I went to the Heber consultation. The nodal point which will determine admissions was the key point of debate. Unfortunately there were a notable number of people who showed a disregard for a cohesive, respectful discussion, shouting over each other and ignoring the appeals from the discussion chair to respect the procees amd fair debate. There was also a disproportionate number of vocal attendees from Lyndhurst Primary who were heavily pushing for the nodal point (which will determine the majority of admissions) to be retained in its illustrative position at the extreme north east portion of the entire hospital site. The irony is at the moment the school does not own any of the hospital site and it still awaits the Dept of Education and NHS agreeing a land transfer deal. Only when this process is complete, will the school understand which portion of the wider hospital site will be allocated to them. So the current nodal point is entirely indicative but as it has now been shown on a plan, emotions are rising as the implications become clear. This is a huge site There is an online survey available here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/C696GWC The first question is: 1. Do you believe there is a need for a new secondary school, in the East Dulwich area, serving pupils aged 11 to 18? Many people align themselves with areas in London but the boundaries are often difficult to define so out of interest, this is Google's interpretation of East Dulwich:
At the event, in Heber a map was presented showing the location of homes of those who had signed to express an interest in sending their children to the school at the outset of the consultation. The points clearly showed a strong support for the school to the area south and east of the Dulwich Hospital site, i.e. 'the East Dulwich area'. So if you do live in 'the East Dulwich area' where this school claims to be serving and have any intention of sending your children to this Charter School in the future, I would urge you to get online and register your opinion on the position of the nodal point. Otherwise the loudest voices informing the consultation will come from those who live outside of 'the East Dulwich area' through clearly orchestrated opinions of those from Lyndhurst Primary. This may seem petty but when it comes to schools choices, if you find yourself in a catchment hole due to the arbitrary positioning of a nodal point, then your kids may end up having to attend and travel to a school far from home, which is in no-ones interest. The Dulwich hospital site is huge, more than 300m wide which is larger than some entire local primary school catchments! The position of the nodal point will therefore potentially have notable impact of which areas locally have access to this school. From my perspective, if the school is to genuinely represent the local community, as they claim is their desire, then the nodal point should be in the middle of their plot, when it is finally known. Anything else is skewed in favour of one portion of the community and will always be deemed unfair by those who end up being excluded due to the selection of an arbitrary point on a map.