Lewisham Lines to take - full Q&A on the new school
New School Q&A
BSF
Q. What is BSF?
Building Schools for the Future is a £150million Government funded programme of investment in Lewisham secondary schools. It is part of a wider programme to modernise all the borough’s secondary schools.
Q. Which schools will be modernised under BSF?
Catford, Sedgehill and Northbrook, Sydenham, Deptford Green, Bonus Pastor. BSF also covers building of the New School at Ladywell.
Q. Why is BSF needed?
So that children and young people in Lewisham benefit from well designed and efficient, 21st century secondary school buildings and facilities, and that we raise educational attainment for Lewisham children
(http://www.lewisham.gov.uk/apps/news/detail.asp?id=995)Q. Why can`t BSF be phased so that the new school still uses Ennersdale as a temporary site?
DfES expect us to begin the redevelopment of Northbrook in 2006.
New School
Q. Why is a new school needed?
There are too few accessible school places in the borough
Q. When will the new school open?
It will open on its permanent site at Ladywell in September 2009.
Q. Where will the new school open?
On the site of the Ladywell Leisure centre site.
Q. Why wasn’t an alternative site considered?
Every alternative proposed was considered. Only Ladywell was found to be suitable.
Q. Why wasn’t the Playtower site used?
We could not buy the site in time or for a reasonable price.
Q. Why is there going to be a delay?
There are very few available sites that would be suitable for a temporary school. With Northbrook’s redevelopment being brought forward as part of BSF, Ennersdale will no longer be available.
Q. Does this mean children will be without places in 2006?
No, although it is a challenge, we should be able to continue to offer a Lewisham school place to all families who want one.
Q. What temporary sites have been considered?
The council has looked at 29 possible sites including school sites, parks, other Council buildings and buildings and sites in the hands of third parties.
Q. Will temporary classes be in huts?
Any temporary classes will be in suitable demountable buildings.
Q. Why was it not understood that Northbrook would require the Ennersdale site?
Officers advised that BSF could allow for the flexibility needed, but subsequent advice was that this was not the case.
Pools
Q. What is the Council doing to provide alternative swimming pools?
Lewisham is investing in expanding and improving swimming pools within the borough. A brand new 25m pool at Wavelength, a new pool in Downham and improvements in Lewisham Town Centre will ensure improved access to swimming across Lewisham.A state of the art pool is to open at Sundermead in 2010.
The Downham Lifestyles centre is planned for openning by the end of 2006. The council is committed to pool provision in Forest Hill
“blame”?
Q. The Mayor said the school would be opened in 2006, does this mean the Mayor misled people over the new school?
No, new circumstances and the introduction of BSF investment have forced the council to re-evaluate how best to improve schooling in the borough.
Q. If the Mayor is not to blame who is?
Building projects are complex and always carry the risk of delays. In this case new opportunities arose which mean we had to change our plans.
Q. What confidence can people have that other council building projects will be delivered on time? e.g. Downham Lifestyles Centre.
Building projects are complex and always carry the risk of delays. The Council seeks to mange projects to the targets set by the Mayor and will continue to do so.
Q. Who advised the mayor that 2006 was possible?
The Education Directorate advised that the date was possible on the basis of the then available knowledge. Since then new factors, such as BSF, have emerged.
Q. When will the Mayor decide what to do now?
The Mayor decided on the site for the new school 12 months ago. Decisions about temporary arrangements for the schools will be taken at the Mayor and Cabinet on 8 June 2005.
Supplementary questions
Why did the News Shopper know before Council did?
No papers were released to the press prior to the official dispatch of papers.
The Mayor and Council are not responsible for the content of articles in the press. The News Shopper article of 1 June 2005 was simply incorrect in stating that papers had been issued concerning proposals relating to the new school. No council papers had been distributed to anyone, including the Mayor, by that date. The Media Relations Team only released a statement in response to the News Shopper coverage, not before.
Local journalists regularly contact members of the Council directly to discuss a range of local issues. Newspapers sometimes run stories based on such conversations or on the expectation that proposals are likely to appear around a certain time. This appears to have been what occurred on this occasion.
If you found out in March from the DfES that it wasn't possible, why have we only just been told?
Discussions with the DfES have been ongoing since March. It has taken until now to work through the full implications on what is a very complex project
If we can't have a permanent site until 2009, why can't we revisit the options for the permanent site and not use Ladywell pool?
Every alternative site has already been considered at length. Only Ladywell was found to be suitable.
If we are now delayed until 2009 and we don't therefore need a site until 2007, why can't we go with a 3rd party owned site for the permanent site? Doesn't that give us enough time to buy it?
No, firstly there are not any new sites available and even if there where, a change of site would delay the permanent opening of the new school.
Why did we close Telegraph Hill School if we needed a new school? How long was it after we closed TH that we realised we still needed it? Doesn't this all show that we should never have built Crossways and that we should have used that site for the new school?
We are digging out past answers to this
What confidence can we have that this Council can deliver given its failure to do so, so far?
Changes to the temporary new school site are the result of success not failings. The Council has secured £150million for Building Schools for the Future which will allow us to build the new school, expand Northbrook and modernise all our secondary schools. This has obviously meant we needed to make some changes.
Why were we not told that the use of the Ennersdale site was a 'hope' or an 'expectation' rather than a firm plan?
At the time that Ennersdale was recommended as the temporary site we were not aware that the successful BSF bid would mean that we would need the Ennersdale site sooner to expand Northbrook. Circumstances have changed so plans which we expected to be firm ones have had to change.
Planning Committee said that Convoys would yield 400 secondary pupils why aren’t we building it there? There is still unallocated space.
The Council is not prepared to risk the future of our children’s education on a future commercial development which has only just received planning permission. Even if it were eventually possible to find land for a school as part of the redevelopment, developing a new school at Convoys Wharf would require a long lead in, delaying the provision of extra places. Convoys Wharf is also far from as accessible as the Ladywell site.
