QUESTION No. 1 Priority 1 LONDON BOROUGH OF LEWISHAM COUNCIL MEETING 1 MARCH 2010 Question by Councillor Paschoud of the Cabinet Member for Children & Young People Question What is Lewisham Council doing to attract the best graduates into our schools? What borough wide schemes are in place? Reply Lewisham is actively promoting the excellent 'Teach First' programme. Teach First is an independent charity founded to encourage top graduates, who wou ld not normally enter teaching, to teach for at least two years in challenging secondary schools. In partnership with supporters in both education and business, participants work to achieve Qualified Teacher Status during their first year as well as ‘learn to lead’ through additional leadership development training. This programme combines excellent initial teacher training with volunteer coaching, networking opportunities and a bespoke leadership development programme. We have 11 Teach First graduates in o ur schools and this number will rise in the coming years. Lewisham Borough Council has a dedicated stand at all of the London Teacher Training Universities Graduate Recruitment Fairs including: • Greenwich • St Mary’s • Roehampton • Goldsmiths • London Metropolitan • Kingston • Institute of Education Fairs provide the opportunity for direct face to face contact with all the graduate newly qualified teachers (NQTs) for the coming year and promote the opportunities and benefits of working at schools in Lewisham. We use a range of marketing material including a Lewisham branded stand plus promotional literature providing a range of information to new graduates on why Lewisham schools are the best places to start their career in teaching. The fairs are an opportunity t o promote what is on offer to NQTs in comparison to other Local Authorities and includes information on the high quality LA induction programme which we offer to NQTs and their mentors which has consistently high evaluation feedback. Lewisham has a dedica ted NQT Talent Pool which allows all graduates who are working towards QTS to register their interest in working at a Lewisham school. The Talent Pool is promoted via the Lewisham website, the SLG website (see below), the NQT brochure and other marketing material, as well as face to face with visitors to the Lewisham stand at the Graduate Recruitment fairs. All Lewisham schools have access to this talent pool which they can search and select the best graduates with a view to recruiting them directly into their schools. In addition to registering with Lewisham’s NQT Talent Pool, graduates are also encouraged to register for email alerts so they are informed whenever a suitable teaching vacancy is posted onto the Lewisham website. Other marketing to gradu ates includes advertising in the January edition of Times Education Supplement ( TES ) First Appointments, a specialist TES publication which offers advice and information to new graduates interested in starting their career in teaching. Lewisham actively p romotes the Housing Options scheme via the Lewisham website and at the Graduate Recruitment fairs, to assist in attracting the best graduates into Lewisham from outside the local area. Lewisham offers advice to recruiting schools on effective advertising strategies to attract and recruit the best applicants in response to job advertisements. Lewisham operates a dedicated email address teacher - [email protected] , which is advertised via the Lewisham Council website and used on all promotional literature, where graduates and all other members of the community can request further information on any aspect of becoming employed as a teacher in Lewisham’s schools. Lewisham is a member of the South London Group – a consortium of 12 LAs in South London who work collaboratively to promote teaching and support new teaching graduates into the profession. A website is established where all new graduates can view infor mation about all South London Local Authorities offering posts including Lewisham www.southlondongroup.co.uk . This is jointly funded by each of the LAs and includes a budget for promotion and the attraction of new graduates into Sout h London schools. Lewisham is a member of the Employment Based Routes Partnership Group where we promote the various employment based routes into teaching with London South Bank University ( LSBU ). Lewisham sits on the interview panel for selecting the best graduates to employment based routes. Lewisham schools have priority status in terms of the admissions process to LSBU and this scheme is promoted to Heads via the Schools Mailing. SUPPLEMENTARY QUESTION NO. 1 Councillor Paschoud I am very please d with the comprehensive set of measures we have in place to attract good quality graduates. I do not think there is an interest. My eldest daughter is in fact doing a post -graduate teaching qualification at the moment. She has a placement in a Lewisham school. There is currently a placement in a Southwark school, but she does not want to work there. I am particularly interested in Councillor Massey’s reasoning why it is important that we attract high quality graduates, particularly science graduates, to Lewisham schools. Councillor Massey Councillor, you will be surprised to know that I am very keen to attract high quality science graduates to schools as well. I will heartily endorse that approach. Understanding , as I do , that your daughter is a ph ysics graduate, I am sure if she expresses an interest in working at schools there would be plenty of places she could apply for. Bluntly, like it or not, we need the very best graduates in our schools. We need people who understand and who are enthusias tic about their subject. We do not want science graduates who think, for example, that there are any merits in homeopathy or astrology. I would ask serious questions if they were teaching science in our schools. There are excellent examples of this. Fo r example, in Fairlawn , when I visited there the other week, the Headteacher explained about the way in which he links up the Institute of Education. He talks to the students on the courses there; more than just actually doing it through the Borough. Bri ndishe and Hither Green use the same approach. You are right to highlight science graduates. The Sainsbury Review of Science and Innovation, a few years ago, said that governing bodies should use their powers to pay more, if necessary, to attract them. I actually think that is an entirely realistic policy. The Times last week carried a report in the same vein. Alan Smithers, at the University of Buckingham, has flagged up the problem. He notes that 50% of our inner London schools lack dedicated physi cs graduates. It is within the power of governing bodies to address this. I wish that more would. Bluntly, if you want the best teachers, you need people who understand their subject and who can be enthusiastic about it. Nothing else is good enough fo r the children in our schools. QUESTION No. 2 Priority 1 LONDON BOROUGH OF LEWISHAM COUNCIL MEETING 1 MARCH 2010 Question by Councillor Muldoon of the Deputy Mayor Question Could the Deputy Mayor provide an update on the Catford Stadium? Reply In 2004 English Partnerships , now part of the H omes and Communities Agency (HCA), purchased the Catford Stadium site, which was to be part of the London Wide Initiative scheme focused on the delivery of key worker hou sing . They subsequently engaged Countryside Properties PLC and Hyde Housing Association as development partners. Planning permission was granted on 30 January 2009 for a scheme containing 589 residential units (split between roughly a third social rent ed, a third key worker and a third private accommodation), as well as 500 sq m of retail/commercial floorspace near the station and a 300 sq m Use Class D1 community centre. Part of the S106 required river naturalisation and creation of a public plaza betw een Catford and Catford Bridge Stations, and provision of a footbridge to Doggett Road. Owing to the economic downturn the scheme was not considered financially viable . T he development consortium applied for government Kickstart funding in order to progr ess the development . They were however not successful and on 25 January 2010 the HCA wrote to Countryside informing them that they were disengaging from any London Wide Initiative sites including Catford Dogtrack. The HCA as land owner is now considering how to take forward the development of the site. SUPPLEMENTARY QUESTION NO. 2 Councillor Muldoon What is the Deputy Mayor’s personal view of the situation? What action will she be taking to ensure that an appropriate development comes forward on this important site? Can I just advise that the people of Rushey Green expect a full and comprehensive answer tonight, please? Deputy Mayor I will certainly do my best for Councillor Muldoon and the residents of Rushey Green in giving as comprehensive an an swer as I can muster. What is important is that something happens on this site as soon as possible. Clearly, when you come into Catford, the overgrown nature of the site is an eyesore. It is a blight on our environment. In a borough like Lewisham, wher e we do not have a huge amount of land available, it is very important that we do get an appropriate development coming forward there. I am obviously disappointed that this scheme cannot proceed as planned, but I do think there is an opportunity here to g o back to the drawing board. I am conscious that there was considerable concern amongst the local community about some elements of the design of the scheme. Perhaps this is a chance to get those things right. I will certainly be making it clear to the H omes and Communities Agency that we do want to see appropriate development there.