New Secondary School in Brixton

It came out at the UDP meeting some of us attended that their have been discussions in the Council about siting a school in Somerleyton Rd.So far local residents have not had any say in the matter.

After selling off so much land and buildings over the past few years the Council now is finding it hard to get a decent site.The Secondary Schools Campaign in Lambeth is not happy with the Somerleyton Rd site.Its near a railway line,a narrow strip of land,poor access and not big enough to site decent facilities.Also it wont have older children 16+.

Also the community had already been consulted about using the site for a mixture of housing and workshops.Increasing use of the street(and therefore making it safer) and making it fit in with the recently revamped Moorlands estate and the Guiness Trust flats.These plans have been put on "hold".

The Council plans for a school have gradually been leaking out but their has been no consultation that Ive heard about.

The Secondary Schools Campaign in Lambeth are holding a public meeting on Tuesday 16th September at the Jubilee Primary School Tulse Hill Rd at 7 30pm.

website http://www.sscil.org.uk

"Also the community had already been consulted about using the site for a mixture of housing and workshops."

I think this is the right idea for that site - let's face it the west side of Somerleyton couldn't be worse architecturally, although Moorlands is looking great now.

A School/Academy in Brixton is also a great idea but that is the wrong site.

Originally posted by hatboy
A School/Academy in Brixton is also a great idea but that is the wrong site.

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Completely. I cannot see how adequate or suitable facilities could be provided for children on such an unsuitably shaped piece of land between a busy railway line and a 'rat run' road.

There would be massive school-run-induced traffic problems and at night, when the place was all locked up, that side of the road would be no better than it is now regarding drug dealers hanging about. It's a stupid idea. Maybe that's why the public haven't been consulted before -- because they're bound to say ''You must be joking".

...and interestingly, the Moorlands Residents Association appear to know nothing about this...I spoke to a long term resident today who is also active on local committees involving youth and she was really surprised. I'm pretty hacked off about it as perfectly good schools in the area are being closed and Dick Sheppard School was sold off to build a luxury gated 'community'....and where will this leave the community projects that are currently using the buildings? (Adults with severe learning difficulties training project, meals-on-wheels, the Council Housing Office etc)

Originally posted by Mrs Magpie
Dick Sheppard School was sold off to build a luxury gated 'community'

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Christ yes. My landlady was talking to me about that last night. I knew a school had been closed but I hadn't realise that it had been on the site where that ridiculous fortress is.

Mrs M, you might consider firing off afew emails about this. Or letting the Brixton Forum (the council one) know about it. Get motivated on this one and you could have something wonderful on the other side of the road.

The suspicion was that the Council was not consulting people about it.I did not find out from the Council.If even the Moorlands Residents next door have not been consulted their is something fishy going on.Maybe the Council wanted to present it as a fait accompli -this is it or nothing.I will be attending the meeting on Tuesday so I will report back.The Brixton Town Centre Mge have been told.It would be interesting to know how many people in the Council knew about this.

There was a bit on today's local news about this where a local mum was making a big fuss about the location, not just the dealers etc, but the traffic.
A councillor (Anthony someone or other) wittered on about it being a classy site, and how by the time it was built the council "didn't intend for the area to still have a drugs problem".
Typical politico-bollocks.

Originally posted by Mrs Magpie
Dick Sheppard School was sold off to build a luxury gated 'community'....

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Not all that seriously gated - I regularly cut through there to Brockwell Park on my cycle.

I still agree about the essential, typically Lambeth council, stupidity of pulling down a school, selling off the site and then surprise, surprise, finding that the borough hasn't got enough secondary schools and they're short of sites to build them on.

What gets me about all this is the lack of consultation.The Council has Area Committees and Forums.Also it has pais Arup Consultants to produce to reports on Brixton which its held public meetings about.Despite this in secret the Council was thinking about placing a school on the site.The only reason I can see it has not done this publicly is that to many people would say its not a suitable site.Typical Council consultation-we will consult residents when it suits us(the Council) and not the other way around.

I agree with Gramsci and have seen it a thousand times in workplaces.

Employers love 'consulting' about paperclips or how great the new Chief Executive is but as soon as something serious is planned - redundancies, abolishing a final salary pension scheme, company restructuring, making people re-apply for their own jobs - suddenly 'consultation' ceases.

So predictable and so stupid. If you treat clever people like children or idiots they become angry and cynical. They withdraw from the political process. I would have thought that with turnouts already so low the Council might be a bit sensitive about this.

It also, as Gramsci implies, undermines the Forum and Area Committee structures.

What's the point of having these expensive and time-consuming consultative bodies if the moment something serious happens they're by-passed and undermined?

Originally posted by Mrs Magpie
...and interestingly, the Moorlands Residents Association appear to know nothing about this

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Is that so? I thought their chair was being kept fully informed by Mossad.

Originally posted by Mrs Magpie
Dick Sheppard School was sold off to build a luxury gated 'community'

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My mum used to teach there. Shouldn't think she'll be happy to hear that, she said it was a good school.

Originally posted by ats
Is that so? I thought their chair was being kept fully informed by Mossad.

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LOL, I didn't ask the chair (Knowns as Daggers ie, Dagenham, several stops past Barking) I asked the others!

Originally posted by ats
Is that so? I thought their chair was being kept fully informed by Mossad.

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Careful, ats, you don't want to become Brixton's own Mordecai Vanunu.

Anyway, I thought the person in question had recently appointed the Easter Bunny as her policy adviser.

Originally posted by ajk
My mum used to teach there. Shouldn't think she'll be happy to hear that, she said it was a good school.

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I don't know if it was a good school, but it was certainly a good site. Of course, with those nice views of Brockwell Park, it was far too good for kids.

It was only right and proper that it should be put to the much better use of housing rich people in a gated community.

After all, kids don't have any money, do they?

No. Squeeze them into a narrow sliver of land right next to a railway line. They should be fucking grateful we don't send them up chimneys.

ÜberThatcherism in action in Brixton.

Not all that seriously gated - I regularly cut through there to Brockwell Park on my cycle.

I still agree about the essential, typically Lambeth council, stupidity of pulling down a school, selling off the site and then surprise, surprise, finding that the borough hasn't got enough secondary schools and they're short of sites to build them on.

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It's only really gated for cars, and given the problems on other estates that's not too surprising.

It's not just one secondary school though- a few hundred yards from Dick Sheppard as was is the site of the old Tulse Hill school. It's now two large estates, entrances on Athlone Road and Upper Tulse Hill (map). And don't forget Ashby Mill primary, now gated luxury flats.

Dick Sheppard didn't have much playing area, but had the park out the back. Tulse Hill had a huge playing field, big enough to fit another school into. How much playspace will the new one have?... not much grass I presume, but they can always play chicken on the railway lines...

Originally posted by newbie
Dick Sheppard didn't have much playing area, but had the park out the back. Tulse Hill had a huge playing field, big enough to fit another school into. How much playspace will the new one have?... not much grass I presume, but they can always play chicken on the railway lines...

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There is nowhere near enough space to have any sort of a sports field. Games like football would be out of the question. I suppose they could make the kids play basketball instead just to reinforce that Americanised inner-city ghetto school ambience.

Generally a good meeting last night.

The Council have promised to hold another one at the Town Hall to which a wider geographical spread of residents will be invited. They will also provide more basic information about possible sites (which are few).

The reason there has been no consultation so far is that there are no plans so far! Matters are really at a very early stage indeed.

Im not sure I would call it "good".I took notes so Ill post up properly on the weekend.

I did think that the arguments over the unfortunate leaflet that SSCIL put out (Council want school in "Crime spot")led to a lack of discussion of the pros and cons of the site.

It meant that the Lib/Dem Councillor on education was able to split the parents--divide and rule.

I went to the meeting on Tuesday 16th and it was lively.It meant I missed Seeing Tony Benn.

Their was a good turnout at the meeting.I saw several Labour and Lib/dem councillors.

The meeting was organised by the Secondary Schools Campaign in Lambeth so they spoke first:

Their spokesperson said that it was parent pressure that a new school should be built in Brixton.It had been argued that their were falling school rolls so that less schools were needed.This had been proved wrong.

The SSCIL wanted a school that went up to sixth form as many children now had to go outside the borough for that.They wanted it to have good facilities like playing fields and swimming pool(thus a large site was needed).Also they wanted to use the new Government City Academy structures to run basically a parent controlled comprehensive type education(this seems optimistic to me).This would be non selective,non demoninational and Coed.The site they had in mind was the Thames Water site on Brixton hill-this would have to be bought.

The Somerleyton site was to small,poor access,next to a railway line and in a crime hotspot.

The Lib/Dem responce was(Cllr Bottrall spoke most of the time).

Accepted that their was a shortage of secondary places.Support ethos of Nelson Mandela school(he had said his name could be used).He was sorry the Council and SSCil had fallen out on the site..This was premature as no definite decisions had been taken.The DfES had been looking at sites-Somerleyton Rd and the Shakespeare Rd depot.The Council had to supply the site and the government would not supply extra money to buy one.

The Thames water site was therefore not feasible as it had to be bought.Also technically(according to him)a school could not be built on that site.

He also wanted to see central Brixton regenerated and negative publicity would scare private sponsors off.(These new City Academies are public/private type ventures-another issue).People in the wider areas views needed to be taken into account.

It was pointed out that good sites had been sold off.His reply was that this was done by a previous Labour administration and that at the time the Lib/Dems had opposed closures.It was too late now as the best sites had already been sold.

Their were then points from the floor:

Their had been no consultation of residents,local ward Councillors had not been informed and Area Committees had not been kept up to date.

Their were no proposals of how the school was to be sustained-budgets in other schools were being cut.

The administration could go back to the government and ask for support to by the Thames Water site.

Their had been rumours that the School on Somerleyton would be 11 to 16 only.

Their were other proposals for the site-affordable housing/workshops in line with previous consultation reports.These had been forgotten about.

Their was also a number of people from the Moorlands estate(including the chair of the Moorlands residents assoc).They were particularly annoyed at the leaflet the SSCIL put out about the area being a crime hotspot.The said they supported a school on the site.That the SSCIL had given out the wrong message.

The meeting IMO went downhill from there IMO.It seemed to me that the Lib/Dems jumped on this as a way of undermining the arguments of the SSCIL.Implying they were not representative.(seen it before old Council tactic if it wants to push something through).On the other hand I dont think the SSCIL understood how a leaflet going on about how central Brixton is a "crime hotspot" would upset people.

By the end it was agreed to hold another meeting organisd by the Council-with Lib/Dem and Labour coucillors to discuss the school site.

IMO the problems are:

1)Lack of consultation-this leaked out.

2)People are not getting information they need to make decision.How would a school be fitted in on site?What sort of facilties could it have given site constraints?What are alternative plans for the site-are they better idea?

3)What is a "City Academy".How would it be run?Who would run it?It needs private sponsors-how much say would they have in the school?Is it possible for it to be a parent run school given government constraints?

4)What I saw happening at he meeting was the beginning of the worst sort of politiking.Dividing parents etc.I can see the Lib/Dems are desparate to get the government money to set up a City Academy(if u set one up u get government grants).From their point of view they need agreements of where its going to be and they are strapped for cash themselves so think that they have few options.IMO this means democracy suffers.Democracy in the sense of an informed populace taking their own decisions.

Good article on "City Academies" from Red Pepper mag:

http://www.redpepper.org.uk/natarch/tillie.html

Lefty article critical of creeping privatisation of education.

For balance here is another view:

http://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/our_services/education/city_academy.htm

Article by City of London-how they are putting money into new school specialising in teaching business studies so people can have careers in the city.

Makes me want to reach for my Althusser and work on ISAs--Ideological State Apparatus(es).Schools being one of them.

Effort to get that link to work-the lefty red pepper one worked no problem

I live on Moorlands Estate and I don't know anything about this school site. What Moorlands residents said I want this to happen? Who are they? They didn't ask me. It would be crazy to put a school there. Have Metropolitan abandoned there plans for this land? I want there scheme. It's housing and workshops.

AlarmedResident -- don't be alarmed! I suggest you PM Mrs Magpie for an update on the situation. Don't worry.

alarmed resident

your point was brought up at the meeting

hope you're less alarmed now

There's a door in the building where I work which carries a notice saying:

THIS DOOR IS ALARMED.

When I go past, I always think:

I'M QUITE CONCERNED MYSELF.

yeah no one think about thieving alarmed resident

I wouldn't be surprised if all the residents are fairly alarmed......the chairperson of their residents committee is certainly extremely alarming. I know her of yore from other committees.