Lewisham-led schools: Primary good, Secondary bad

Lewisham Council-run primaries have squeaked into the top 20 best-performing schools in England at Key Stage Two, in a new research produced by the Education Policy Institute.

The independent research group found that Lewisham's schools were among the country's best once factors including prior attainment of pupils and levels of disadvantage were taken into account. The top 20 is dominated by London schools. Lewisham is ranked 20th.

That's the good news, but Lewisham's biggest challenge is of course its secondary school provision, and at that level, the performance is poor, with our Council-run schools ranked 177th out of 218 providers. The Harris Federation, which runs a number of local schools was ranked second in the country at Key Stage Two and fifth at Key Stage Four.

For the full report click here. Thanks to Ian Duffy for the tip off.

Four Lewisham schools on England's 'under-performing' list

The Department of Education has published a list of London's under-performing schools. Four Lewisham schools feature on the list, making our borough's total second only to Lambeth's. The Mirror reports:

England's worst school have been revealed as official figures show 365 education centres have failed to meet the government's minimum standards. One in eight of England's mainstream secondaries were under-performing in 2017, according to new statistics. This is up from 282 schools , just under one in 10 - the year before. 

According to analysis of the data, it means 260,783 schoolchildren are now being taught at under-performing secondaries - about one in 12 (8.6%), compared to 206,991 (6.8%) in 2016.  Schools fall below the government's performance threshold if pupils fail to make enough progress across eight subjects, with particular weight given to English and maths.

The Department for Education said the rise in under-performing schools is because of technical changes to the points system used by government statisticians to calculate a school's performance.

The rise comes amid major changes to England's exams system, including the introduction of a new grading system, which has meant the data includes English and maths GCSE results awarded new 9-1 grades while other subjects received traditional A*-G grades.

School leaders said the new grading system affecting English and maths has complicated the way school performance is calculated, as it has to be worked out using a combination of old and new grading systems.

Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), said: "As the DfE itself says in today's statistics, these changes are the main reason why there has been an increase in the number of schools which are deemed to be below the 'floor standard' for Progress 8.

Lewisham's entries include two schools serving the Brockley area:

• Sedgehill School
• Forest Hill School
• Prendergast Ladywell School
• Addey and Stanhope School

With thanks to Daniel for the tip-off.

Ashmead School expansion plans revealed

A visualisation of the Lewisham Way elevation

The application for the expansion of Ashmead School is now available on the Lewisham Council website. The proposal is for:

"Construction of a three storey school building (use class D1) at Lewisham Way frontage of Ashmead Primary School, Ashmead Road SE8, to facilitate an increase from 1 to 2 forms of entry, together with removal of existing front boundary wall, creation of new entrance from Lewisham Way and associated landscaping and fencing and alterations to external play space."

The proposed building is big (doubling the school's capacity to help address the area's desperate need for more places) and the Lewisham Way access will mean the loss of the small area of green space on Lewisham Way. As a consequence of this incursion, The St John's Society is opposing the scheme in its current form. They say:

"As part of the plans to double the size of Ashmead School, the small public park on Lewisham Way shall be absorbed into the main school site and form part of the school’s new Main Entrance on Lewisham Way.

"Concerns about child safety aside, given Lewisham Way is one of the busiest and most polluted red routes in the Borough, should Ashmead become an academy then this land would be privatised and lost from public ownership forever (academy schools can become limited companies, and the Governing Body would then be free to sell this valuable land for any price it wished)."

Local residents have until January 3rd to comment on the plans. Click here to review the application.

Ashmead School plans Lewisham Way expansion

As the squeeze on local school places continues, Ashmead Primary School is planning to expand. Rachel sends us this picture and writes:

"I've just returned from a consultation at Ashmead School on their proposed development and extension of the site, which would open it up onto Lewisham Way, opposite the college. It would mean modern four storey building being built in the St Johns conservation area.

"It would be great to see reader opinion in the area of the proposals. The plans will go to public consultation in the next couple of weeks."

Leathersellers Federation launches governor search

Andy Rothery is the new chair of governors at the Leathersellers Federation of Schools (Prendergast Ladywell School, Prendergast School and Prendergast Vale School). He writes:

Due to governor retirements we now have three vacancies for co-opted governors.

We are looking for committed people who live locally, have the capacity to devote time to the role and are passionate about improving our schools and providing excellent education for children from our local community.

We particularly welcome female applicants and those from an ethnic minority, as these are under-represented groups at board level and it is a key objective that our governing board better represents the diverse communities it serves.

The role is unpaid and demanding. The selection process is a skills-based application form and interview. For more information about the role and details of how to apply please see this link

Fair Funding for Lewisham Schools

Cassie writes:

The National Fair Funding for All Schools Campaign is holding a public forum for parents, teachers, head teachers, governors and councillors in Lewisham to raise awareness about the proposed cuts to schools’ budgets.

The event will be chaired by Lewisham parents who are engaged with the National Fair Funding for All Schools'campaign and will be attended by Vicky Foxcroft MP, Cllr Luke Sorba, Nicky Dixon (CASE Lewisham,) Matt Dykes ( National Fair Funding For All Schools Co- Founder.) Other speakers to be confirmed.

Our aim is to build a local coalition of parents, teachers and leaders in support of the National Fair Funding Campaign to stop these proposed devastating cuts. Lewisham parents, teachers, and heads we'd love to hear from you, please join us. This is not yet a done deal as the consultation closes on 22nd March 2017; the government must hear our voices.

The Government’s proposed new funding formula will see schools in Lewisham Deptford suffer massively. Across the country, the average loss per primary school pupil by 2020 is £339, in Lewisham Deptford it’s 40% more than that at £558. Secondary schools here will also suffer hugely, with an average loss of £717 per pupil by 2020.

It is a free event but tickets must be reserved here.

Bee Good

Woohoo! We got a new bee! Gorgeous, thank you @louismasai 😃🎉🐝🐝🐝 #sewingbee @LewishamArtExp @LondonBeeKeeper @LEANarts @BrockleyCentral pic.twitter.com/Wgu8dlT5Ov

— FriendsofBeecroft (@BeecroftFOBS) January 31, 2017

The Ashmead Primary Nursery

Ashleigh Mugridge, the Early Years Co-Ordinator at Ashmead Primary School in St John's, writes:

Spaces are still available in our fantastic and inspiring Nursery, which is set within our thriving Early Years Foundation Stage at Ashmead. We offer a stimulating and child centered approach to learning, supporting your child’s exploration and development through a child led curriculum. The children are supported by a highly experienced and dedicated team of practitioners within a fantastic environment; including our shared, established outdoor space and onsite Forest School.

Both part time and full time options are available for this September’s intake. If your child’s DOB is on or before 31 August 2013 then you are entitled to take up a free part time Nursery place from September 2016. For parents and carers interested in full time options, we offer the chance for parents to pay to ‘top up’ their child’s hours to full time, after an initial settling in period (usually after the first half term).

Ashmead parent Rebecca Hallam says:

"Ashmead Nursery operates child-led learning, which means my daughter is sharing her interests with the Nursery staff, they are listening and tailoring the learning experiences to those interests through play. She is also inspired by her friends interests too!"

If you're interested in sending your child to the nursery, please email Ashleigh here.

New heads for local schools

There are a lot of changes taking place at the top of local schools at the moment, with many Lewisham secondary and primary schools searching for new head-teachers.

Prendergast Vale have been quick to find a new Head, with Duncan Kamya recently recruited while local Catholic primary St Mary Magdalene has announced this week that its Deputy Head Sally Saunders will step up when the current Head retires this summer.

Given how crucial strong leadership is for the success of a school, these swift appointments are good news.

Brockley school tops Lewisham primary table

The Evening Standard has published a league table of London primary schools, based on the performance of 11-year-olds in the National Curriculum tests earlier this year.

In Lewisham, Greater Brockley schools perform strongly, with St Mary Magdalen Catholic School on Howson Road top of the league for the whole borough. Haberdashers Askes Hatcham, Gordonbrock and Beecroft Garden are numbers 2, 3 and 4 in terms of the Brockley-area schools, in the top third of the Lewisham table. 

Congratulations to the staff and pupils of St Mary Magdelen, who not only came top overall, but also earned one of the highest "value added" scores in the borough.
Thank you to Robert, who pointed it out.

Parents oppose Edmund Waller expansion as wrong solution to Primary places crisis

As previously reported, the Borough of Lewisham is suffering from a severe shortage of Primary School places, the result of a local baby boom, a growing population and the area's increasing popularity with young families.

As part of its belated response to the problem, Lewisham Council has proposed to double the size of Edmund Waller Primary School in Telegraph Hill. However, with the decision due to be made in December, a group of parents is campaigning against the changes on the basis that it will squash twice as many kids in to the same space, providing places in the wrong part of the borough, rather than where the shortage is most accutely-felt, around Ladywell, Lewisham and Hither Green.

Phillipa explains:

Living in Tyrwhitt Road, I am one of many families in Brockley that were affected by this years shortage of Primary School places.

Unable to get our daughter into any of the local schools, we finally settled on a place at Edmund Waller, but not after a fight. The school is absolutely fantastic and I feel very grateful for her place, but it is still almost 2 miles for us to travel every morning and by no means local having implications on our local support network and integration with neighbours and the local community - most of whom's kids go to nearby Ashmead, Myatt Garden or John Stainer.

Now, less than 6 weeks into the first term, we hear that Lewisham Council plan to expand Edmund Waller into a 4 form 'super school'. Not only will this have disastrous implications to the resources and quality of the school, a school which is now thriving thanks to great leadership, but it goes absolutely no way to addressing the real issue with Primary School places in Lewisham, an issue which is concentrated in pockets of Brockley - namely Ladywell and Hilly Fields, as well as parts of Lee and Hither Green.

Once again I find myself part of a campaign, but rather than NIMBYs simply opposing change to their beloved school, this is a group that have first hand experience of how wrong Lewisham Council are getting things, just as they miscalculated when they rebuilt Ashmead as a single form school a few years back and allowed Prendergast Vale school to remain single form during its rebuild despite plonking hundreds of new homes on its doorstep.

Please can readers do everything they can to support our campaign to protect Edmund Waller from expansion and force the Council and the Government to address the real issue of Primary School places in this popular London borough.

Click here to sign our petition.

Myatt Garden Winter Craft Market, November 7

Myatt Garden Primary School (Rokeby Road) is launching a new winter craft market to raise funds. There is already a wide variety of sellers lined up and you can browse and shop between 12-4pm on November 7th.

Solar for schools share offer launches

The SE London Community Energy Share Offer is now open, giving you the chance to invest in a £250,000 solar energy project, which aims to return 4% per annum to investors for 20 years while saving local schools money on their electricity bills. It's a canny way of cashing in on Feed In Tariffs before they are nixed, while doing good. 

The minimum stake is £250 and you can invest here.

Prendergast Primary delayed again

Prendergast Primary School won’t be finished for the start of term. Now over a year late. @brockleycentral pic.twitter.com/nauEQ2mIVE

— Kenny Tinsel (@KennyTinsel) August 27, 2015

Luckily, Lewisham has loads of primary school places to spare! Eh? Oh.

London schools outperform other English cities

Anyone who's brought up kids in London will have had the lecture at least once: Someone holding forth about how awful it must be to grow up in the capital - that failure to move out when your kids hit primary school is tantamount to child abuse.

Top of the list of London's imagined failings, neck-and-neck with a lack of ready access to farm animals, is usually the state of London's schools. Well, here's a map (courtesy of the excellent CityMetric) of UK cities based on results from last year's GCSE results.

Only Cambridge, Gloucester and York match London's performance - with 20 out of 30 children gaining at least five A*-C grades, including maths and English. In the last two decades, London's schools have been improving rapidly, helped by a combination of a highly-educated population and highly-motivated immigrant communities. CityMetric notes:

The example of London shows that social background should not be as a big factor in educational attainment as it currently is across the country. More than a fifth of pupils in the capital come from disadvantaged backgrounds – yet attainment rates in this group are higher in London than anywhere else in the country, with nearly 1 in 2 disadvantaged students gaining five good GCSEs.

Beecroft Summer Fair 2015

Alice's Adventures in Myatt Garden

The Mad Hatter: Would you like some wine?
Alice: Yes.
The Mad Hatter: We haven't any and you're too young.
- Alice in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll

Gordonbrock Summer Fair, June 27th

Lewisham primary school availability among worst in the country

The shortage of local primary school places has been thrown in to sharp relief again. The FT has published a DfE league table of London boroughs where pupils do not get their first choice of primary schools. Lewisham is ranked third-worst on this metric and fourth-worst for pupils who don't get any preferred primary school place.

Lewisham's performance is twice as bad as the national average and the DfE reports that the situation in Lewisham deteriorated in the last year, with our borough suffering the 8th-fastest rate of decline among the worst performers. Overall, London is the worst part of the country in terms of preferred primary school places.

Lewisham Council needs to get a grip.

Thanks to Edgar for the tip-off.

Prendergast withdraws Academy bid

Meredith Eddy, one of the people campaigning to prevent local schools from becoming Academies, provides an update following the protests triggered by Prendergast governors' decision to apply for Academy status. She writes:

"The Chair of Governors has withdrawn the application for Prendergast Hilly Fields because of a legal challenge to the process. The whole project has not been helped by the fact that the normal process is complicated by the different types of school involved."

Schools Week reports:

"The Government has been forced to stop the academy conversion of a school after opposition from a single staff member. It will now rewrite government regulations to close the loophole that halted the process.

"In March, The Department for Education (DfE) issued academy orders for three schools in Lewisham, following applications by the Leathersellers’ Federation which runs the schools. But Schools Week can exclusively reveal that the order for one of the schools – Prendergast School – has been rescinded after a parent challenged its legality.

"Regulations for federation schools applying to be academies state that a staff governor must vote in favour of conversion before it can go ahead."

Meredith comments:

"I think successive goverments have made things far too complicated and central government has failed to demonstrate any discernible benefits to switching - especially since Prendergast Hilly Fields has been consistently a top performing school.

"Further, while the Governors and the Executive Head have spent much time and resource on this project, they have done little to promote sharing across the Federation in other areas - that could benefit all the children - e.g. Music and Drama - where the expertise of one school (Music at Hilly Fields) could share in the facilities of another (a purpose built theatre at Ladywell)."