A "new" school in North London

[nlondondad]

Just had some really good news.

The school I am a governor of, Ashmount School is going to move from its current rather dilapidated building (but on a nice site) just off Hornsey Lane, to an absolutely stunning location. Its moving to the old site of the Crouch Hill Recreation Centre The whole project, which has just had final, contracts to be signed etc approval, is going to cost about 16 million pounds tho' that is not all being spent on the new school building (alas!) There is going to be a new building for the Nursery already on the site and an improved community facility. But the site itself, beside the park land walk is very beautiful, and we are very lucky to get it. Lots of grass, trees extensive parkland. Its an extraordinary place to have in central london. The post code is N8 9EJ if you want to see the location on google maps.

I am really just putting the news here because I am so pleased.

[WoodRose]

Congratulations! DCs school is fortunate to have a site adjacent to parkland and a lot of green and it is a wonderful asset!

[ptitemaud]

so it will be in Islington then???

[TondelayoSchwarzkopf]

I just moved from that area partly because I didn't think we'd be in the catchment area once the school moved to N8. It's great news for the school but North islington is deprived of good non-faith schools and Crouch End already has several really good primaries - what is going to happen to people who were in Ashmount catchment before the move?

[nlondondad]

Thought I would do a search and only just come across this message.

@ptitemaud

Yes Ashmount School will still be in Islington, in fact it will be moving further into Islington, by a little.

(The current site for the school, which is the one that is being used for admissions "this year" - for entry Autumn 2012- is on Hornsey lane down which the Borough boundary runs so the front gate of the school is about ten metres from the frontier with Haringey).

The new site is at the old Crouch Hill recreation centre east and a little south of the current site. Because of the odd shape of the borough boundary not only is the new site further south of the borough boundary by a hundred metres or so, but there are even some streets to the North East of the new site, on Crouch Hill, that are in Islington.

Of course, by law, borough boundaries are not taken into account when deciding who gets a place at the school, its distance from the school.

[nlondondad]

@ TondelayoSchwarzkopf

The school is moving ten minutes walk east of the current site. If the radius of admission remains unchanged then the large majority of applicants (over 90 per cent I guesstimate - as you go further from the school and the travel distance falls off more people choose nearer schools) who would have got in this year on distance will still get in next year. The loosers will be those on the inner fringe of the current circle to the west of the school, the winners will be those on the outer fringe to the east. Its a circle being moved with the centre moving about two thirds of its radius. Always winners and loosers.

So, it is a sad truth that some people who used to be in the Ashmount Catchment, once it moves, will no longer be. But most of those will still have a choice of schools, its just that Ashmount will no longer be one of them.

[Turniphead1]

Northlondondad - as a governor, have you been on site to see how building is progressing? We live very nearby and have been watching with interest. I do my school run off Crouch Hill so will be interesting to see the traffic will be like when it opens

Great position though - I am sure it will be stunning. Did you watch Kevin McCloud's own Grand Design housing estate that he did - he used the same builders.

[nlondondad]

Yes I have been on site recently; (7 February anyway) and it looks very impressive. I got to climb around on bits of the roof. That included one bit of the roof that will be a play area. Great views over the Parkland Walk. There is a delay of a few weeks on the current timetable. Work had to be stopped for two weeks due to the discovery of a nesting bird in a tree too close to the building. They had to wait for the chicks to fly the nest....

They expect to make up the time and the plan is for the school to move October half term.

[nlondondad]

Turniphead1

Regarding traffic, ie children being dropped of at the school havent a clue really we will just have to see what happens we will have a travel plan that promotes non car use, the great majority of children come on foot and most of them live no further away from the new site than the current one. The only vehicle access on to the site IS from but the school is at the far end of the park away from the gate, that gives us two access points to the south and west of the site where a child could be dropped off very close to a pedestrian entrance to the school.

So it is possible that:-

1. Few people will use cars
   

1. They will have two drop off points BETTER than Crouch Hill and use/divide between them.
   

Or not.

[Rosebud05]

That's great news, you must be pleased.

There's such a divide in North London state schools. Some, like Ashmount, are having resources poured into them and others, like my dc's in Tottenham are being handed over to private companies.

[nlondondad]

@rosebud

Well you can imagine that I am following the events in Haringey with considerable .........interest.

I would say that it does not feel that we are having resources poured in to us; its not that we are "ungrateful" Its just that this project has been in gestation now for over seven years...

Its going ahead now, at a time of huge financial stringency partly because of the underlying financial commitments entered into by Islington years ago. What this was concerned with was finding the most cost effective way of replacing the old Ashmount building, which built in the 1950's in a modernist style -basically a glass box - is wearing out. To cut the very, very, long story short the Crouch Hill project was the best solution available, in terms of the welfare of the children.

Its the last of many Islington schools to get a rebuild job done, the others being under the sort of Government scheme that got closed abruptly after the last election. Ashmount@Crouch Hill was never part of that.

[Turniphead1]

@rosebud and @nlondondad - driving past Ashmount the other day I was struck by how truly "worn out" that building truly is. New premises badly overdue.

In fairness to the area (although one Islington and one Haringey) I know that a primary school in Tottenham that has recently had many hundreds of thousands spent in new buildings etc.

@rosebud - good luck for your school. I do hope that it might not be as bad as you fear.

[Rosebud05]

I don't begrudge the teachers, parents, governors and children at Ashmount new premises. As I said, that's good news.

I'm just aware that some schools are being supported by their LA and some are not. Which I do begrudge.

[nlondondad]

Well regarding "LA support" the funding, and functions of all local education authorities is being cut back so much that, without meaning to be gloomy about it, I do wonder about the capacity of any LEA to provide the kind of support in the future that most schools have needed at some point in the past...

[crazynanna]

I lived 2 streets away from Ashmount (although I moved some months ago),and there are very few schools in the adjacent area. Coleridge is close (although in Haringay) and is over subscribed (I understand). The other nearest school to the old Ashmount site is a faith school...then you start to move into Archway itself (personal bad memories of Hargrave Pk) and then down Hornsey Rd to I think it's Montem school?

Must say there isn't a lot of choice there in the Hornsey Lane/Whitehall Pk area

[nlondondad]

@crazyanna

I dont know how recent your experience was of school admissions, as it does keep changing. These days borough boundaries can, by law, be no longer taken into account in admissions. Until last year anyone living in the Whitehall Park area had a choice between Ashmount and Coleridge. (which benefits both schools as we will both tend to get children whose parents have CHOSEN to send their children to the respective school)This year Coleridge had a lot of siblings so the catchment shrank, basically anyone living to the east of Ashmount still had a choice between the two schools. Going to the west you would have had a choice between Ashmount and Hargrave Park, which is to the south west, or far enough west, Brookfield in Camden. A bit further down south is Yerbury and due south is Duncombe and Montem. I think most people get a choice of two schools. I havent mentioned the faith schools.

makes me sound like an estate agent...

[nlondondad]

@crazyanna I should have said that I live two streets away from Ashmount, so I am sorry to have missed you!

[nlondondad]

I should also say that I am talking about the immediate Whitehall Park area, and have no idea what the catchments will look like this year; their could be less choice -or more.

[nlondondad]

It has now been confirmed that the school will move over Christmas, with the first teaching taking place on the new site from the start of the spring term.

The building which actually be finished in early November, with the access road being finished by the 14 November. The school will close a week early for Christmas on the 12 December with the move taking place over the following week, with the children out of the way...

[nlondondad]

in fact I am going tomorrow morning to look at the building and see how it is coming on!

[crazynanna]

Just seen your posts nlondondad.

Let us know what the new site is like.

I lived in the road beginning 'Ch'...the one with the posh off licence

[Rosebud05]

This is good news for many families in the area.

Similarly, many families in west Haringey benefited when Coleridge, Rhodes Avenue and Tetherdown were expanded, providing additional facilities as well as additional school places. £28K was spent on them, in total.

In contrast, schools in the east of Haringey like Belmont, Lancasterian and Welbourne are being forced to expand with no additional resources and, according to the LA, only a couple of K to do with. The expansion at Belmont will include paving over the award winning growing garden to put portacabins in.

Haringey is truly a tale of two boroughs - the affluent side having money and resources poured into it, and the poorer side being striped of the assets it has and undemocratically handed over to private companies, via the forced academy agenda.

[nlondondad]

Actually Ashmount is an Islington school which happens, it is true, to be near the border with Haringey. So all the decisions about Ashmount have been made by Islington Council without reference to conditions in Haringey (which are the responsibility of Haringey). I cannot comment on the allocation of resources within Haringey altho' I suspect that if there is the disparity you mention it is probably due to the change in financial climate. The Crouch Hill Project is an oddity as it is a project held over from a former era...

But Islington spending decisions have nothing to do with Haringey!

[nlondondad]

I was able to visit just part of the site this morning -the new school building - together with some governors from Ashmount this morning.

It is fair to say we were all impressed with what we could see. The last time I visited one needed some imagination to see how things would turn out, but rather less imagination is needed now. The building has a very light, open feel, The windows look rather larger from the inside than they appear from the outside and there are a number of good internal vistas. The wood cladding (not yet finished) adds a lot. There are a number of interesting internal spaces and I am intrigued to see what the children will make of them, and how, in the event, they will use them.

[nlondondad]

Crazynanna.

Yes I know the "posh" off licence well. Always handy for the emergency bottle of cheap red wine Anyway the other thing I should say about the site is that the work and the precise location of the new school building has really opened up this derelict piece of land. It should be possible for members of the public to into the park from mid November onwards and I think people will be impressed.

[nlondondad]

Some new press coverage here:-

www.hamhigh.co.uk/news/ashmount_school_in_archway_set_to_move_to_romantic_new_site_in_the_woods_1_1549545