Evelyn Grace Academy - new school in east Brixton

[ShiftyBagLady]

yeah but try telling teenage girls that they can't wear make up and may only wear black or green hairbands.
from whatr i saw on teh bbc, i think the uniform looks awful. the green is way too bright

what's the deal with them moving the school? is the site in brixton temporary then? am i missing something
i'm also not sure that the school day should extend to 5 o'clock though.....

 

[Mrs Magpie]

It works at our school. I work exclusively with teenage girls.

 

[ShiftyBagLady]

isn't there none in the area at all until this year, new one being built on loughborough road and also in west norwood, at last.

i think there are tow or three near me actually but none of them look very good. in fact one of them may have been shut down for failing. cant quite remember.
i do know that it occurred to me that i'd have to send my boy out of the area when he's older.

 

[ShiftyBagLady]

It works at our school. I work exclusively with teenage girls.

whats that, the make up or the extended school day?

 

[Mrs Magpie]

The school isn't being moved. It's the temporary site for the new intake until the school proper is built. There aren't enough schools in the borough. Loads of kids have to go out of borough. Lambeth sold lots of the schools which are now luxury flats in gated communities.

 

[Mrs Magpie]

whats that, the make up

There's loads that goes on after 3:30 though. Not compulsory, but it's a hive of activity till gone 5:30. I love my school. Wish I gone there when I was a kid.

 

[ShiftyBagLady]

i think it's good to have optional activities and clubs integrated into schools but extending the official school day seems a bit much to me.

its a shame that this years intake will be moved once (or is it twice?) but as you say, there is a desperate need for more schools in the area.

 

[se5]

l
i will be interested to see how the school does because there is a lack of good secondary schools in brixton.

I think its a Lambeth-wide problem rather than just Brixton - I read somewhere that less than 50% of school age pupils who live in Lambeth actually go to school in the borough.

This is due to historic reasons and some selling off of schools for conversion to flats etc - like many problems that have developed over the last 20 or so years the blame can be laid at the Thatcher government's door.

Until its abolition the Greater London Council was reponsible for schools in inner London through an organisation called the Inner London Education Authority - as a result children could go to a variety of schools in the 12 borough inner London area and also ILEA developed many innovative services for inclusive schooling and dealing with the particular educational needs of inner city children which are now mainstream (see for example http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2008/jun/03/schools.uk1 for a description of its activities).

When ILEA was abolished the boroughs had to establish education departments which then had to administer the schools in their area and in Lambeth they started off with not enough schools for all the pupils (and a very poor area with a good many pupils with special needs) and the situation has got worse as a result of population growth, financial problems at the councils which has meant they have had to sell of land etc etc etc. And today the only way of getting funding to establish a new schools seems to be through the academies programme.

Interestingly Professor Tim Brighouse last year called for a return of ILEA - http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/stand.../Academics+call+for+return+of+ILEA/article.do

 

[Mrs Magpie]

Well I've lived in Brixton for over 27 years and although there are undoubtedly problems that can be laid at central government's door, I learned quite quickly that whoever is in power at Lambeth council, whether Labour, Conservative, Lib Dem or coalitions the residents always get shafted.

 

[Mrs Magpie]

The thread linked to below shows how long the whole 'new school in Brixton' thing has been rumbling on. It was announced that after long & hard campaigning by parents that was going to be a school quite a long time ago now....

www.urban75.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=54578

 

[Ms Ordinary]

I've just downloaded the prospectus - I'd forgotten (& still can't quite believe) that the school building is being designed by Zaha Hadid.

I've seen a few kids around wearing the uniform & they look very smart - I do think school uniform should be all or nothing & it does look like a "proper school uniform".

(I do think "no make-up at all" is a bit harsh on teenage girls though - but I suppose you've got say it as they would completely take the piss if you said they were allowed discreet & natural...)

 

[Mrs Magpie]

I think it`s opening　in temporary accomodation whilst they build the school. They will probably just start with year 7 and build it up that way

That's exactly what's happening.

 

[Mrs Magpie]

(I do think "no make-up at all" is a bit harsh on teenage girls though - but I suppose you've got say it as they would completely take the piss if you said they were allowed discreet & natural...)

They do. There's a school near where I work that doesn't have a no make-up/jewellery rules and I pass girls in the morning with hoop earrings a circus dog could pass through and who are made up like drag queens!

 

[editor]

I've just downloaded the prospectus - I'd forgotten (& still can't quite believe) that the school building is being designed by Zaha Hadid.

Blimey. She won the Welsh Opera House bid and - correct me if I'm wrong here - didn't they then discover that she'd only actually built one thing before, and that was a tiny wee thing?

 

[Mrs Magpie]

I would also add that we have a no make-up rule and the girls make it their mission to wear make-up so discreet and natural that the staff don't notice. An important skill to have!

 

[Ms Ordinary]

Blimey. She won the Welsh Opera House bid and - correct me if I'm wrong here - didn't they then discover that she'd only actually built one thing before, and that was a tiny wee thing?

Maggie's Centre
is the only thing she's built in the UK so far, though she's done plenty of stuff in other countries now.

Looking through her stuff, a lot of it seems to be situated in very beautiful / dramatic / remote scenery, so I am very curious to see how her very sculptural style will work this context.

(though I think the kids are lucky she wasn't suggested to design the uniform )

 

[lang rabbie]

Blimey. She won the Welsh Opera House bid and - correct me if I'm wrong here - didn't they then discover that she'd only actually built one thing before, and that was a tiny wee thing?

I'm normally sceptical about "magazine architecture" like Hadid's, and I'm not sure how she will cope working with the tight functional brief for a new secondary school, but that sound like a pretty revisionist take on what happened in Cardiff. For another view:

The most notorious project, though, was Hadid’s 1994 competition-winning design for the Cardiff Bay Opera House, which was abandoned by the Millennium Commission after noisy opposition from local lobbyists, particularly Cardiff politicians wary of highbrow architecture being “imposed” on a Welsh city by London. Britain was still knee-deep in the conservative political and architectural culture that had emerged in the 1970s. Popular taste was gradually becoming more daring, but Hadid’s ideas were as yet a step too far. It was a sobering experience, which set back her office for several years, but one she learnt from. Hadid later became philosophical recently about Cardiff, seeing it as a turning point in her career. Without dumbing down, she has slowly learnt the politics of how to get her work built.

http://www.designmuseum.org/design/zaha-hadid
and
http://www.uwp.co.uk/book_desc/1442.html

 

[editor]

I'm normally sceptical about "magazine architecture" like Hadid's, and I'm not sure how she will cope working with the tight functional brief for a new secondary school, but that sound like a pretty revisionist take on what happened in Cardiff. ....

It's the jist of what was written in 'Real Cardiff,' a generally very accurate inside look at Cardiff's history.

 

[Etymologist]

Article in the guardian about it today: http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2008/sep/11/newschools.children

 

[Etymologist]

Article in the guardian about it today: http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2008/sep/11/newschools.children

Hold on a minute, I'm incredibly confused. Last time I cycled down Shakespeare Road, about a month or two ago, the site was a wasteland. Have they already built the school?! I suppose they must have if the Guardian describes the first day for the year 7s. Can anyone enlighten me?

 

[lang rabbie]

Hold on a minute, I'm incredibly confused. Last time I cycled down Shakespeare Road, about a month or two ago, the site was a wasteland. Have they already built the school?! I suppose they must have if the Guardian describes the first day for the year 7s. Can anyone enlighten me?

Between September 2008 and June 2009, the school is temporarily based at the Brixton Social Education Centre building at Somerleyton Road.

 

[Pat24]

That's brilliant. That's the sort of education that I had from the age of 6 til 13...until I had to come to school in England!
I was taught to be disciplined about my routine, be responsible, having respect for others and for myself.

 

[Missez]

It works at our school. I work exclusively with teenage girls.

Same here.

(we don't work at the same school do we?)

 

[Bob]

I think its a Lambeth-wide problem rather than just Brixton - I read somewhere that less than 50% of school age pupils who live in Lambeth actually go to school in the borough.

This is due to historic reasons and some selling off of schools for conversion to flats etc - like many problems that have developed over the last 20 or so years the blame can be laid at the Thatcher government's door.

Until its abolition the Greater London Council was reponsible for schools in inner London through an organisation called the Inner London Education Authority - as a result children could go to a variety of schools in the 12 borough inner London area and also ILEA developed many innovative services for inclusive schooling and dealing with the particular educational needs of inner city children which are now mainstream (see for example http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2008/jun/03/schools.uk1 for a description of its activities).

When ILEA was abolished the boroughs had to establish education departments which then had to administer the schools in their area and in Lambeth they started off with not enough schools for all the pupils (and a very poor area with a good many pupils with special needs) and the situation has got worse as a result of population growth, financial problems at the councils which has meant they have had to sell of land etc etc etc. And today the only way of getting funding to establish a new schools seems to be through the academies programme.

Interestingly Professor Tim Brighouse last year called for a return of ILEA - http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/stand.../Academics+call+for+return+of+ILEA/article.do

Actually the decision to sell off school sites was mainly done by Labour on the council in the late 1990s (e.g. the Effra parade site).

The Labour council deliberately made population projections that showed they didn't need the sites. Anthony Bottrall (formerly a Lib Dem councillor for Stockwell) got some independent projections done that showed the sites were needed.

So blaming Thatcher might be convenient but it's wrong.

Given the council's current housingi budget crisis (something like a £14m overspend this year) I dread to think what they'll sell next.

 

[Mrs Magpie]

Same here.

(we don't work at the same school do we?)

Dunno, what borough do you work in?

 

[Ol Nick]

I suppose they must have if the Guardian describes the first day for the year 7s.

Why must these poor children be given the ridiculous Brave New World moniker of "Year 7s". They are Lower Fourths and deserve to be treated as such.

 

[Etymologist]

Why must these poor children be given the ridiculous Brave New World moniker of "Year 7s". They are Lower Fourths and deserve to be treated as such.

Nonsense. They are year 7s. Its not brave new world its just 2008.

 

[brix]

You're both wrong. They're first years.

 

[Etymologist]

You're both wrong. They're first years.

The year 1, year 2, year 3 etc system is far clearer than either of the other systems. You go from year one (aged 5) to year thirteen (aged 18) through primary and secondary. First years are at university. Get with the times. I only just left school. I know.

 

[brix]

The year 1, year 2, year 3 etc system is far clearer than either of the other systems. You go from year one (aged 5) to year thirteen (aged 18) through primary and secondary. First years are at university. Get with the times. I only just left school. I know.

Bless.