Have your say on the proposed Haberdashers' new secondary - feedback form now online

[parentsteeringgroup]

Hello all,

many thanks to so many of you for coming along to our meeting last week. For both those who couldn't make it, and those who may not have had a chance to fill in a feedback form yet, we thought it would be useful to post the link to the online form: http://www.haaf.org.uk/New-East-Dulwich-Secondary-School-1

This is your chance to tell Haberdashers' how you think the school should work. Many of you have particular views on admissions, and there is scope to share your views on that as well as other issues, such as how the school could work with the community, and what facilities it should have. On the admissions point, Haberdashers' would be interested to know, for example, whether you live in what you consider to be a secondary schools black hole, and whether you would support the idea of "nodal points". Those who came to the meeting may have picked up on the mention of nodal points, but for those who aren't aware, a nodal point is a point outside of the school site from which distance can be measured and admissions determined. i.e., a way to open catchment up in black holes.

Haberdashers are currently in the process of evaluating all the data, and if you have time to go online and fill in a form before the summer holidays kick in, then it all helps towards informing their application when it goes into the Department for Education after the star of the new academic year. We know everyone is busy with the end of term and preparing for summer holidays, but if you do want to have a say on this, then now is your chance. It's also an opportunity to register your support for Haberdashers, if you wish to.

Many thanks - and do post if you have any questions. You can find us on Facebook and Twitter too: https://www.facebook.com/NewSchDulwich?fref=ts

@NewSchDulwich

[parentsteeringgroup]

Hi there everyone, you may have spotted that the hospital site and the schools' campaign is front page news in the Dulwich and South London Press today. A couple of photos are attached.

It's important that we demonstrate the huge public support for a secondary school on the hospital site. If you would like to support our campaign please do give your feedback online here:

http://www.haaf.org.uk/New-East-Dulwich-Secondary-School-1

Thanks and have a lovely weekend.

[bonaome]

Sorry - read the post title and answered my own question

[parentsteeringgroup]

Sorry Bonaome, just came on to answer your question but see you've realised our position.

To give you a bit of background: we are a group of local parents campaigning for a new secondary school in East Dulwich. When we first got involved in the campaign, we agreed a set of criteria for what that school should eventually look like, based on what feedback we had gleaned from the forum, and face to face contact - we all have children at local primary schools, representing a broad cross-section of almost all of the 10 primary schools located around the mooted site (Dulwich Hospital). So, we were looking for a provider who could offer - among other things - a co-educational non-faith school, with a fair admissions policy (resulting in a truly comprehensive intake). We felt it was crucial that the provider would genuinely increase choice for the parents of East Dulwich.

We spoke to a number of providers but ultimately it was Haberdashers' who we unanimously voted to back in their application to set up the school. This was because they scored very highly across all the criteria we had set out at the start. We feel confident they can offer a school which provides all of the points mentioned above and more. We also believe that as a federation with experience of setting up a free school, and with an outstanding school nearby (Hatcham College) they are very well placed to bring this about in the short timescale which we know is necessary.

[parentsteeringgroup]

Morning everyone

The summary slides from the Haberdashers? consultation evening on 10th July are attached here. Thanks for your patience in waiting for these. Hopefully they are a useful reminder for those of you who were there and give an idea of what was discussed for those who couldn?t make it.

The feedback forms so far are telling us that most of you are worried about the admissions policy and the fact that the hospital site (where we hope the school will be located ? the only site that?s big enough locally) is not where we really need the school to be, since most of the families who need a new co-ed secondary school live to the East of Lordship Lane. We know that there are secondary school ?black holes? (many of the parent steering group members live in one of these) and many of you are keen to make sure that the proposed new school allows those families to be in catchment.

So that the steering group can support Habs to resolve the issues around catchment please can as many of you as possible fill out the feedback form here:

http://www.haaf.org.uk/New-East-Dulwich-Secondary-School-1

It doesn?t matter how many times you fill out the feedback form ? Habs will pick out any duplicate names and group the feedback under areas of concern.

Under the admissions section can we ask you to consider:

? Do you live in an admissions ?black hole? for a co-ed secondary school? If so where is it? Where are the other parts of ED which are not served by a local co-ed secondary?

? Do you support the idea of a nodal point that would allow distance to be measured (for admissions purposes) from a location other than the school?

If you have any questions or concerns please post them here, or you can email Haberdashers directly at [email protected]

Thanks again, we appreciate your support and input.

[parentsteeringgroup]

Hello everyone

Habs have posted a Q&A document on their web site in response to the most commonly asked questions that are coming through on the feedback forms. We do appreciate all the feedback - please keep it coming.

You can have a look at the Q&A here: http://www.haaf.org.uk/Mainfolder/East-Dulwich-School/East%20Dulwich%20Academy%20-%20FAQ%20Document.pdf

The intention is to update the Q&A document as new questions are put forward. If you have any questions that aren't covered by the Q&A please send them to [email protected]

Thanks and happy holidays to you all.

[parentsteeringgroup]

Fantastic letter from Tessa Jowell to Nicky Morgan, the new Sec of State for Education, making the case that the greatest local need is for a secondary school, and that the Dulwich hospital site should be used for this purpose.

Please reply to her tweet to offer your support. It all helps.