littlek1cker

Dear parentsteeringgroup, confusedbyitall, and bawdy-nan, I feel I need to respond to the implication that the decision to approve the free school proposal from the Charter rather than the one from Haberdashers was made on grounds other than the merits of the two bids. It is not accurate to suggest, as parentsteeringgroup does, that officials within DfE referred the decision to Lord Nash because of ?the unique set of local circumstances in East Dulwich?. In fact, every decision to approve or not to approve a free school proposal is taken by the relevant Minister after receiving advice from his officials. Both bidders understood this process before we submitted our proposals (Habs have previously been through this process several times). Bawdy-nan: For the record, I am not aware of having any business or personal links to Lord Nash. Indeed, I have never even met him. If you are going to make accusations like this, the responsible thing to do is to be specific about the links you think I have to Lord Nash so that others can examine them. Both Bawdy-nan and confusedbyitall: You are blowing out of all proportion my role in the Charter bid. I am only one of several local parents and current governors and staff of The Charter School who are working extremely hard to open a new school for our community. Confusedbyitall: I am bemused that you think our team would have been ?closer to his [Lord Nash?s] way of thinking? on such tenuous links between his and my interests. By the way, I would not describe myself as having ?a strong interest in the role of private finance? in social contexts? since this might be misinterpreted. I do not believe that venture capital has any legitimate role in financing the delivery of public services. If you read my publications this should be very clear. The feedback we received from the DfE was that the Charter bid was one of the strongest in the current wave. I?m sure that Haberdashers also put in a credible bid. At the end of the day, the DfE preferred ours. Not because of any kind of conspiracy or because we were matey with the right ministers, but, I trust, because they judged ours the better bid. The Charter School Educational Trust will shortly be starting its public consultation on the new school. I would encourage everyone to contribute constructively to this consultation rather than raking over what has happened to date. That way, we can build a school for this community of which we can all be proud. Simon Tucker

Hi everyone. We've found our Head Teacher for the new school! After a recruitment process that managed to be both one of the fastest and most rigorous that I've been involved in, we're really pleased with the appointment we've made. He doesn't officially start until September and he will be busy at his existing school until then but we will look for some opportunities to introduce him to the community before September. Here's the message from Manny Amadi that went out to those of you signed up for our updates... Great News ? Head Teacher Appointed We have found an excellent Head Teacher for the new school. After interviewing a strong range of candidates, Alex Crossman stood out and has been appointed the new Head Teacher for the Charter School East Dulwich. Alex?s track record demonstrates that he is an outstanding leader both in education and his previous career in industry. He has also lived in East Dulwich for nearly twenty years and knows our community well. Alex is a wholehearted champion of The Charter School Educational Trust?s vision to build a truly comprehensive, inclusive community school that helps all its students, no matter what their background or talents, to reach their maximum potential. He has previously been a member of the Headship team at The Charter School until 2012. For the past three years, he has been Vice Principal of Evelyn Grace Academy, Brixton. At Evelyn Grace he has worked with colleagues to significantly and rapidly improve the school. Before becoming a teacher Alex held leadership roles in the financial industry and has strong commercial project management experience. Additionally, he has worked on school improvement and education policy in the independent schools sector. Having only had the go-ahead for the new school in late March TCSET has moved extremely quickly to appoint the Head Teacher and Alex Crossman will be in the role full time from September 2015, so will have a full year to plan for the arrival of the first students in September 2016. We all are looking forward to working with Alex in his new role. Best wishes Manny Amadi, MVO Chair, Charter School East Dulwich Working Party Vice Chair, The Charter School Educational Trust

Hi Cora, I'm sure we'll put the news up on the existing school website. We will also be launching a new website for the blog and if that is up and running in time we'll obviously post it there as well, in addition to posting an update here on EDF.

Hi all. Here's a message from Manny Amadi with an update on the new school. Please come along to our first Friends meeting next week if you can (see below)... Trying to keep you up-to-date as things are moving so fast, and there are a number of items to tell you including a meeting to set-up of a new school ?Friends organisation. But first some welcome news? Harris Primary school Some of you may not have heard the really welcome news that Harris have definitely withdrawn their interest in setting up a primary school on the site of the Old Dulwich Hospital. Here?s a link with the news: http://www.harrisfederation.org.uk/26/future-projects/21/harris-primary-academy-nunhead . Thank you to everyone who replied to their consultation. Forming a ?Friends of East Dulwich Charter School? We are planning a meeting next week, Wednesday 22nd April, at East Dulwich Community Centre in Darrell Road to discuss forming a ?Friends? Association for the new school. There is a great deal for us to do to open the new school and to make the most of the site and we are looking for people who would be willing get involved and help out during the pre-opening phase. We will also be looking for people to put themselves forward as committee members for the Friends Association. We will have a discussion about the kinds of ways you could get involved and the help we are going to need. This will include being a link person for one of the local primary schools and a range of ways you could help on specific issues. We will also talk about the form the Friends organisation should take. To help with the discussion we have a former secretary of The Charter School (TCS) Friends to explain what is entailed. On the evening we hope to have enough people to plan the formation of the new Friends, at a follow-up meeting. It would be helpful if you could email back to let us know if you are interested in being involved either simply as a support or if you would be willing to put yourself forward as a committee member. In any case, please come along to find out more. DfE Meeting We had a great kick-off meeting with the DfE two weeks ago. We were pleased to receive feedback that our bid and proposal for the new school had been found by the department to be exceptionally strong. We will be meeting the Education Funding Agency (who deal with the site) next week. In the meantime we are progressing the plans for the new school. Head Teacher Interviews We have had a good response with strong candidates to the advertisement for the Head Teacher of the new school. Interviews will be taking place next week and as soon as we have made a decision on the appointment we will let you know and, of course we will put it on the website. It is hoped that the new Head Teacher will be in place by September 2015 ? this year. This will give the person a whole year before any students come into the school to ensure the curriculum and accommodation is in place for the first students in September 2016. However, we have high expectations and I the unlikely event that we don?t find the right candidate this time around we have left ourselves enough time to rerun the recruitment exercise later in the year without compromising the timetable for opening the school. Blog We are setting up a Blog for the new school and will let you have full details in, due course. Date for your Diary Meeting: Setting up the Friends of The Charter School East Dulwich When: 7pm Wednesday 22nd April, 2015 Venue: East Dulwich Community Centre, Darrell Road, East Dulwich RSVP: [email protected] Best wishes Manny Amadi, MVO Chair, Charter School East Dulwich Working Party Vice Chair, The Charter School Educational Trust

Not yet. There is a formula that the Education Funding Agency use to determine how much space a school needs. It's based on the number of pupils so we are confident that we will be getting more space than we would if we were proposing a smaller school. But exactly how much space we don't yet know as we haven't yet met with our newly appointed EFA project manager.

savage Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Just to clarify, does that mean that the DofE will > be purchasing all the additional land on the > hospital site (where the primary was to be set up) > or that they are planning on squeezing an > additional 240 pupils on the land that was > originally planned for? No decision has yet been made about the primary school, which is why we need as many people as possible to respond to the consultation (link in my last post) by the deadline tomorrow.

I can heartily recommend the Trail Gator. http://www.trail-gator.com It's a tow bar that attaches to any normal child's bike. It has the advantage that you can cycle somewhere pulling your child along (e.g. to a park or up a hill) and then unhook them so they can do some riding themselves. I've used it for both my children and found it invaluable for children between the ages of about 4-7yo. When not in use it telescopes down and remains attached to your bike, or you can take it off completely.

Hi everyone, Here is an update on the new school from Manny Amadi: I wanted to let you know that earlier this week we had a constructive meeting with the Department for Education following their green light to proceed our proposal to the next stage ? the ?pre-opening phase? for the school. As a result, we are now starting to move plans forward. New Headteacher We are starting the recruitment process for the first ever Headteacher for The Charter School East Dulwich! This is with the hope that the new Headteacher will be in place this September 2015 and will be there to develop and oversee the opening of the new school. Clearly, this is a once in a lifetime opportunity for an inspirational professional to help shape and secure what will become one of the very best state secondary schools in the country ? ensuring outstanding progress and attainment for all pupils in our community, regardless of their starting points. If you know any great school leaders whom you believe will make a great Head for the school please direct them to the vacancies section of the Charter website: http://www.charter.southwark.sch.uk/page/?title=Vacancies&pid=11 More pupil places for the new school! Following our discussions with the DfE this week, it has been confirmed that the new school?s intake will be an 8 form entry for each Year. This represents an increase of 60 places per year, meaning that more families will have children who will now be able to benefit from the Charter School East Dulwich experience. Our bid was based on a 6 Form entry secondary school, however, the DfE recognised the great need for additional secondary school places locally, as well as the high levels of demand shown by parents and supporters over recent months. They believe that the availability of space on the Dulwich Community Hospital site allows for such an increase. The Charter School Educational Trust has therefore been given the opportunity and responsibility to serve even more families in our local community. We now look forward to creating even greater success for parents. As previously communicated, we will be working to open the school with its first intake of Year 7s in September 2016. One last Push! With a larger secondary school comes the need for more space. We therefore need to ensure that The Charter School East Dulwich does not have to share the Hospital site with the proposed Harris Nunhead Primary school. The site will have the new medical centre and The Charter School East Dulwich - but it would be an extremely tight (indeed impossible?) squeeze if another primary school was added to the site. As you may know, Harris are in the process of their statutory consultation about setting up a primary school on the Hospital site. We need to make sure that they listen to community opinion. Like many stakeholders, the Trust has now written to Harris to state our objection. Their consultation closes next Wednesday 25th March following which decisions will be made about whether or not to allow the placing of a primary school on the site. We are therefore asking you to respond to the Harris Nunhead Primary School consultation with your views. To do so you can simply send a short email to Jamie McFarland at Harris saying that you object to their plans (assuming of course that you agree with our opposition!). Email: [email protected]. Please do this as soon as you can ? and before the closing date of Wednesday 25th March 2015. Finally We will keep you updated with further information as we go along with more details. As always, thank you again for your on-going support. Best wishes, Manny Amadi, MVO Chair, Charter School East Dulwich Working Party Vice Chair, The Charter School Educational Trust

For anyone interested and who missed it, here is a link to our press release in response to the good news: http://www.charter.southwark.sch.uk/news/?pid=3&nid=6&storyid=168 And now the real work to get the school open begins! In terms of immediate next steps we are waiting to meet with DfE and EFA officials to get feedback on our bid, be briefed in detail on the requirements of the pre-opening phase and the situation with the site. We'll be able to set out some timelines after that, but one date we don't intend to move is the first day of term for the first students in September 2016.

colabottle Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Shuggy Wrote: > -------------------------------------------------- > ----- > > The attached map shows 1,500 m as the crow > flies > > from the hospital site. A bit bigger than > Charter > > 1 catchment but I think you're right bras879, > it > > does seem to cover most of South Camberwell and > ED > > without making a nodal entry elsewhere. > > Hi Shuggy, > Could you please confirm where this 1.5km map has > come from? It is something Charter are presenting > in relation to their anticipated catchment? > Thanks. Shuggy's map wasn't generated by the Charter team.

madmum Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > As a mum of a child attending Lyndhurst Im am > especially keen to find out if Charter 2 will defo > be taking admissions Sept 2016! We live well in > the 1.5km suggested catchment, I'm kinda of > popping all our eggs in this basket! > > I watch with great anticipation, as the thought of > moving out of the area makes me shudder! We will be doing everything within our power to open the school in 2016 and this was a commitment we made in our application to the DfE. Obviously, there will always be some things we can't control, and the timetable is very tight, but I believe we will do it.

Hi all, I'll try and answer some of the questions in the posts above. However, we will be consulting further in the near future and as part of that process we will publish a single, authoritative account of what we are proposing in terms of vision, values, curriculum, admissions policy etc. In this document we will do our best to address all the issues that people are asking us questions about. Admissions policy: our current draft policy, which is subject to consultation, is to use an 'as the crow flies' distance criterion measured from a nodal point on the Eastern boundary of the site, mid-way between the Northern and Southern boundaries, ie near Melbourne Grove. This has the advantage of minimising the overlap between the catchment areas of the two Charter schools and maximising coverage of the admissions 'black holes'. It is very difficult to know at this stage how big the catchment area will be. I don't have the data to hand, but I believe that it was only three or four years ago that The Charter School's catchment area was around 1.7km, and that is a very established school, so Shuggy's very helpful map based on 1.5km is probably as good as anyone's projection even after the initial years, but we are expecting the modifications to the two catchment areas that James describes. TimN, to address your points directly, the press release did take me by surprise, writing as I was only an hour or so after I received the news that our bid was successful, because we didn't see it in advance and it was clear about the site in a way that the more bureaucratic wording in the letter was not. Having said that, it is a fair summary of our proposal. Taking your questions in turn: > 1). Are you deliberately seeking to draw a distinction between the Academic Charter 1, and a more vocational Charter 2? No. This was an option we considered when developing the bid but the clear feedback we received from local families was that this was not popular. Our current proposal is to offer the same mix as in the current Charter, ie a primarily academic curriculum but with some vocational options. 2). What have you promised or committed that has informed or shaped this press release, that heavily stresses vocational links and a work related partnership with Kings College Hospital? The current Charter school already has productive links with a number of large local employers, including Kings Health Partners (which is a collaboration which includes Kings College Hospital). We are currently in discussion with Kings Health Partners about deepening that partnership. We will publish more information about this in due course. 3). Could I invite you to publish your bid in full so we can evaluate your proposed vision and the values that your new school hopes to embrace. We will be publishing a consultation document that will include the proposed vision and values for the new school mrs.lotte, your questions about differentiation and not being the poor relation, these issues should be addressed in the consultation document as part of the vision. We haven't gotten around to thinking about differentiating the uniform yet. I believe we have already e-mailed our supporters about the Harris consultation tonight but I will double check. Phew! Sorry for the extra long post but I hope this is helpful for people. Simon

Hi Lordship, Lordship Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I am right in thinking that both Charter schools > would need to have the same admission policy as > they belong to the same federation of schools? > If the new school moved away from the distance > based admissions policy would the orginal Charter > school also need to change it's admissions > policy? As far as I am aware, each school within a federation can have its own admissions policy. Whatever policy is decided for the new school will not directly affect the existing Charter school. Any change to the existing Charter school policy would be subject to local consultation.

If you ring up The Charter and ask to speak to the admissions team they will tell you exactly how far away the further person they accepted was this year and each year for the last few years. They were very helpful when I rang up a while ago. The catchment area tends to shrink each year as the population grows but I couldn't tell you exact distances.

My final post on this thread before switching to the other one! We will be formally responding to the Harris consultation and when we do we will make our response publicly available on the forum. We are also e-mailing all of our supporters to remind them about the consultation events tomorrow and members of the Charter working group are planning to attend both sessions. mrs.lotte Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Thank you for your prompt response Simon. Have > Charter done a formal response to the Harris > "consultation" and would they be willing to > publish it? Lots of parents resist the idea but a > steer as to how to respond from an experienced > education provider would be useful for all. > Also there is a consultation event at Harris Girls > tomorrow at 4.30 and 7pm I presume reps from > Charter will be attending, if not already done can > you advertise this to your 1500 supporters and ask > them to attend (perhaps with a link to the Charter > response?)

Can I suggest that everyone uses the "update on new charter school" thread instead of this one from now on? It will save double posting. BeccaL, see my last post on that thread which responds to your post as well as posts by some of the Habs parents steering group.

Just to reiterate, we will listen carefully to what local families say about admissions policy. I'm very conscious that we have been given the privilege of opening a new school to serve the local community and we have a responsibility to get it right. We are aware that if you live in some parts of the borough you have very little choice for secondary schools, particularly if you are not keen on faith schools or single sex schools. The area east of Lordship Lane is one black spot that has been highlighted on this forum, another is the area served by Lyndhurst and Dog Kennel Hill schools (South Camberwell ward) which according to council data has the highest number of young people not getting into any of their six chosen schools and is also one of the areas of greatest deprivation. There are others. We will try and develop our admissions policy in a non-partisan way recognising that there is a lot at stake for all concerned. We'll let everyone know the timetable for consultation in the near future. Bear in mind that most of us are volunteer local parents and the good news is still just sinking in! samstopit Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Congratulations Charter. It's great that we will > be getting a new secondary school to open in 2016 > and that can only be a good thing for our > community. > > As part of the Habs steering group, I share the > concerns about your proposed admissions policy > which have been expressed by others already. I'm > attaching the 'heat map' which the Habs steering > group have circulated on here before which shows > that there is huge unmet need for a co-ed > secondary school to the East of Lordship Lane. The > Habs campaign, as you know, was focused on meeting > this unmet need, and proposed a nodal point which > would put families in East Dulwich / Peckham Rye > in catchment. Those families would not be at all > likely to get a place if the new school was > operating a purely crows flies admissions policy, > particularly those will be applying for a place in > 2018 / 2019 when the need for secondary school > places is projected to spike in the south of the > borough. > > Please could you let us know how and when you will > be consulting on your admissions process.

Sorry, slip of the keyboard! mrs.lotte Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Simon, thank you but it's the Harris consultation > I am concerned about - not Habs!

mrs.lotte, I can't answer your questions about the Habs consultation without talking to other working group members so I will reply, but there may be short delay. I'm not ignoring you though!

James, It seems that the DfE are more forthcoming in a general press release than they were in their letter to us. I'm even happier now! We are definitely committed to the hospital site. In fact, we told DfE that we would be extremely unlikely to consider any other site even if they magicked one up.

James, Thank you for your post. I completely agree that now is the time for everyone to come together. It is a great credit to the local communities in East Dulwich and South Camberwell that so many people gave up so much of their time to support the two bids that went into DfE. I'd also like to say thank you to the Habs parents steering group and to you James for all your hard work to make this happen, as well as to Peter John, Victoria Mills and other local councillors from all parties and council officers, the local MPs and others who provided support for both bids. However, the letter we have received from DfE does NOT make it clear that the new school will be allowed to open on the Dulwich Hospital site. That is explicitly still to be determined. So I don't know if you have seen something that I haven't James?

clux, We are very much thinking about families who fall into current black holes regarding admissions.

Kristymac1, savage, clux, We are listening and will continue to do so. The currently proposed admissions policy does address some but not all of the current black holes. No admissions policy can fill every gap and there will always be some disappointed families of course. I really sympathise with families who do not feel they have a good choice of secondary schools for their children - that is exactly what motivated me to get involved in this in the first place. Please continue to give us your views so we can get this right for the local community.

Hi simonethebeaver, We'll continue to listen to local parents as we progress our plans and as you know there will be a formal public consultation including on the admissions policy. It would be really helpful if you could share all the feedback you received from local parents so we can take it into account. In all the consultation events we have held to date we have picked up very strong support for an 'as the crow flies' admissions policy.

Hi mrs.lotte, We are concerned about the challenges that would be faced by two schools having to operate in a very constrained way from the same site and we have been clear about this with the DfE, EFA etc. Personally, I have been encouraging people to sign the change.org petition to stop this happening.