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Greenwich news and information

John Roan School redevelopment gets go-ahead

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GREENWICH Councillors  backed plans to redevelop John Roan secondary school at a Planning Board meeting last week.

John Roan’s Lower School in Westcombe Park Road will be demolished and replaced with a brand new school building, while the historic Upper School is to be refurbished and have new covered courtyards.

Parents of the children who attended the meeting were left angry by having to wait through the lengthy Shooters Hill Equestrian Centre planning application, calling it a “disgrace” when councillors finally got to consider the John Roan scheme late on Thursday night.

But frustration at the meeting’s agenda turned to jubilation at its decision, as councillors on the Planning Board supported the proposals.

The plans, which Greenwich.co.uk first reported on in August, received the unanimous support of councillors.

One John Roan student impressed councillors with an impassioned plea to back the proposal, with Cllr Hayley Fletcher telling her: “You are a credit to your school and I hope the new school buildings are a credit to you.”

Plans for redeveloped John Roan School revealed

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PLANNING applications for the redevelopment of John Roan School have been submitted, along with proposals to temporarily move hundreds of pupils to a former school in Royal Hill.

The John Roan Lower School in Westcombe Park Road is set to be completely demolished and replaced with a new 7,845 m2 campus. Using a “marketplace” design concept, the redeveloped site will comprise of a main academic block and a dedicated sports block with state of the art facilities and a drama studio.

A new “entrance plaza” will be created for “public safety” and to “minimize disruption along Westcombe Park Road.”

The Grade-II listed Upper School in Maze Hill will be refurbished throughout with the original building “returned to its former glory”. The gymnasium will be converted to a dedicated 6th form facility and new ICT facilities will be added.

Two previously infilled courtyards will be opened up to create new “covered dining, social and break-out areas.”

The project, which already secured funded from the Building Schools for the Future initiative, could begin early next year and take two years to complete.

To enable teaching to carry on throughout the redevelopment, it is also proposed that about 400 year-10 and year-11 students be temporarily “decanted” to the Victorian school building in Royal Hill, Greenwich.

The school is named after its founder, John Roan, who died in the seventeenth century and bequeathed money for the education of the “poor town-bred children of Greenwich”.

The school has had various incarnations at several sites for boys and girls in the borough, before coming together in a new mixed Comprehensive school in the early 1980s.

Controversial plans to move the John Roan School to Greenwich Peninsula were dropped in 2009.


Illustration of the interior of the new Westcombe Park Road site


Illustration of a newly covered courtyard at the refurbished Maze Hill site

School in Royal Hill, Greenwich
Victorian school in Royal Hill where it is proposed that year-10 and year-11 students be relocated to while the John Roan redevelopment takes place.

Spencer Drury on 2012, Schooling and the General Election: Interview Pt3

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This is part three of Adam Bienkov’s interview with Spencer Drury – Conservative candidate for the Greenwich & Woolwich parliamentary seat and leader of the Conservatives on Greenwich Council. Part one and part two were published on Tuesday and Wednesday of this week.

Olympics

Hosting the 2012 Olympics has a been a polarising issue in the borough, but the Greenwich Conservatives have so far been relatively quiet about it. Drury himself has mixed feelings about the Games.

He tells me that while the cross country equestrian events will be “fabulous for the park” and an “amazing event” he admits that “this is not the line that NOGOE would like to hear.”

However, he also thinks that the temporary stadium is a “sticking point”:

“The 20,000 seat stadium I have got serious questions about. I mean the fact that it’s a temporary stadium, I’m already thinking is that worthwhile? But where they’re planning on putting it will actually ruin the views down the park to Maritime Greenwich. I mean if you put a great big stadium in front of that then you’re ruining the very views that they seem to want. That seems to me to be self defeating.”

He also believes the Council have missed a big opportunity to capitalise on the Games.

“The Olympics have got tonnes of money and as far as I can work out Greenwich as an area is going to have no legacy from it. Well I mean I say no legacy, but there might be trees chopped down but no legacy from it in any positive physical way.”

So will the Games be good for Greenwich overall?

“Well if you could sort out the congestion as a legacy then I think that people in Greenwich would take the rough with the smooth but at the moment we are just getting the rough.   We’re just getting problems from it and we’re getting damage to a much valued park although I don’t think it will be as bad as NOGOE are making out. I really don’t feel that.”

Are NOGOE representative?

“I think they are representative of a certain group of people in Greenwich but when you go out knocking on doors, I mean I was out in Greenwich last weekend and not one person mentioned it to me. Not one person. Schools, bins and recycling are the things that come up. People are more concerneed about other things. I think that is why you won’t see political parties focusing on it in a major way because on the doorstep it is not the major issue that people are concerned about.”


Schools

I’m speaking to Drury after the announcement that the John Roan school will no longer be moved to the Peninsula. He is relieved:

“The plans to put the John Roan school on the peninsula were always ridiculous. They were planning to put a bigger school on a smaller site, five stories tall with a playground on the roof. It was madness.”

While pleased about this, he believes that it is symptomatic of a wider problem:

“The Council’s education policy is in chaos frankly. We’ve still got the worst GCSE results in London.  They’ve improved a lot but they’re still the worst in London. So our kids are leaving education at a substantial disadvantage to most other kids across London.  And that’a huge blow to us and a massive shame”

He supports the Conservative plans to create smaller “Free Schools” run by parents:

“Parental choice is absolutely vital in this and we know parental choice is already happening in Greenwich because so many hundreds of kids at eleven go out of the borough, whether to private or to Grammar schools.  But what’s interesting when you look at the figures is that they are not just going to the Grammar schools they are also going to Welling and other schools along the border with Bexley because they are better run than Greenwich schools frankly.”

The General Election

Drury is set to stand against Nick Raynsford in Greenwich later this year. I ask him if he knows him well. He tells me that while he sees him annually at the borough’s Remembrance Sunday event, he hardly ever comes across him otherwise:

“I think Clive Efford [Labour MP for Eltham] marked himself as a local MP who didn’t care about Westminster very much. Well I think that Nick Raynsford is the opposite to that. There is a local area. He’s aware that it exists, but Westminster is where his heart is.”

Like Efford, Drury has a close attachment to the area. Raised in Woolwich and a long standing councillor in Eltham, Drury still lives within the borough.

With boundary changes giving the Conservatives a real chance of winning Eltham, I ask him why he didn’t choose to stand in his home town again:

“I did [consider it] but it was for various personal reasons. My daughter had been in hospital for two months and then my wife became ill as well. It was in the run up to the selection for the parliamentary seat and I came pretty close to just packing it all in frankly. And ironically it was a letter from Chris Roberts asking if everything was okay that changed my mind.

“It made me think think that maybe politics isn’t just about doing silly stunts and playing silly games. That maybe there is a point to it”

NOGOE to hold public meeting

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NOGOE – the local pressure group against the use of Greenwich Park for the equestrian events of 2012 – are to hold a public meeting this weekend.

The meeting will be an “open discussion” and you are invited to go along and “have you say”. NOGOE say that the meeting will be “the one that LOCOG never held”.

Local councillors and planning officers have been invited to the meeting which will take place at the John Roan School (Maze Hill site) on Sunday (17th) afternoon from 2pm to 4pm.  The phone number for any enquiries about attending is  020 8853 2567.

Greenwich Council Meeting 16/12/09: Roadworks, Foot Tunnel, John Roan School & Charlton Lido

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Greenwich Council has said it wants to join a scheme which will enable it to co-ordinate roadworks in the borough, after a year which has seen serious disruption on Greenwich roads.

Works by Southern Gas Networks and Thames Water have caused traffic to grind to a halt through Greenwich town centre, while Charlton and Blackheath have also been seriously affected by a water main replacement programme.

The issue was highlighted by greenwich.co.uk’s Andrew Gilligan in November after it emerged the council had not joined a Transport for London scheme, under which utilities have to get permits from local authorities before they dig up roads.

Deputy leader Peter Brooks told last night’s Greenwich Council meeting he wanted the borough to join the programme.

In a written answer to Liberal Democrat councillor Brian Woodcraft, who asked why Greenwich was not part of the scheme, he said: “I am very keen for Greenwich to participate in this scheme, and I hope the trial will be expanded for us to be able to do so very soon.”

However, he not answer why the council had not joined the scheme, and Cllr Woodcraft did not press him on the issue.

Lewisham and Bromley councils are involved in the TfL programme, which is due to come into force next year.

Greenwich Foot Tunnel

A petition signed by 1,000 users of Greenwich foot tunnel demanding that closures be kept to a minimum when it is refurbished was presented to the council by Liberal Democrat member Paul Webbewood.

The river crossing, together with its sister tunnel at Woolwich, is due to be refurbished by 2012, with regular users fearing lengthy closures.

Council leader Chris Roberts told the meeting a contractor had been appointed to carry out the works.

“We’re discussing what work needs to be done and what the hours will be,” he said.

“Then we can advise residents and businesses on arrangements for both tunnels.”

John Roan School

Greenwich Council confirmed it would respect John Roan School governors’ decision not to move to a new site on Greenwich Peninsula.

Blackheath Westcombe Conservative councillor Alex Wilson asked if a timetable had been set out for works to improve John Roan’s existing sites on Maze Hill and Westcombe Park Road.

But children’s services cabinet member Jackie Smith said the proposals were still in the “developmental stage”.

“It is too early to be definitive about completion dates, but will will want to ensure that the project is progressed as quickly as practicable.”

Charlton Lido

Conservative leader Spencer Drury criticised the council for not giving an update on works at Charlton Lido, which is being converted into a diving centre.

Earlier this year his party colleague, Kidbrooke with Hornfair councillor Graeme Coombes, presented a 222-strong petitioning demanding the reopening of the lido for the summer season.

It had been closed in anticipation of leasing the lido out to private firm Open Waters Investments, which is due to re-open the pool by summer 2012.

But the lease was not signed until 14 August, leaving the lido empty for the summer.

Responding to the petition, the council said it would have taken leisure operator GLL two weeks to mobilise its staff, and that opening hours at another centre would have to be cut to staff Charlton Lido.

Cllr Drury called the reply “disappointing”. “I hoped there would have been an update on whether work has started,” he told the meeting.

But Olympics and culture cabinet member John Fahy said he saw no reason to doubt that the revamped lido would open on time.

New Trees in Greenwich

If you think your street would benefit from having some new trees, then Greenwich Council wants to hear from you.

The council is spending £4.8m on planting 2,012 trees in the borough to mark the Olympics, with planting due to take place next winter.

In response to a public question from the Greenwich Environment Forum’s Anna Townend, Olympics and culture cabinet member John Fahy told the meeting the council was looking for places to put the trees in.

“We’ve been consulting with residents for a number of weeks, particularly at our Great Get-Together events,” he said.

Cllr Fahy added that he did not think that a new woodland would be created with the trees.

John Roan School governors recommend staying put

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Controversial proposals to move John Roan School to Greenwich Peninsula have been dropped by the school, it has been announced.

School governors have instead recommended refurbishing and rebuilding the school on its current sites at Maze Hill and Westcombe Park, and are asking the Council to endorse their decision.

The move had been held up by the need to decommission a gas holder at the peninsula, and with no firm time table in place for this to happen, the school governors undertook a feasibility study to examine whether they could stay at their existing locations.

A statement issued this week by the school says:

The Governors recently commissioned a feasibility study to investigate whether it was possible to rebuild and refurbish the school on its existing sites. Following the completion of this study, the Governors wish to progress this option and have entered discussions with both the Council and Partnerships for Schools. The next step will be to secure formal endorsement from the Council for the new approach, taking into account the impact on the overall schools’ strategy for the Borough.

The proposals were strongly opposed by some, and a John Roan School campaign group was formed in response. Andrew Steed, a member of the campaign, has told Greenwich.co.uk that they are “thrilled to bits” with the Governors’ findings and only “regret that this didn’t happen three years ago”.

Updated – Greenwich Council have responded to the news…

On Monday 2 November, the governors of The John Roan School determined
they no longer wished to take advantage of the opportunity to move into
the new school to be built on the Greenwich Peninsula. This is because
the decommissioning of the gas holder, which is not within the control
of either party, will take longer than originally hoped

The Council’s position throughout has been that it would support the wishes of the Governors of The John Roan School. We will continue to do so. To this end, we will work with the Governing Body and with Partnership for Schools (PfS), the agency which is delivering the Building Schools for the Future programme on behalf of the Government, to try to secure funding for the refurbishment of The John Roan School on its existing sites.

In the meantime, the Council will continue with its plans to build a new secondary school on the Greenwich Peninsula, using the PFI credits already allocated to us by the Government for this site.

Local MP, Nick Raynsford, has issued this statement to Greenwich.co.uk

‘I have been working closely with John Roan School’s Headteacher and Governors to help the school resolve the problem of the current unsatisfactory premises. As it is now clear that an early move to new premises on the Greenwich Peninsula is not possible because of the delay in decommissioning the gasholder, I will be exploring alternative options including the possibility of provision on the school’s two existing sites, with the school, Greenwich Council and Partnerships for Schools – the Government agency which is overseeing the ‘Building Schools for the Future’ programme. My overriding concern will be to ensure an outcome which enables the school to continue to improve its educational performance and to meet the needs of young people in Greenwich’.

Jonathan Edwards meets John Roan pupils and talks to Greenwich.co.uk

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Jonathan Edwardes and Tim Hadaway

Triple jump world record holder Jonathan Edwards was in Greenwich today to meet pupils at John Roan School. Edwards, who is a member of the London Organising Committee for the Olympic Games (LOCOG), was accompanied by Tim Hadaway, who is is responsible for the 2012 equestrian events.

Jonathan EdwardsJonathan Edwards demonstrates the scale of his World Recording winning triple jump.

Jonathan met with pupils including the school’s sports ambassadors to talk about 2012 and his own athletics career. Answering questions from the students, he explained how he became an athlete, and urged them not to sell themselves short and not to be afraid to fail.

Asked by one student about his nerves for big events, he mentioned how he had used his former Christian faith to take the pressure off himself, but suggested this could also be achieved through other support networks. Such was his success that at one point his own son told him he wanted to be Jonathan Edwards when he grew up.

Before meeting the pupils, I sat down with Jonathan Edwards and Tim Hadaway to discuss the London 2012 Olympics. I started by asking what the purpose of the visit was today.

Jonathan: It’s just to raise the profile of the consultation that’s going on for the equestrian events in Greenwich Park, and to come and speak to young people about my career as an athlete, so it has a bit of a double focus. There’s lot of excitement, but also concern about what’s going to happen in Greenwich Park for 2012.

Greenwich.co.uk: What would you say to people who are concerned about the closure of Greenwich Park for a month in 2012?

Jonathan: The first thing to say is that there’s been a lot of consultation already and a number of changes have been made to the plans so initially we were looking at six to eight weeks closure and now it’s down to a four weeks. The route of the Cross Country has been changed and some road closures are not happening, so there’s been changes made to make it better for local residents. We wouldn’t want to host the games there if we thought there would be any long term damage to Greenwich Park – it’s one of the iconic features of London.

A lot of the people I’ve spoken to are very excited about the fact you’ve got biggest sporting event in the world coming to Greenwich and I think Greenwich Park will provide an incredible backdrop. The equestrian events are every dramatic and for the first time you’ve got those events right on the doorstep of the Olympics village.

Greenwich.co.uk: Would you encourage people in Greenwich to get tickets because I don’t know that there’s any kind of priority ticketing for local people?

We’re looking at our ticketing policy. Clearly we will take into consideration local residents being able to see events on their doorstep, I don’t think there’s any question about that – balancing that with it being games for the whole of the UK. But looking at Cross Country for example, there’s 75,000 [tickets] across the whole course so there’s a massive opportunity, and in the arena where there will be dressage and show jumping there’s 23,000 so there’s a lot of tickets and a lot of availability.

Greenwich.co.uk: What about a physical legacy for Greenwich?

Jonathan: The first thing is that Greenwich Council is being given £17.5million as part of its legacy fund which if Greenwich wasn’t a host borough, wouldn’t be there.

Tim Hadaway: Greenwich Council are looking at a site down at Shooters Hill next to a farm you can visit, and they are looking at building a permanent equestrian centre there which would give children of the borough, and adults, the chance to get involved in the sport. There’s also a plan which is quite a fun idea, that incorporates the cross country course into a new children’s play area and an element of it will be designed so that the horses can actually jump over it and it will stay there, so you can imagine the kids climbing through or sliding off what has actually been one of the jumps.

Greenwich.co.uk: Would you consider equestrianism to be a world sport in the same way that athletics is?

Tim: We’ll have about around the 45 mark in terms of countries that will eventually qualify, but they would have come from qualifying groups around the world. Just like the World Cup there is qualifying but the qualifying works on a world zone basis so there’s a lot of countries that do compete.

Greenwich.co.uk: Do you think equestrianism has a long term future as an Olympic sport?

Tim: Yeah, absolutely, very much so. Unlike all the other Olympic sports which are about two-legged athletes, in this sport you have a four legged athlete as well and it’s all about how the two work in partnership with each other. A lot of the people competing will have developed the horse they are sitting on over a number of years.

Greenwich.co.uk: What about the barrier to entry – who actually owns the horses?

Tim: That’s a good question. It’s gone down the route of being owned by either private individuals or often consortiums of people, a bit like racing, where you have groups of people who come together and enjoy the sport. Most of the horses that top riders ride are actually owned by other people. Sometimes riding has this perception of being expensive and inaccessible, but actually a lot of the top riders have come from a background where they haven’t got a lot of private support or a lot of money themselves. Just like any other sport, they’ve grafted away and taken advantage of little opportunities that come their way and they’ve got to the level where they’ve been spotted perhaps and someone’s given them one of their top horses (to ride).

Greenwich.co.uk: Turning to Athletics, Jonathan – we got 4 athletics medals at Beijing. Are we expecting more for 2012?

Jonathan: We did amazingly well in Berlin [World Championships in Athletics]. Beijing was slightly disappointing. We’ve got a new head coach, Charles van Commenee,  who took Denise Lewis to gold in Sydney and also worked with me towards the latter end of my career, and I think he’s made a big difference. Berlin was highly encouraging and our best performance in a World Championship since 1993. I think it’s given everyone a lot of optimism for 2012 and host nations always do well. At Beijing we came 4th in the medals table, but can we match up to that? All the indications are that we will, and we’ll do better.

Greenwich Students Get Downing Street Tour

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From L-R: Rahima Choudhury (PSHE Teacher), Jenny Pham (pupil), Ramendeep Pawar (pupil), Nick Raynsford MP

Year 8 pupils from John Roan School experienced a trip around number 10 Downing Street after one politicially minded student wrote a letter to Greenwich MP, Nick Raynsford.

Ramandeep Pawar, 13, wrote to Nick Raynsford to ask him to invite Gordon Brown to John Roan School. The Prime Minister instead wrote back to Mr Raynsford inviting him to bring a group from the school to visit 10 Downing Street.

Ramandeep brought along 23 of his classmates, two teachers, and Headteacher Des Malone, along with him as they took a tour behind the famous black door.

Nick says: ‘It was a real pleasure to accompany children from the John Roan School on this visit. I was particularly impressed with Ramandeep’s initiative in contacting the Prime Minister. This shows that politics is relevant to all ages, and demonstrates John Roan’s commitment to encouraging their pupils to become active citizens in the community’.

Ofsted Praises John Roan School

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John Roan School has been praised in its latest Ofsted inspection. The report describes the impact of the recently appointed head, noting his “good leadership” and that he has been a “driving force for change” in galvanising the staff.

Behaviour in the classrooms is described as “good” and there are apparently few instances of bullying in what is described as a “racially harmonious” environment.  However, the report does say that teaching can vary between “outstanding and inadequate” and the teachers don’t make good enough use of ICT.

Have you noticed improvements at John Roan School? One parent told me, via Twitter, “the place is still a shambles – no reports this term as they as a computer virus”. Please post your thoughts in the coments form below.

The inspection was carried out at the school, in Maze Hill, on March 17th and 18th.  Read the full report here.