nodal point's location was never decided because the chosen provider would need to consult and listen to the community, as Charter are now doing. SPACE (who remember initiated the secondary school campaign) has always been about representing the community, and it was felt that a nodal point to the East, along with a second nodal point on the school might have been the fairest way of doing it, but the decision around admissions would always have been made by the provider after consultation.

Please note, that I am not a member of SPACE, although I do know members of that group and I know they are concerned at the divisive way the community is reacting to this consultation. I am a resident of ED, and if the current proposed admission policy is used then there is more than a high chance that my children will get in to the new school. I am simply calling for community unity and that we all work together to find the fairest solution.

Local schools should be informing families about the consultation, however telling them how they should fill out consultation forms and trying to sway opinions with rumours is not constructive to finding a fair community solution. This after all is a consultation and the results of which should be for the greater good of the whole community.

To have your say, you can attend the final consultation meeting this evening (Thursday 18th July) at Heber School. You can also fill in a consultation form here http://www.charter.southwark.sch.uk/news/?pid=3&nid=6&storyid=168

[Trine Adams]

Sorry, this was meant to be on the discussion page. http://www.eastdulwichforum.co.uk/forum/read.php?29,1533382