bawdy-nan

Oh and further to my tickling of Professor Google I disover that: 1. The Dfe guidance requires that a school consult before going ahead and that the consultation question should be "Should the school convert" and not "we have made the decision to convert" 2. At present DH is the only Southwark Primary in the process of trying to convert (DFe feb fgures) (contrary to what was mentioned at the public meeting) 3. An Academy will be an "exempt charity" ie not regulated by the Charities Commission (so much for accountability) 4. Surprise, surprise, Southwark Council don't have an official policy pushing schools towards academy status (contrary to what was said at the public meeting) 5. A school in South London recently reversed its decision to go for academy status after it realised (on closer properly costed with quotes inspection) that its conversion costs, the costs of running the academy and buying and administering services previously supplied by the LA were much, much bigger than the school had originally estimated on its back-of-the-envelope. I really hope the Hamlet governors have made sure they've seen proper, detailed costings. Professor Google is going for a lie down

So, I went to the public meeting and read as much as I could about it and its left me feeling thoroughly depressed. Its not at all clear why the school want academy status. The financial case wasn't made well and its very clear that the future funding position for education isn't settled which means that it is very hard to make a judgement about why the change makes obvious financial sense. The risk assesmenty undertaken by the governing body and current management seems thin - they seem to think that there are no risks beyond a "resistance to change". Doesn't inspire much confidence in the strategic management of a valuable community resource. The accountability issue is huge. No OFSTED inspections (accoridng to the DOE site) which is fine for now but what if there's a problem in the future? Governors are appointed not elected (as I understand it). No obligation for parent representation (though I think that the Hamlet propose retaining parent reps). A resource that currently belongs to the community is unilaterally co-opted by a small group of individuals. There seems to be a determination to go ahead whatever the community and teaching staff think. Personally, this makes me feel very uncomfortable and it begins to feel like a personal mission rather than a thought through plan. There was a very interesting suggestion made about how the legal structure of any proposed academy might be set up. At the moment the proposal seemns to be charitable status for a company liited by guarantee (like lots of independent commnunity organisations). The new, interestting idea, was that an academy might be set up as a cooperative trust which offers a much stronger stakeholder interest. Resources that are currently shared across the borough are retained by the predominantly, relatively more wealthy of Dulwich. As I understand it things like education for excluded pupils, free school meals etc would be adminstered and delivered by the academy school. This is obviously less of a problem for a school of wealthy, priveleged families but is distastrous for pockets of deprivation. Frankly, this feels like stealing.The Head was rather disappointing on this question in my opinion she said that it is money that "belongs to our children and we should have it" and she made the "equal share" case so beloved of Eric Pickles. (ie every person should get an equal share rather than services based on need). The teaching staff are no longer protected by national agreements on pay and conditions. The school say they don't intend to alter agreements though the head wavered on this when an ethusiastic parent suggested being able to cut teachers' pay was going to be very useful as the cuts bite deeper. Whatever the intentions of the current governing body and staff there is no guarantee against a change of mind on their part or a change in management or trustees. The SEN question didn't feel well addressed. The school argue that they already successfully manage a large part of teh SEN budget and freedom from the LA would allow them to buy in teh services they thought best.I wasn't exactly clear why they were best placed to make these decisions rather than specialist professionals nor where these services might be bought from |(in an environment where LA SEN services are diminished because a market is created). Neither was the "exclusion" services really addressed (ie what happens to excluded children across southwark if there are no shared services). There was some suggestion made that ALL southwark schools were going to be encouraged to become acadamies. It seems unlikely that the labour run council would actively campaign for a flagship coalition policy but this seems to have become an argument for why DH should go ahead (and go ahead quickly ....). So - thank you for your links etc. It feels like the Head and governing body have mind up their minds and will go ahead with their plans but it feels like a sad and slightly soiled step.

isn't it essentially a way of training children to perform well in entrance exams?

Actually I don't think the SEN thing is true - at least not according to Professor Google. I would be very interested in hearing the case against getting academy status. I'm instinctively against the change but am finding it hard to formulate a case against in this instance.

shouldn't that be "is"

The school says they currently return 13% of school budget but don't get that back in services. They'll also not benefit from the new pupil premium (fewer pupils with free school meals). From the schools perspective there's a huge financial imperetive to make the change.

That's brilliant news, thanks for checking this out James.

I totally agree. When it was removed I thought it was being repaired but now it has just gone. I loved the clock and used it all the time. I wonder why it hasn't come back...

Yup Willard, I quite agree. Someone tipped me the wink about which house the dog belongs to and should it bark incessantly again I will indeed approach the owners.

the scout hut on bellenden road is great and a total bargain.

I just find it weird that someone chooses to nit-pick and meta-post within 4 minutes displaying an irrationally powerful need to enforce their own vision of tidy forum posting ettiquette. Might I suggest a therapeutic visit here. The thing is that reporting it to the council seems a bit extreme. I don't want the people whose dog this is prosecuted I just want the barking to stop. It has been going on all morning and I can't be in the front part of my house. If I knew which house it was coming from I might drop round a note as I can't imagine they know that this is what the dog does when they're out.

what's your problem you aggressive pseudo mind reading loon? I've no idea if it's the same dog and wanted to know if anyone was experiencing it right now, knew which house it belongs to and had already called the council.

oh Lordy the barking dog at the Barry road end of landells road is driving me barking this morning!!!! not sure whether to complain to the council or not - does anyone know who's dog it is???

any contacts details welcome - I've been trying to find out about this for months - went on a splendid forest schools associates camp last summer

looks like last train out from london bridge has gone Londonist RT @uktr_southeast: Early shut down tonight. Last train will dep London Bridge 19:40. All services will stop by 21:00: http://bit.ly/etGcKx about 3 hours ago via TweetDeck

Views of East Duwlich police station then on Crystal Palace Road by the looks of it. Marvellous (v poor editing though, I have to say)

definitely agree with the suggestion that you google images of what your're after - I;ve done that fo a few years running and you can usually cobble something together last year I made a "blue pony cake" as per daughter's instructions and was able to do it after a quick google showed me the essence of my cobble. Look at the pics for butterly cake good luck! (I'm researching "magician cake" for sunday ...whatever that might mean!"

Tube Map with a South London bias I know that there's many reasons why the north has all the transport infrastructure but imagine ... tube stops at east dulwich and picture gallery ....

you can also just make a round cake cut it in half and put the roudeded semi-circles back to back - slather in icing, pipe a body on and define the wings (ie pipe around the edges)- decorate with sweets or silver balls - et voila - you could use candles to form the antennae

does your head make sweat that smells?

You are legally entitled to take time off to care for dependents but your employer does not have to pay you (though they might) see here: direct gov website

more detail here http://gu.com/p/2y755/tf

I looked at the accounts today the dcms grant is, as mentioned above, about 4.5 million out of a total 4.952 million of incoming resources. Can't quite see how they can replace that with sponsorship or a profitable tea-shop

http://www.artlyst.com/articles/eight-uk-museums-lose-government-funding

you're speediest route is to cycle to brixton and whizz up on the victoria line - v quick indeed and as brixton is the start of eth line you always geta seat. cycling in the whole way takes my about 45 mins (and I'm slow with a very heavy bike)