Harris Academy (new boys school for East Dulwich)

[tomk]

Fair enough. i'm not party to the 2007 figures - 2006 was 39%

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/bsp/hi/education/06/school_tables/secondary_schools/html/210_4318.stm

peckham academy - 23%

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/bsp/hi/education/06/school_tables/secondary_schools/html/210_6906.stm

haberdashers KNIGHTS - 14%

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/bsp/hi/education/06/school_tables/secondary_schools/html/209_6906.stm

and the school we would all like the ED Academy to be, but it won't:

haberdashers HATCHAM - 91% (not an academy)

[zephyr]

Hatcham became an academy when it took over Mallory (it was part of the deal and benefited from funds to make improvements on both the Hatcham sites). Hatcham College and Knights Academy are both academies in the Haberdasher Askes Federation

[Emily]

hey, guess what, it's perfectly possible to have sons in a local state primary and still think the Academy, as proposed, is a bad thing.

The architecture is absolutely hideous. It will be an eyesore. It is utterly ludicrous to suggest that children cannot have a good education in an elegant old building (or even one that retains the facade of an older building). I think Eton, Harrow, Dulwich College et al manage quite nicely.

950 boys is clearly too many for the site. Even the government's own guidelines say this. Cramming boys into the building like battery hens will not a good school make - and has social, emotional and welfare implications.

I am immensely sceptical about some carpet salesman being given the right to open his Carpetrite Academies for teaching kids to sell stuff with our money. What on earth does he know about education? He barely even has one!

And yes, though the building is not close enough to my street to have any impact at all, I do feel for the poor sods who will, if these plans go through, be plunged into near perpetual shadow by this giant building - let alone the noise, parking problems and lack of privacy they will face.

It's not my back yard, but I'm not so lacking in empathy that I can't understand why people might be concerned.

[spc]

I do live next to the site and like any honest person I would prefer not to have to put up with the noise and disruption caused by the building work that would be needed to build the school (or flat etc), but something needs to be done with the site one way or an other.

I remember the hasle caused in the past when the school was open and then it was only a girls school!!! Having said that I know a school has to go next to someone, if it has to be me so be it.

But I am opposed to the site being use for a school mainly because of the busy road outside, and site being too small. In the past there were several accidents involve pupils of the school and I believe one was fatal (hence the two speed cameras). When the school was first built there were no cars, since it has closed the traffic has only got waste. Harris have said they would ban children being taken to school by car, as if is going to work! the site is too small for the near 1000 boys the school is for, can you imagaine 1000 boys coming out of the school on to Peckham Rye all at once.

Let have a school in ED but lets make sure it is on the right size site in the right location and run by someone who is not in it for the money.

[tiddles]

what was the meeting at St Thomas Moore hall like - couldn't attend due to work commitments

[BigDad]

CONSULTATION MEETINGS !

Harris have set up a number of 'consultation' meetings to discuss the new school. In stead of holding an open meeting and inviting the parents of the local primary schools they only appear to have sent pamphlets round to a small number of local residents. Why have they done it this way?

No doubt this will enable them to tick the box to say 'we consulted with the locals' but what will they actually do?

Given the importance of this matter you would think they wold invite all the people who count - the local residents and the parents of young kids looking for secondary school places. So - if you want a say in this important matter, write to Kiran Gondal at:

[email protected]

The meetings are on the 12th and 19th of December and you can request to go the morning, afternoon or evening meeting and they estimate they will last an hour. Attendance is by appointment ONLY (why dont they trust the people they supposedly want to work with?)

Being Harris, they have not given a location nor an exact time and have chosen work days which make it difficult for people to go. Contact Kiran and make it work to get to one of the meetings as this is the chance for you to have a say in how your kids are educated.

[Caron]

> The selection criteria will exclude most working class boys.

> Very few of the pupils will be from North of Peckham Road/Peckham

> High Street. Many parents will be those who can't afford, or won't

> pay, the fees for Alleyns or Dulwich College. The property prices

> in the East Dulwich Bermuda Triangle will double. The school will be

> renamed "Honor Oak".

Let's hope so.

Seriously, the other Harris Academy is full of working class girls and the middle class parents haven't taken it over, despite its amazing facilities, and I don't think the property prices near it are any higher than anywhere else round here. So I wouldn't worry. You need a critical mass of the middle classes to bring a school "up".

[tiddles]

interesting - I had a direct email from kiranjit gondal with a pdf about the school and an address to send any queries. what I want is an ok local secondary school that my kids could walk to (crikey, there's an idea) so if the boys school was scaled down slightly and was for local kids (like the elm court/elm green school in west dulwich) I would be pretty keen. I won't go near the harris girls school as I heard from an 'inside source' that there is a real clan mentality - I don't want to use the word gang as it has the wrong connotations. Basically, the african girls stick together, the west indian girls, the asian girls and the white girls - they don't mix!! plus behaviour in the school - very bad.

I plan to read the pdf in greater detail (hope it is not all puff) and lob off my queries.

[Keef]

jan t Wrote:

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

> plus behaviour in the school - very bad.

No change there then, you should have tried getting the same buses as the Waverly girls! (6)

[Caron]

It's such a shame isn't it?

I'm so, so lucky I teach in a fantastic boys' school. Tons of different races and religions and backgrounds, but all with a common value: education is good and it's valuable. All of us - the boys, the parents, the teachers - have the same aim and it makes school life cohesive and focused. I'm not saying they can't be lazy, annoying toerags, but generally they want an education.

I wouldn't want a pack of disruptive, illiterate boys coming from anywhere to spoil our learning atmosphere. Even one rotten apple literally ruins an entire class, in my humble experience.

[*Bob*]

Caron Wrote:

> I wouldn't want a pack of disruptive, illiterate

> boys coming from anywhere to spoil our learning

> atmosphere. Even one rotten apple literally ruins

> an entire class, in my humble experience.

Perhaps they need teaching? Just a thought.

[Keef]

So where is this school of yours Caron? Is it state?

[Kitkat]

There is another site which has been mentioned for this school in the forum; The East dulwich hosptial, surely this would make a fabulous site as is it is large enough and nobody really knows what this is to be used for.

[Caron]

Keef - the school is a state boys' school in Sutton but it's selective.

*Bob* - you're right! If only I had thought of that.

[ChavWivaLawDegree]

"Keef - the school is a state boys' school in Sutton but it's selective. "

So what happens to the ones that are not selected?

[dc]

They are, we assume:

"a pack of disruptive, illiterate boys coming from anywhere to spoil our learning atmosphere."

To be honest I'm not sure I'd want you teaching my son with an attitude like that so I feel fortunate that I only have a daughter. Oh, and that I don't live in Sutton.

[benmorg]

some info below on the Harris Girls' school (formerly Waverley school). Academic achievements at this school are very poor and there is greater emphasis on sports. Pupils are predominanty from poor Afro-Caribbean backgrounds & from wide area of South London. The boys' academy is likely to be similar.

"Waverley School is an 11-16 school for girls. In January 2001 it had 900 pupils on roll drawn from over 50 feeder primary schools and other local secondary schools across six London boroughs. The school is situated in an area of moderate affluence but many pupils live in electoral wards with the highest levels of social and economic deprivation. The proportion of pupils eligible for free school meals is over 55%. The pupil population is composed of a rich mixture of ethnic groups and cultures, many having English as an additional language. The proportion of pupils identified as having special educational needs is over 30%. Standards achieved on entry are very low compared with the national average."

[dc]

"The boys' academy is likely to be similar"

Why?

[lilolil]

Benmorg...I am lost for words!

People like you should not tar everyone with the same brush.

My daughter attends Harris girls after being taken out from a high achieving Catholic school. She has never been happier. She is taking 2 BTEC'S along with all the compulsory GCSE's which means she should come away from Harris with 17 GCSE's!!!

Also she is predicted A grades as are most of her peers.

Recently Gordon Brown has been there praising the standards and the girls. Also Damilola Taylors father,Kelly Holmes,and Tony Blair have all visited and remarked on the turn around of the school.High profile personalities would not lend their names to something that would have a negative impact on their reputation.

Leslie Day and her team have worked incredibly hard in recent years for this to happen, and the school is improving in leaps and bounds.

Yes, there are some problems as in all schools, but give them a chance for goodness sake!!!

[benmorg]

Well the quote above came from 2001, so a lot may well have changed since then, which would be good news for the boys academy as it would be run along the same lines and share resources & facilities.

[macroban]

Standards improving? That's good.

Time for the middle classes to take over.

[beatricealice]

The best bit was where someone said Harris was on a roll.

[beatricealice]

Sorry, that last message was supposed to be a reply to someone's question about the St. Thomas More (Edge)meeting. I don't seem to have got the hang of this yet.

[benmorg]

tomk Wrote:

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

> I teach in an academy at a senior level and have

> visited a number of others in a professional

> capacity. I have also taught at a number of other

> London comps. Trust me, 'academy' is just the new

> word for 'sink school' - but with better

> facilities. Most of the people posting on this

> message would not send their child to an academy

> (especially a boy-only one) if they knew what they

> are really like. They are widely acknowledged as a

> failure, just with shinier glass panels outside

> and trendy corridor designs inside. Ultimately

> this is because they continue to draw their kids

> from catchment areas of social deprivation, which

> brings with it all the ensuing problems. Accuse me

> of nimbyism if you like (and it's been done all

> too frequently on this thread) but this school

> will end up being a magnet for trouble before and

> after the school day - and very few people from

> East Dulwich will send their boys there because by

> the time the current crop of ED's would-be middle

> class teenagers are old-enough, it will already be

> overrun with all the boys from the local estates

> who would otherwise attend Kingsdale and Peckham

> Academy. If you are not already sending your boy

> to one of these schools, you will not choose East

> Dulwich Academy when it comes round to it. Don't

> kid yourself that it will even be as good as

> Charter, which at my last count was languishing

> somewhere around 30% 5 A*-C grades (and yes I do

> have kids, and no I cannot afford private

> education). Academies are the last attempts by the

> government to stem the anti-social tide, and they

> do not manage to do this.

If this is true, what effect will it have on the surrounding area? Could turn Peckham Rye into a no-go area like Burgess Park.

[lilolil]

tut tut..........

No wonder these kids dont bother if people judge them on their backgrounds and race. GIVE THEM SOME INSPIRATION, dont write them off. As I said before Harris IS improving as a school. I can assure you my precious daughter would NOT be there if I thought that she would by association become a drop out/druggie/mugger/thief.

Mind you I could send her to a very public school and she could learn the same there, a bit more upmarket.......