Pupil Premium rise this month

Liberal Democrats in government have really focused on providing the Pupil Premium for schools to help ensure that more pupils are able to achieve higher standards. Earlier this month it rose to become £1,300 per pupil.

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

It has been increased to £1,300 per eligible primary school pupil in 2014/15, up from £900 per child last 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 better IT facilities.

It should help ensure more localprimary 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.

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.

How is your child’s school using its Pupil Premium money?

St.Francis Road Luck Needed

Years ago the Abbotswood Estate was built. Part of it include some cycle and pedestrian shared paths. But despite asking years ago (when I chaired Southwark Cyclists) they’ve never had a dropped kerb to make them work – you have to be stunt cyclist to use them. So almost no cyclists actually use them.

So I’m trying to get this fixed yet again. Wish me luck.

What other little details block people cycling freely?

IMG00339-20140307-0735

Labour Tree Chopping

Air pollution is a big issue. Latest figures suggest close to 1 in every 8 deaths air pollution was a significant factor.

One method of mitigating air and noise pollution and reducing the heat island effect is via trees. They’re also historic. East Dulwich has lots and lots of its streets called Groves as originally they were tree lined.

For many years we had a gradual increase in street trees. Sadly Labour led Southwark Council has been chopping down many more trees than it plants. Last year 97 more tree were chopped down than planted.

But we need to not just stop this irresponsible chopping of trees down but hugely expand the number of trees in Southwark and add lots of green walls.

In East Dulwich we’ve used devolved capital budgets to every year spend at least £10,000 on average for each of the last eight years to plant more street trees. If you have a spot where you think a street tree should go please let us know. The next tree planting seasons is January-March 2015.

Southwark Heartbleed

April the 7th a security patch was released in response to a new security loop hole for websites was discovered – the Heartbleed issue.

Amazingly one our Lib Dem volunteers after checking all our websites on the 8th then the checked Southwark Council website and email servers on the 9th and found they didn’t have this crucial software patch. Southwark Council have an awful lot of personal data from people registering with MySouthwark.

I immediately alerted Southwark Council officials first thing on the 10th.Half a day later officials responded that indeed they did have security holes and hoped to seal it that night on the 10th. They didn’t undertake the work until the 12th. We’ve avoiding speaking about this since to ensure Southwark have had time to fix everything.

Frankly it is shocking that for so many days Southwark Council exposed all its users and colleagues to this avoidable risk. It shouldn’t take Lib Dem volunteers to find this out and nudge you to fix such things. We should need to keep checking to make sure this essential work is completed.

 

Southwark Supertram Progress

For several years I’ve been working on how to bring a tram route initially and then network to Southwark.

When Ken Livingstone was Mayor of London he said he supported them but only gave enough money to keep a project team employed who never got to build anything. When Boris Johnson became London Mayor he canned that team and the pretence of TfL tram in southwark was over.

So how to make this happen privately?

Talking to investment banks one key requirement is certainty that their investment would have a chance to produce a secure return. The greater the security the cheaper money can be borrowed at.  But building track on public roads could allow other to duplicate routes.

So the planning advice we’ve received has really helped nail this. First when the Lib Dems led Southwark Council we ensured the Core Strategy stated it was pro trams.

Second, any tram network using the public highway would need planning permission. It would deal with where plant is located, designed, etc. With granted planning permission subsequent applications would have to show how they would integrate with existing schemes and tracks. It doesn’t give a monopoly but this does give more certainty that practically investment will be more secure.

The advice wording is “But any application will be judged on its practical merits. IF a planning application is granted and results in a tram being built and running, then any subsequent planning application for a tram may not be practical due to that prior granted tram planning application”.

A useful step forward.

Choosing Our Secondary School Provider

Since launching the campaign for a new East Dulwich secondary school we’ve had many suggestions for who could provide it. East Dulwich councillors worked our socks of to find supportive families. The total of families is now at 540.

We thought it important that parents make that decision of who the provider should be. WE expect this school to be around for not just decades but centuries to come. This was the driving force for us creating the Parents Steering Group – I wish we’d done it sooner.

The following document explains the thinking behind choosing Haberdashers’s Aske’s over The Charter School. We had thought the decision would be much tougher than it proved to be. In the end despite so many on the Steering Group thinking they were clear cut for The Charter School it was unanimous for Haberdashers’ after all the evidence was reviewed and studied at length.

Please do read the document. Email me your thoughts. We didn’t take this decision lightly.

FinalSchoolSelectionQandA

Haberdasher’s Aske’s East Dulwich College

I’m delighted to announced the new Haberdasher’s Aske’s East Dulwich College.

The East Dulwich Lib Dem councillors initiated a campaign in 2013 for a new co-ed non-faith secondary free school. This followed their experiences helping to avert the pending primary school places crisis by leading a successful campaign for new local primary schools. It was also informed by casework from distraught local families being offered secondary school places outside the area – places like Catford, New Cross, Walworth. It became clear that a new local secondary school was urgently needed to meet local demand and no later than September 2016. We even brought education minister David Laws MP to East Dulwich to discuss the problem last July.

When we met Southwark Council officials they were clear that no new school was required expecting local kids to travel across London for places and that they would contest any new school we campaigned for. Ouch!

After many months of us leafleting and canvassing homes, schools, street stalls, online we found more than enough support for our campaign and a new free school application to be made. We’d proved the officials wrong. We then moved onto finding a  great school provider. For this we initiated a Parents Steering Group which successfully took on this task and also helped increase the numbers of supporting families. We’ve now reached 454 supporting families.  Working with this group, who have met four times and with us visited various local schools on fact finding trips, and after considerable deliberations, a unanimous decision to work with Haberdashers’ Aske Federation was taken. Haberdashers’  have now announced that their governing body has approved taking this project further. They plan to model a new Haberdashers’ Aske’s East Dulwich College (secondary school) on their outstandingly successful Haberdashers’ Aske’s Hatcham College. The school would be for around 180pupils per year group include a sixth form  and open September 2016.

To further support this project East Dulwich Liberal Democrats in February submitted a Right to Contest application, using legislation created by Liberal Democrats in government. The application is about freeing up the two-thirds of the Dulwich Hospital site which has remained unoccupied for over 20 years. The Parents Steering committee agree with us that this space represents the minimum space for our new secondary school.

We look forward to continue working with Haberdashers to support them submitting a free school application November 2014. We still welcome further support via our website www.newschool.org.uk or email us directly cllrjamesbarber@gmail.com

We also welcome the support both Southwark Labour and Conservatives have now given to this project and that officers have now confirmed a new school is needed.

Councillor James barber ” it has been a long journey to reach this stage but I’m truly delighted to bring on board such a prestigious and renowned school provider as Haberdashers’ Aske’s and to model our new school on their Hatcham College”.

Councillor Rosie Shimell added “having denied any need for a new secondary school its great that Lib Dems have won the argument and Southwark Labour are now saying they support our campaign. We just need to see them practically support it now”.

COuncillor Jonathan Mitchell also said “I’ve slogged my guts out canvassing for support for our idea of a new secondary school. So I delighted all our hard work has born fruit attracting such a great school provider to our area who will complement all our existing outstanding schools”.

 

 

 

Not Sitting Pretty Traditional

Terrible news that at Planning Sub-Committee B the planning application that will drive green grocer Pretty Traditional out of North Cross Road was granted planning permission.

As Lib Dem East Dulwich ward councillors Cllr Jonathan Mitchell, Rosie Shimell and myself insisted this planning permission was called-in.

I argued that the plans were an overdevelopment of the site, would cause noise for neighbours with a first floor terrace, and have access problems.

Sadly the committee discounted these issues and granted planning permission. This allows the site owner to terminate the lease kicking out Pretty Traditional.

So we now need to find another site while Chris looks at how to enforce the verbal contract allowing him to stay.

For this to happen the day medical advice tells us to eat more fruit and veg and see’s this the last green grocer in such peril is appalling.

All New Chinese Crystal Palace

The Chinese Zhong Rong Group are proposing to rebuild a pastiche of the great Victorian Crystal Palace.

It’s clear from their representatives who spoke at the Dulwich Community Council that they really arent sure what they’re proposing. It might include a 6* hotel, it might include an auction house, it might include exotic galleries. Yet before knowing what they’re proosing and the related transport requirements they’re asking people whether they support it or not.

What they do know is theyre not planning transport upgrades such as extending a tube line or reopening the high level Crystal Palace station. But witohut a step change improving public transport it wont work without terrible congestion for locals. My fear is massive car parking.

But removing the car parking that has taken over the core of Crystal Palace Park would improve that space. The accomodation blocks and other structures don’t make the park feel parky. So clearly something needs to happen with the park.

So personally I’m against the amorhpous scheme until I see credible plans addressing my fears.

Jimmy Savile Tragic Southwark Involvement

The Secretary of State for the Department for Education has received information that children at 21 children’s homes and schools may have been abused by Jimmy Savile. He has initiated work to have these cliams investigated thoroughly.

Child abuse scars peoples whole lives. I dont think it’s something that truly goes away from people. They just learn to manage and hide their feelings. It can lead to self harm and suicide and feelings of self-loathing. Truly awful thing to happen to anyone.

Southwark Council had a children’s home called the Hollies in Sidcup between 1965 and 1989 ans this is one of the 21 to be investigated.

If you were at the Hollies and experienced anything untoward please call the NSPCC on 0808 800 500 or email help@nspcc.org.uk for help and advice. It’s crucial lessons are learnt from the disaster that Jimmy Savile has been found to have been.

Fingers crossed the investigation by Southwark will quickly reach a thorough conclusion for all the now adults who could have been affected.