John Roan School
Mr Snnib asks:
Is anyone as concerned as I that our only secondary school within walking distance of the Cutty Sark is to be relocated to thepeninsular? First our hospital and now our secondary school… what nextthe Fire Brigade and Police!Further details are available at
http://www.johnroancampaign.com/
The Police are going - Westcombe Park Police Station is already on its way out.
Is anyone as concerned as I that our only secondary school within walking distance of the Cutty Sark is to be relocated to thepeninsular? First our hospital and now our secondary school… what nextthe Fire Brigade and Police!Further details are available at
http://www.johnroancampaign.com/
The Police are going - Westcombe Park Police Station is already on its way out.
Labels: Debates
posted by The Greenwich Phantom at
10:08
46 Comments:
I'm glad they are moving, hopefully to a site that actually keeps them in, as uniformed children are allowed to roam the streets at all hours of the school day, swearing, throwing things at passers by (namely me and my daughter in a pram) littering, and hanging around in large scary groups making comments. I dislike this school and their children with a passion and would never let my children go there. We are desperate for secondary schools in this area, I'm the only mother I know that hasn't decided they have to move away for secondary education.
The Peninsula and the current John Roan site are about equidistant from the Cutty Sark, so I'm not quite sure what your original correspondent means...
I'll second what your first anonymous respondent says. The school is a complete failure. She should fight tooth and nail to get her kids into Tallis, which is the only Greenwich secondary school I'd call the fire brigade for if it were burning down. Or go out of borough - Dartford Grammar School, perhaps. Or go private, if you can afford to.
All the more surprising is that Greenwich does have some outstanding primary schools.
We went to look at it about 4 years ago when we were looking for secondary schools for our son.
We were aware it didn't do very well academically, but from the open days we were quite impressed. Also, as I recall, they had just appointed a new head, who seemed to have something about him.
Pity it doesn't seem to have improved.
I guess being on a split site doesn't exactly help keeping tabs on the children. Maybe a move to a single site would help in that respect.
Didn't it used to be a grammar school?
It's always amazed me that Parents fight to get their kids into Halstow Primary School, then do everything possible to avoid going to the secondary up the road, John Roan. All the time Parents send their kids out of the borough or private, the secondary schools in Greenwich will not get better.
I'd welcome a change to John Roan for this reason. It needs to become a worthy successor to Halstow. HOWEVER I have a doubt that the move is motivated by a need to improve standards. I suspect it's more that the location in leafy Westcombe Pk / Greenwich Pk is a valuable site for developers. The Council need to make the case that what we'd be getting is better, and I'm afraid they haven't done that yet.
A while back, before kids, I walked home from Greenwich Park and witnessed four groups of kids doing dastardly things. Group one were peeing on trees in the park, group two were throwing rocks at cars, group three were drawing on street signs, and group four were throwing rocks at each other. All four groups were wearing John Roan's green sweatshirts. I promised myself and any future children I might have that we would never send them there.
When our first daughter was born, we looked around at the admittedly excellent local primaries. Halstow is fabulous, but Millennium, Invicta, and James Wolfe aren't far behind. Then we talked to some local parents. Many were sending their kids to afterschool tutoring in a mad rush to get them ready for private secondary school applications. Some had been sending their kids to tutoring for two years or more.
Based on this, and strongly motivated by our desire to avoid John Roan at all costs, we decided to start our children in private schools from the beginning. We don't regret our decision for a second, but I don't think it was as dire as it all looked six years ago. Our kids would be happy and do well at Halstow, but I'm glad we don't have to worry about what will happen next. At least we don't have to worry about the John Roan aspect.
That all said, the school is heavily streamed. I think good, determined students can do quite well at John Roan. We passersby are only seeing the kids who couldn't care less about education. The good ones are in class, being quiet, learning.
There's still no chance we'll send our children there, but I do have a more balanced view of JR than I used to. That doesn't make our daily walk past the school any more pleasant.
I went to private school from the age of 3, and by the time I hit my teens, some of the kids there peed on trees and threw rocks at cars just as much as the children from John Roan do. They just spoke with a different accent. There are thugs in every type of school. It's harder to see the children who are working hard, because they don't do the things that get attention.
My children now go to a local state school (Meridian). They are happy, balanced and have lots of friends who live in the same street. I have to say I think the money my parents spent on my prep school education was a complete waste of money. Can't speak for secondary because we haven't got there yet. I will do everything I can to save John Roan - it has so much potential and used to be one of the best schools in the area. It could be again, with the right parental support.
The proposed move to John Roan is a decision to move young people to a heavily polluted and less safe environment. If you didn't know the name and location of this school, would you think differently about it?
The fact is that secondary schools have a good and a bad reputation...Dartford Grammar is deemed too "chavvy", Blackheath High teenage girls are apparently wild, Colfes School is supposedly known for its less than mediocre teaching and Jags is, so they say, notorious for the high instance of bulemia and self harming.
What this boils down to is that teenagers are diffcult and 1,000 of them in one place is rather a gruesome sight irrespective of where they come from.
And you are not the only mother who hasn't decided to move away for secondary education. I have one daughter happily at John Roan and hope to send all three of my other children there. I am also passionate about improving secondary education in Greenwich. However, I want to do make sure that it is for the benefit of the whole Greenwich community...not
only on middle class terms.
If you are not prepared to get involved to help change it, please don't complain about it.
I hope the people who've complained about John Roan students have taken the time to tell the school, as well as to complain anonymously on a blog. There is a new regime and they are listening.
I'm personally optimistic about the opportunities for secondary education in Greenwich, having seen how standards in primary schools have improved in the last eight years. For example, the James Wolfe school is excellent: inspiring teaching and a school life rich in variety and opportunities.
Our eldest child is now at the John Roan: engaged and fulfilled and achieving. There is a process of renewal underway at the school, and an understanding of what needs to be addressed. A good school enrichs its community: and i belive the John Roan can be that once more, but not without partnership with and support from the community. If the school is moved then that'll be it for West Greenwich. We won't get another chance.
If you agree then support johnroancampaign.com and work with us to help this school be what it should be for its students and for the community.
The outcome of this campaign will make a difference to us all.
I do admire the courage of your "anonymous" posters. If we all had their guts and wisdom, eh?
You may have noticed I've stayed out of this one - it's not an area in which I guess I have much right to have an opinion.
I also can't really moan about people being anonymous, since I prefer to remain so myself, but I do rather wish that everyone would at least give themselves a comedy nickname when they post so we can tell at least who's posting about what. I like to get to know people on here - I have no idea who you, Inspector, really are - or indeed Andrekabu, Loulou, Johnse18 or anyone else for that matter, but I like to have some kind of name to conjure with, however fake...
It really saddens me to read such self-deluding comments from parents who quite clearly have never seriously considered sending their kids to state secondary education and who are desperately attempting to find reasons to support their decisions. More even than that, though, doesn't this exchange show the truth about how much younger people are feared by those older than they are? A moment's honesty, please! Didn't we all of us attend schools where children regularly swore, went around in gangs, attempted to intimidate the elder generation, looked gangly, threatening, even - shock, horror - did things like piss on trees? It's called growing up, in case you've forgotten, and the one most reassuring thing about it is that, if it looks threatening to us, it's much worse for the kids living through it.
But there are two much more important things than this. One is that this specious nonsense is routinely trotted out by people who have never intended to put their children into state education but who need to have some apparently objective excuse to salve their conscience (and to overlook the fact that their decision thereby further diminishes the education of the majority). The other is the crass stupidity of people who fail to recognise that by refusing to support local schools and ensure that they serve their community to their utmost capacity they are in the long term helping to undermine their locality, reduce any sense of community and - this might get even these guys' hearts racing - mean that their prestigious properties are not considered quite as valuable as once they might have been. Here's to a new campaign motto: If you want your property to increase in value, keep John Roan where it is!
("debaser" beat me to a point I wanted to make, but as I'd started I'll continue.)
I understand that all of us make different choices in how we decide to educate our children. But, regardless of the choice taken, the threat to the John Roan’s existence in West Greenwich will hurt all of us.
For my neighbours who seem to relish the thought of John Roan relocating: What exactly do you think is going to happen should this occur? The land won’t lie fallow: it will almost certainly become a high-density redevelopment because that is what happens these days.
For all of us there’s a very strong case for fighting to keep John Roan where it is. Now, when the government is committed to spending £35 million pounds on rebuilding John Roan, wouldn’t it make sense to have it spent in our own neighbourhood? The school is going to improve because it has to. A new structure will simply accelerate that.
Generally speaking, a school is quiet in the evenings and on weekends, and it’s very quiet for the summer months. That is rather nice. The new strategy for schools positions them as centres in the community, bringing with them shared-use sports and other facilities that benefit local residents.
A brand new school right in our midst is almost certain to enhance our property values. Right now, if people truly are moving out of the area to get away from John Roan, that’s having an opposite effect.
On balance, I think it will suit every one of us to have a brand new John Roan right where the old one is.
'The Peninsula and the current John Roan site are about equidistant from the Cutty Sark, so I'm not quite sure what your original correspondent means...'
...what a ridiculous statement!. Sure if you canoed from the Cutty Sark that would be true, but the average kid, rather than walking through the park/across the Heath from West Greenwich to the existing site (sorry middle class Mum's if that upsets your sensibilities as you might have to interact with a 'difficult' part of your community) will now have a convoluted journey to an industrial wasteland ill-served by buses. Do I want my year 7 daughter to walk down there past Tunnel Refineries and it's dead, hidden corners. In order to go to a school resembling something jammed into a high-rise ghetto with a caged playground on the roof?...for 1000 kids? where the air is so bad from the dual-carraigeway it's plonked next to that the air has to be filtered? (although not in the caged yard obviously)... . Has no-one spotted the irony that David Beckham gets a huge parcel of land next to the river to charge kids £250/week for a bit of hero-worship/footy training, while the best our local 'representatives' can do is a postage stamp on top of a major road and next to a gasometer for the major school redevelopment project for god knows how long?. No wonder this was all tucked snugly under the carpet until it's virtually a done deal. I hope the politicians are getting some proper backhanders for this, because I can't see why else they would touch it.
This isn't a campaign I have been following at all, so I don't know what exactly has been said and done, and when.
But as mentioned in a previous reply, I visited JR's 4 years ago on an Open Day and the proposal to move to a new single site was certainly openly mentioned.
So it wasn't totally under the carpet even then.
It is certainly true that the intention to move has been discussed for years but the exact details of the location and size of the site were only made public in January of this year. The Council has publicly stated that it has no legal obligation to consult and has no intention of doing so. People are joining our campaign irrespective of whether they have children at John Roan or even in state education. They are doing so because this issue is also about fair play and common decency. Please look at www.johnroancampaign.com
Well this is going to be yet another anonymous post - sue me, I need to protect my sources.
I was talking to a governor at JR yesterday who also has children there. They said that the 'campaign' is in fact only about 6 parents. Most everyone else is quite happy with the proposals.
They're very well organised (well done for the BBC website coup yesterday) but don't assume that that means they're a majority view.
Oh, and I'll address Debaser's point while I'm at it.
Your presumption that just because I send my children to private schools means I don't support state schools in Greenwich is completely false. There are ways to help schools that go beyond merely sending your children there.
And the idea that JR increases property prices in the area is utterly risible.
It is more than six parents, and it's more than just parents.
I, too, have a John Roan governor as a source for info, and not all governors are in favour of the move. In fact, I think you'll find that the governing body has not voted in favour of the move. And the John Roan Foundation has not voted in favour of it either. The Council says otherwise, but that is quite a falsehood. (Votes have been in principle, subject to certain conditions being met - which I think remain unmet.)
You'll also note that there are over 400 persons who've signed the petition against the move. And, despite what the Council also says, the students are not universally behind the move, and neither are the teachers. It might have been six souls at the outset, but not now.
Anyhow, even if it were just a "John Roan Six", I'm not sure how that would diminish the points being raised. Somebody, even just a single person, has to take the initiative to raise things to a level of awareness. Certainly, the uncaring monolith that is Greenwich Council has more than six persons in it, and it's proving to be less of a service to the community than a handful of residents in their spare time.
The fact is, the Council took a punt on seeding their grand plans for the Peninsula, spotting an opportunity to do it on the cheap... passing the financial costs on to the BSF programme and the societal costs on to West Greenwich residents. And they sought to do this without consultation in the hope that nobody would notice. So - thank goodness for the "John Roan Six", whether you agree with them or not!
And, as far as property values are concerned, the state of John Roan must certainly have a bearing on them. Its degradation does and will hurt prices, but a brand new £35 million school on our doorstep would certainly improve them. (And potentially save you a few quid in school fees at the same time!)
"merely sending your children there"... oh dear!
Maybe you buy a few raffle tickets, or even serve as a governor (where your decisions have no impact on your own children). Or you give lots of money to charity (private schools don't count).
This is the worst kind of Dickensian noblesse oblige.
Maybe you buy a few raffle tickets, or even serve as a governor (where your decisions have no impact on your own children). Or you give lots of money to charity (private schools don't count).
This is the worst kind of Dickensian noblesse oblige.
What utter rot. And your bigoted position undermines your own campaign.
Either this is a community decision in which the entire community is involved. Yes, even non-parents who contribute in meaningful ways, even if you place no value on them. It's your problem, not mine, if you purport to represent the community and the community actually holds a different view.
Or only parents of children at the school count. In other words, this is a selfish campaign run by selfish people to gain personal advantage for themselves - stuff anybody else.
You can't have it both ways.
Guys, Guys...
I welcome discussion here. But if you just want to chuck mud at each other don't do it on my blog!
I'm the person who started the John Roan Campaign and these exchanges get away from the key issues:
1. The Council is using money that is supposed to be ring-fenced for education to subsidise their Peninsula regeneration plans
2. To do so, they are cynically moving children to one of the most polluted places in London, to an isolated site which is physically dangerous.
3. The key reason they have given for not redeveloping on the current site is the potential planning problems associated with local residents
If this is not true then please could both of you, who clearly feel committed to helping in your own way, sign the petition, write to your councillors and to Nick Raynsford or even get the Westcombe Park Society to support the campaign.
Thank you
'The key reason they have given for not redeveloping on the current site is the potential planning problems associated with local residents'...
...just watch the speed at which some developer gets permission to do pretty much what they want on the vacated site. I'd bet my last pound on the fact that the eventual development is of far bigger scale than any school rebuild would be.
johnse18....
I too have been aware of a 'move' for some years, however it was couched very much in the terms of either getting the old Greenwich Hospital site or a site on the Peninsula where the unwritten emphasis was on all that land available down there. I don't think there would be half the objection that there is if the proposed School had been allocated a bit of space away from the A102, with perhaps (shock/horror) a sports pitch. Now we find that all the available hectares have been carved up for development, and they've had to squeeze the School in as an afterthought in an entirely inappropriate location.
Another subtext here is a rumour bandied around that the reason the Council are so desperate to force this through is that the money raised from the valuable Westcombe Park Site enables the building of two schools (the second in the Charlton area). Which isn't a bad thing in itself, but doesn't excuse in anyway the scandalous way the kids of John Roan are being treated and shows scant regard for the wide ranging long-term benefits of having meaningful communities. Just go to a School Fare at Halstow or James Wolfe for example and see for yourself how a properly run School binds a community across race and class. The Peninsula may need a School but why at the expense of a large chunk of Greenwich. This doesn't seem like rocket science to me. What is it with the Labour Party these days?
I'm a fervent supporter of the John Roan Campaign . I'm a concerned parent who does not have children attending the school, but see its potential re-location as a threat to the community. Slowly the council is eroding this community as we see more and more public services disappearing. John Roan has the potential to be a fantastic school. Right where it is. The Headteacher and the governing body need to see this for what it is; an attempt to make a fast buck - they should fight the move and make the case for the redevelopment of the current sites. This should be about engaging with the community and not to further fragment it. In the process winning the hearts and minds of the community and the pupils. They deserve much more than the thin end of the wedge the council want to saddle them with.
It's interesting to see how other schools in the borough are handling the same process. Have a look at the Thomas Tallis site, the nearest school to John Roan. It's galling to see how much they have obviously consulted staff, students and parents in the process of deciding the new design of their school, especially when you compare it with John Roan's approach.
Greenwich Mutiny hits the nail on the head when he/she says it's not the move itself that is news, but the precise detail of where the move is to and what the building to be built there is to be like. A suitably revamped school, with space comfortably sufficient to accommodate the proposed 1,600 pupils would get most people's votes, even those who secretly would prefer the school to stay where it is. But the current location and design are utterly woeful.
It's the secrecy that rankles, and which feeds the suspicion that this is being done in some way dishonestly. The secrecy and the on-high arrogance of people who do not deign to talk to the people who stand most to gain or to lose from the move.
Oh, and, I'm sorry, a final two digs at 'Anonymous', the first to their reference to my 'risible' comment on house prices. If they really are not aware of the positive effect of having a 'good' state school nearby on house prices, then clearly they have never spoken to estate agents. It's quite obviously one of the factors that determines the desirability of an area. Everyone knows that, just as everybody, apart from some ostriches in senior management at the school and in the Council, knows that even the most well-organised six parents couldn't have managed to get 400 people to sign the campaign's petition if those people didn't think it was a cause worth supporting. Check out the comments on the site (www.johnroancampaign.com) if you don't believe me.
In all this discussion, I can't see any reference to the rather important point regarding what Greenwich Council intends to do with the site. Apologies if I missed this, but I've read through most of the dicussion
Does anybody know? Presumably sell of the site to property developers? Otherwise, there doesn't seem much point. But if that is the case, I'm rather surprised that there isn't a larger campaign against the move. A lot of new housing being, causing a lot of noise and, once built, depressing local house prices, is surely guaranteed to bring out the revolutionary fervour laying dormant in the Greenwich middle classes.....?
So, let's imagine what the Council might do with such a site. Maybe build a new state-of-the-art library to replace the Royal Standard one? Hmm, possible. Presumably not a new healthcare facility, now that they've closed down the Vanbrugh Hill hospital? Provide sheltered accommodation for a section of the population that couldn't find easy housing elsewhere? Put it on the table with the other ideas. Create new sporting facilities to extend what the existing premises of the Arches and the Waterfront may offer?
Dream on. You're right, Anonymous, they're going to sell the site off to developers. Guess work, admittedly, but where are the Council plans to suggest anything else? So, for those residents who are just about to open the bubbly at the removal of the John Roan School, how does it feel to be looking at the disturbance of two or three years' building activity and then a new community built more on the Council need for maximum bucks than on any requirement to blend in with the existing environment? You're right. Where is the middle-class rebellion just when you need it?
Why speculate! You are being far too generous. Greenwich Council have been arrogant for thinking they can 'govern' without consultation. Today a mutual friend was discussing the proposed move with a parent whose child attends JR. The parent had NO IDEA that the school was moving. This is a regular working class parent whose instant response was to remove their child from the school and find a suitably located school. John Roan Peninsula site - white elephant in the making....
I won't be attending, but I spotted the following notice in Greenwich:
The John Roan Campaign is organising a public meeting at The Forum on Trafalgar Road (between the Arches Leisure Centre and the old hospital) on
Thursday 14 June - 7:30pm and 9:30pm
It's flagged as a chance to find out about the move, air concerns, and consider suggestions on what should be done next to challenge the move.
I attended the meeting. The question I came away from it was this. The School management (and the John Roan Trust) appear to feel backed into a corner by the local politicians threatening to go ahead with or without John Roan, which in the latter case would leave the School to wither and die at the current location. This is why they appear to be trying to defend the indefensible, and sounding like apologists for the Authorities (if it wasn't so sad it would be funny listening to the Head trying to justify moving his School to a smelly sh*thole on the basis of saving on photocopying expenses, and because they will have access to a nearby park - which turns out to be a strip of unfenced grass next to a road). However, the bulk of the funding for the project, apparently something over £30m, is coming from a central fund, quite seperate from Greenwich's resources, and is earmarked for John Roan (ie if John Roan don't rebuild then the money goes back to the central fund and gets allocated to the next school somewhere else in the country). So if Greenwich is hell
bent on building a School to seed the new community and fulfil promises made to developers then they'd have to pay for it themselves if they lose the right to call it John Roan.
To me that puts the School and the Trust in a pretty strong bargaining position. There's no way they'll walk away from £30m odd. They have a legal obligation to provide and if the cohort is growing in West Greenwich (Haddo etc) and the peninsular then there is no way they'll walk away from extra funding . Surely the School and Trust should be taking the line 'if you want this to happen then here are our list of requirements 1. A decent foot print including a sports pitch 2. etc etc...'. Why can't they show a bit of backbone instead of cowering to the bullies?
the present location in particular the newer building is an outdated dump, which as a school simply does not work. Why are some parents so scared of change?
This is an opportunity to have a new modern school in an area of greenwich which is presently being revitalised.
In years to come this will be seen as a totally misssed opportunity to revive the school's fortunes and have a new flagship school in greenwich.
I'm sure something can be done about the pollution aspect, will someone explain to me how the present loaction in an overcrowded built up area is any better?
As for the comment of the lack of recreational space. The park is still nearby, links could be made with the Dome and David Beckham Academy and other facilities surely.
Try looking at the future rather than the past.
Quite a few of the parents complaining about the move and the supposed inacceability of the school are the type who drive their kids a few hundred yards in their land rovers anyway. The type who move houses to be near "better" schools, who have only lived here for a few years anyway and probably moved to be near to primarys like James Wolfe in the first place.
There are far more buses serving the proposed area than the present location so the comments about this are bogus.
Yes there are problems with the new school but these can be ironed out with the same kind of campaigning as the opposers no new building is ever perfect, but the longer the dallying the longer it will take to do it. Mybe greenwich borough can bend on a few of the other moot points too.
If they were to re- develop the old buildings this will cause local chaos and disruption to your childrens education too. Just ask the kids what they want, an old crumbling school past it's sell by date or a new state of the art one with facilities to match and one they can feel proud of being part of.
Sorry, but from one anonymous to another, what on earth are you talking about?
To start with, which park is the new site still close to? Greenwich Park is right across the street from the current site. The new site is about 1.5 miles away. By my reckoning, that would make the Park about 1.5 miles away from the proposed site.
And, "I'm sure that something can be done about the pollution." You would be right - something can be done with it. It can/will become worse, especially if/when the Silvertown Link emerges on the Peninsula. The council's own thinking suggests that air quality improvement will come when the technology of internal combusion improves. Of course it will. Cold fusion should see the problem well and truly sorted.
Links with the Dome and the Beckham Academy? Football in the foyer perhaps? AEG won't mind, I'm sure. Were you aware that the Beckham Academy is temporary, due to be replaced with housing.
"Quite a few parents complain", and are the ones who drive their kids in land rovers. Probably moved to be near one of the primaries anyway? Clearly the campaign will buckle under in the face of this kind of detailed analysis.
Comments about buses? Actually, I think it's about travel mostly. Lots of full buses held up in traffic are not "bogus". Yet again, it's all about quality.
I'd pick an old building near the Park anyday instead of the modern excuse being "offered" on the Peninsula.
Anonymous said... 'This is an opportunity to have a new modern school in an area of greenwich which is presently being revitalised. In years to come this will be seen as a totally misssed opportunity to revive the school's fortunes and have a new flagship school in greenwich.'
well, that might be right. And in 10yrs time when the area has stopped being a building site and when the projected need for a School in that area comes to be, then that possibility should be addressed.
But this shouldn't be confused with John Roan School, which sits in a pleasant location right in the heart of its catchment area. Sure it has it's problems, but West Greenwich needs a Secondary School, and the money is available to rebuild the existing one. Quite how you see the leafy Westcombe Park area, bounded by Park and Heath as 'overcrowded' is beyond me and makes me question your motives for posting such utter rubbish.
Perhaps a few facts might dispel such nonsense.
1. The campaign is about rebuilding the school on site and accepting that 18 months of disruption is better than a a lifetime of substandard compromise.
2. The majority of parents who suport the campaign are long, long term Greewnich residents.
3 They have supported local schools long before they became "better shcools"
4 The fact that they disagree with the move does not stop them from helping the school in many other ways.
4. They are all busy people who, frankly, would rather not have to spend the time and energy it takes to ensure that the John Roan gets what it deserves...the very best.
The fact that a number of them will no longer have children at secondary school when the move happens shows that their concern is for a future generation of children. This is also true of those in the community who support the campaign.
They are all reacting to what is at best, cowardly incompetence and at worst, political and financial expedience.
The campaign website has been updated. Take a look...the facts just speak for themselves.
www.johnroancampaign.com
That clever Greenwich Council!
It looks like they've "cunningly" arranged for the planning application regarding the move of John Roan to come up for Planning Committee discussion at the end of August. Not many will find out about it now, and not many will be available then.
The application was first made in May07 (filed and dated in the first week of May, but not actually put up and made public on the site until the last week of May). Then it was taken down: a planning officer said that this was due to the Council improperly submitting the application in the name of the The John Roan... but that reason is denied, now. Certainly, if it had stayed up there, the Council would have run the risk of letting a democratic process come into play... a novel yet frightening notion, apparently.
Anyhow, the planning application is flagged on the Greenwich website here:
http://tinyurl.com/yw6s8r.
So, it's filed in July, dated as May, and due to be quietly rubberstamped in August. How sneaky. How sad. How cowardly!
Whilst browsing the site , I came upon the section dedicated to John Roan school. I have to say that I am delighted as a non parent to see the back of it . I was attacked in the park with missiles froma group of John Roan thugs a few years back and could have lost an eye. The matter was reported to the police and the school. Nothing positive resulted, simply the head teacher saying in a letter in response to our M.P, and to us the we 'alleged' the brats had been from the school. I have lived in west Greenwich for most of my fifty years, and as a child lived at the back of what was the old girls school in Devonshire drive, so I am fairly capable by now of making an accurate identification. Furthermore , I was witness recently to a group of boys and girls, numbering about twenty, ambling away after having lobbed a heavy object onto the railway line at Vanbrugh hill bridge. The police were in attenance but group didn't at all bothered. Yes I can;t wait to see the blight removed.
Whilst browsing the site , I came upon the section dedicated to John Roan school. I have to say that I am delighted as a non parent to see the back of it . I was attacked in the park with missiles froma group of John Roan thugs a few years back and could have lost an eye. The matter was reported to the police and the school. Nothing positive resulted, simply the head teacher saying in a letter in response to our M.P, and to us the we 'alleged' the brats had been from the school. I have lived in west Greenwich for most of my fifty years, and as a child lived at the back of what was the old girls school in Devonshire drive, so I am fairly capable by now of making an accurate identification. Furthermore , I was witness recently to a group of boys and girls, numbering about twenty, ambling away after having lobbed a heavy object onto the railway line at Vanbrugh hill bridge. The police were in attenance but group didn't at all bothered. Yes I can;t wait to see the blight removed.
I am a student at The John Roan school at the maze hill site and I am delighted with how things are going for my education and general happiness. I don't see how you lot can critisize the behaivior (which is rapidly on the increase) without actually being part of the school and witnessing it for how it is inside the perimeter.
If you were part of this school, i could say that you would have at least a 85% chance of being happy there, it is a school that kids are happy at, so you adults can either stop complaining or being worried about the students or your childrens future at the school.
I went Halstow primary, I agree that it's good, but secondary schools are a massive step upwards.
I think the new site is a loads of rubbish to be honest, the area heavily polluted and on top of that, everything is running perfectly within the 2 sites of the current John Roan... So why be stupid, and waste your money on an unwanted site which no one wants? I would guarantee that every student would agree with that aswell.
As for the stone throwing, i have witnessed and committed it and it's a load of fun when throwing at each other, but padestrians walking past... YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!!!
LEAVE MY SCHOOL ALONE ITS FINE.
I have read these comments with great interest.As usual there are varying views.I live and work near the school.There will always be horror stories of locals who are confronted by poor teenage group behaviour.As for the plans for the new school I am sure that there will be economic compromises linked in with the Council's aspirations to improve school results in the borough.Greenwich comes near the bottom of these league tables,the validity of which you may or may not be concerned.The current split site is untenable and dangerous.There may be few roads to cross but there are vehicles constantly posing a threat of pupil accident
The Blackwall Tunnel and O2/Beckham traffic are obvious and children have enough sense not to attempt to cross.The current 386 bus is a Mickey Mouse service for a secondary school.On the peninsula there would be many services by bus.Once within the single site state of the art hi-tech secure premises the pupils will be safer than they are now.As for the current sites they will be private residential I suppose and will not lower house prices unless the secret plan is to drag the Ferrier Estate north to Westcombe.As for some people's basic geography,when was John Roan ever in West Greenwich.Perhaps you were thinking of Morden Mount.
regardless of your definition of where West Greenwich begins and ends, for Parents who live in Greenwich, west of the John Roan School, this is the only secondary school that you will be offered (unless you really want to take your heart into your mouth with one of the truly failing Schools like Blackheath Bluecoats). To remove this School to feed the expected future needs of the Peninsular (and it's developers) tells you everything you need to know about this Council, political expediency, and it's disregard for Community cohesiveness.
Linking the preformance of the John Roan School and its split site arrangement is so often sited as the main reason for moving. But the three most successful state schools locally are all on split sites (Haberdashers, Prendergast and Deptford Green) so this is clearly a red herring.
The new Peninsula school will be situated in an area where air pollution is so bad that it brings up the London average, where noise pollution is higher than the minimum aloud and next to the construction site reserved for the Silvertown link. And it has NO outside play area.
Even the Governing Body of the school have admitted that the only reason that they are going along with this is because the Council have told them that if they don't the school won't get any money for refurbishment or rebuilding.
There is nothing positive about this move other than the universal condemnation of it.
well i disagree with the comments about the school i have been attending the school for 6 years and currently attending the sixth for yes the school has some minor issues to resolve but the staff are deadicated and do their best the kids can be out of control but what kids ain't? i think its an excellent school in everyway and as for tomas talis they are very good at hiding the gang trouble they have in and around their school so please don't knock the john roan school because a small number of over hyper kids people of greenwich are very lucky to have such a good school in their area with a heritage and a uniform that doesn't consist of hoodies and trainers unlike tomas talis
I'm a parent in Greenwich and I have come to view that the move is right for the school. I'm increasingly put off by the rhetoric of the campaign. There are some advantages in the move and there are problems too but people who support it are not stooges or idiots; many work at the school or are supporters of the school. It is really upsetting me that increasingly the campaign - that I once though was a good idea - is rubbishing the future of the school in the way they present their case, playing into the hands of the local press that want the school to fail.
It seems more and more likely that the move will happen. And if the move goes ahead why not funnel your obvious energy and talents into making it as successful as possible? You may not think it's right but will you make that commitment as people who obviously care so much about the school and its future? It's not an unreasonable request from one parent to another.
as a non-parent (in fact technically a non-resident too, so no axe to grind here) it really saddens me that not only will the Council likely bully it's way to it's eventual objective, but the easy way the majority (see anon. above) seem to lie down and accept this nonsense. It is precisely because no one stood up to the Council and their insiders within the School early enough that the situation ends up where we are today. The Governing Body should be totally ashamed of themselves for being caught asleep at the wheel, but that doesn't absolve existing Parents from sitting back while this was played out. To then expect the only group of people who seem to care about fighting for their kids, to meekly sit back and toe the line seems a tad optimistic to me.
it's all gone quiet for a month...anyone know what's going on behind the scenes?
Post a Comment
Links to this post:
Create a Link
<< Home