intexasatthe moment

Compeed are seriously brilliant . Helps to read instructions tho . ( best if you warm them in your hands first )

Can anyone clarify /give some background about the sports centre ? Did its existence predate the school becoming an Academy ? Was it used by general public before school became an Academy ?

I wonder how Harris were loosing money when the facilities were managed by Fusion ? Were they paying Fusion to manage it and not getting enough return to cover the management fee ? But surely Lord Harris would have enough business acumen not to have entered into an arrangement that looked like a loss maker ? ( or whatever the correct term is ). And I really wonder what terms/conditions went with the sports facilities when Harris were given the lease to the school . Are the sports facilities integral to the school or a seperate building ? I guess it wouldn't have been feasible for Southwark to have retained the facilities ,letting them out for school and public use .

Fusion managed the facilities for a while after it became an Academy though , I wonder why that arrangement changed ? Wonder what Harris put in their expression of interest when they were going through the process of becoming an Academy . They normally refer to intent to be part of community etc ,might see if I can track it down on line .

aah ,the swimming pool. Yes ,mamy moons ago I was one of those people who helped raise funds . Remember ,not quite so many moons ago ,helping with local primary schools swimming classes there . Does anyone know why management of sports facilities pass from Fusion to Harris in first place ?

Lyons , I've not seen the article , could you explain a little more ? Won't the management pass back to Fusion ? Will the general public no longer have access ? With regard to Lord Harris being a prominent philanthropist ....it does sometimes seem to me that the public view is that he pays for schools to be built/refurbished ,when actually he contributes a tiny percentage of money towards the capital cost of the building . For someone like Lord Harris with more than 3 Academies the contribution would be ?1.5 million for a new Academy .The total cost of building a new Academy is in the region of ?35 million. Parliamentary questions reported last year in the press revealed that of the ?8.5 million pledged by Harris for his first 7 Academies ,only ?3.7 m had been received.

Thanks AlexC - brilliant ,have signed up .

I can't see anything on the Guardian site that mentions delivery . Have I missed something ?

guessing ( from fact that "r " and "o " are immediately next to "t " and " i " on keyboard ) that someromes is a typo for sometimes .

No speed humps at the top end by the Plough or anywhere else on Barry Rd .

Aaah - knew I'd seen a map somewhere ,page 13 on this Southwark Road Safety Plan . http://www.southwark.gov.uk/downloads/download/293/road_safety_plan The image isn't clear enough on line for me to make much sense of it ,but maybe someone more skilled will have better luck .

I rather regret starting this post ,I'd just seen the accident and in rather a knee jerk reaction wanted to " share " . Because I use Barry Rd a great deal posts about it attract my attention . But I wonder what the statistics actually show . This has probably been posted somewhere else on here - maybe JB's thread - but can anyone post a link to to one of those maps that shows numbers of accidents in the borough ?

car has mounted pavement and hit railings near pedestrian crossing .Looks like it was travelling east west direction .

boomerang for mayor ! What a good idea .

Harris Peckham ( The Academy @ Peckham ) is mixed ,I think the only Harris Boys is the new East Dulwich one facing Peckham Rye .

Fuschia - I too live in a property divided into flats ,but no dice re blue bin . Which is a shame . I'd have done without the small brown bin that was delivered unasked and if it were a choice btwn blue wheelie and kitchen caddy ,I'd also have coped without kitchen caddy ( would have bought a little countertop bin myself ).

James ,just had a phone call from Southwark/Veolia to let me know that I wouldn't be getting a blue bin . I was offered another blue box ,which I declined and explained why . Not to worry - sure I'll cope !

As far as I know this stretch of Bellenden does not yet have a bike contra flow . But there were /are planning notices on the lamposts indicating that permission is being sought to introduce a contraflow .

The discussion is about Kingsdale but there are a couple of comments about the new Harris boys Academy "I have a few friends with children at Harris boys. The quality of education seems to be on a par with Crystal palace, if not even better as they have more to prove. However you may want to check whether the harsh discipline regime will suit your child as they are very strict." " I also have a son and would not be happy to send him to Harris. It has a boot camp aspect that I find really unattractive. An earlier post suggested that Kingsdale could be a bit disorganised and the teaching at Harris was possibly better. This is not my experience or that of any other Kingsdale parents I've spoken to including one who took her son out of Harris because of the militaristic atmosphere." "Are you talking about Harris Boys Eliza because yes I agree it could be called a boot camp? However, Harris Crystal Palace is a very different school with a much more relaxed and informal atmosphere. Unless you have had children at both I don't see how you can compare."

Couple of comments here http://www.eastdulwichforum.co.uk/forum/read.php?29,546773,549583#msg-549583

The " hived off " expression was used by Sean ,expressing support for use of park by school/s.

if Harris can afford to do up these academys The cost of building an Academy runs into millions ( ? 35 million being not unusual ). Orginally sponsors were expected to contribute ?2 million . This sum was reduced to ?1.5 million for sponsors ,like Harris ,with 4 or more Academies. This requirement was dropped in 2006 so that sponsors are now required to set up endowment funds , some are not required to contribute at all " sponsors with a successful track record of running educational institutions (including high performing schools and colleges, universities and sponsors of existing academies) are expected to establish an endowment fund, but are not required to commit any specific sum to the endowment." (http://www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/academies/what_are_academies/sponsorship/?version=1) The Guardian reports on replies to a Parliamentary question as follows sponsors in total have so far stumped up barely two-thirds of the ?145m they are supposed to have paid towards capital costs in the seven years since the first of England's 200 academies opened. and Lord Harris, chairman and chief executive of Carpetright plc, sponsors a chain of nine academies in south London. Seven, for whom sponsorship is listed in the written answer, have so far received ?3.7m of the ?8.5m pledged. http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2009/dec/01/academies-sponsors-government-funding I think we need to remember that these Academies are largely funded by the tax payer ,and that the monies provided by the sponsor are minimal.

Re blue wheelie bins to replace crates and bags - just phoned to request blue wheelie bin . ( I am in pilot scheme ) The very helpful lady I spoke to didn't know anything about blue wheelie bins . New blue boxes for mixed recyling are avai;lable - she couldn't tell me how they differed from old boxes or whether they were larger . She spoke to her resoloutions manager re blue wheelie bins and the response was that they couldn't comment but would phone me back . I'll PM this to James .

Dulwichmum - I'm sure you've worked this out for yourself but Hugenot's main interest in posting seems to be about winding people up . Responding to his ( ? ) posts ,only encourages him .

Magpie - no point in responding to posters like Hugenot ,it only encourages them .