Universal Free School Meals

This week Southwark Lib Dems confirmed they would protect universal free school meals in Southwark.

We have pledged to retain free universal school meals for all primary children when we win control of the council in next year’s local elections.

With the council’s programme of free school meals now being rolled out to all primary school years, Liberal Democrats say we would make sure school meals are protected from any cuts.

Liberal Democrat councillor colleagues also agreed we would look at going further than free school meals if we are running the council from 2014, looking at what other measures can be introduced to tackle childhood obesity, such as school breakfast clubs.

We would also initiate an independent review of the impact of free school meals to come up with an evidence-based analysis of their benefits. However the Liberal Democrat council group leader, Cllr Anood Al-Samerai, has given a “cast-iron guarantee” that universal school meals for primary school children will remain throughout the entire council administration period 2014-2018 with no cuts to entitlement or quality. She promised:

“Southwark Liberal Democrats are on the side of local parents who want the best for their children. That’s why we’ve pledged to protect universal free school meals if we win control of the council next year.”

“Despite money still being tight for councils, it would not be right to make cuts to school meals and I can give a cast-iron guarantee that the Liberal Democrats will not do so if residents vote for us to be in charge.”

“Instead, we will be looking at cutting back on the huge bills being run-up by Labour on non-essential things like catering, taxis and spin doctors to get the best possible value for Southwark taxpayers.”

 

£1,300 Increased Pupil Premium

Liberal Democrat Leader and Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg has announced the biggest ever rise in the Pupil Premium for primary schools to help ensure that more pupils are able to achieve higher standards. It will now be £1,300 per pupil from April 2014 and based on qualifying pupil numbers in a school during January 2014.

The Pupil Premium provides schools with extra money to help children from disadvantaged backgrounds. This will help whole classes move forward faster together.

It will be increased to £1,300 per eligible primary school pupil in 2014/15, up from £900 per child this year. That’s likely to be an extra £734,500 for primary schools in East Dulwich.

East Dulwich ward
Goodrich Community Primary School 302 £392,600
Goose Green Primary School 144 £187,200
Heber Primary School 74 £96,200
St Anthony’s Catholic Primary School 45 £58,500
Ward total 565 £734,500

Schools will be able to spend this money in ways that they feel helps their pupils best. Evidence shows some schools use it to hire extra staff, reading and maths classes for children who need extra support or provide appropriate IT facilities.

It should help ensure more local children are ready for senior school. All the evidence shows that if your child starts behind in secondary school, they stay behind. That is unacceptable. St

As part of the Lib Dems aim to build a fairer society, the Coalition Government is putting extra money into primary schools to help teachers support disadvantaged children. This has to be a good thing.

New East Dulwich Primary School

Success. Earlier today the Dept of Education announced that they’ve agreed we need at least one more primary school and possibly another two.
Funding for one new primary school to open September 2014 has been approved – http://www.education.gov.uk/schools/leadership/typesofschools/freeschools/b00222077/pre-opening

Our campaign for more primary school places to solve the pending places crisis has taken a massive leap forward due to your support and help. Thank you.

Background. By 2016 our area will have a shortage of 215-235 primary school reception places. That means we need 2 to 3 new primary schools around the Dulwich, Forest Hill Road, Nunhead areas. The Harris Federation agreed to apply for funding to open a new primary school with vision of being in the top 10% for results and progressions of English schools. The Judith Ker bilingual school have confirmed a site in the SE24 Southwark Herne Hill area.

Next step. Parents and members of the community are invited to attend a public meeting to discuss the school on Tuesday 11th June, 7.30pm at Harris Girls’ Academy East Dulwich, Homestall Road, SE22 0NR.

Even More School Supporters

With your support we’ve increased the East Dulwich Free School demand figures:  

243 families supporting two new local free primary schools (previous update was 225) with the following potential pupil numbers:

2014: 78 children (70 at previous update)

2015: 67 children (63 at previous update)

All this extra support is being forwarded to the Department of Education to make the case for two new local Primary schools even more compelling. 

 

Healthy School Food

In the last fortnight it had been a huge surprise to everyone where horse meat has been turning up – even in some school meals in some parts of the country. Fortunately none has been discovered in SE London.

But I’m also concerned about what the food is but how it’s turned into nutrious food for our children. Councils measure food hygiene and safe cooking processes. They record inspections via the following search tool – if you use this search and look by borough at ratings for business type = school/college/university interesting reading:

http://ratings.food.gov.uk/advanced-search/en-GB?s=1&so=Equal&st=1&pi=0&bt=7845&las=523&sc=%2fadvanced-search%2fen-GB

Greenwich – don’t use the Food Standard Agency website – how unhelpful for parents.

Lambeth –  1 x 2 star, 5 x 3 stars, 18 x 4 stars, 76 x 5 stars

Lewisham – 8 x ‘2’ food hygiene rating, 6 x 3 stars, 27 x 4 stars, 76 x 5 stars

Southwark – 12 x 3 stars, 22 x 4 stars, 77 x 5 stars

Wandsworth – 2 x 2 stars, 4 x 3 stars, 14 x 4 stars, 80 x 5 stars

2 = improvement necessary – take a look at how long ago they were inspected!
3 = generally satisfactory
4 = good
5 = very good

Overall we can see some great improvements in Southwark but still amazing how many 2 and 3 stars schools still around and that they’ve not been revisited for ages.

Secondary School Admissions

Today parents will hear about secondary school place applications – online today or via 1st class post tomorrow.

For the whole of Southwark 58.7% of parents  have received their first choice. A smidgen up on last years 55.9%.  But this represents the fifth worst performance in the whole country.

Overall for London 71%, Lambeth and Lewisham managed 66%, Merton 65% and Wansworth 56%.

Overall 6.9% of Southwark parents were allocated a school they hadn’t chosen, down a little from last years 8%.

But it’s likely that across London more families obtained their first choice – last year 66% across London leaving Southwark some distance behind.

We’re trying to find out this data specifically for East Dulwich.

Any of 6 stated preferences – Southwark parents and carers had 93% success obtaining one of their up to 6 stated preferences whereas the average for London last year (we don’t yet have this years) was 95% with 88% offered one of their top 3 choices. So Southwark still has a long way to g o and with a pending secondary school places crisis is likely to get considerably worse. That’s why we think our area needs another excellent secondary school.

If you didn’t get the school you wanted a large number of places aren’t accepted and become free so a lot of shuffling of places is still to come so please don’t despair. Parents can go on waiting lists for schools they’d prefer a lot of movement usually occurs between now and September.

If you need support you can either contact the Councils School Preference Advisor Liam White liam.white@southwark.gov.uk they’ll also be drop-in sessions TBA.

OR  if you need any help or support around secondary admissions (or any other issue) please either call or email me or one of my colleagues:

James Barber james.barber@southwark.gov.uk 07900 227366
Jonathan Mitchell jonathan.mitchell@southwark.gov.uk 07903 967911
Rosie Shimell Rosie.Shimell@southwark.gov.uk 020 7525 3488

We’re available for home visits and have reserved time over this weekend and next week specifically for this.

How long to… remove guard railings

In 1994 St.Clement’s School moved from Archdale Road in East Dulwich to Ady’s Road in The Lane ward. Nineteen years ago. The old school has been turned into 6 amazingly different apartments and homes.

Before ArchdaleAfter Archdale

 

 

 

 

 

But the guard railings were left and left and left. Eventually I spotted them and after 19 years they were removed.

So how long does it take to remove guard railings… 19 years!

 

 

 

 

New ED Harris Primary school update

Monday 28 January the very first interested parents meeting took place of those interested in sending their children to a new local Harris East Dulwich primary school.

The invite had gone out from Harris to those who’d said they’d consider joining any steering committee. Despite terrible weather I counted a dozen parents.

Lots of really useful questions.

Harris promised to provide a summary of their vision for the school – Harris Primary Free School East Dulwich vision

What I’m really chuffed about is the vision to create a school in the top 10% of the country by progress and overall achievement and through literacy.

Please do have a look at this document. Let me know what you think.

Southwark 2012 GCSE results

Southwark GCSE results of pupils getting five or more GCSE’s including maths and english A*-C arE:

School name Five good GCSEs or equivalents (%) Value Added
The From Boyhood To Manhood Foundation (IND) NA NA
Harris Boys’ Academy East Dulwich (AC) NA NA
Alleyn’s School (IND) 100 NA
James Allen’s Girls’ School (IND) 100 NA
Dulwich College (IND) 93 NA
The Charter School 78 1037
Sacred Heart Roman Catholic Secondary School 73 1041
St Michael’s Catholic College 71 1017
Bacon’s College (AC) 69 980
St Saviour’s and St Olave’s Church of England School 67 1035
Harris Girls’ Academy East Dulwich (AC) 64 1061
Harris Academy Bermondsey (AC) 62 1038
City of London Academy (Southwark) (AC) 61 1015
Notre Dame Roman Catholic Girls’ School 60 1004
Walworth Academy (AC) 60 981
St Michael and All Angels CofE Academy (AC) 58 1035
Harris Academy at Peckham (AC) 56 1040
ARK Globe Academy (AC) 45 1004
The St Thomas the Apostle College 42 975
Kingsdale Foundation School 36 971

School getting more than 1000 on the value added did particularly well. Kingsdale results are a shock.

The national average was 59.4% with the Southwark average at 58.8%. Very close to meeting the national average.

The Harris Boys Academy East Dulwich hasn’t yet had anyone sit GCSE’s. Fingers crossed they do well when they site GCSE’s summer 2014.

The most value added was the Harris Girls Academy East Dulwich and sadly the worst was Kingsdale. This latter school has fallen below the governments 40% minimum standard.

 

 

Judith Kerr Primary School consultation

The formal consultation phase 1 has been launched for the proposed Judith Kerr Primary School.

I would encourage East Dulwich residents to comment. They’re effectively asking whether we want the Judith Kerr Primary School in SE22.

With a shortage of primary school places of 75-80 places by 2016 in Dulwich and another 135 in the adjacent Southwakr area we have a coming crisis. Hosting the Judith Kerr school in Dulwich would really help address that coming shortage – along with one or possibly two Harris Federation Primary Schools.

The proposed Judith Kerr admissions code isnt ideal.  They’ve said after children with spciecla needs, looked after children and sibling that of the remainder places 50% would be allocated on distance from the school and the other 50% on a lottery basis. 100% of the remiqnder based on distance would make it much more integral to the community.

But please do respond to the online consultation