Beaufoy Site to become housing and Lambeth Council U-turn on Shelley site - KOV September 2011 update

The Cllr Mark Harrison (Prince Ward) had plenty to say on behalf of Lambeth Council at KOV last night, which I've broken down into six main points, as follows:

Beaufoy site
Lambeth Council had hoped the Beaufoy sale would be concluded by last night, but since it hasn't, the developer couldn't be present at the meeting due to commercial confidentiality issues. Local residents still don't know who the developer is to be. Cllr Harrison informed the meeting that the Beaufoy would be brought back into use and restored with housing brought to the site (40% to be affordable). The Beaufoy Trust will gain capital receipt to help young people into training and education, and a portion of the money they receive will be spent in the immediate area. Due to central government cutting the Council's capital grant budget by 60%, the Council are having to bridge the gap by selling off assets.

Until last night, I was optimistic that the site could be developed as part of a mixed-use education/housing site, but that is clearly no longer possible. I'm afraid I can't think of anything positive to say about this, so I will refer you to a statement made in 2006 by Cllr Sam Townend (old Labour councillor in Princes Ward) who said that Lambeth Council wanted to see:

(1) Ownership [of the Beaufoy] being taken away from the Council and handed back
to local people as trustees (obviously under the supervision of the Charity
Commission) if there is sufficient interest by local people to make this viable.
(2) A modernisation of the objects of the [Beaufoy] Trust to reflect the
educational needs of people living in Kennington and Vauxhall now.
(3) The deployment of this community asset towards the educational needs of people
living in Kennington and Vauxhall now. The way this would be done would be a
matter for the new trustees in consultation with residents of Ethelred TMO,
Vauxhall Gardens and Kennington.

I don't think there's any doubt that this represents a failure on the part of the Council. Yes, it could certainly be argued that there has been a major financial crisis and a change of government, but the Beaufoy has been empty for over 10 years, well before either the financial meltdown or the ConDems.

Shelley Site
As well as a U-turn on the Beaufoy, Lambeth Council have conceded to local pressure from the Save the Shelley School campaign and will be adding an additional 2011-2012 school class on the site, to be run by the Archbishop Sumner administration. You may remember that Lambeth Council argued the case that school places were needed in the south of the Borough, and made a statement accordingly in May 2011:

As there is no projected demand for an educational use for the Shelley site we
propose to sell the site to raise funds to help every child in Lambeth have a
primary school place in the future.

A common sense reading suggests that Lambeth Council have changed their mind. Fair enough. But in an amusing manner, the expansion is not a straightforward concession to local pressure. Indeed, the 2011-2012 Archbishop Sumner primary class is only being added because excess pressure in the south of the Borough has meant that two "bulge classes" had to be added at schools in the centre of Lambeth (it wasn't possible to add classes in the south itself), which in turn put pressure on the centre of the Borough, and pushed the "bulge" upwards, creating a "domino" effect. So the Shelley site pressure group parents' have got their own way, seemingly against the wishes of the local councillors! Feel free to read the September 2011 Scrutiny Committee minutes if you're interested.

The Scrutiny minutes even state that the VNEB expansion won't require significant additional places until 2021, but who knows? Cllr Harrison did note that the Council was taking the Shelley site's population projections very seriously. Anyhow, having added a bulge class for 2011-2012, the bulge has to progress upwards throughout the school, so it will be nearly impossible to free up the Shelley site for six years! The Council are clear that there's no permanent funding for expanding Archbishop Sumner, but Cllr Harrison noted that it does keep the options open for the time being, and that much depends on what Southwark Council have planned because Archbishop Sumner could also be affected by a domino affect across the border due to the development of Elephant and Castle. All very complicated predictions...

Also, read those minutes carefully, and note too that a German-English bilingual free school seem to have made an application/expression of interest on the Shelley site, of which an outcome will be made known this month. Could it be that Lambeth Council is adding the bulge class to Archbishop Sumner (rather than, say Vaxuhall School) to prevent their site being purchased by a free school? If a Free School wanted to purchase the site, the Council would not be able to sell and claim their sought-after capital receipt, as the site would be tied up in Free school battles for years. Hmm. Very interesting, eh?

Black Prince Trust
The Black Prince Trust is close to finalising their lease on Site A of the old Lilian Baylis school. Site A comprises sports facilities which will be run by Sports Action Zone, which was handed over by Lambeth Council into a public trust earlier in the year. Work will start on the new gym once the lease has been finalised. The Council is concluding its selection of the developer for Site B, (that part of the school site to be sold off, including listed buildings). Work is being undertaken with community groups using the current site to help find them alternative accommoddation. eg. Your Story will be housed in the shops at Lambeth Walk.

Stock Tranfer for Ethelred Estate
There will be a ballot on Stock Transfer to a Housing Association for the Ethelred Estate which, if it went ahead, could unlock £100 million of investment into the Ethelred Estate and other Lambeth estates. The Association proposed is the only tenant lead housing association in the country.

Linear Park for Tyers Street
Cllr Harrison is, with VGERTA, looking at the posibility of turning Tyers Street into a linear park. This would certainly ease some of the green-space deficiency in the north of the Borough, and since all of the coaches were moved on, the streets seems to be under-parked. The proposal is still at a very early stage. Email your thoughts to Cllr Harrison mharrison@lambeth.gov.uk or Chrys (VGERTA Secretary) vgerta.secretary@gmail.com

VNEB Manifesto
Finally, Lambeth Labour have assembled a VNEB "manifesto". Technically, that's party-political, so I'm going to direct you to the document that was handed out by Councillors at the KOV meeting and likely say no more until election time.

Yes it is true, no it isn't true: Michaela Free School debate continued (Part 2)

See here for Part 1 of the Michaela Free School debate, held on 18th July, in which Katharine Birbalsingh and a number of members of the school's steering committee made the case about why the proposed Michaela Free School would be good for Lambeth.  Part 2 in this post, is the questions and answers that arose as a result of the presentation.  I've added the names of questioners and people that added general views, where known, and have summarised questions and answers as far as possible and then grouped them next to one another.

Disturbance to local community?

Qn from older man:  "I am a local resident and heard about this only yesterday.  Do we want a school where after 5 years, there will be 800 youngsters messing around here.  I don't want the school.  When you say, it will be good for the community, which community are you talking about?  You don't live here."

KB:  'I know that a number of local people... are concerned about children behaving badly around the estate.  We're keen on excellent discipline and high standards. I'll speak to you in more detail about holding children to account and involving parents in school. One of the big things is the extended day.  If children get out at 3.30pm, there's more of a chance that they're going to behave in that kind of fashion.'

Ndubuisi Kejeh (member of Michaela Steering Committee): 'I went to Archbishop Tenison's School, and I was in school when the old Lilian Baylis was on site. In my Year 7, we needed the teachers of both schools to intervene because the Year sevens of my school were the targets, and every day before and after school, we would be victims of robbery... If I didn't believe that the new school would have measures to counteract behaviour like that, I wouldn't be sitting here.'

How free are Free Schools?

Qn from a woman with an educational background:  'A lot of your information was wrong...  Schools have been free to make their own decisions since Local Management of Schools was introduced in 1988.  In every State School the decisions are made by the governing body, many of whom are parents.  Decisions are not made by the Local Education Authority.  A Free School... will be free from local authority constraints, but will still have to obey constraints of central government, which is worse, because it's removing accountability from the very parents you're saying you want to help.  Also...have you undergone the professional training to become a head teacher?'

KB: 'Over the years, some schools have gained more freedoms, but there are different types of schools with different levels and types of freedoms.  Free schools are like Academies in the way they run.  It is not the case that ordinary maintained schools have the same freedoms.  They're not free to have an extended day, they can't do that.'

Interjection from same questioner:  'Yes, they are.  I don't know where you get your information from, but you're incorrect.'

KB: 'Heads of schools that have become... academies will explain various changes that they've been able to make because of those freedoms. Ultimately, if however, what you were saying is true, then we're opening a school just like any other school.'

KB:  'I have the NPQH (head teacher qualification).  However, I may not be the head of this school.  It is proposed that I might be.  It all depends on the Department for Education.'

Anna Tapsell: 'Can I ask whether it is the Department For Education that appoint the head?'

KB: 'From what I understand.'  

Interjection from previous questioner:  'Well, that makes it very different from other schools, then.'

Do U.S. Charter Schools have track record?

Qn from young male with education background: 'I don't doubt your commitment towards education.  But if you look at what happened with Free Schools in America... a lot of schools became even worse sink schools.  In the system, some schools go ahead, and some drop behind because of the intake problem.  You're saying that having your school up here will not affect the rest of Lambeth... I'd like to know what mechanisms you have in place to ensure your intake would be representative of the area...'

Daisy (member of Michaela Free School Steering Committee):  'You're right.  American charter schools are not an unalloyed success.  However, the ones that have been successful are the ones  that have been in extreme areas of educational deprivation. Kathryn mentioned Geoffrey Canada.  I'd also ask you to look at KIPP, the Knowledge Is Power program.  Both are in inner-city and difficult areas.'

Answer from young male with education background: 'Theose are one or two examples. My point is that the system does create an inequality between the schools being set up.'

Daisy (member of Michaela Free School Steering Committee):  'KIPP and Geoffrey Canada are not one school, but seven schools.  You're right in that  not every charter school is succesfuly.  But what we can take from them is a model of success...  So if you're saying, "how are we going to do things?", we have an example...'

Discipline and ethos at proposed Michaela Free School

Qn from Fred (Ethelred Community Centre):  '... how are we going to contribute a wider understanding to all of the cultures, because the demography is getting wider and wider in our society..?  I have witnessed... that we are employing doormats (that's terminology street talk from the kids) at school. We see police in uniform at school gates.   I want to know what form of discipline is going to implemented to avoid what we have now.'

Related qn from Anna Tapsell: 'What is it in the ethos and philosophy of your idea that makes you confident that you can deal with all of the things that the gentlemen [Fred] has expressed and have a well-disciplined school?'

Ndubuisi Kejeh (Steering Committee): 'I've been privileged to have gone to schools with several different types of discipline. Although born and bred mostly in the UK, I did go to school in Nigeria where there is corporal punishment.  The difference between the schools I've attended is level of consistency. With consistency, after a while, you get a culture. What we would hope to do in this school is not cane people, but work with the parents and contact parents, and have a document that the parents would have to sign so that they were kept informed of what the child was doing. Also, what we'd do is in the first year is have year sevens only. From primary school. These children would be immersed in the new culture. Their parents would continue this culture. This, I think, is a very good way to try to discipline and make a culture.'

KB: 'We talked about high standards of discipline, high standards of expectation from the children, soft skills in terms of manners.  Sometimes if a school were to  exclude a naughty child for the day, but the school don't want them to sit at home and watch television, they send them to a next door school, and are reciprocal.  In that way, schools support each other.'

Qn from male teacher: 'I'm a teacher, and I teach maths.  I've never heard of such a thing.'

KB: 'Schools do it all the time.  This is one example.  I'm giving an example of ways in which schools support each other.  There are other ways.  St Martin's have done it.  Dunraven have done it.  Tenison's have done it.'

Daisy (member of Michaela Free School Steering Committee):  'Part of the ethos would be provision of the extended day, until 5pm.  Another thing would be summer school.  There's lots of research about how pupils from deprived backgrounds fall back more over summer, so one of the things we want to do is have a two-week summer school.  Free schools do have a bit more freedom to adapt the curriculum to their pupils' individual needs...'

[Here it would be useful to hear from any teachers reading the blog on a point of fact.  Is it true that schools do swap "naughty" students for the day instead of excluding them and sending them home?  It seemed odd that some teachers prsent had not heard of the practice, but I've no idea whether this is common in Lambeth.]

Intake at proposed Michaela Free School

Qn from young male with education background:  I want to know about the intake.

Daisy (member of Michaela Free School Steering Committee):  Free Schools have to abide by an admissions code.  We want to take the Fair banding route approach, so we ensure a representative intake.  The pupils who apply are split into 5 bands academically, and you take the same percentage from each band.  The Deapartment For Education decide the banding system on a nationwide basis.

KB: I admire your concerns. You're worried a free school will pop up, and all of the clever kids will want to go there..  I admire your sentiment because you're worried about the other schools.  But we want to implement banding.  We're not expecting all students to go to unviersity.  We would want to ensure our intake was completely comprehensive.  The committee are really committed to inner city kids.

Grateful parent
Woman sitting at the front:  My question has been answered.  I was going to thank you all for the wonderful work you're doing with the community... 

[I'm pretty sure this woman wasn't a plant from team-pro-Michaela, but she was the only person who wasn't from the committee/volunteer group who expeessed a positive view, so in the interest of balance, I've include it.]

Farcical Dispute with Councillor concerning Lambeth Secondary School Admissions

Cllr Mark Harrison (Princes Ward and chair of Scrutiny Commitee for Children and Young Peoples, Lambeth Council):   I challenge this idea that Lambeth has a shortage of 500 secondary places. That's not accurate.  About 500 pupils go to school outside outside the Borough, but that's not the same as  a shortage of 500 places.  We have a shortage of places in the south of the Borough.  But we have a site at Fenstanton Primary school, Tulse Hill, which we're turning into a new Academy that will meet demand pressures.  There is no shortage of secondary school places in the north of the Borough.  We have two excellent local secondary schools, Lilian Baylis and Archbishop Tension's, which are rated good with outstanding features by Ofsted.  Creating a glut of places in this area will have a negative effect on those two schools.  It's a waste of public money to provide places in a place where we don't need places, and it risks, one of the three schools becoming unviable due to pupil shortage.  I might be welcomiong a Free School if built in Streatham or Brixton or Norwood, but not up here.  It could do serious damage to others schools in the area.

Man in audience: Don't forget the new Academy opening at Durand School and the enormous new Academy opening on Archbishop Michael Ramsey site, bordering Lambeth and Southwark which will have a 50/50 intake.  We're also seeing a collapsing role at Charles Edward Brooke as children don't go there.  So this demand for places argument does need to be addressed.

KB: Southwark also has a massive shortage of places. In actual fact, it's about 800 pupils who don't stay in Lambeth for school. That's because some of them choose to leave the borough. This year, there were 452 year 6 pupils who did not get a place at a Lambeth School.

Cllr Harrison: No, every young person who applied for a place in a Lambeth secondary school got a place.

KB: That's not true.

Cllr Harrison: That is true.

KB: That's not true.

Cllr Harrison: That is true.

KB: If you look at the figures, that just isn't true.

[I'd be intrigued to hear from both sides about which figures were used to determine whether all Lambeth year 6 pupils were given a place at a Lambeth School.  In the previous article in the Telegraph, Birbalsingh claimed 433 students Year 6 didn't get places, so I'm concerned about a lack of consistency in the way the figures are being measured.  Feel free to leave both sets of figures in the comments for further analysis so I can help readers with no educational background].

Cost of site and risk to local schools of enforced government purchase

Cllr Steven Morgan (Princes Ward):  You mentioned that bidding for the former Lilian Baylis site is closed but should [the government] have had a chance to bid, would they have been able to match the best bid?  As we understand it, the government's got a fund of about £50 million to buy sites and refurbish. Assuming £2.5 million were allocated per site and land prices are high in inner cities (where there's demand), they won't be able to build more than 20 schools... As a council, we're worried that they will approach us and won't pay market rate for the site, and will want a big discount.  The problem with that is that the money for the site is going to go back into education to the capital programmes for Lambeth schools. It will be other schools losing out if the government buys that site for cheap.  Can you confirm the government would pay market value for the site?  

KB: All I know is what partnership for schools told me.  The £2 million mark didn't seem unreasonable to them.  I can't say how much money is involved.  I don't know that kind of detail.  I am guessing that no more than 30 free schools will end up being passed through for 2012.  I gather there were 291 applications, but I suspect the vast majority get through the application process. Ppartnership For Schools are keen on talking to the council about the site.

[I already speculated in part 1 that I think the site is worth well over £8 million.  And I'm pretty sure repairing it will cost £10 million, so it may be that the site is unusable (it's said to be riddled with aesbestos).  But, politically, this will be very interesting...]

Council option to extend bidding time by 6 weeks to allow Michaela Free School to bid?
Michael Poole-Wilson (local Conservative candidate in 2010): 'My question is directed to Cllr Steven Morgan re. achieving market rate for the former Lilian Baylis Site.  Would you be prepared to postpone the tender process to the autumn so that you could see whether funding could be matched, or is it an academic question because you're going to give the site to the highest bidder before September.

Cllr Steven Morgan: I'd be happy to ask Steve Reed, leader of Lambeth to delay, if you can get Michael Gove to announce that he'll pay market rates for all sites they wish to buy tomorrow morning.

Michael Poole-Wilson (local Conservative candidate in 2010):  The site has been sat there, unsold for 5 or 6 years, so we're saying a few months more won't make a difference

Cllr Mark Harrison: It make a big difference because we need to realise the saving in year. We have budgeted to dispose of that site and bring in capital receipt which is going to be invested into the capital programme in the rest of Lambeth schools.

[Of course, it is quite believable, given the cost savings Lambeth and other local authorities need to find, that 6 weeks could make a difference (but it looks like a weak argument, given the amount of time the site has sat empty).  However (and this is a huge problem), it's not at all clear that Lambeth can sell in this financial year given (see below) because it appears they might need permission from the Secretary of State to sell the site.  And it's fairly obvious to most people that Michaela Free School has several well-positioned "friends".  I see a huge political row brewing here...  I reckon Lambeth will be trying to rush through the bidding process now, but it might make no difference if the Secretary of State refuses permission to sell!]

Question of importance of distance between student and school
KB: ...We want to help children to travel as little as possible.  If Lambeth has a school site in the south of the borough, then we'd like to consider it.  But there are no potential schools sites.  If you have a choice between a school in the north of the borough or no school at all, it seems crazy to choose no school at all.

Anna Tapsell:  My children were young in the days of the Inner London Education Authority (ILEA).  We didn't feel strongly about sending our children to school in Lambeth.  There was a lot to be said for the ILEA system because it gave parents an enormous amount of choice.  There is a history to all of this, which is not about neglect or good work, but what was left when the ILEA was disbanded.

View from woman at back of audience:  'We've gotten you to accept the need for places is at the south of the borough.  Actually, travelling from Streatham to here is a lot further than travelling out of borough to the nearest school.  When my kids went to school, the local Kennington primary schools were feeder schools for Pimlico school.  I don't see any problem with that.  I'd actually much rather they did that than had to travel down to Streatham for school, which is what you're expecting Streatham parents to do.' 

Dasiy (Michaela steering commitee member):  ' Crossing a borough boundary is not necessarily the be all and end all.   All I would say is that speaking to a lot of parents on the door step, for some of them, it isn't just that they live across from a borough boundary that happens to be on their street.  Some of them do feel that they're sending their children a very long way, to Battersea, to Croydon...'

Katharine Birbalsingh's relationship with teaching unions
Qn from young male with education background: Will you carry over your antagonistic/abusive relationship with the teaching unions into your management of the school?  Would you  continue to write in the national press about the unions and managing a school...?

KB:  I'm obviously entitled to hold opinions...  I don't know if what you say is accurate.  But you're entitled to your opinion.  I haven't really considered continuing writing yet.  That's way off in the future...

Answer from young male with education background: KB's views seem to have been imported from the American free school system... the idea that unions eer evil, and one of the reasons why schools are so awful.  I think that is a worrying attitude to take towards organised teachers.  Teachers' means of organisation is a means of ensuring the school is accountable, that their livelihoods and work isn't put at risk... 

Daisy (steering commitee member): I have been a union rep.  I do think unions have a role to play in education and in wider society.  One of the thing that attracted me, as a rank and file classroom teacher, to someone like KB is the support she gives to teachers facing the daily problems that teachers face in schools.  I can't answer about the national press... My perspective would also be that I'm not sure the unions treated KB very well either.

Suitability of former Lilian Baylis site
Anna Tapsell: Is the listing something that also affects the way in which any developer will look at it?
Cllr Mark Harrison: Yes. being listed dramatically reduces what you can do with the site.  The reason the Lilian Baylis moved is because the school building is not really suitable for a modern secondary school.

The future, given the closure of the site bidding process

Woman from team-pro-Michaela:  I'm a former chair of governors at a primary school, and this evening, I was planning to bring a parent-govenor with me... We had a big black plastic bag full of letters of support for this free school idea.  People couldn't care less about location of the school.  I live inthe centre of Brixton, and a lot of local children are going to Wimbledon.  The distance makes no difference whatsoever to us.  We just want to see something new.  We've seen a correlation between excluded children and ending up in crime.  We can get the support from the community.  We're not representing any particular political party.  We haven't got an axe to grind.  Why can't we give her the chance?  But what happens in a situation where Lambeth appear to have put the siteup for sale?

KB: Unfortunately, the councillors who are here seem to be confirming that they plan on making sure it's gone to developers before 6 weeks are through... I think it's a great shame.

David Boardman (Kennington Association Planning Forum):  The Deparment for Education are normally pretty sticky-fingered when it comes to educational land, and normally you need the Secretary of State's consent if you are to treat land as surplus to educational requirements.  Has the Sec of State consented to the sale of the site?  Has it been declared surplus to educational requirements?  

Cllr Mark Harrison:  Not to my knowledge.  And obviously that's an issue. As far as we're concerned, it is surplus to educational requirements.  It's a technical question.

Response from David Boardman: If you haven't an appropriate, necessary consent, then anybody can make representation to the Secretary of State to say, "wait a bit please"

Cllr Mark Harrison: That it has consequences for the rest of Lambeth schools that require investment from our capital programme.

Summing up

Anna Tapsell:  Thanks to all for coming.  The Kemnnington Association is a mixture of individuals with different views.  We'll go away and talk about this.  We learned a lot from you coming, so thank you to everybody for coming.  

Michaela Free School debate continued: A non-meeting of minds... (Part 1)

A discussion meeting (organised by the Kennington Association for local residents) about the proposed Michaela Free School on the former Lilian Baylis site was held two weeks ago on 18th July.  Apologies that this write-up has been delayed, but it's well worth reading, if only for a couple of dramatic flare-ups in the meeting, on account of most participants arriving with firmly entrenched views.   [Part 2 of the writeup containing local resident questions and answers is here too.]

I was hoping that I'd be able to present a clear Lurking about SE11 opinion after the meeting, but that seems difficult on account of one or two rather major factual disagreements, as you'll see.  There were the pro-free school people who, (other than one lone parent) arrived to support team-hooray-Michaela.  Then there were the anti-free school people, made up of a loose and disparate band of local councillors and angry teachers or union people.  These shall be known as team-angry-people.  As usual, there was odd-ball ranting, and general off-topic rambling, but Anna Tapsell, who was chairing the meeting for Kennington Association, managed to ensure that everybody had a chance to speak.

Katharine Birbalsingh (KB) initially introduced two other members of the steering-group, Daisy Christodoulou (a teacher) and Ndubuisi Kejeh (a former Lambeth school student).  She then offered a brief summary of the plans.  The steering group, we learned, exists as a group of teachers, parents and ex-Lambeth school pupils who all are "deeply committed" to state-education.  What they like about free schools/academies is that power can be devolved down.  The steering group, we heard, want to give parents another choice of school in Lambeth.  KB also noted that the Michaela bid has been submitted to the government.  I'd advise you to visit the Michaela Free School site for more info. as this post is long enough already!  We learned briefly that the proposed school plan to offer the Baccalaureate (on account that it provides a broad foundational knowledge on which to build skills).  KB stressed that "traditional knowledge is important".  We also heard several times about the plan to implemented an extended school day, since this would provide an opportunity for additional subjects such as  Mandarin Chinese, media-awareness and literacy etc.  It was again stated that Kate Hoey had offered her support, and I also found that in print in the Evening Standard.

Next up, we heard from Ndubuisi Kejeh (a willing poster boy) who was taught at secondary school by KB.  At university, he studied electrical engineering, was the chair of his university's political philosophy society, set up an NGO and is now working to meet future energy needs sustainably.  He asked KB if he could be on the steering group and has acted as a mentor to children in primary and secondary school.  The parents of Kejeh's mentors claimed that State education faces the issue of narrowing options.

After that, Katharine Birbalsingh was given about half an hour to present the school proposal and to address potential criticism.  She was quite clear that the steering group's heart had been set on Lambeth because there is a "huge shortage of places", both at primary and secondary level in Lambeth.  This year, apparently 452, year 6 Lambeth children did not get a place at a Lambeth secondary school.  "That's not true" interjected Cllr Harrison, but his right of reply came later. The steering group and volunteers have handed out 20,000 leaflets at Brixton market and around Lambeth and have had another 20k printed.  Birbalsingh observed that free schools were set up on the basis of charter schools in the US to transform education in the inner-city.

Working on the rough figure of 450 children without places (which will be disputed), Birbalsingh suggested that the Michaela School would  only offer 120 places at Year 7, and suggested that there'd still be a shortage of some 300 places in Lambeth.  Additionally, she acknowledged peoples' views that the shortage is more severe in south Lambeth, but noted  there aren't any suitably-sized school sites in the south.  I was certainly impressed by the manner in which Birbalsingh stated her case...  "If the former Lilian Baylis site is sold to a developer for flats, it would be a great shame because the one opportunity that Lambeth has to establish a secondary school that is desperately needed, would be taken away.", she lamented.  And indeed, one might concur, especially if there is an enormous shortage of sites at present.

The only problem, according to KB, is that Lambeth Council  asked for bids on the former Lilian Baylis site to be submitted by 5th July, but the government, on behalf of the Michaela steering committee can't put a bid in until September, because they won't hear whether they have approval until then.  That seemed to me to be a rather major flaw in the Michaela Free School proposal, but then, it's not clear that the Council can sell off the site immediately either (which became clear later).

"Free Schools", Katharine Birbalsingh offered, "work as a gift to the community."  That's because the money to fund them comes from central government.  (Mind you, it's all tax at the end of the day...)  It was acknowledged, however, that if the proposed Michaela  Free School were to take children from local schools, those schools would lose out on account of receiving less money per head.  Note that point carefully.  It will matter later.  Much of the argument is predicated on the notion that there is a "huge surplus of children and a shortage of places", which means that Birbalsingh was happy to announce that an extra school would soak up existing local children, with the added benefit that Lambeth would receive a huge injection of cash from central government.  Still following?  There is, of course, the added issue that the huge injection of cash might not be so huge on account of a compulsory purchase, but we'll come to that.

Birbalsingh has a natural gift for anticipating opponents' arguments.  "You might make the argument that a developer would pay more money than central government for a school", she suggested.  That's just what I'd been thinking.  But here she proposed that because the building is listed and has a considerably reduced price-tag, central government might have a chance to compete.  I'm still rather sceptical about that.  Later we learned that central government would only be offering about £2.5 million for each school site, and I'd be more than happy to bet that even despite listing, the former Lilian Baylis site is worth well over £8 million.  But that little question did not arise, and Birbalsingh continued to sell the Free School...

The question the public need to ask, according to Birbalsingh is "whether we'd  prefer the site be sold to developers" or used by a school?  (Note that when politicians present either/or options, there are usually more possibilities to be considered).  At this point, nearly all of team-angry-people, who might normally be in the anti-developer camp looked as though they'd happily sell!   But just as the cogs in the brains of those present were springing into motion, Birbalsingh had moved on to "why Lambeth?"  After all, apparently some enthusiastic people had said "why go to Lambeth?  Go to a Conservative borough".  Birbalsingh even claimed that some Conservative boroughs are purchasing sites for Free School use.  So, why Lambeth?  Apparently, the steering committee chose Lambeth because ordinary people "who don't have the option" live here.  Birbalsingh felt that if Free Schools try to open up in the poorer areas, they're "hounded out".  I felt there was a certain mood of "woe-is-us" and martyr mentality on this point, and it's tied in with the whole "the rich are trying to keep us out" Telegraph column, but who knows, perhaps she's right.

This lead to a suspiciously Conservative-party sounding speech about how poorer children should have the same opportunities as richer children.  (And really, who in their right mind would disagree with this?  The question is how or whether to let market forces dictate the quality of education to which children are entitled...)  But, there was no time for theoretical debates, since we learned that belief in poorer children is why team-hooray-Michaela have been "in the rain... marching around constantly" handing out leaflets to "ordinary" (note... loaded word, that) parents.

There was a brief detour to suggest that that free schools and  academies are nearly the same.  Presumably, this removes the teeth from the arguments of local people who might be opposed to free schools.  Lambeth seems to have a fair number of academies (or planned academies).  Birbalsingh was big on "freedom" and "choice".  Academies and Free Schools "have the same freedoms".  That apparently means "freedom from" local authority to do what you think is best for your community of children.  It meant that an extended school day could be offered.  The steering committee are concerned about Lambeth children leaving school at 3:30pm to go and hang out in chicken shops. Birbalsingh felt that keeping them until 5pm meant they would be likely to do that.  (Again, it's not really possible to disagree here, but I'm not clear about whether ordinary schools aren't free to extend their days, as I know very little about education).  We were also told that the proposed Michaela school would hold media awareness classes "because young black boys look at MTV and think they want to be a gangster or a rapper".  I felt this was something of a racial stereotype.  Young boys (whatever their colour) want to be footballers and celebrities...  But you get the general gist of where the argument was going.  So, this interlude finished with the assertion that if you're against free schools, then to be consistent, you should be against academies too.  I hadn't entirely figured out why anybody would be against either, but I think I wasn't necessarily part of the target audience.  Nobody expects the Lurker, after all. 

Next, Birbalsingh rounded off the previous argument by point out that Lambeth already has academies and are converting schools into academies when an audience member interjected, "they're being forced to".  Yes, it was acknowledged that some teachers who may be being forced into it, but the heads are not...  So there appeared to be lots of political hot potatoes being thrown around, which will be tricky to understand if you're not familiar with the inner-workings of the education system.

At that point, Anna Tapsell interjected with the first question about local people knowing that the former school site wasn't currently safe for children, and wondering whether the money for the capital project would come from.  Birbalsingh was confident that the money would come from central government who would buy the building from Lambeth and provide money for refurbishment.  (I'm sure I read a Council document that suggested it needed £10 million worth of repairs...).  Anna Tapsell further pressed the point about whether it was refurbishable, and Birbalsingh admitted it was out of the steering committees' hands, and up to Partnership for Schools to decide.

Birbalsingh had clearly done her homework on the likely voting patterns of those present, and was doing everything to avoid being tarred with the Conservative brush.  She noted that some people had asked how free schools could be good if they're a Conservative idea?  But she quickly batted that back and suggested that Academies emerged from Labour (supported by Kate Hoey, MP), and Free Schools are basically the same, ergo, they couldn't be all bad.  Lots more impassioned pleas about "freedom to do what's right for their children" were added.  Also, more on "ordinary families" being "desperate" for a new school.  Birbalsingh distanced herself from the Conservatives, "I'm not a Conservative.  I'm not." and clarified that she believed that "the black community" (and then everybody) should be floating voters.

Anna Tapsell asked about the submission process.  The bid has apparently already been submitted.  The interview will be in August.  It is  possible that the Michaela Steering Committee will go for interview and not pass it.  If the interview is passed, Partnership for Schools will write a report on the school's viability.  If the school isn't viable, Michaela Free School "may be forced" to go to another London Borough.

I will leave Part 1 (a whole post dedicated to Birbalsingh's argument) with her final offering and summation:

You may feel that for yourselves, or your children, that the school is not right for your children.  That's fine and your choice, but would you want to stop others?  I myself, have nothing to gain personally from it.  When I ended up in the media, people said, that I wanted a political career and doing things in government, but I didn't go there.  I'm not and I'm here talking to you about a school because my heart is in education.  I continue to speak of education. It's hard.  From my perspective, you should know that it's not easy being me. 

Part 2 of the Michaela Free School debate continued provides a summary of all of the points, questions and clarifications made in response to Katharine Birbalsingh's speech above.

Michaela Community School: Kennington Association to hold Public Meeting concerning proposal

I've stayed out of the Michaela Free School debate so far due to a short break from blogging and because I felt that I didn't have enough solid information to make an informed post.  At present, it's not clear where the proposed school would be situated or whether any funding has been agreed for the proposed opening in 2012.  Yesterday, however, I wrote a long  post on the protest concerning the retention of the Shelley site (something that was raised at the last KOV meeting and which I've been tracking closely), which unfortunately has not yet received any comments, except to ask my views on the Michaela Free School!! So...

A representative from Michaela emailed me in May, requesting that I publicise the Michaela Free School website and noted that an open day would take place on the 21st May, which I had hoped to attend.  Unfortunately, the open day was cancelled at the last minute on 20th May, and I've not spotted a public meeting since.  Consequently, I was delighted to note that Kennington Association have seized the mantle and agreed to hold a public meeting to discuss the proposal on Monday (18th July), 7pm at Ethelred Estate Community Youth Club, 7 Lollard Street, SE11 6QH.  After that, Lurking about SE11 hopes to have enough information to put forward a reasoned response.

In the mean time, many of the arguments for the retention of the Shelley site can be marshalled for the Michaela Free School, mostly concerning the secondary school aged population projection within the next few years.  At present, Lambeth is unable to send all students that live within the Borough to Lambeth secondary schools, and has to ship them out of the Borough for secondary education.  In addition, the demand for secondary education will increase on account of the building due to take place on the VNEB developments, especially because the Vauxhall (and thus Lambeth) developments appear to being approved faster than the Wandsworth developments.  Even worse, the VNEB proposals thus far do not appear to have accounted for a secondary school, so there is a clear argument (although perhaps the case is equally strong for Wandsworth) that additional secondary school places be provided for local students.  It's not clear (and seems unlikely) that the proposed Michaela School would have capacity for all of the additional students required across Lambeth (or Wandsworth), so it may be necessary for the council or free school trust to open one large new school or two/three smaller new schools.  Alternatively, (unless the LEA wishes to continue to send its pupils outside of the borough), some inventive means to expand current schools would need to be found (which should not include eating up local Playground space!).

The reason the Michaela School appears to have become so contentious is on account of its founder, Katharine Birbalsingh.  Birbalsingh made a speech at the October 2010 Conservative party conference about how she perceived the State to be failing to provide for the nation's children and to admit that she had voted Tory for the first time. Consequently, one can see how a slightly controversial start might have put some backs up in Lambeth, which is an entrenched Labour stronghold.  That, I suspect, is most likely the reason that some local hackles appear to have risen.

There is a Guardian article, outlining some of her views on State schools, written earlier this year and you can find further information about her from a comprehensive Wikipedia article.  Birbalsingh has written about 121 articles for the Telegraph (click "older entries" to read through the list), with the most recent article published today (just before Monday's meeting), on why she thinks middle class women on bikes (in Lambeth?) want to prevent working class children from receiving a good education.  It seems a tad impolitic to raise local backs further, before people have had a chance to hear about the Michaela School proposals, but presumably she hopes people will hear the free school ideas with open minds despite an article that appears deliberately provocative.  I am already wondering whether we're going to hear open and positive suggestions about Michaela free school from a diverse range of staff and parents or a Birbalsingh-only version of what Michaela Free School might look like.  The two are potentially quite different, so it's worth listening closely...

Archbishop Sumner School vie with Lambeth Council for more space and Kate Hoey steps in with a mini

(Image taken from saveshelley.co.uk)

The parents and governors at Archbishop Sumner Primary School, Kennington (the only local school to be judged by Ofsted as "Oustanding" in 2009) have been hoping for some time to expand Archbishop Sumner, converting it into a two-form entry establishment. 

There is an old school building and grounds, (known locally as Shelley School Site) located nearly opposite Archbishop Sumner Primary and it is owned by Lambeth Council, so it would make good sense to refurbish the site and extend the school.  Unfortunately, Lambeth Council don't see it that way.  They plan to sell off the Shelley site (in the same way as they're currently doing, to the consternation of many locals, with The Beaufoy) to raise funds to plug their huge hole in funding so that they can continue to provide essential services throughout the Borough of Lambeth.  Our local councillors have also provided an explanation from the Regeneration Department on why they perceive that there's "no projected demand for an educational use for the Shelley site".

On July 22nd 2010, local parents held a meeting about their struggles to get their first choice places for their own children, which was attended by Cllr Mark Harrison (Princes Ward), Cllr Pete Robbins (Lambeth Council Cabinet member for Children and Young People) and Kate Hoey MP. 

Cllr Harrison noted at that meeting,

"nobody would deny there is a demand for more places at Archbishop Sumner. The council is aiming to meet that, but the issue is that there's such a pressure on places in the South [of the borough] that there's a risk of people not getting any place at all..."

Instead of expanding Archbishop Sumner, Lambeth Council prefer to expand Vauxhall School as emergency decant space (in case of arson etc.).  Cllr Pete Robbins made clear at last year's meeting, that Vauxhall School has a kitchen that needs to be moved to the ground floor.  As a result of the space left over from that refurbishment, he claimed it was

"incredibly cost effective to put some extra places in, some extra classrooms", but then noted it was "not the [Council's] intention to fill those places."

When local residents asked Cllr Pete Robbins why the Shelley Site (at that point it was the Olive School) couldn't be converted to provide more space, he responded,

"As I understand it, the building itself would not be suitable to be converted because primary schools need specific space standards.  However, there is a site without a doubt so if we had a pot of money that was entirely unlimited, it would be entirely possible to knock it down and provide a new school."

But that wasn't his final word on the matter.  Cllr Robbins was actually rather hopeful that the Shelley Site might be preserved...

"...there will be pressure from the government to sell sites....  I  really think it wouldn't be a good idea to do that and the site needs to be preserved for educational use... these things change all the time, and it's a constant running battle to make sure we get places right.  Rather than sell, we maybe look at trying to rent it on the short-term basis so that in the future, we have it as an option.  Looking at the big picture, we know there will be a big big development possibly at Nine Elms and at the moment, they're not planning to build any schools as part of it so we could have families from there, and things might change again.  In the past, a mistake was made when we were told we didn't need schools, so we did close them and sell off the sites and now there are very very few sites that we can use.  We want to make sure we don't repeat that mistake."

So the meeting ended on a somewhat hopeful note, but in the meantime, Archbishop Sumner parents and governors have been working hard behind the scenes, have set up a "Save Shelley" website.  The deadline for responding to the Council's Consultation on the site is 15th July, tomorrow, and there's a leaflet that you could sign on the Save Shelley campaign to indicate that you'd like the school retained for local educational use.  Additionally, the campaign have produced an incredibly thorough list of residential property that is likely to be constructed within the next 5 years which they expect to contain children who would be within their catchment area.  You can make your own mind up about whether you think there will be more demand for school space within the north of the Borough of Lambeth:

(Image taken from saveshelley.co.uk/) 

Unfortunately for Lambeth's Labour Council, Kate Hoey MP has performed her age-old trick of agreeing with local residents instead of local officials, so she's zooming to the rescue of the parents this evening as they garner publicity to Save the Shelley site.  She'll be trying to cram as many school children into her mini to demonstrate the squeeze on local school places...

(Image taken from telegraph.co.uk)

£588 million funding black hole in Vauxhall Nine Elms Battersea infrastructure

Ok, so I've been a bit of a bad blogger recently, but sometimes I find I can't fit my real life work and spare time projects and activities into 24 hours so I periodically have to drop a few things. In light of all the cuts and planning and development etc. I'm going to try and catch up from where I stopped, so be prepared to be inundated for the next few days.

I left off back in April with a KOV meeting, focused somewhat on the Strategy for the Vauxhall Nine Elms Battersea Opportunity Area, but as one commentator noted, I failed to cover an impromptu note from the floor detailing work performed by David Boardman (and others) from the Kennington Association Planning Forum.  I know that planning matters can be dull, but the big story here is that the KA Planning Forum claim that the funding gap in the Vauxhall Nine Elms Battersea Opportunity Area (mostly on account of the Northern Line infrastructure) is not £58 million, as highlighted by the Development Infrastructure Funding Study (DIFS) (commissioned by the GLA and developers), but a whopping £588 million.  This is a major regeneration news story that has not (as far as I know) been noticed by the mainstream press at all.

I was going to try and write it all out to explain where the money is missing, but it was easier to develop the graph produced by KAPF and add a few explanatory notes.  As you'll see, the first graph shows an admitted £58 million funding gap, but the DIFS study didn't make it very clear that developers were refusing to fund £62 million of required police, health etc. spending and that £63 million funding was supposed to come from borrowing, despite the fact that Wandsworth Council don't like to borrow on account of it being costly to tax payers.  That means that the original deficit was closer to £183 million. You can see it all detailed on this first graph. See the penultimate page of the revised chapter 12 VNEB OAPF for the figures used in Graph 1:

Once the document had been out for a while, KAPF analysed it and found significant weaknesses.  They specifically  sympathised with the company asked to write the DIF study (Roger Tym and Partners) on account of their being asked to "believe a number of implausible things".  So here's a few reasons that KAPF think the developers are wildly optimistic on spend:

*  When working on funding for any transport project, the Department of Transport ask that an optimism bias be added.  This is to account for the fact that major engineering projects are unwieldy and expensive.  In the VNEB OAPF, £800 million was allocated for the Northern Line Extension.  But by the time the DIFS emerged, the optimism bias had been removed and the NLE had been reduced to £564 million (shaded light pink).  KAPF chose to add £130 million (a 23% optimism bias) back into the costs (shaded bright orange).

* Affordable housing was reduced in the DIFS to 15%, despite the fact that Lambeth's Affordable Housing targets are 40%.  If only 15% of the housing built was affordable, the developers would be able to raise a levy of £40k per dwelling.  If  40% of housing built was affordable, a levy of only £25k per dwelling is possible.  High levels of affordable housing would reduce the funding, leaving costs at the same level.

* By assuming lower levels of social housing, there has been an economizing of both healthcare and education costs.  In order to estimate numbers of children for schools, Wandsworth assumed a 10% child yield (1 child in every 10 properties), but child yield in Lambeth is currently 20%.  Wandsworth also removed 25% of children from their calculations on the assumption that they'd be educated privately.  KAPF think that if the midpoint figure of their estimates is used by both councils, a secondary school is definitely required.  That's another unanticipated £74 million (shaded bright yellow) on top of current education provision (shaded light green).  If KAPF are correct in their estimation, they also think that a primary school will need to expand to being four form entry.  If a new primary school is required, the costs go up further (this is not shown on the graph).

* The KAPF review of the infrastructure report goes into plenty more detail over other issues, but I want to provide a broad overview.  By far and away the largest problem is the lack of green space in the VNEB.  It is certainly deficient, and this was proved by the refusal of the Secretary of State to permit the appeal of the developers on the Bondway.  In the Mayor's Planning Framework, the linear park (a long green strip running from Vauxhall to Battersea) was intended to be 1500m long and 50-100m wide, a total of 11.3 hectares.  By the time the developers had finished with their Infrastructure study, they had reduced the total park space to 3.5 hectares!  Assuming it was still to be 1500m long, it would only be approx. 23m in width.  

The national standard for green space is 2.4 hectares of open space per 1000 people,  Lambeth's open space projections assume that the entire Borough will eventually have 1.44 hectares of green space per 1000 people.  If the VNEB were to be constructed with a park of only 3.5 hectares, the area would be unproceedable.  To reintroduce the missing hectares, and bring the VNEB up to the level of Lambeth's most space deficient ward (Ferndale), would cost the developers, by KAPF's  estimations, £200m (shaded bright pink).

So, on a basic reading by a local planning forum, you can see that the sums don't add up.  A deficit of over £588m is not something that can be papered over.  I know that there have been more developments on the VNEB (including the leader of Lambeth Council coming on board for the project) since I updated last month, so I'll blog about that in due course.

Update on schools (and their websites) in Kennington, Oval and Vauxhall

Ever since I attended the Angry Parent meeting at St Anselm's church a few months ago, and compiled the list of schools and their recent Ofsted reports, I've been getting a lot more hits from people searching for local primary schools.  It made me wonder whether the subject matter of my area coverage was unbalanced.  I write a considerable amount on planning, but very little on the arts (community meetings seem to squeeze out theatre trips, but I've tried to address arts via the new calendar), and a lot on community groups, but very little on education...  I thought it might be worth redressing the balance every so often...

One particularly impressive part of the Angry Parents meeting was the fact that two members of staff from Henry Fawcett Primary School showed up and spoke about the measures that they'd put in place to bring their school out of Special Measures.  I thought it was a particularly brave move, at a meeting set up for parents who were concerned about their being enough places at "good" local schools to meet the needs of their children.  Consequently, it seems timely to note a document on the Henry Fawcett home page that demonstrates the steps they took to bring the school out of those measures in a very short time.  From that document, we learn that there's been a complete restructuring of staff, a new curriculum, the implementation of a database to monitor students' progress, report cards for misbehaving children, new sports coaches at lunch time, improved lesson planning etc. etc.  Wow.  Fantastic work!

Also, I wondered whether it was possible for parents and neighbours to learn what was happening at their children's schools locally.  St Mark's C of E school do have a rather slow website, but that doesn't look as though it has been updated since 2005!  Crampton Primary School have a website whose "recent" newsletter hasn't been updated since 2006.  [Edit 11/2/2011: Vauxhall Primary School have a new website.]  Walnut Tree Walk have a promising website with little content.  Charlotte Sharman share the same website host as St Mark's which is slow to load and hasn't been updated since 2007/8.  St Anne's Roman Catholic Primary appear to have no website.  Lilian Baylis Technology School have a site, but it's down (I'll check again in the morning).  Henry Fawcett have a bright website, which is only a few months out of date, and last updated approx. July 2010.  Archbishop Tenisons School have a website updated this month and Archbishop Sumner Primary School have a website that was last updated in October.  I wanted to make this post one about the positive news of local schools, but it will seem too biased if I do so without including a full range of schools.

I don't think it's a coincidence that Archbishop Sumner also have outstanding Ofsted results.  It's not true to say that the website makes the school, but it might be true to say that if you have within the school the resources (be that staff, parents or friends) to create and update a website, then you have the voluntary capacity required to run an outstanding school.  The problem is (and this is my uninformed guess), that many (not all, but many) parents with money and resources wish to send their children to Archbishop Sumner.  I'm not making this up, because this fact became clear at the meeting earlier on this year.  The parents at that meeting (95% middle class, professional, and, incidentally, white) wished to see that school expanded.  However, unless parents choose to run their own free schools (can't see Lambeth Council being excited by that idea), the likelihood of the school structure changing in its entirety is low.  The difficulty is trying to figure out how to share and spread levels of high attainment.

School staff (at least, according to the news) have to work longer hours, teach children with English as a second language in schools where multiple languages are spoken, provide discipline where parents fail, subject children to continual SATs testing, satisfy the demands of the National Curriculum and stay sane.  Maybe it's not their job to create and maintain websites.  There's a possibility that website are unnecessary when parents speak to teachers at the school gates, and newsletters always make it home in children's bags.  Should schools be producing websites and keeping the wider public informed of local education?  I don't know.  Is this the task of the Local Education Authority?  Maybe, but how will they know exactly what's happening in a school?  Is it their task, in an era of "shrink the state" governance?  It seems to me that maybe it's the task of school governors, but they have to ensure children are safeguarded, enable a school to support children with Special Educational Needs, decide on policies of exclusion and manage the staff in a school, all in an unpaid capacity.  It doesn't leave much time for managing a website.  It seems that perhaps it's the task of the parents, but when one IT-savvy parent's child leaves a school, the website could be abandoned.

School websites are a small and insignificant matter that simply demonstrate commitment.  Updating people with news is one of the ways that schools can appeal to the wider community and share their joys and concerns.  Sharing news and enabling local "ownership" of services is part of creating the Big Society, right?  The absence of up to date news from schools feeds into fears that I have concerning our impending Big Society.  The volunteer culture needed to update school websites is precisely the volunteer culture required to visit the elderly when the State is forced out through spending cuts.  Some people will argue that it should never have been the State's job in the first place.  I'm agnostic on that matter.  But even if it isn't the State's job, a sudden removal of  front line carers and visitors is not going to create a situation where volunteers are immediately able to fill the breach.  If that were the case, all of our schools would have up-to-date websites.

Wandsworth Council and transport / town centre - Part 5 of 5 from Vauxhall Nine Elms Battersea Exhibition VNEB

Finally, just for the record, I wanted to add the final in the series of VNEB exhibition boards. There is so much going on locally that it's difficult to keep up! These boards mostly show Wandsworth Council's outlines on the VNEB, which is importance since the majority of the VNEB falls on their patch.  In my view, the boards aren't quite as useful as the ones that Lambeth Council supplied on account of the fact that they don't summarise all of the buildings that have been granted planning permission to date.  Maybe there are too many to list (or they've not yet been declared), but without an idea of that, it's difficult to imagine the volume of housing and commercial space that will hit the area:

This board clearly outlines the scale of the development.  16,000 new homes means the arrival of a vast number of new residents.  I fail to see how 20,000 - 25,000 new jobs will be created when industrial space is being reduced, but perhaps we'll all be surprised:

Note the mention of the "linear park", linking Vauxhall to Battersea.  This will not provide adequate green space given the likely population density, even once the parks at Spring Gardens and Vauxhall have been taking into account:

The additional 800 primary school aged children will be catered for by /one/ primary school.  Goodness knows whether the other primary schools in the locality can be expanded to meet demand.  The 600 secondary school aged pupils will presumably have to be placed in existing schools.  I'm not sure whether a school feasibility study has been completed, but this /sounds/ a tad unrealistic even to my unknowledgable ears.  Battersea gets a library.  Vauxhall probably won't (but then, libraries aren't really in vogue at the moment, are they?):

Transport.   One of my favourite topics!  This poster indicates improved bus services, new bus routes and increased bus frequency.  It also shows enhanced railway stations (but doesn't mention enhanced services) so this probably just means the stations will get a make over (see here for Vauxhall rail station refurbishment).  Cyclists are mentioned here in terms of "better provision", but it doesn't clearly outline cycle lanes or segregated cycle paths on roads or anything like that.  There's mention of the proposed Northern line tube to Battersea, with an added station at Nine Elms (my favourite option, but it probably wouldn't do much to relieve congestion Kennington tube station).  However, I think the huge cost of this project will eventually mean that the area will get a tram (which is one of the proposed options in the giant VNEB consultation document).  I suppose another option might be to add a new National Rail station between Queenstown and Vauxhall, but looking at the map, this would probably be too far from the power station to meet the new residents' needs:

Here's a model, which I think illustrates how nasty and oversized the new St George tower will look. The architecture is not even particularly imaginative, just a round tall tower.  This model is not illustrative of all of the buildings planned for Vauxhall.  For some reason, some of these have been missed off.  The orange line on the plan is the new proposed tube route:

Just for the record, here are the last few signs up at the exhibition, and completes this rather long and tedious set of plans and photos in the VNEB series.

Part 1 (Ballymore section) of VNEB exhibition is here.
Part 2 (Lambeth Council section) of VNEB exhibition is here.
Part 3 (Tideway Wharf section) of VNEB exhibition is here.
Part 4 (Sainsbury's Towers section) of VNEB exhibition is here.

Lilian Baylis Technology School Careers Fair

Lilian Baylis Technology School are holding a careers fair on 2 December.  Their headteacher, Gary Phillips wishes to disseminate the email below to local people:

My name is Gary Phillips and I am Head of Lilian Baylis Technology School. I am writing to invite you and/or your organisation to host a stall at our Careers Fair on Thursday 2 December from 17:00 - 19.30.

Most of our students do not come from graduate and/or professional families so events such as our Careers Fair are vital in inspiring and nourishing ambition. We run the event in the gym with each organisation hosting a stall where they engage with the students and families about the opportunities their organisation offers and/or what is required to work with the organisation.

If you are able to attend or need any further details please let Gina Mensah know on 0207 091 9500 or gina.mensah@lilianbaylis.com

I'm sure the school would appreciate a positive response from local businesses and organisations, as there is a growing commercial community throughout Kennington and Vauxhall, so do feel free to spread the request far and wide.

Kennington Schools - Ofsted reports and meeting for concerned parents

I've been emailed a flyer which suggests that parents in Kennington are concerned that two local primary schools are in "special measures" and would like to meet to discuss their options.  Click the poster to view a larger copy to discover where/when the meeting takes place:

Being placed in special measures means that Ofsted judge that a school does not provide an acceptable level of education and lacks the leadership capacity to improve matters.  The local schools that have been / were placed under special measures are Henry Fawcett Primary School and Vauxhall Primary School (see here for large .zip file of the data as at 31st March 2010 from Ofsted).  Note that as of 9th/10th June 2010 (date of last inspection), Henry Fawcett is deemed no longer to be in special measures.  Therefore, the poster above is somewhat misleading.

I cannot imagine how it must feel to teach or lead a school placed in special measures so I really hope that the parents at those two schools are rallying together to be as supportive of the staff as they can.  It would be very interesting to see if the wider Kennington and Vauxhall community could think of ways to offer their talents to the schools that do not make the grade that would give the children at those schools a boost, but I'm not altogether inclined to think that Londoners are necessarily so community minded.  Whilst being placed in special measures is something of an indictment on a school, I do wonder whether the school intake at both of the schools that were originally placed in special measures comprises of a larger number of children who speak English as a second language, and who are entitled to free school meals (indicating poverty).  Note that the most recent Henry Fawcett Ofsted report states "Attendance has risen, but not at a pace that matches the improvements in other areas, despite the school's strenuous efforts." which rather implies that the staff are working with a set of parents who don't place a high value on education and potentially have lower aspirations for their children.

As far as I know, there are seven primary schools in SE11 and Ofsted rate schools Overall effectiveness with the grades Outstanding, Good, Satisfactory and Inadequate.  I've provided links to all of the Ofsted reports so that anybody interested can analyse further:

Archbishop Sumner (C of E) - 2009 Ofsted Report judged school as Outstanding
Charlotte Sharman - 2009 Ofsted Report judged school as Satisfactory
Henry Fawcett - 2010 Ofsted Report judged school as Satisfactory
St Anne's Catholic Primary School (RC) - 2008 Ofsted Report judged school as Good
St Mark's (C of E) - 2008 Ofsted Report judged school as Good
Vauxhall Primary School  - 2010 Ofsted Report judged school as Good
Walnut Tree Walk Primary School - 2010 Ofsted Report judged school as Good

I'm not surprised that having two of seven schools in special measures (or recently placed as such) is causing consternation amongst local parents.  If you're not religious and don't wish to enter into attending church for the sake of your child's education, you have a choice of only four schools, two of which are or have recently been in special measures and a third of which is judged only as satisfactory.  This, I imagine, puts considerable pressure on places at Walnut Tree Walk.

Equal opportunities for all in SE11 - proposed Beaufoy Academy jeopardised?

Lambeth Labour believe in equal opportunities for all.  At least, that is Cllr Pete Robbins' view on local education.  Clearly, equal opps for all in education do not extend as far as equal opps for all citizens to participate in local democracy.  Perhaps that's not such a bad thing, since it's unclear whether the co-operative council movement would result in the further privatisation of services, as the council sought to further sub-contract works in an attempt to minimise costs.  Of course, there is a chance that the co-operative council idea might offer an opportunity for genuine democratic participation by local citizens.  But, at this rate, we'll never know.  Local politics, according to Lambeth Labour, should be left to the politicians, or, better still, the businesses that consult with Lambeth's corporate policy team.

I can't think of any political party that doesn't believe in the idea of equal opportunities for all.  The question, of course, is quite how one achieves that aim.  The Conservatives have attempted this in a small number of counties by retaining grammar schools.  A grammar school education offers a way to university, and beyond, for all those who could pass the 11+ exam (and, of course, could afford to live in the catchment area).  The argument against grammar schools is that they deplete the talent pool, leaving comprehensive schools to teach everybody else.  A more recent Labour policy to promote equal opportunities for all has seen an attempt to turn certain failing schools into "academies" with specialisms.  According to Wikipedia, the academy idea was sponsored by Tony Blair, all the way back in 2000.  Academies have traditionally been publicly funded (although, with a private commercial backer), but outside of Local Education Authority control.  And, of course, they've face the same accusations of selection as grammar schools.  Apparently, they're allowed to set their own admissions policies, although "most" academies follow local authority guidelines.  The Conservatives also like academies, and indeed, at the local Princes/Oval by-election hustings, the Conservative candidate, Michael Poole-Wilson enthusiastically backed the idea of third-party run schools.  Most recently, academy schools have received the backing of the Cons/Lib-Dem coalition, with the suggestion that schools should apply for Academy status, if they think they could benefit from greater independence.

Why is this of any relevance to SE11?  Of what possible import could academies have on our little part of London?  Sometimes it's useful to be able to take a little step back.  We'll go back, for the sake of argument, to the 23rd March 2010.  I'm sure it was around that date that Cllr McGlone was suggesting that the Beaufoy site might be used to establish a new Academy for 14-19 year olds.  The Council was supposed to be "exploring with potential sponsors an Academy-based model" for the Beaufoy that might even have been named the "Beaufoy Vocational Academy".  The proposed sponsor (Kunshapsskolan) run their schools in a manner that is "state-funded, free of charge and non-selective", but at the end of the day, they're still a company, and they'd still be a sponsor (and they don't escape the Academy model).  So why would Lambeth Labour call for schools not to opt out of local authority control, at the same time as looking to build an Academy (with private sponsorship) in their own backyard?  Has there been a change of heart, or did the talks with the sponsor fall through?

Surely, what's of importance to local tax-payers, parents and residents is that the Beaufoy site be put to use.  By all means, build an academy, a comprehensive, an adult-education centre or a learning based-facility, but why not see if Kids Company (or some other charity) could use the space whilst we wait?  I'm pretty sure they'd have some great ideas for it, and it would benefit the most vulnerable children in our neighbourhood by giving them the use of a beautiful building.  The former Lilian Baylis has meanwhile use, but I often wander past the car-park area of the Beaufoy and think it could be put to use very well as a couple of basketball/netball/tennis courts (at the very least).

Whilst we wait, I've installed a ticker at the top of the blog, which counts the length of time since the Beaufoy Institute has been put to any proper use.

Clarification:  Cllr Robbins has posted a long response, over at Onionbag, claiming that Lambeth-"key partner" Academies are different from the government's proposals that schools should seek Academy status in order to gain control over their spending.  I'm unclear about the difference since I thought that all Academies were (to some degree) privately funded, whether "key partners" with their local authorities or not.  All moves to build Academies are moves towards privatisation.

Further clarification: Cllr Steve Reed has said that academies no longer need private sponsorship (although, see above, as the Beaufoy looks to be going in this direction anyway).  If that's the case, I'm not entirely sure I see the Lambeth Labour objection to schools seeking Academy status, and choosing to go it alone, without the local authority.