samstopit

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

Bonaome the intention is for the new secondary to open in 2016 in temporary buildings and to move to the hospital site in 2018. Haberdashers are working to these dates. I would hope that Charter would do the same if they are approved by DFE. If your child is in Y4 you should be ok.

Otta, if there are people with young kids who want to see a Harris primary on the hospital site, they are being very quiet indeed. There has been a lot of noise about this issue and not one person besides James has said that they think it's an acceptable idea for this school to coexist with the proposed secondary on the hospital site. Possibly there are some families in Nunhead who would welcome a Harris Nunhead Primary if it was in Nunhead, but not on the hospital site. The people I know who are supporting the secondary school campaign are very aware of the whole picture, it's pretty offensive to all the work we've done to suggest that we are only thinking about our own situations.

So James, you think it's acceptable to shave 2,000 square metres of space for a much needed secondary school to allow space for a primary school that nobody wants? This is the secondary school that you attended steering group meetings on, where you were adamant that a secondary school and a health centre and nothing else should occupy the site. Remember? How you have changed your tune since Harris came into the picture.

Here is the letter that Tessa Jowell MP wrote to David Laws in october: http://www.tessajowell.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/CHAP0101901140379010100413.pdf Hope that link works. The idea of two 'constrained schools' on the site makes my blood boil. We need to keep the pressure up on this!

Tessa Jowell has tweeted a link to an update on the Harris web site which confirms that Harris Nunhead has been put back to 2016 subject to a site being found and consultation with local families. http://www.harrisfederation.org.uk/26/future-projects/20/harris-primary-academy-nunhead

Hopefully you can see the attached. Great that it's front page news!

Looks to me like the change to the southwark plan is a positive one, since it specifically states a secondary school, not a primary. The SPACESouthwark petition is at 497 signatures. Please sign and share widely. https://www.change.org/p/david-laws-mp-don-t-squeeze-two-schools-onto-the-dulwich-hospital-site

Brand new guy, as a steering group member I can assure you the intention is to share sports facilities with the community. I can only speak for the Habs campaign of course.

The problem is that the really pressing local need is for a secondary school, and the only available site is the Dulwich hospital site. People who have worked hard to get a bid for a secondary free school before DFE are not at all happy at the prospect of a primary school on the site which will take up much needed space for sports facilities and outdoor activity. The fact that the primary school is billed as a school for nunhead and isn't considered necessary according to southwark's local projections just makes the situation even more infuriating. The petition now has 333 supporters. https://www.change.org/p/david-laws-mp-don-t-squeeze-two-schools-onto-the-dulwich-hospital-site

Mikeb - my apologies, just realised that the letter from Harris was attached in the post that you referenced.

The text of the letter from the Harris Federation to the Parent Steering Group is attached. You can see it with the full header and footer on our Facebook page - New Secondary School East Dulwich. We posted it on Facebook along with our reply on 25th June. The letter which Mike B posted is the steering group's reply to Harris. The parent steering group is independent of James Barber - we have no political affiliation.

Thanks Otta. That's true.

Tessa Jowell has just posted on the family room thread thanking for all the correspondence on this. She will be passing it all on to David Laws. Nearly 300 signatures on the petition. James - I would second mrs lotte's point. Listen to your constituents.

I've emailed my MP about this. Worth doing if you feel strongly - a Minister has to respond to an MP who writes to them about any issue. Harriet Harman (Camberwell and Peckham) [email protected] Tessa Jowell (Dulwich and West Norwood) [email protected] Also a good idea to cc Peter John, leader of Southwark Council [email protected]

There's a petition doing the rounds asking David Laws MP, Minister of State for Free Schools, not to put a primary school onto the Dulwich Hospital site. There's a lot of support for the Hospital site to be used for a secondary school and a health centre. The proposed primary (Harris Nunhead) would be co-located with the secondary school, meaning the Hospital site would be cramped, with less space for sport and outside space. Petition here: https://www.change.org/p/david-laws-mp-don-t-squeeze-two-schools-onto-the-dulwich-hospital-site Here is a letter from Tessa Jowell MP to David Laws which gives the background: http://www.tessajowell.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/CHAP0101901140379010100413.pdf

In case anyone following this thread hasn't seen it yet, there is a petition circulating asking David Laws not to squeeze a primary school onto the Dulwich Hospital site. Whether you support Charter or Habs or just want a secondary school, please do sign this so that we get a secondary school with decent outside space. http://www.change.org/p/david-laws-mp-don-t-squeeze-two-schools-onto-the-dulwich-hospital-site

Signed. There is a twitter feed too @spacesouthwark where you can retweet the link.

Bonaome, thank you for circulating this. The more emails and letters David Laws gets about this the better. Renata, I think you are right. Can we request the evidence that was used to justify this new primary school?

Habs is proposing a 6 form entry secondary school plus a sixth form. And hopefully a decent amount of outside space. ... Which means no room for a primary on the site. Those who follow us on FB / twitter will have seen today's article in Southwark news. See attached.

I honestly don't know why charter are leafleting their existing catchment. I could speculate but would rather not on here. I agree with you that it's not appropriate for you to support their bid. The campaign for a new school for East Dulwich should be engaging families who don't already have access to co-ed secondary provision. Hopefully somebody who knows more about Charter's plans can answer your questions about how they will manage applicants across both sites. I'm aware that they plan to share facilities.