Is Alleyn's School a cuckoo?

[macroban]

Since the thread about Alleyn's School's anti-social behaviour in having noisy fireworks and loud music late on a Sunday evening I've been trying to work out what Alleyn's contributes to our local community.

I having difficulties in identifying anything, so please help and set my mind at rest.

Does it pay local taxes?

Does it employ local residents?

Does it get its supplies from local businesses?

Does it provide scholarships/bursaries for local children?

Does it allow local residents use its facilities for free or at marginal cost?

[EDIT: One spelling error and one typing error corrected in deference to one better educated and with more dexterity than me.]

[Asset]

does do scholarships and bursaries

does allow the community use of the pool via swimming clubs

is part of the dulwich college foundation school group and therefore owns much of the land locally

[snorky]

registered charitee

Sub lets its facilities to reduce its costs

Serves S London more than the local area - there an awful lot of mileage every day amongst those pupils & not all of it poblic

Everyone joins the Army cadets unless they ahve good reason not to - one day, some of these people will be ordering memebrs of your community of family to commit heienous acts in the name of the Queen

[MitchK]

Maybe not, but it does teach people how to spell noisy and difficulties properly.

Maybe it does not buy organic chicken at William Rose, but it is good for Dulwich to have top private schools in the area. It attracts wealthy people here, who do pay council tax and spend their incomes locally.

[snorky]

does it also teach pedantry Mitch ?

[Mikecg]

Does it breed spelling Nazis.

[matthew123]

Well I quite liked the fireworks, they were very impressive... although I sympathise with those looking out of the wrong window wondering if their cars were being blown up by the elite Alleyn's Army cadets.

I guess if they ceased to exist, say a petition to have them shut down for their 10 o'clock firework show, then it could be turned into a 24 hour Tesco or maybe a Borstal for unruly kids that had broken their Playstations.

As for the questions, I'd say Yes to each one to some degree or another.

[ester]

Just to correct snorky, you only join the cadets if you want to. However, in year 10, students must choose between ccf, community service(based locally), duke of edinburgh and the 'fun fizz' scheme helping children at a local special school

[snorky]

I stand ( to attention )corected

[ester]

indeed...

this is an interesting topic to raise though. admittedly, the school is not too representative of the surrounding area...however, ironically, book sales from the much slated fireworks event were said to be going towards more and more bursaries to solve this problem, one to watch.

[snorky]

Bursaries are required to keep up a fee paying schools charity status

It tax efficiency, pure and simple

No public benfifit, no charitable status now - this isnt about reaching out to the community, its about survival for these institutions - and lets not forget that to get onto the means testing ladder,first you have to have a place - scooping out the most apt to keep your ranking and paying pupils coming through the doors

[dulwichmum]

Alleyns is one of the best schools in the country/planet. It has extensive green space around it and if it was not there, if it were a state school, they would have been sold off by now and covered in miniature Wimpey housing estates. Yes it employs local residents, and it educates local children. Why should it allow local residents to use its facilities free or at marginal cost?

[SteveT]

macroban wrote:- Does it provide scholarships/bursaries for local children?

Yes!

Freemason offspring seem to be above average in this particular event it has been said.

Idle chatter from the common room suggests the biggest scholarship winners, are often not necessarily the cleverest or brightest in their year, though only a cynic would be swayed by such talk.

[vallajo]

Alleyns is one of the best schools in the country/planet?

Hmmm... must've changed since I went there. I actually had teachers who were openly offensive about pupils they didn't like and proceeded to ignore parents who complained about this. They seemed to hide behind the protection offered to them by it's status as a private school. Certainly an incident involving my form teacher and myself would've been a serious issue in a state school. At Alleyns the teacher concerned didn't care, and neither did anyone else.

I won't name names or go into specifics (although the teacher concerned is still working there!) as this isn't the right place for it. However I hope it's changed from the place I experienced in the late 80s'. The one excepton was the headmaster, Mr Derek Fenner, an exceptional man who did an outstanding job. A shame that several bad apples got away with what they did.

[Tony.London Suburbs]

To the wider Public it puts "Dulwich" on the map.

Say "Dulwich" to those who live afar and they might well say "Alleyns" / "Dulwich College" and The Village, possibly The Horniman Museum..

[KalamityKel]

Poor JAGS just aint worth mentioning eh? ;-) you know it's that other private school just across the road from Alleyn's don't you...?

[gerry]

As a former parent of Alleyns, let me say a few things.....Firstly, as a mixed school, it has proven that boys and girls together can still produce normal, intelligent adults. The reputation is clearly well founded that every student is valued for their strengths - music, art, sport, drama. Other schools have a reputation of being sport jock havens, where those who are not sporty get sidelined and bullied. Second, there is a very positive atmosphere in the school - teachers, students and parents seem to work together very well and often....projects are always undertaken to fundraise for charities, students work for local charities, and there is a bursary fund. I know of several children who have benefited from this fund - local as well as further afield. Third, they shut down their own sports hall to members so that the local community could use the pool etc. more often. The gym as well is used by local groups, and remedial reading groups are held in the primary school on weekends to help a local special needs group. The theatre is holdng a fundraiser for the Dulwich Helpline on 28th March......

[boswell]

Just to chip into this debate, the school also offers (at least it did when I was there) remedial maths classes to local children at the weekends. As far as I remember we had to do some form of 'community service' (whether cadets, gardening, charity shop working, visiting a retirement home etc) once a week at least for year nine, and I'm pretty sure we had to continue on in year 10 and 11 as well. There was a lot of charity fundraising going on (own clothes days, talent contests, cake sales, all sorts of things which raised a lot of money).

I have to say I did notice the make up of the years change slightly in the years below me as I was one (possibly the last?) year of assisted places, however I'd say that in my year at large proportion of the pupils I knew were from the local area on assisted places or bursaries, in my group of friends out of 14 of us 6 were there on assisted places or bursaries/scholarships. As to serving the local community, in terms of where the pupils lived, I'd say it was only a minority that lived outside the East/North/West Dulwich, Peckham and Forest Hill borders.

[????]

Q) Does it produce excellent pupils who set a fine example of what modern school leavers can be like and schoolchildren aspire to?

A) Peaches Geldof

[Jah Lush]

Great school. Wish I'd gone there.

[Cassius]

Q) Does it produce excellent pupils who set a fine

> example of what modern school leavers can be like

> and schoolchildren aspire to?

>

> A) Jude Law.

[Asset]

Cassius Wrote:

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

> Q) Does it produce excellent pupils who set a

> fine

> > example of what modern school leavers can be

> like

> > and schoolchildren aspire to?

> >

> > A) Lawrence Llewelyn Bowen

[Brendan]

Ok so 3 very bad examples of what it has produced. What about all the other pupils?

[Tony.London Suburbs]

Great school. Wish I'd gone there.

[James]

I believe Kelvin MacKenzie went there (the man responsible for the Sun's "GOTCHA" headline after the sinking of the Belgrano).

Oh dear.