New Secondary School East Dulwich

[chupa123]

I love the idea of a more local school run by a decent organisation but given that I live in SE15 I still will not be able to access the school for my children walking distance etc (just checked I live 17 minutes walking distance). Why is the site so close to Charter School? This has been an historic fiasco with the Charter School being championed by the very parents who couldn't get their children into it, as the main intake comes from the, 'wrong side' of Lordship Lane. Again we will witness this problem for the next generation of 30 something parents coming into the area most of whom can only afford to move into the SE15 postcode. Also given all the middle class snobbery that went with Charter and the scandal around the kids from DKH Estate not being allowed in even when they lived so close. What is to say that this social engineering is not again repeated here. What Southwark needs to do is make all schools accessible regardless of distance etc,(just as Kingsdale manages to do!) so that people can't create these social divides and in so doing mix the schools up class, colour etc. etc and see which education org wins and produces the best education for all kids.

[edanna]

17 minutes is not a prohibitive walking distance. Lots of parents I know walk for 20-25 mins to primary. It's also completely untrue to assert that admittance by distance will lead to lots of kids from wealthy middle class backgrounds to the exclusion of everyone else. There is a wide diversity of people of different backgrounds living near the Dulwich hospital site and as the crow flies admission is likely to include all of the DKH estate.

[chupa123]

Of course 17 minutes isn't long but it will preclude anyone living that far i.e Bellenden Road area (so close and yet so far!!) to accessing it if 'closest to school', will be the main admissions criteria. I am sorry but I think you are either missing my point or have not been witness to the school issues locally over the last two decades; hence yet another new school. As for DKH kids, the crow did fly very close to Charter but they were denied access and it wasn't the appeals board or Southwark that stepped in to correct this problem. I wonder as the crow flies which school would be closer Charter or the new school ( I shall check.)as the DKH kids certainly missed out on the admissions policy for Charter. I suggest you look at class and race in schools in Peckham se15, that can easily service the middle classes but who shy away from them on the basis that they have a predominantly different ethnic mix and class make up to their own, lets not pretend!

[bornagain]

Let's get some facts straight first. Charter as it currently stands operate a closest safe walking route not an as the crow flies admissions criteria. The issue about whether the children on the DKH estate could be admitted or not depended on whether a short cut through was included in the allowable walking routes or not. It seems that the new school may operate a crow flies criteria but I don't think this is decided (nor which provider would run the new school)

Charter serves a diverse community, not just the middle classes. It is diverse ethnically. Stand by the school gates at the start/end of school day and look for yourself. If you live in Bellenden you may not get into Charter now but depending on which end of Bellenden I would imagine you would have a good chance of getting into the secondary school on the Hospital site. Don't forget you also have Harris Peckham which is very close by and has an ofsted good rating.

As for following Kingsdale's model of the lottery system, with its popularity the chances of your child getting is equally small whereever you live! At least with a distance based system there is a certain amount of certainty which helps when planning ahead.

[Soulking]

bornagain - I agree completely.

I don't understand why you would rather the (small) random chance of getting into your preferred choice via a lottery versus a more predicatable chance that as the crow flies admissions offers. At least you know where you stand, and so either accept the fact or (in theory) do something about it (for example, move).

Some people have mentioned they prefer a distance based admissions with banding - because they felt it would potentially increase the maximum distance for them? I don't really understand this - unless you know that there are fewer children in your childs particular band closer to the school than there are on average in the other bands? How could you possibly know this? Or is it just that with a smaller admissions group (if say 5 bands then 20% of intake) then there will be more variation from a statistical point of view. In which case this sounds like taking a big chance to me and going back to my first point is not something I could rely on (call me a control freak!).

[James Barber]

Hi Chupa123,

The reason why this site - is because its the only local site that could house a secondary school.

Ideally we'd have found a site 1 mile to the SE but I've not found one.

Lottery admissions wouldnt result in a school serving the local area. It would see children coming so distance and not meet any travel plan that the planning process I would anticipate requiring.

Frankly, I'm amazed Kingsdale has been allowed to go to lottery admissions considering the travel impact.

But the good news is that whichever provider gets to open a new school - Haberdahsers' Aske's or The Charter it should see an overall far larger admissions footprint and I would expect it to stretch into SE15.

[intexasatthe moment]

I think chupa has a point

"What Southwark needs to do is make all schools accessible regardless of distance etc,(just as Kingsdale manages to do!) so that people can't create these social divides and in so doing mix the schools up class, colour etc. etc and see which education org wins and produces the best education for all kids."

I know that Southwark now lacks the ability to influence admissions policies - not even sure that it still operates an Admissions Forum ,though even when it did it took no action to correct the Charter's misapplication of it's close walking distance policy . Bring back the ILEA or a new pan London wide admissions policy so that all schools could operate banding to achieve a truly comprehensive intake . Unless all schools operate banding and particularly where banding is operated only in the context of the group of applicants who have applied for a school we aren't going to have comprehensive intakes .

"I suggest you look at class and race in schools in Peckham se15, that can easily service the middle classes but who shy away from them on the basis that they have a predominantly different ethnic mix and class make up to their own, lets not pretend!"

I think it's true that The Academy @Peckham has a different social and minority intake to The Charter despite it being easily accessible from East Dulwich ,being undersubscribed and residents of East Dulwich anxious to find secondary school places .

[mamafeelgood]

does anyone know what the situation is with the hospital site? will there be a school accepting applications for 2017?

thanks

[Otta]

Well said intexasatthe moment.

[Jakido]

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