littlek1cker

I'm delighted to say that The Charter School East Dulwich has been approved. We are absolutely thrilled with the news. I want to thank the nearly 1,500 local parents who signed up to support our bid and all local parents who supported the idea of opening a new school in East Dulwich. Many local people gave up a great deal of their time to get us to this point, and whether it was actively supporting our bid, making the case for a new school, campaigning for the use of the Dulwich Hospital site or signing the petition to only have one school on the hospital site; it has all helped and been appreciated. This is really good news for local parents. Several of the parents with children at the same primary school as my children received the bad news that their children did not get into any of the six schools they applied to. Now we can get on and build the extra capacity we need to stop this happening for 2016 and beyond. There is still a long way to go of course. The announcement today is just for in principle approval of the school and is entirely separate from agreement about the site. There will also be further consultation locally as our plans progress. The Charter School Education Trust will be issuing a press release this morning and I'll post a link when it's up. Simon Tucker The Charter School East Dulwich Working Group

I can confirm that The Charter School East Dulwich has been approved. We are absolutely thrilled with the news. I want to thank the nearly 1,500 local parents who signed up to support our bid and all local parents who supported the idea of opening a new school in East Dulwich. Many local people gave up a great deal of their time to get us to this point, and whether it was actively supporting our bid, making the case for a new school, campaigning for the use of the Dulwich Hospital site or signing the petition to only have one school on the hospital site; it has all helped and been appreciated. This is really good news for local parents. Several of the parents with children at the same primary school as my children received the bad news that their children did not get into any of the six schools they applied to. Now we can get on and build the extra capacity we need to stop this happening for 2016 and beyond. There is still a long way to go of course. The announcement today is just for in principle approval of the school and is entirely separate from agreement about the site. There will also be further consultation locally as our plans progress. The Charter School Education Trust will be issuing a press release this morning and I'll post a link when it's up. Simon Tucker The Charter School East Dulwich Working Group

We are holding two drop-in sessions this week where you can hear more about our proposed Charter school and get an update on the progress of our bid. Tonight Monday 19th, 5.30 -7.30pm, we will be in the Albrighton Centre, Albrighton Road, SE22 8AH. On Wednesday 21st, 6.30-7.30pm, we will be in the East Dulwich Community Centre, 46-64 Darrell Road, London SE22 9NL. If you have a child currently in Year 5 or below and want to find out more, please drop-in whenever's convenient within those times and we will be happy to answer your questions.

Thanks for all the good wishes. We are confident that we will be able to open the school in September 2016. This is when we need more secondary places in the area and we want to meet this need. Besides, some members of the working group have children who will need a school place for 2016 so we are very motivated! The school will, though, have to open in temporary accommodation for the first two years. We are investigating a number of possibilities for a temporary site but at the moment it looks likely that the temporary accommodation could be on the hospital site itself, which would make things easier for everyone. The DfE/EFA are in discussion with the DH/NHS to acquire the site in anticipation of its use for a primary and a secondary at the moment. The NHS has not yet formally agreed the sale because they have to write a full business case before taking that decision, but it now looks like little more than a formality. They are also looking at ways to accelerate vacation of the site. This would require some of the NHS facilities to move twice: once to consolidate in part of the current buildings and again to move into the new build when it is ready. As Coach Beth says, there is much more information on the thread on the main discussion board.

We received some good news yesterday. Our application to open a new Charter School East Dulwich has been shortlisted for interview with the Department for Education. This means we have cleared the first hurdle and will be attending an interview at the beginning of February. A really big thank you to the more than 1,300 families who signed up to demonstrate local support our application and help us get to this stage. If you haven't signed up yet and would like to add your name, you can help us build momentum in the run up to our interview by doing so here: http://www.charter.southwark.sch.uk/news/?pid=3&nid=6&storyid=168 The Charter School has applied to open a inclusive community co-ed non-faith secondary school on the Dulwich Hospital site in 2016. The NHS are building a new health centre on part of the site and vacating the rest. Simon Tucker Charter School East Dulwich Working Group

The Charter School Educational Trust invites you and your Year 3 and Year 4 children to visit and take a look around The Charter School TODAY (Tuesday 1st July)4.15 ? 17.30. There will be a 10 minute welcome and information on The Charter School?s provision at 4.15 and 4.45 plus Q and A on our proposed new school Charter East Dulwich as we tour our school and see Creative and Performing Arts show at work. RSVP [email protected]

The Charter new school working group has not settled on an admissions policy yet and we still welcome your views but at the moment I think we are likely to opt for 'as the crow flies'. We are keen to plug the local black spots in terms of shortage of places and those seem to be both in East Dulwich and up around the Dog Kennel Hill Estate. We are also actively considering a nodal point system. Unfortunately whatever the admissions policy ends up being, this school can't meet all the local demand for places. Personally, I worry about the fairness of banding. There have been a couple of independent reports in the last couple of years which have found evidence that banding policies tend to result in the most vulnerable children being underrepresented in the school because to band you have to sit a test so you can be put into the most appropriate ability band. The most vulnerable children are less likely to keep the appointment to sit the test. I think it is important that any new school is a truly inclusive community school and for me, banding doesn't sit very comfortably with this.

The Charter is holding an open day for Year 3 and 4 parents and their children next Tuesday 1st July, 4.15-5.30pm at the Charter School. It's a great opportunity to see the existing Charter school and find out more about the proposed new Charter School East Dulwich. There will be a tour of the school and Q&A session on the new proposal. If you missed our last open meeting, please do come along to this one. Details in the flyer attached.

Thank you to everyone who came to the open meeting last night. We were really pleased with the turnout and it was great to get such an enthusiastic response. Thank you to those of you who signed up to support us. We had lots of useful feedback which we will be digesting as we finalise our proposal. Two things came out particularly loud and clear: overwhelming support for the as-the-crow flies admissions policy we are proposing; and lots of opposition to a Harris primary school on the hospital site. If you weren't able to make it, we will be holding further events in the coming weeks. I'll post details here when I have them.

The open meeting for parents to hear about Charter's proposal is tonight. Details are at the top of this thread. Please do come along if you want to find out more.

This is tomorrow night. Please do come along if you are a parent and want to find out more about our plans!

Hi hoonaloona, I can't help I'm afraid as my kids are a bit younger but I do feel for you. I fear that we will be in the same situation a few years down the line. I guess the fact that your post has had so many views but no replies is indicative of the fact that there isn't really any easy solution around here with all the single sex schools (the Harris ones and the Sydenham schools too). I hope you find a school your son can be happy in.

We are really pleased that the Charter East Dulwich bid has been selected for support by independent charity the New Schools Network. Along with pro-bono project management support from PWC we now have the New Schools Network's help in finalising our application which will be submitted to DfE in the Autumn. Press release attached for anyone who is interested. We will also be working hard right up until submission to engage with the local community and to gather lots of expressions of support from parents. If anybody is able to get involved in helping then please do get in touch.

The Charter School Educational Trust will be holding an open meeting where we will set out our thinking about the proposed new Charter School East Dulwich on the Dulwich Hospital site and would like to get feedback from the local community. The meeting will take place at 7pm on Thursday 19th June at the United Reformed Church, East Dulwich Grove (corner of Melbourne Grove) East Dulwich SE22 8RH. The topics for discussion will include the admissions policy and the educational vision. The intention is for the proposed new school to build on the strengths of the existing Charter school but to add some complementary features so that both schools benefit from their proximity to each other and the potential for collaboration. We have been working hard on all aspects of the new school but are also keen that it reflects the needs and preferences of the local community. If you have children in Year 4 or below, or are just interested to learn more, please do come along and contribute. Please also show your support for Charter's free school bid by e-mailing your name, postcode and date of birth of children to new [email protected].

Yes Otta, your accusation is a load of nonsense. The Charter School East Dulwich working group approached the Haberdashers steering group a few weeks ago with a list of ways in which we would like to cooperate. The intention was to get away from the needlessly divisive arguments we've seen on this forum and elsewhere. This list of proposals specifically included joint information material with the sign up details for both campaigns. The point was to make a common stand for a new school. Unfortunately we're still waiting to hear back from the Habs steering group. In fact many people who signed up to the Charter bid HAVE also signed the Habs bid. They signed up before Habs was announced as the chosen provider and on the basis of several reassurances on this thread that they were only signing up to support a new school, not any particular provider.

James and Renata, It isn't helpful that you seem to be contradicting each other on this. We are in communication with the Harris Federation and hopefully will be able to clarify this soon. Simon Simon Tucker The Charter School East Dulwich Working Group

Tessa Jowell's reply to Michael Gove regarding the site: http://www.tessajowell.net/uploads/f00a48ee-7141-f7f4-994c-6433c2027fb9.pdf

Hi James, A parent who signs up to support both applications is clearly voting for a new school. It would be perverse to not count their signature for either school. I have been in over a dozen new school application interviews with DfE officials and I have never seen them take that approach. If a parent has a very strong preference for one school over another then perhaps they should just sign up to one campaign but I would think carefully about that because I think there is an important role for DfE officials to cast an expert eye over the quality of the bids. I have several times encountered outstanding education providers submitting poor applications. This can happen for lots of reasons. Sometimes a provider over stretches themselves or sometimes the application just isn't their top priority. As a community we should be coming together to make a clear statement that a new school is needed.

clux Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > But what if we would like to state a preference?? Well, just sign up to one then. Basically, we are all working within an suboptimal process for deciding whether and where a new school will be allowed to open. The DfE process just considers individual applications. I suppose ideally, local people might be canvassed on whether or not they think a new secondary school is needed (question 1) and if so, who the best provider would be (question 2). DfE doesn't do this. In some parts of the country I believe local authorities have taken it upon themselves to run this kind of process but Southwark has decided not to do this.

James, If you sign up to both school's bids you are effectively saying that if either Habs or Charter open a new school on this site it would likely be your first choice. There is no scenario in which both schools open on the site so parents will never have to state a preference for one over the other.

Hello everyone, My name is Simon Tucker and I am one of the local parents working with The Charter School on their proposal for a new school on the Dulwich Hospital site. I am posting now in order to give EDF readers another point of contact with the team working up the The Charter School?s proposal so you can ask any questions you may have. Just to restate the facts for anyone coming to this fresh; there are two schools currently preparing proposals for a new secondary school on part of the Dulwich Hospital site. Both schools have a lot of support from local parents and personally I think that a new school run by either Habs or Charter would be wonderful news for local parents. The decision as to whether we will get a Charter or Habs school on this site will be made by the Department for Education towards the end of the year. The availability of the site is still not certain but we are very hopeful. We are currently consulting widely with the community as we put our proposal together. We are planning a public consultation event on 19th June ? more details soon - as well as other things in the pipeline. If you would like to show your support for a Charter school, please e-mail [email protected] with your name, your post code, your child/children?s date(s) of birth and please state that you would be likely to put a Charter School on this site as your first choice for your child when applying for secondary school. All parents who want a new school should be signing up to BOTH the Charter proposal AND the Habs proposal since if we can?t demonstrate enough demand for a new school, neither bid will be successful. If you have any questions about our plans you can ask me on this forum or send a message to the above e-mail address or attend one of the events we are organising in the coming weeks. Regards, Simon Simon Tucker The Charter School East Dulwich Working Group

Hi James, The exact wording is my own. Peter John reiterated to me that the council is not convinced of the need for a new Harris but that they will work with Harris Nunhead to accommodate them on the Harris Girls site or find an alternative other than the hospital site. My understanding is that the council has no power to stop the creation of a new school and have taken the pragmatic decision to manage the location and opening of new schools as best they can. This seems sensible to me.

This e-mail address can be used to reach Michael Gove: [email protected].

Peter John has also informed me that the council will support Harris Nunhead to open on the Harris Girls site and are also looking for other alternative sites even though they do not consider that another Harris school is needed.

Here is the text of an e-mail I have received from Peter John, Leader of the Council. I think it is consistent with the posting by other councillors on this thread. "My advice to anyone who is concerned about this matter is to write directly to Michael Gove and ask him to work with local parents and Southwark Council to provide a new secondary school on the Dulwich Hospital site. Although there remains a need for additional primary school places in the area we are fairly confident that these will be met by the expansion of Ivydale School over the next couple of years. I think that it is also important to make clear that parents do not want another Harris school of any description in the area. Harris are our least popular schools and another in Southwark will do nothing to meet the desire of parents and pupils for greater choice. The hospital site is still owned by the NHS who will clearly be important in any future use of the site, and as a council we are working with them to underline our desire for a secondary school on the site."