Renata Hamvas

Vik, I have e-mailed you too! Renata

I have some more information on bulge classes, I believe the info I got yesterday was on potential ones- These are Goose Green and Dulwich Village Infant and additionally, St Anthony's Catholic has gone up to two form entry from 1.5 form. I have an enquiry in for you sharls, to confirm how the new system would work and please contact me, sillywoman with more details ie, name, address, child's details and I will look into this for you. thanks, Renata

As far as I know, at the moment, none in the area . Heber, Goodrich and Fairlawn all have over the last couple of years, so they haven't space to do this again for a few years. Renata

Alice32, I am sorry about you disappointing news. You will be on the waiting list of the schools dependant on your distance from the school in relation to others on the waiting list. The catchment distance for a community primary can vary quite a lot from year to year. Numbers of siblings are a big factor and bulge classes. If a school has had a bulge class, that year the catchment distance will be larger than normal, but for the following 2 or 3 years it's likely to be smaller due to the larger than usual number of siblings. Renata

Dear Kp;igsaw, steveb and JennyI, This is the first year of the pan London system. The information I got today was that no Southwark child is without an offer of a school place. The message you received means that unfortunately you were unsuccessful in obtaining a place for your child at the schools you applied to at the moment, and therefore, you have been offered a place at a primary school which is the closest one to you where places were available. You will find out tomorrow by post which school you have been allocated. At the moment I don't have much more information available, except that the number of applicants is up a bit from last year. I hope to get more information tomorrow. I will post again when I know more. Renata

To those of you who have received an email saying no offer available, it means that unfortunately that you were unsuccessful in obtaining a place at the schools on your list. If this situation applies to you, you will have been allocated a school and this will be on the letter that you receive tomorrow. There will be movement on school waiting lists over the next few months, so you may end up with one of your preferred choices. I know the number of applicants was up a bit from last year, when I have more information, I will post it. All the best, Renata

I know that the primary school allocations are out today online and should arrive tomorrow for those of you with a postal application. I know that all Southwark children have been offered a primary school place, but there may be parents who are unhappy with the school they have been offered. Good Luck! Renata

Jessie W, in which direction do you take the P13? It would be good to have more details from users about the sections of the route they use and at which time. thanks, Renata

Many local residents regularly visit Nunhead Cemetery. There was an article in Southwark News yesterday about staff cuts. I thought I better post here to clarify what is happening!. One of the Park Rangers at Nunhead Cemetery has recently retired and two staff remain. A company called Quadrant will be doing routine maintenance (lawn mowing leaf clearance etc at Nunhead and Camberwell new and old Cemeteries. There will be two staff still based at Nunhead Cemetery, to do all the other non-routine work there, but there will no longer be staff with the job title of Park Ranger, the new job titles of the staff will be Monitoring Officer. As well as working at Nunhead they will be checking the quality of work done by Quadrant at the other two cemeteries. This means that the cemetery maintenance should remain at least the same, but may even improve! Renata

Hi skyblue, the most up to date information I have is from Cllr Catherine McDonald (Cabinet member for Children's services) last night, and at that time, no confirmation had been issued to Southwark about funding for the Rotherhithe School. I will raise an enquiry about the Harris Schools. Renata

Southwark have put in an enquiry to find out whether there is any money available for a new school in Rotherhithe. The most recent official communication we got from central government, in November, was that the funding had been scrapped.

Skyblue, you are correct that 200 children did not initially get one of their choices (many did use their six choices). With the movement with school lists, this number is now lower and will reduce until the autumn. In terms of the Harris Girls and Boy schools, both EDEN (East Dulwich and Nunhead Education Network, a group of local parents) and the Labour administration who was in power until 2002 wanted a mixed school. The plans were for a four form mixed secondary with a lower school on the current boys site and the upper part on the girls site. The governors of the existing girls school, Waverley turned this down on the grounds that they wanted it to remain as an all girls school. In 2002, Labour lost control of the council, but EDEN and Labour group continued to support the concept of a mixed school for ED. A plan for mixed entry with single sexed lessons (similar to the Haberdasher's Aske's system) was also turned down by the Waverley Governors. Plans were then initiated for a separate boys school,to be built on it's current site. The boys and girls schools are now Harris Academies, and therefore under the control of the Harris Federation. I know a mixed sixth form is planned for the schools once the boys reach year 12. I have been in contact with admissions at Harris Boys and I can confirm that the school is oversubscribed with waiting lists for all bands.

James, agreed! Renata

The P12 took over the north section of the P13 in 2004. Previously the P12 ran from Honor Oak to Peckham only. The altered P13 timetable coincided with the shortening of the route, assessments would have been carried out at the time as to what the demands would be on a truncated P13 route. Demands on services change, and this was 7 years ago. Ken Livingstone was certainly a pro-bus Mayor, James! I agree, it will be difficult to get improvements to a service mid-cycle, but it's worth trying, particularly if there is evidence of more demand than supply or failure to provide the last bus of the evening timetable. Renata

To my knowledge, only Kingsdale allocates places purely by random allocation with banding ie lottery (except top ranked scholarship, siblings, etc). Bacon's College does have random allocation but with an outer(25 percent) and inner (75 percent)catchment area. Other schools all select by distance/catchment or on religious grounds. As Kingsdale is at the Southern tip of Southwark, by the borough boundary, if it selected on distance, it could be that fewer rather than more Southwark children would be offered a place there! Many Southwark children do go to schools outside Southwark, eg selective schools in Kent and Sutton, Haberdasher's Askes on distance, London Nautical by random allocation. Renata

Hi James, I doubt that Ken Livingstone had any personal involvement in the alteration to the P13 timetable! It was probably more due to an assessment at the time. His introduction of free bus travel for school children has seen increased bus usage, which is good as it discourages parents from driving, and hence car traffic at school run time. Something is going very wrong if the last bus of the evening is not running. Such a problem is surely down to the bus company operating the service. I would like users of this route, particularly to give me a run-down of times and preferably dates. Adding specific information to complaints does add weight. regards, Renata

To confirm the open morning is still happening on Thursday. They have places as unlike Southwark, Lewisham had more places than year 6 applicants this year. Renata

Hi again Skyblue, it was 44 children who were without school places initially, some of these do now have places. Renata

I have contacted Val Shawcross re the P13. When we met up on Friday I only raised peak hours, but now I've raised the issues you've mentioned above, Dully. Has the service got worse, or has it been poor for some time? Passenger counts, showing that buses are running over capacity are useful, and establishing if these are due to poor service, or if on days when the buses run to time, they are still overcrowded. It's also useful to know if it's at particular times of day and in one/both directions and if on a part of the route only served by the P13. let me know! Renata

Hi Skyblue, what James Barber has said isn't quite correct. I'm not an expert on the Rotherhithe Secondary School situation, but here is what I understand the situation is on this:- Last summer, the government reviewed their commitment to BSF funds to LA's and with devastating consequences to many communities, withdrew funding from many school building programmes across the country. Southwark were informed by Michael Gove that all of our twelve projects were safe. In November this was in part retracted, as we were then told that money would not be made available for a new school in Rotherhithe (nearly 20 million pounds had been pledged for the Rotherhithe School Project), as, following an assessment, it was deemed that there was an insufficient demand for a new five form entry secondary school (150 places per year) in the area and funding it would not produce sufficient value for money (a claim that Southwark has rejected). It was reported that yes, that there is a demand for extra secondary places in the Rotherhithe area, but only for two forms per annum (60 places), ie insufficient for a new stand alone secondary school. Southwark have had not been given any information as to how much additional funding if any had been designated to us or when this will be available. Last week a BSF spreadsheet emailed from an official in government to an officer in the council included a line on Rotherhithe suggesting that the government had still allocated the full ?19.6m to a new school in Rotherhithe, despite cancelling it in November. The council has requested an urgent update on the situation and have reiterated there is a requirement for a new secondary school in the north of the Borough. Simon Hughes is Deputy Leader of the Liberal Democrats and the MP for Bermondsey and North Southwark. He has been mentioning a 10 million figure for building a school in Rotherhithe. The Council however, haven?t had any information from Government to this effect. As the MP representing Rotherhithe residents, I hope he will work with the council to solve the problem of the shortage of Secondary School Places in his constituency. So basically, we don't know how much money, if any is being given to Southwark to address the shortfall of secondary school places in the Rotherhithe area. Sorry if your hopes for immediate action by Southwark on this matter have been dashed. Once I know more I will let you know. Renata

I did raise the issue of the 63 bus extension again. She is still onto the case with this. We walked up the Hill and over it, so Val is aware that it's only 4 bus stops from Forest Hill Rd to Brockley Rise, but the hill is a steep one! Renata

I have raised it with Val Shawcross and she is raising an enquiry about the frequency of this Bus route during morning rush hour. I will post on here again when I receive a response. Renata

I'm meeting Val Shawcross (GLA) this afternoon at 3pm at Honor Oak Park Station to discuss/investigate the problems with the buses in the area. Renata

I' m meeting Val Shawcross this afternoon at Honor Oak Station to investigate the bus service at the afternoon peak. I shall raise the comments about the P13 with her. Renata

To update you on Harris Boys ED. They have 9 bands, after looked after children and those with special medical and other needs, the next priority is siblings and they applicants are ranked on distance. Currently (Thursday 17th), places offered under distance, range from 700m to 3km as the maximum distance within a band from the school's front door . This is subject to change, as places come up during the shakedown. The school did consult three times on it's admissions policy (with local primary schools etc), and parents can look at it on their website. http://www.harrisdulwichboys.org.uk There were some boys who didn't attend the banding test, and therefore weren't allocated places as both band and distance are used to ensure a truly comprehensive mix in the school intake. Renata