samstopit

The consultation doesn't close until 27 March so I'm nervous about declaring victory. But it does seem unlikely they will get a surge of support at this point.

Hi Savage

The consultation event I went to was quite well attended and everyone in the room was unanimously opposed to the school. The Harris reps acknowledged that things have changed since 2013 when they were given approval and the demand for a new primary in ED / Nunhead is no longer there. They said that due to the huge opposition and very little demand the school looks unlikely to go ahead.

Well done everyone who opposed it. Feels like good news.

Great letter. I'll be at the consultation event this afternoon, hope to see lots of you there.

Apologies - just double checked and the second consultation event tomorrow is at 7pm not 7.30.

http://www.harrisfederation.org.uk/26/future-projects/20/harris-primary-academy-nunhead

Hi Dulwich B&B

The consultation events tomorrow are at:

Harris Girls? Academy East Dulwich

Homestall Road,

London,

SE22 0NR

One meeting is at 4.30pm and a second one is at 7.30pm.

I'm going to go to the second one so maybe see you there.

James I don't think those 250 families will feel abandoned since they didn't know they were signing up for a second school, they thought they were supporting one Harris primary school which has since opened and is soon to relocate to the police station site.

The Harris primary was approved some time ago. There is still time to oppose it being on the Dulwich Hospital site by responding to the consultation and attending the consultation events tomorrow.

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.

Both Haberdashers and Charter have had their interviews with the DfE. Whichever bid is successful the new secondary school should open by September 2016, although the hospital site won't be ready until 2018 so it will in be temporary accommodation until then.

Looking likely that an announcement is imminent.

http://www.theguardian.com/education/2015/mar/06/david-cameron-will-pledge-to-open-153-new-free-schools

Tessa Jowell MP has written to Daniel Moynihan, CEO of the Harris Federation, responding to the Harris consultation on the proposed Harris primary school on the Dulwich Hospital site.

See attached. And please don't forget Harris are holding two consultation events on 10th March at Harris Girls Academy. Details of the Harris consultation here.

http://www.harrisfederation.org.uk/26/future-projects/20/harris-primary-academy-nunhead

Reg, these are good points. Might be better off raising them with Harris directly via [email protected] and copy Tessa Jowell [email protected] who is showing an active interest.

Less than a mile I'd say. We are 5-7 minute walk from our primary which means we never drive it, whatever the weather.

Redjam I agree with you but am concerned that Harris will only receive consultation documents back from people who have children due to start primary, and they won't count the comments that come in outside of the consultation document.

An electronic version of the Harris consultation response document is attached.

If emailing it please send to [email protected] and cc Dominic Herrington the Regional Schools Commissioner: [email protected]

You might also want to cc your MP, local councillors etc.

Do add your views outside of the questions on the consultation document in your email.

LondonMix hopefully the above posts answer your question. The consultation prior to the bid going in (which I agree does not appear to have met legal requirement) is different to this post-approval consultation.

http://media.education.gov.uk/assets/files/pdf/s/school%20admissions%20code%201%20february%202012.pdf

This is the DFE school admissions code setting out how consultations should be managed. See page 16 for the following:

1.43 Consultation must last for a minimum of 8 weeks and must take place

between 1 November and 1 March in the determination year.

1.44 Admission authorities must consult with:

a) parents of children between the ages of two and eighteen;

b) other persons in the relevant area who in the opinion of the admission

authority have an interest in the proposed admissions;

c) all other admission authorities within the relevant area (except that

primary schools need not consult secondary schools);

d) whichever of the governing body and the local authority who are not

the admission authority;

e) any adjoining neighbouring local authorities where the admission

authority is the local authority; and

f) in the case of faith schools, the body or person representing the

religion or religious denomination.

I think it's worth complaining to DFE about the way the consultation is worded. 'Would you be prepared to travel' to the hospital site is the wrong question for many people interested in this issue.

This is the key question, which I will be answering with a big 'no.'

One of the next steps in establishing the new academy is for the Harris Federation and the Secretary of State for

Education to enter into a ?Funding Agreement?. This is a legal document that sets out the framework within

which the Academy will operate. Do you agree that the Secretary of State for education should sign a

Funding Agreement to allow the academy to open?

❑ Yes ❑ No

Harris have announced their consultation into the proposed new primary school on the Dulwich Hospital site. The consultation document can be downloaded here:

http://www.harrisfederation.org.uk/26/future-projects/20/harris-primary-academy-nunhead

There will be 2 consultation sessions on 10th March, at Harris Girls Academy.

Make sure you respond and attend on the 10th March if you have a view as to whether we need this school and if so, where it might best be situated.

Incidentally, the petition now has 587 supporters. Which I think exceeds the population of your average primary school.

https://www.change.org/p/david-laws-mp-don-t-squeeze-two-schools-onto-the-dulwich-hospital-site

Yes, both bids are through to the next stage.

Habs are already in conversation with the local authority and their own surveyors about where they could put temporary accommodation for the school. There are a number of possible local, relevant options. If approved they would also have the full support and resources of the EFA to come up with and finance a solution that minimises the impact on pupils from Sept 16 onwards.

Habs have an in-house project team with proven expertise in designing, building and delivering temporary school accommodation which is fit for the purpose of delivering an excellent education from day one. They have previously leased and used high-end modular units to create a mini campus, as well as reconfiguring their existing school estate and other premises. They are confident that if approved they will have a school ready for 2016.

I'm afraid I can't give more details than this at the moment but admissions for the new school would of course relate to the school's permanent site, not the temporary location if that were to be different.

It will open in temporary accommodation for the first couple of years. In terms of exactly where, a few options are being considered.

A bit of good news this morning - the Haberdashers Federation has heard that they are through to the next stage with the Department of Education and will begin meetings with DfE in January.

The Habs application is to open a highly regarded, non-faith, co-ed secondary school to open in September 2016. Everything is on track for this goal.

Final decision from DfE should be made in mid-March 2015.

Tessa Jowell has written a letter to the CEO of the Harris Federation:

http://www.tessajowell.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/CHAP0101901140379010101310.pdf

The text of the letter from Harris to the parent steering group is copied below. Dated June 2014.

Dear Catherine,

I wanted to write to you direct to clarify our position and thinking on the Dulwich Hospital site.

For context, and as you know, the Department for Education has accepted our application to open a new primary school for Nunhead families. Subject to a building being found, the school will open in September 2015 and aim to provide exceptional education for its children. In doing so, it will follow in the tradition of our primary Free School in Peckham which is highly oversubscribed and was recently judged as ?outstanding? by Ofsted.

In an ideal world, a site in Nunhead would be found and secured by the Education Funding Agency (EFA) which is the government body responsible for finding sites for new schools. While they have not yet located a site, we are very much open to any suitable locations that may come up closer to Nunhead. We will also be working with Southwark to see if they can help to find a site.

Like many prospective primary parents, our preferred outcome would have been to build on the grounds of Harris Girls? Academy ? but this would raise substantial planning issues because the land there is classified as Metropolitan Open Land and given the same level of protection as the green belt. In addition, of course, Southwark is currently asking its secondary schools whether they can expand to help meet some of the expected future shortfall of places.

The EFA has told us that it is considering part of the Dulwich Hospital site for the primary school and advised us that we should keep our options open with regards to this, even though we still hope that a site closer to Nunhead can be found. I wanted to reassure you that we are conscious this is also the site you would like for the new secondary free school in East Dulwich.

If the new primary in Nunhead is built on part of the Dulwich Hospital site, and assuming at least one of the two proposed applications for a new secondary school is granted, we would be very happy if it is decided that a secondary school should be located next to the primary. We have contacted the Haberdashers' Aske's Federation, with whom we have a long established working relationship, and the Charter School to say this and to offer any support we can.

Just to be absolutely clear, we have no intention of creating a new all-through or secondary school in the area and cannot see any reason why two separate schools next door to each other could not thrive as neighbours.

The EFA is still in the process of exploring the options for our site. It is, of course, entirely possible that none of the three possible new schools will be able to use the Dulwich Hospital site. However, given the uncertainty over the past few days, we wanted to make contact with you and set out our position. Whilst we aren?t the decision makers in this process, I hope that I have been able to give you some reassurance and to make clear that we are happy to help raise with the EFA as part of our discussions how a separate secondary school could be fitted there too. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me.

If you feel it would be helpful to share this letter with the other local families in your campaign, please feel free to do so.

Yours sincerely

Chris Randall Director New Developments