Cherry Tree Nursery update

A number of residents have been in touch regarding the Great North Wood Educational Trust/ Rosendale School’s decision, announced recently, to close their childcare provision at Cherry Tree in August later this year.

We were not given advance notice of this decision, and on learning of it requested an urgent update from Lambeth officers:

Cherry Tree is a satellite site to Rosendale Children’s Centre and is in addition to the borough’s 23 children’s centres. It has not been designated as a children’s centre since 2015. There is very limited use of the building for children’s centre services, but families have access to family support from a Better Start worker and monthly appointments with Citizens Advice Bureau alongside the wider offer at Rosendale children’s centre. Cherry Tree is primarily used for the delivery of childcare by Rosendale as part of the Great North Wood Educational Trust.
Delivery of childcare and funding for that is separate to any children’s centre provision, and it is the responsibility of the childcare provider to ensure that provision is sustainable. The council does not have a role in funding childcare, although it does administer funding for the two, three and four year old entitlements under a national funding formula.
Rosendale School joined the Great North Wood Educational Trust in 2017, and became part of that multi agency trust. This led to a significant increase in pension costs for support staff, including those employed to work in either Rosendale Children’s Centre or Liz Atkinson Children’s Centres, or in childcare provision at Rosendale or Cherry Tree.
The school has struggled to meet these pension costs, and has worked with Lambeth Council to explore all possible solutions, but is unfortunately no longer able to sustain the additional costs of running a childcare business at Cherry Tree. At the time that consultation on children’s centres commenced both the school and the Council expected that a solution that enabled ongoing delivery of childcare by Rosendale Primary School at the Cherry Tree site would be possible.
Consultation with staff on a proposed closure of the childcare provision began on 5th April.
As part of this process, the school will end their lease agreement with the council for use of the Cherry Tree building, and the council will consider alternative uses for the building in the future, including the possibility of entering into a new lease agreement with a new organisation for the delivery of childcare services or other children’s services.
The report due for consideration by Cabinet on Monday 15th April recommends that children’s centre delivery continues at Rosendale in line with the proposals outlined in the consultation document.
Council officers will meet with parents currently using childcare at Cherry Tree following the Easter break, and will provide information and support to parents who need to make alternative childcare arrangements from September 2019. Rosendale children’s centre staff will also provide support in relation to finding childcare over coming months.

As your local councillors, we will be lobbying to ensure that the delivery of childcare/ children’s services continue from the Cherry Tree site by another provider.

Park events strategy scrutiny – public meeting

Each summer sees applications from event organisations to hold festivals, sports events or other activities in Brockwell Park. In the last few years, some of these have been of particular concern to the local community because of anxiety about noise, antisocial behaviour or the impact on the park. Many of you have also been in touch about the long term financial sustainability of the park, as it’s an invaluable local asset.

Last year, we worked very hard to mitigate these concerns with regards to Love Box and Field Day applying to come. We held a public meeting and knocked on many of your doors to listen to your concerns. We developed some red lines and put these across strongly to colleagues, officers and licensing committee. Some concessions were won, and we will continue to do this with the application from Mighty Hoopla this summer too.

However, there were some issues raised which couldn’t be dealt with via individual event applications because they were reflections on the wider framework policy for events in parks. We committed to campaigning for a review of the events strategy and to giving you an opportunity to input into this.

With that in mind, we are holding a public meeting on reviewing the events policy and the future of Brockwell Park on 11 March at 6.30-8.30pm at Rosendale Primary School.

Have your say on our school admission arrangements 2019/20

Lambeth Council is aware that for parents/carers and children getting a school place can be stressful. That is why Lambeth Council want to ensure that the allocation of school places is clear, objective and provides fair access to our schools – schools that are among the very best in the country and continue to improving teaching and learning.

Lambeth Council want to hear from parents/carers, schools staff, registered early years providers, governing bodies, diocesan representatives or other (relevant religious authorities), admission authorities in other boroughs and anyone who has an interest in the proposed admission arrangements.

Both Rosendale Primary School and The Elmgreen School are consulting on changes to their admission arrangements for the 2019/2020 academic year.

All comments will be taken into consideration in determining our final admission arrangements by 15 January 2018.

Here is the link – https://www.lambeth.gov.uk/consultations/school-admission-arrangements-2019-20

School uniforms needed at the Norwood Foodbank

Some families in Norwood are struggling to make ends meet. As the new school term approaches, a number of local children are in desperate need of good quality clean school uniform that families no longer need to enable their children to start a new school or go back to school with uniform.

If you have uniform that your children have grown out of or no longer need, please bring it to St Luke’s Church in West Norwood between 10-1pm on Tuesday. If you aren’t able to make it on Tuesday, you are welcome to drop donations round to Anna’s on Monday evening after 6pm at 14a Deerbrook Road SE24 9BE.

We are looking for –

– Basic colours blue, black and grey trousers and skirts
– Basic jumpers, cardigans
– Basic shirts and tee shirts

Various schools and sizes would be very welcome.