James Barber

Hi Sue, Technically the market is open Mon-Sat inclusive. No market stallholders there Mon-Thurs, a very few on Fridays. Shame they've produced effectively misinformation.

Hi brendapermaul, I doubt most local children go out of Southwark or use private education. As part of the Dulwuch Safe Route to School committee I undertook a short study of a private school pupil catchment area. Overwhelmingly the pupils came from Southwark/Lambeth (the school was very close to the border). I see lots of children walking to The Charter school. I'm rarely around ED Harris Boys at start of finish times so can't comment on it. Buit please don't foget that the ED Harris Boys spent its first two years 2 miles away at Langbourne School.

Thanks bluesky for highlighting this. Several aspects that trouble me. That un barriered piles of rubble etc remain which implies contractors who havent got a clue how they're legally required to work on public highway areas. Quite likely thre works were undertaken to a poor quality and will need redoing sooner than you'd normally expect. Eitherway, council officials are on the case.

Hi Renata, TheDulwich Hospital site is largely vacant. And in public ownership. If any group can knock Dept of Health head together to release 5,000m2 of the 27,000m2 Dulwich Hopsital site Lord Harris can. But where do you and your Labour colleagues stand on this? Do you support more local primary schools or do you think the answer is applying for ?40-50m from central government to expand schools on in most cases very small existing school sites?

Hi TE44, You refer to the last Labour government taking the education department away from the then Labour run council because the it was failnig our children so incredibly badly. The Labour government then appointed highways contractors to run the dept. they equally failed. Then a different contractor to run it. By this time it was the second year of a Lib Dem led council and the then Labour government handed education back to the council to run due they said to the marked improvement in how the council was being run. But this thread is not about the past. It's about how we rapidly provide primary school reception places ASAP.

Hi Chillaxed, I have actively supported the Judith Kerr bilingual German/English school. I've alerted them to the Dulwich Hopsital site and other sites close to East Dulwich including. I'm keen they decide they want to set-up here. Currently they've not narrowed their decision from Southwsark or Lambeth and if Southwark whether Rotherhithe or Dulwich. We've had numoerous emails, several phone calls and met face to face. We need 2 - 3 addiitonal local schools.

Hi brendapermaul, We've contacted all local councillors to try and ensure cross party support. That's hardly looking to make it vote winning. Expanding local schools can be suitable. But the Duwlich Hamlet schools is already very squeezed. Expanding schools above 2 or 3 form entry can cause real issues. Plus the expansions are assuming the government will give Southwark council ?40-50m. Other authorities also need such huge sums and frankly the Conservative Secretary of State michsel Gove is choosing to invest in free school academies. No plans to use East Dulwiuch Community Centre - East Dulwiuch councillors have put a lot of effort into helping it survive and invested a great deal of Cleaner, Greener, Safer capital funding on things such as floodlighting to allow youth activities int winter months. Talking to Harris Federation they find Local Authorities frosty. They're also extremelt impatient to raise standards. That's not necessarily a bad thing for our children.

Hi DenmotherSmith, Please do spread the word, especially to parents of 1 and 2 yo children, that they can help avoid a primary school admissions disaster by supporting a new Harris Primary school in the area OR they can hope the council will find ?40-50M from somewhere. Hi LondonMix and fuschia, Thanks you both for exploring Harris;s performance at secondary level. Beating the national average and adding value is something 10 years ago we hoped would be possible but seemed a huge mountain to climb. I'm chuffed we've all raised out expectations and now think we need more than that. Sadly many Southwark schools have yet to reach the success of Harris. So we seem to have s tark choice for Primary school places. HOpe Southwark find ?40-50m from somewhere and that Southwark schools will still be successful when we have lots of building works on site and bulge classes all over the place OR we build new schools and the only avenue for that is free schools. Pragmatically I prefer the latter.

Hi KalamityKel, Interesting point. When a planning application is made you should have opportunities to object. The hospital site from memory is 27,000m2 and typically a new primary school would apparently be around 5,000m2.

The Charter School was found to have breached its admissions policy by only counting driving routes to the school and not safe walking and cycling routes - safe in terms of the Police telling them they were safe. The areas excluded in this way being the Champion Hill and East Dulwich council housing estates. They now appear to have fulfilled the inspector requirements of the appeal against their procedures.

East Dulwich station bridge lighting is out. The fault has been tracked to be with the electricity supply and the provider is aware. They're not usually very quick at fixing such faults.

Hi ITATM, But Academies were the only practical route then under a Labour Govt. If an LA built a school they had to offer it up and could only run it themselves if no other group showed an interest. Equally the capital for a new secondary school is ?15-25M. Going the Academy route meant that central government funds paid for it. Using council capital to do that would mean longer delays before other LA schools had repairs, council housing, etc. I'm sure you're right no will remember or care. But it did lead to the ED Harris Boys Academy happening without which local secondary capacity would be an even bigger issue. Hi Fuschia, Harris have confirmed that the limited companies are subsidiaries of the charity and all profits are gift adied to the charity to further its charitable aims.

Hi Chillaxed, Manythanks for clarifying. I thought I was being positive by saying 89 are supporitng it. Hi reddulwich, My party is suggesting free schools are the only pragmatic mechanism so we should use it. That's not the same as you've suggested. our views on these nationsal policies will not get in the way of us trying to use the system to best advantages for local children.

Hi ITATM, But I can't change national policies. Working within the system is our only practical option. We need 2-3 new schools locally. Harris have agreed to apply with less time than they would normally make such applications. Other providers have not expressed any interest when asked and the Judith Kerr may or may not happen locally. Of all the possible providers Harris seems the most straight forward and most likely to achieve outstnaidng schools for us.

But how does secondary admissions affect whether we want to ensure we have enough local primary schools and admissions for reception?

Hi simonethe beaver, The Harris Federation is a charity. They have associated companies to aggregate schools spends to negotiate umbrella contracts. Pretty normal best procurement practice. This inability of local councils to provide new school started under the last bill Tony Blair passed in government. If they build a school they have to offer it up for others to run. Nationally Labour and Convservative parties when in government have not trusted councils to build and run schools. Truly daft. But I can't change this. I can only work within these daft national rules. So if we have to have free schools to fulfil the requirement for new schools and more places - and expanding schools the council is proposing to ask the national government for ?40-50m and some would then go above the ideal 2 or 3 form entries - Harris Federation has the best track record. The emailing. To prove demand for a new free school the agency the Dept of Education use need to know the name of parents, DOB of children and the postcode of where they live and ideally an email or postal address. They want to see adequate demand to ensure public demand wont be wasted. The threshold ofr a 3 form entry (90pupils per year) is 40 1 year olds and 40 2 year olds. The quickest way of collecting evidence of such support is by email. Hence the emails. Equally it could be a petitions, letters, etc. I can see a lot wrong with the system but I can try and work the system to help East Dulwich or stand on the sidelines playing politics saying how rubbish the system is.

Hi Renata, As you know the scrutiny call-in will delay things by a week or two at most unless the original decision was faulty.

hi prickle, I'm not a coalition councillor. I'm a Liberal Democrat councillor for East Dulwich. The coalition is a national coalition of government. It does not cover local stuff and why would it. So the coalition does stuff I agree with and vice versa. But foremost in my mind is how to make East Dulwich better. The Labour led council is also offering a view. Lots more bulge classes. Their view relies on obtaining ?40-50m of capital from central government. An unprecented amount. So in my view it appears to be political posturing knowing such an application will fail. They'll be told to find people to open free schools - and we'll have wasted a year until the next round so will not have school is place.

Hi midivydale, I emailed all the college, Nunhead, Peckham Rye and Village ward councillors asking them to help make this a cross party cmapaign with the East Dulwich ward councillors. So far no response. They may need permission from their party leaders. We're fortunate our leader devolves most decision making. Changing the title of the thread to show progress is partly a prod to these other councillors to join.

I wish it was quite so crystal clear. Historically fmailies have left Southwark for better secondary choices. In many cases for primary school choices. The housing market recently seems to have seriously affected this and the birth rate itself has changed. Secondary school places in Southwark - we've recently had ED Harris Boys, one school is closed for rebuilding on Cmaberwell New Road and Rotherhither looks likely ot have a new seocndary school. Together that adds 450 secondary places into the pot. But my priority is to get the primary schools we need underway. But without sufficient local support we'd just see ever more clas buldging which eventually will have a negative impact on school results.

Hi prickle, Why Harris? Because they have an amazing track record of producing outstanding local schools in Southwark. Please be clear Lord Harris is a Conservative. But his and my politics and other peoples politicis should not get in the way of ensuring we have sufficient schools offering a great education. For msny decades Southwark's schools were run on political dogma. This was from a past governor and former Cllr Danny McCarthy who gave me an accont of how schools were run then and he wasnt proud how they were loaded with party hacks whose best interests were not the children's education. Schools were so bad in Southwark that a Labour Government took control of education away from a Labour Southwark Council. But that's history. We have a real chance to ensure we have sufficient local schools IF we get enough local support by 4 January. Bickering about national plicies that wont change this side of 2015 general election isnt productive unless people's motives are not to ensure we have sufficient local schools.

Hi ITATM, Niether last Labour govt or the current trust local authorities. This is clearly daft but I can't change that but will be trying. Clearly it would make sense for Local Authorities above some threshold of performance results to be allowed to apply for funding of new schools. I don't get why national Labour or Conservative politicians dont want this. But we work with what we have to ensure local children don't suffer as a consequence. Fuschia called me naive. I'd suggest pragmatic. Hi Jessie, Yes, but for the next month we need to find at least 80 and hopefully 160 to justify one but hopefully two new local primary schools. THEN I can turn to secondary schools and do all the due diligence. If we reach 160 sooner I'll get onto secondaryt schools sooner (I have a day job and a family).

Hi Fuschia, Under the last Labour government new schools could only be created after a very long process typically taking 5-7 years. They didnt have a new name of free schools but all in name that's what they were. The coalition government is pushing harder on these while shortening the process to 12-24months from application to first pupils. Our area needs another 2-3 schools by September 2015. If you have a practical alternative to what I've proposed then I'd be delighted ot hear. But please don't continue the political posturing that if you were successful we wouldnt see new schools being built which would harm many many local children's whole lives.

Hi northeastview, Excellent you're one of 89 to register support for the bilingual school so far. Do get friends and families to add their support. The more from Dulwich the great the chance it would be create here. But we need 2-3 new schools. Hi LondonMix, The Dulwich Hopsital site is 27,000m2 from memory. Health people have said they'n need someting like 7,000m2. This leaves 20,000m2. But other local sites exist but would be more complicated to acquire. Hi sand12, Any planning application would come with conditions about ensuring the soil is clean. Equally no one would want to devleope a contaminated site, if it is found to be, and then house a school their - the liability would be huge. Please do email me your support for a new school - I need your name, childs DOB and home psotcode.

I've found this debate interesting. But we did do our homework before approaching Harris Federation and asking them to create one possibly two new local schools in our area. We havent taken this step lightly. If anything I wish we'd finished our due diligence quicker. After 24 hours we have 22 children's parents approaching us to offer support. We need another 58 for one school or 138 for two. If you know anyone with 1 or 2 year old children please ask them to email me their names, children DOB and their home postcode.