Representatives from the Charter School Education Trust and the Parent-led Steering Group for the New Secondary School for East Dulwich Campaign have been invited to address the committee.
Minutes:
6.1 The chair, Councillor Gavin Edwards, reported that he had met with the head of John Donne Primary School. He had also drafted an on-line survey for parents about the school places strategy and their experience in dealing with the council in respect of places. Shelley Burke, the head of overview & scrutiny, explained that the governors support unit and Community Action Southwark would circulate the survey and that the communications team was advising on where it should be published. The chair added that he hoped that a draft report would be available for the committee to consider at its January meeting.
6.2 Liz Brown and Yvonne Wilcox addressed the committee, representing the Charter School Education Trust. Liz Brown, the chair of the trust and the governing body, gave a brief history of the current school. She reported that it had been judged as outstanding in the last three Ofsted inspections, had achieved very good GCSE results and that A Level results had improved. The school was five times over-subscribed with a catchment of 1.5KM. Liz Brown explained that there were a lot of children in the community that the school was unable to provide a service for. The school was too popular and had no room for expansion. A second Charter school would enable more of the community to be served. This had led to the bid to the Department of Education, to be submitted by 10 October. Yvonne Wilcox explained that, when the current school was in its planning stage, the East Dulwich Hospital site had been offered but that given the eventual timeframe it was good that this had not been taken up. Liz Brown added that the council had been helpful in putting together the bid but that ultimately Southwark had no power in the process. Putting together the bid was very time consuming and had mainly been done by volunteers.
6.3 Councillor Gavin Edwards, the chair, asked the two representatives for their opinion of the process and whether it was a good way of getting parents involved. Liz Brown felt that the process did not did not plan for the needs of the whole of the borough but just one locality. She also questioned the proposal to put a Nunhead primary school on the East Dulwich hospital site, in terms of transporting children to the site but also that the site was the only site of a reasonable size that was really practicable for a secondary school. The chair wondered whether it would be possible to have both a primary and a secondary school on the site. Liz Brown responded that the NHS had not yet confirmed the size of site available. It was important not to compromise secondary school play space and sports facilities.
6.4 Councillor Anood Al-Samerai congratulated Charter School on its achievements. She asked how leadership and admissions would operate if there was a second school. Liz Brown explained that a multi-academy trust would be set up and that people were being approached to sit on the board. The new school would have its own governing body and head teacher but the same vision and values. Admissions would be on the basis of distance as the crow flies. Councillor Johnson Situ asked whether over-subscription of places originated in a particular area and whether a new school would help with these applications. Liz Brown indicated that this data was contained in the bid but that, as an example, a lot of applications came from Dog Kennel Hill School which was too far away. She felt that the need for places was clear.
6.5 The chair was concerned that the council had offered sufficient help to support the bid. Liz Brown emphasised a difficulty in this in that there were two bids and that the council was put in the position of helping both. She confirmed that support had been offered.
6.6 Catherine Rose of the Campaign for New Secondary School for East Dulwich presented a discussion paper on school places. In part, the paper attempted to qualify and quantify the community support for a new school. The chair asked for views on the Harris Federation’s proposal for a primary school on the hospital site. Catherine Rose felt that this might be useful in terms of children transferring to a Harris secondary school but questioned whether anyone was taking a broad view of the area’s needs. She was also concerned about whether it would adequately meet the needs of children in Nunhead. The chair asked whether she considered the current school places planning process to be fit for purpose. Catherine Rose commented that it was difficult to get primary and secondary school information at a local level. Schools planning needed to reflect shifts in need.
6.7 Councillor Karl Eastham was encouraged that a new school would improve the situation in East Dulwich and asked for an indication of the admissions policy. Catherine Rose indicated that there were two schools in the Dulwich Ward that were difficult to get into and that this impacted on the community in terms of children being scattered. The campaign was working with the Haberdashers’ Aske’s Federation, which had a standardised admissions policy in Lewisham, but aiming to offer as broad a chance as possible for as many children as possible. There would, for instance, be no music scholarships and no lottery system. Councillor Anood Al-Samerai asked how the relationship with this provider had come about. Catherine Rose explained that the steering group had a clear idea about what it wanted the school to deliver and needed a strong provider. The Haberdashers’ Aske’s Federation understood the free school process and had experience of creating schools. As a final comment, Catherine Rose suggested that it would be useful if overview and scrutiny committees were notified of possible bids in their areas before these were registered.