Admissions to Secondary School

[Fuschia]

Mark Dodds Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> If highly

> educated and politicised clowns like these put as

> much effort into ensuring decent standards spread

> through existing school provision there wouldn't

> be any demand for far better access to decent

> education

>

The problem I think you're missing, Mark, is that free schools have arisen out of political dogma and with the diversion of resources and attack on staff terms and conditions, are seen As an attack on existing schools And those who support them and their work

We could equally say how much better it would be if you put your energies into defending our community schools at a time of attack, rather than put yourself forward as a darling of this idealogical campaign

[sillywoman]

Fuschia Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Mark Dodds Wrote:

> --------------------------------------------------

> -----

> > If highly

> > educated and politicised clowns like these put

> as

> > much effort into ensuring decent standards

> spread

> > through existing school provision there

> wouldn't

> > be any demand for far better access to decent

> > education

> >

> The problem I think you're missing, Mark, is that

> free schools have arisen out of political dogma

> and with the diversion of resources and attack on

> staff terms and conditions, are seen As an attack

> on existing schools And those who support them and

> their work

>

> We could equally say how much better it would be

> if you put your energies into defending our

> community schools at a time of attack, rather than

> put yourself forward as a darling of this

> idealogical campaign

your energy & commitment would be very much appreciated by those campaigning for another community state secondary school in the south of the borough.

[Otta]

What Fuschia said.

[Mark Dodds]

@reggie: please explain more about money being stolen by a nursery - and how that is relevant here?

@Fuschia: thank you but I don't agree. Seems to me the problem in England is that education has been driven by political dogma for at least the last seventy years and policy has see sawed wildly from parliament to parliament and from Left to Right for ever.

Education should be about providing children with the best possible chance to learn to become rounded, competent adults who can fit into society comfortably. Children need stability, teachers need stability, people need stability in order to be effective and education quite clearly is not that way nor has it been in my lifetime. The perennial point locally that reflects this is that there is not enough decent schools let alone enough places for children from Camberwell or East Dulwich to go to. This is ridiculous and must change.

As for the political dogma about Free Schools, I'd appreciate it if you could specify just how a Free School will take resources away from others. What exactly is the mechanism, and where is this process described, that will make it so?

OH yes. The bit about defending our community schools instead of my putting myself forward as 'the darling of this ideological campaign'. Rubbish. There does not seem to be much to defend except that, evidently. 'our community schools' aren't good enough; besides, that's what you read into it and you are way off the mark, I'm just a parent who's really pissed off. I'm just prepared to stand up and do something about an inequitous situation and I cannot do that by keeping schtum... it needs to be broadcast or it will not happen. And no one else is going to broadcast it for me. Will they? I'm particularly driven by two things:

1) The realisation this year (because the train wreck of secondary education happened to my family and my friends' families together for the first time this year) that very little changes perennially because communities of parents are divided and counquered by a rubbish system that, in the end, lets everyone down and leaves everyone scrabbling around trying to find scraps of solace in a bad system that is letting us all down.

2) Knowing a boy in my son's class who was not offered a place at all. Nothing. The letter said 'Dear blah blah blah... your son has been offered a place at ___________________ school. No explanation nor apology, nothing. It might have been a typo for all his mother could work out. Nothing, just a blank space? What's that all about? That happened to 43 other children as well. In my view the people in charge of such incompetence should be sacked for stuff like that. Their complacent view is: 'unfortunately this is the way it is but they will all get a place in the end' so it doesn't matter. It's NOT GOOD ENOUGH.

By the way; IF my son had got into his first, second, or even sixth choice school and IF his friend had been offered a place at one of his choices, I would not be here - I would not have spent time trying to work it out because I would have had the (wrong) impression that everything was working out hunky dory with the system.

@sillywoman: who are you referring to and where exactly in the south of the Borough do you mean?

[Mark Dodds]

It's a bit disappointing there are no responses - people are busy I guess.

@sillywoman particularly; I'm interested to know more about the situation you mention.

[Fuschia]

I just don't think you are open to listening to Any other views on this topic, Mark

Not sure there is anybody else here who is convinced by the free school argument but you have rather a contemptuous attitude to those who work in the existing education system

I hVe posted info before about school funding but you don't seem interested

Have you noticed that capital funding hAs been pretty much taken awAy from schools with ict funding cut directly to be diverted for free schools? That educationL welfare and educational psychology services are in crisis?

[Mark Dodds]

Thanks for coming back on this Fuschia. The politics of the situation are wrong, they always have been, that is not directly what concerns me. What does concern me that there should be more, better accessible education available. I cannot change the system but can work within it and I AM listening. It's unfortunate that the limitations of a forum like this can cut sympathy, empathy, emotion out of the tone of posts and if I come across as belligerent rather than determined to help effect some positive change in education then I'm sorry for that.

In my life I'm a parent first and a publican second. My work is all about people and, because of this I have become very active in community matters in Camberwell and SE5. I set up SE5 Forum for Camberwell in 2003 with a grant I raised from UnLtd specifically to begin to address the patent inequities there are in this part of London when it comes to regeneration. In a separate place because of the tenure of the lease I own on a pub I have become a vociferous political campaigner standing up for the rights of publicans against the country's bullying pub companies who have destroyed Britain's heritage of pubs as centres of community. In that position I am one of the founder members of the Fair Pint Campaign www.fairpint.org.uk. In that arena I have been, along with many publican colleagues, accused of being a radical extremist, a commie, a lefty and a lot more nonsense when, in fact, what we are demanding is a fair opportunity to compete and to trade on a level playing field against big companies in a highly competitive marketplace.

Far from having contempt for teachers, I have enormous respect for them. Many of my close friends are in state school secondary education, even more are in primary. My partner of sixteen years is a teacher, I am a governor at my children's school, a local, successful state primary. My parents were both teachers, my father a head teacher and county education advisor, my mother worked at national level on educational policy for further education and my own political leanings have been well left of centre all of my life, which remains the case. Without exception, ALL these people I know in teaching severely criticise the education system in Britain not for its aspirations but for its actuality.

I'm in my early fifties, when I was at school in Newcastle in the 60's the background discussion about the failings and unfairness of secondary education was much as it is now. I have seen wave after wave of parents through the last thirty years go through the stress, angst, hand wringing and basic fears about the future for their children as their eleventh birthday approached. I have seen parents and their kids, working class to wealthy middle class go through the mill in exactly the same way as have this year's wave of unfortunates. The difference for me this year is that it's MY kid who's getting a totally crap deal, and the children of a LOT of other people I know too whose class backgrounds span the gamut, and my personal circumstances mean I have some time to apply to trying to change something that's patently badly wrong.

Getting 'behind' an existing failing school is not my cup of tea - it simply would not come to anything. Getting behind a new proposition that starts from scratch with the ambition to provide a really high quality educational experience for children of all backgrounds CAN work. Anyone who had been a fly on the wall of one of the steering group's meetings would be amazed at the commitment and determination to get this done, and the discussions, please believe me, are ALL about doing this working class children. That's good enough for me and it would be good enough for my eldest child, who's likely to miss out on such an opportunity of a high quality education that the Michaela Community School can provide to local kids. It won't change the whole world but it will increase the chances of the lottery for people who otherwise have little chance of winning the opportunities they deserve...

Got to go prepare for this evening's meeting...

[prickle]

Mark Dodds Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Getting 'behind' an existing failing school is not

> my cup of tea - it simply would not come to

> anything. Getting behind a new proposition that

> starts from scratch with the ambition to provide a

> really high quality educational experience for

> children of all backgrounds CAN work.

For free schoolers, its the idea that they can start a shiny new school with everything brand-spanking-new that attracts, regardless of the cost on the public purse. Please note that there are many failing schools that have been turned round very successfully ? Kingsdale for example.

[sillywoman]

Oh goodness, now I've dropped myself in it haven't I?

OK, well a few years ago there was a campaign to get another community state secondary school, along the lines of the Charter, to serve East Dulwich and Nunhead. I'm so sorry but I can't remember what it called itself. Hopefully someone else will come come along with more knowledge of it. Clearly we didn't get one, but I was assuming that the campaign was still going? Maybe it's not?

Clearly we do need another Secondary school down in this tail end of the borough, but it probably needs to serve a wider area given that Mark is posting from Camberwell & his son is having to deal with the lack of Secondary places we have available to us. Sorry to disappoint anyone getting excited at the thought of joining a campaign. If it is still going though I think that your desire for change would be able to achieve a huge amount for it Mark.

I haven't been following closely enough the difference between getting a 'free school' founded and, for example, starting a new state school like we did with The Charter. I am biased because I was involved from the start in the campaign to get a decent state secondary (that eventually became The Charter), and I have some children there, but The Charter seems like such a successful model that I don't quite understand why you are campaigning for a 'free' school Mark and not a state secondary in the same mould? Is the difference just a matter of where the funding comes from?

Kingsdale has also turned itself around marvelously as Prickle says, but I think that a huge grant from 'the public purse' along side the hard work, dedication & commitment of a core team of staff enabled it to do this, and of course sadly it's not a community school so cannot be counted on in the reckoning to secure places at decent state secondary schools for our children in the southern tip of the borough.

[Mark Dodds]

@prickle. Budgets for Free Schools are miniscule by comparison with Building Schools for the Future programme and are encouraged to be refurbishment rather than new build. Turning a school around is impossible without there being a willingness within the existing set up to remove the rot and impose a new regime. There is no mechanism for such change to take place within an existing failing school and the route this steering group is taking makes sense at the moment...

[mrchas]

Free Schools: the stake in the heart of the Progressive vampire

BY JAMES DELINGPOLE

Fiona Millar: not happy with Free Schools

Last night I saw the future of education in Britain ? and it worked.

The occasion was the launch of Katharine Birbalsingh?s free school in Lambeth, South London. As a local parent I was naturally very interested in this because at the moment round these parts you have two options when your kids turn 11: either you consign them to the dustbin of whichever failing state school you?re unlucky enough to get them into. Or you consign yourself to an old age of misery and penury by forking out for one of the many excellent local private schools.

Having just been in America, I know that in the States (Canada too) parents face very similar problems. And it has nothing to do with poor/ethnic kids finding it harder to learn, or with wicked government underfunding, or any of the other weaselly excuses trotted out by the progressives who?ve held the education systems on both sides of the Atlantic hostage for the last three or four decades. The problem has purely to do with entrenched ideology. In short, the liberal-left will do everything it can to hamstring knowledge-based, academically-rigorous, disciplined liberal arts education because it creates achievers not victims.

I saw these progressive Enemies of Promise at the meeting last night and crikey what a malign bunch they were. You know that awful tortured expression you see on Dracula?s face when he?s ambushed in his coffin and, as the stake is driven into his heart his eyes open in fear and horror while he screams his final scream of abominable evil? Well that?s just the reaction I witnessed last night from the activists who?d turned up en masse to try to sabotage Birbalsingh?s dream academy.

And what a wonderful school it?s going to be. Seven speakers from the foundation committee stood up in turn to talk about the school. If this were South Park you could satirise it as ?people of all colours and creeds holding hands under a rainbow? but this is Brixton and it was a joy to see: a snappy Asian private equity man who?s taking care of the financial side; a white publican in tears at the misery the progressive system had inflicted on his kids; a young white schoolteacher outlining a curriculum brimming with rigour and Oxbridge aspiration; Tony Sewell, built like a black heavyweight boxer, talking unapologetically about elitism; the white, fiery Oxbridge-educated head of maths talking about the extra, private-school-style late afternoon classes which over five years will add up to a whole extra years? worth of education; then Katharine Birbalsingh herself in her lovely lilting Guyanan accent enthusing about the school in a way you just know is going to make her one of the best headteachers in the country and politely but firmly putting down hecklers as only a battle-hardened veteran of state education is able.

Every time one of the panel got up and spoke I wanted to clap and cheer because I know from the experiences of my friend Toby Young just how much time and selfless dedication it takes to set up these schools, and because I know how badly South London?s education system needs the beacon of excellence which this new school will be. It?s called the Michaela Community School ? named in honour of an inspirational colleague of Birbalsingh?s who recently died of cancer ? and it deserves all the support it can get.

It deserves it all the more so since you can be sure that Lambeth?s aggressively Left-wing council and the activist mob who tried to hijacked last night?s meeting will do everything in their power to destroy it. Though the school has already found the perfect site ? a disused school next to a stretch of parkland with sports facilities and everything ? Lambeth council will throw every obstacle in its way it can.

If I hadn?t witnessed it for myself last night, I?m not sure I would have believed it. Here is an inspirational ethnic teacher proposing to set up a school in one of London?s most deprived, educationally disadvantaged boroughs which will: be open to all regardless of race or religious domination; teach to Oxbridge standards; instil discipline (with a uniform, natch) and good manners; grade children to encourage aspiration and competition; bring out the very best in its pupils in a way that the state system so patently doesn?t do at the moment. It will be free of charge and it will set standards which other schools in the area can emulate. Oh, and as Birbalsingh pointed out last night, nobody is forcing anyone to send their kids there. If they want their kids to go into showbiz they can try the Fame Academy. Or (Birbalsingh was too politic to say this) if they want their kids to learn about Mary Seacole, knifing techniques, grievance awareness and one-parent-housing-benefit application, they can choose from any number of splendid schools in the area which specialise in just these fields. Yet still there are groups out there so perverse that they wish to destroy Birbalsingh?s wonderful enterprise.

Not for the first time I was reminded of the parallels between the battle Toby Young and Katharine Birbalsingh are fighting over education, which Nick Cohen, Andrew Gilligan and Douglas Murray are fighting over Islamism, and which some of us are fighting over eco lunacy.

In his marvellous book What?s Left, Nick Cohen (a lefty, bless him) set out to ask the question: why is it that the international left, whose raison d?etre used to be to stick up for the rights of oppressed workers, women, homosexuals and other minorities was now cheerleading for the kind of Islamofascists who wanted to deny women education and crush homosexuals under walls?

The same might be asked of the kind of people who are opposing Birbalsingh?s school. We currently live in a country where seven per cent of the population receives the best education in the world (the British private school system) but where the other 93 per cent receives (unless they?re really lucky) one of the worst. You?d think no one in their right mind could possibly wish to stop someone setting up a State school which aimed to copy exactly the formula that makes private schools so successful, and whose main beneficiaries were going to be those deserving poor and ethnic minorities the liberal-left is supposedly committed to helping. Yet this is what Birbalsingh?s opponents are trying to do. I call this not just misguided. I call this actively evil. There is no excuse for what they are doing. It is plain wrong.

[EDmummy]

Ah, what a way with words Mr Delingpole has. First climate scepticism now free schools. Love the bit about Birbalsingh being "ethnic".

[prickle]

!

[mrchas]

PROPOSED FREE SCHOOL LATEST NEWS

Here is the website where prospective parents can register their interest , You will get on the mailing list and be kept informed

http://michaelacommunityschool...

STOP PRESS

---------------

''OPEN DAY" on Sat 21st May

Lilian Baylis Old School , Lollard St, London SE11.

Meet the steering group and view the sports facilities that will be on offer.

Open from from 11am to 2pm.

Sports facilities brilliantly described here

http://www.streetgames.org/dru...

[mrchas]

ALWAYS TWO SIDES TO AN ARGUMENT...

Lambeth protest against Free School proposal

On Thursday 5th May there was a meeting to promote a 'Free' School in Lambeth known as the 'Michaela Community School'.

We received the following report

"At last night's meeting to promote the free school we heard from a line up of very posh people about how schools should operate: they should teach 'the basics' (that's literacy and numeracy to you and me), but also have a balanced curriculum, put children in for Oxbridge and teach Latin, wear a uniform and be polite. With such an esteemed collection of educational experts we were expecting there may be some radical suggestions but sadly there was nothing new. We had heard all these proposals before. In practically every school in the country. I can't imagine there is a school in existence which doesn't have every one of their ideas on an action plan somewhere.

What was not revealed was the fact that the chair of the meeting, Suella Fernades, their legal expert, stood as a Tory MP in Leicester against a high profile black Labour MP. One of their key speakers was Neil Mahapatra, a banker who stood for the Tories against Tony Blair in Sedgefield. Finally there was Katharine Birbalsingh, (who was given a standing ovation at the Tory party conference). She was dismissed from her previous post, has never been a Head teacher as far as we know, but has been designated as the head of this new school. Difficult to see how many on this panel can justify being interested in a school in Lambeth when they live hundreds of miles away but easy to see why they might want the publicity.

Over 20 of the people attending the meeting were there to oppose the plan, including many teachers and Head teachers. When questions were allowed from the floor, after an hour and a half of listening to the organisers of the plan, only 4 people were allowed to speak. One of them asked why he should be interested only in his own child if it meant destroying education for other Black children. This is at the heart of this free school project. It would directly pit this new school in competition with local schools. Not only that it will take funding from them. Free schools are funded from the BSF cuts. This is money that was allocated and promised to local schools to refurbish them and improve the facilities for our pupils. For someone to talk about improving the education of Black children by indulging in a project that is taking money away from schools that serve our black community is astounding.

For a Tory project to come into the heart of Lambeth, when the Tory cuts have seen the sacking of our ethnic minority achievement team, the closing of our adventure playgrounds, the shutting of our libraries, is also breathtaking cheek.

Those of us interested in education want a real dialogue about how to tackle racism in schools and ethnic minority achievement. The Tory cuts will have a devastating effect on our black community. Tory free schools are not the answer.

We call for all those opposed to this plan and interested in a constructive dialogue about race and education to come to a steering group meeting on Wednesday 18th May at 5.30pm."

[Fuschia]

Vomit

[Dorothy]

Who/where did that report come from please MrChas ?

[EDmummy]

Far be it for me to question your motives mrchas but as Dorothy says, can you let us know the source of the second post as you have done with the first. At least an author would be useful, then we can make up our own mind!

[mrchas]

Sorry All

Cut and paste mistake I do apologise I lost a line

The Anti Academies Alliance

http://www.antiacademies.org.uk/Home/headlines/lambethprotestagainstfreeschoolproposal

Delingpole was in the Telegraph

[Mark Dodds]

What with me being the publican as above I want to add comment on this BUT I can't gather my thoughts succinctly enough because I have to design a poster proposing setting up 'Friends of Camberwell Green' to display at the Farmer's Market tomorrow - on Camberwell Green - at the Farmer's Market.

I'll be back. The meeting was marvellous though and I'm really proud to have been part of it. It's worth saying that the people objecting outside were plain wrong and I'll explain that when I have more time...

Hope to see you at Camberwell Green tomorrow! http://www.urbanfarmersmarket.co.uk/

Meantime here's a pic of some of the steering group: http://bit.ly/ixzbUs

[mrchas]

My last post that may interest parents on this thread, is a long and detailed "speech" by MIKE BAKER

http://www.mikebakereducation.co.uk/

It is a detailed and insightful analysis of where the Academy movement and the whole school system is heading

Tipping point for academies and the whole school system

06 May 2011

The following is the main text of my speech at the Academy Network conference in Birmingham on May 5th 2011 www.academynetwork.co.uk/

Just before Easter I wrote in my Education Guardian column about how this was something of a landmark moment for academies.

For while the teacher union conferences were busy condemning academy conversions, up and down the country school governors were (I guessed ? and subsequent correspondence suggested I was right) pondering whether or not to take the leap and convert.

One school governor wrote to me to say they were indeed ?agonising? over the issue over the holidays in order to make a decision before the end of the summer and before the current financial offer runs out.

That governor told me the Church of England has suddenly decided that academy conversion is the only way to go and is advising its voluntary-aided schools to do so as a matter of urgency.

As this particular chair of governors concluded - in her area at least - the decision to convert was looking like a ?no brainer? and she expected all local schools to go that way by the autumn.

Looking more widely, a recent survey by the Association of School and College Leaders in April showed that almost half of all secondary schools had either converted or were actively considering doing so.

A further 34% were undecided (and that?s probably changed just in the last month or so) and only 19% remained defiantly against the change.

So why are so many taking this route? In most cases, it has to be said, it?s not ideology, but pragmatism.

In the ASCL survey, of those considering change, 73% believed it would help them financially. And, as we know, with much tougher economic times now upon us, this is an even more important consideration than usual.

For many large secondary schools the financial cushion that academy conversion offers is substantial ? even if it may not last much beyond the first year.

Warwick Mansell had an interesting piece in The Education Guardian the other day that gave some detailed case studies of how some schools were hundreds of thousands of pounds better off by becoming academies.

This confirms the picture I?ve also been getting from schools I?ve visited.

As Warwick wrote, the money schools are getting to replace their share of central funding for services such as behaviour support, school improvement, and administration ? the LACSEG or local authority spend equivalent grant (to give it its full catchy name) - is in most cases worth more than they are spending out to replace those services.

In part that?s because some of those services are now coming from the YPLA. And in part it?s because many schools do not have great need for some of the services they were previously paying for.

This is particularly true for ?outstanding? schools and those which - because of their student composition - do not have great need for services such as behaviour support or welfare and truancy backup.

So, I think we are now at a tipping point when all but the most reluctant will feel unable to resist the tide (if that?s not mixing my metaphors too much).

Once several large secondary schools in an area have converted, taking their share of central budgets, what capability will local authorities have left to support schools that remain with them?

It has to be said that many primary heads are enthusiasts for academy freedoms ? but many are not. But they feel they may be left with no choice.

So, here we are, just one year on from the General Election (voting was a year ago to this day ? a year is a long time in politics!).

And, for all the talk from Michael Gove, about ending central direction and leaving policy to individual schools, the fact is that he has pulled some critical levers and the whole system is moving in the direction he wants.

He may not be fat?but he is certainly the controller.

And make no mistake about the enormity of this change. It is easy to under-estimate what is happening, in part because it builds on what has been happening steadily ever since the 1988 Act started to give schools greater autonomy over budgets and other decision-making.

The shift to school autonomy has been mostly welcome and has been incremental.

But now we are, as I say, at a pivotal moment. This is nothing short of the dismantling of the 1944 Education Act, which set up a ?national system locally administered?.

And while Local authorities retain certain important roles in law, there must be a real question about their future ability to fulfil that role.

That is particularly worrying for those schools that are big users of central services such as behaviour support or school improvement.

But for all schools the future now looks like one in which the school/LA relationship will be replaced by school-to-school relationships.

That might happen within federations. Or it may be within school groups, under a particular brand, as I am sure we are going to see the steady growth of school chains like ARK, E-ACT or The Harris Federation.

We may also see more vertical federations as primary schools look to their secondary neighbours to fulfil some of the role of the former LA.

Schools will buy support packages from other schools or school groups.

Education departments as such will cease to disappear in may local authorities.

In their place there will be many more education service companies and organisations offering targeted support and functions.

To get the best out of their purchasing power, schools will need to operate jointly or in groups to coordinate their finances and to achieve better deals.

How will that be done: there are lots of solutions - joint bursars, executive heads, shared procurement committees ? and they will vary across the country, according to circumstances?

And, just as universities are finding in Higher Education, one solution to financial hardship will be to develop more shared services for everything from catering and payroll to HR support and specialist services like Ed Psychs and behaviour Support.

And ? legally, of course ? academies are the same as independent schools. That might feel a bit odd for those of you who?ve spent your professional lives in the state sector.

But it should not be too odd. An academy is in effect a mid-sized corporate or charitable legal entity, and that should be familiar to governors who?ve worked in any substantial organisation outside the public sector.

Conversion also cuts the ties with LAs, although most councils are still permitting academies to pay for services if they want them, although they are under no obligation to provide them anymore.

There are many other issues, I know, which you may want to know more about: from pensions to employment laws, legal requirements to auditing practices.

And hopefully today you?ll get the answers you need.

In conclusion then, it?s a brave new world we?re entering.

Personally I feel many schools will thrive on it. But I also fear there will be casualties.

And there is a question about who will be there to monitor schools to catch them before they fall too far.

I think there is a real risk that the school system will become more fragmented and disparate?.and probably more unequal.

School leaderships are quite right to do what is best for their own institution ? but I do worry about the bigger picture.

There are some likely flash points ahead too ? perhaps the most obvious being over national pay and conditions, something the unions are determined to protect, despite Lord Hill?s recent insistence that the ability to set pay and conditions for staff is one of the key autonomies for academies.

So, all in all, there?s a lot of questions for us to discuss today.

How can schools or federations work together to get the best support services that are out there?

How will they need to change their own structures to fit this new world?

What reassurances should they be giving to their staff, parents and students?

Can they go it alone or should they be looking for the support of federation or seek to be part of a well-know school chain brand?

You have the privilege and the pleasure of leading schools in what the Chinese would call ?interesting? times.

I?m sure they?re going to be exciting times. And challenging times.

You?ll need to innovate and to adapt?even more than you no doubt do already.

But ? hopefully ? you?ll leave here today with some valuable advice, some good new contacts, and with the fellow feeling of a problem shared.

[Mark Dodds]

-- moved topic --

[mrchas]

Michaela Community School (MCS) - opening Sept 2012

Saturday 21st May 11.00 - 14.00

Community Open Day @ Sport Action Zone ( SAZ )

Lilian Baylis Old School, Lollard Street, London SE11 6PY

Come and see the sports activities that will be on offer to us !

The steering group will be there to greet you and answer questions.

Bring your children and TELL YOUR FRIENDS !

The facilities are amazing ( see weblink )

http://www.sportactionzone.com/

Kind regards from the Steering Group

Michaela Community School ( MCS )

http://www.michaelacommunityschool.co.uk

[Mark Dodds]

Here's a piece that got onto BBC London: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-13392612

[new mother]

Mr Chas, your anti academies post was a spoof yes? It is hilarious...