The Camden History Project has been established to preserve and celebrate the history and heritage of the Camden Road schools in Carshalton, Surrey.
The history and heritage of Camden Junior School, and its place in the local community, was an important issue for many parents and local residents in the debate about the school becoming a sponsored academy.
Go to the Camden History Project website to find out more.
We have obtained an explanation of the confusion over the admissions policy of the Harris Junior Academy Carshalton (the school formerly known as Camden Juniors). See also our previous post.
Apparently, Harris had no intention of changing the school’s admissions policy in such a way that would stop giving priority to children from Victor Seymour. It was just that they made a mistake in writing up their policy!
Harris had originally suggested that they could move children into the school from Victor Seymour outside of the ‘oversubscription’ admissions criteria; they had therefore not included a specific reference to Victor Seymour in their proposed admissions arrangements.
But this would have been unlawful – as was pointed out to them by Sutton Council. To be able to continue to give priority to pupils from Victor Seymour a specific reference to that must be made in the ‘oversubscription’ criteria.
These ‘incorrect’ admissions arrangements, without reference to Victor Seymour, were the ones Harris put on their website and described in the prospectus for the Harris Junior Academy Carshalton.
Harris have now corrected their oversubscription criteria and published corrected admissions arrangements on their website.
A copy can also be downloaded here.
The description of the admissions arrangements on page 8 of the Prospectus for the Harris Junior Academy Carshalton is wrong.
We have noticed that Harris have updated the website of the ‘school formerly known as Camden Juniors’ – http://www.harrisjuniorcarshalton.org.uk/.
They now show the school’s email address as info@harrisjuniorcarshalton.org.uk
But emails sent to this address are still being rejected!
See previous post on this issue: http://wp.me/p3vt04-7o
The school formerly known as Camden Juniors is due to have a permanent headteacher in the new year.
We have been told that the person that Harris had originally selected as headteacher for the school has now been re-offered the post and has accepted and is due to join the school in January 2014.
Back in June, Harris told parents that they had appointed a permanent headteacher for Camden who was ready to start in September. They also told parents that they were in a position to appoint this person before a decision had been taken on who would be the sponsor for Camden, as they would have a role for them in their organisation in any case.
However, the person said they had appointed withdrew and instead the autumn term started with an interim head teacher.
Sir Robin Bosher has now told MP Tom Brake that the person that they had originally appointed declined the post because the board of governors ‘withdrew support for the appointment’.
This seems a bit odd, because it was Harris who were responsible for the appointment of the headteacher, not the governing body, and we are not aware that the Governing Body ever actually gave its ‘support’ to the appointment.
Sir Robin also told Tom that the board of governors ‘didn’t want to appoint a permanent headteacher’ – which also sounds strange because a permanent headteacher was something governors and parents were keen to ensure.
Previously Sean Cox of the DfE told parents that Harris had told them that the reason for their preferred candidate withdrawing his application was that he had been told that Greenshaw school would not uphold the appointment if they became sponsor.
Parents have raised concerns about the admissions policies of the ‘school formerly known as Camden Juniors’.
Our attention has been drawn to the fact that neither the Harris Junior Academy website or their official school prospectus refer to any specific criteria for admission for children of Victor Seymour Infants School.
We have checked the published admissions arrangements* for the Harris Junior Academy Carshalton, which do give priority to children from Victor Seymour Infants School.
Places will be given to children with a statement of special educational need.
If the school is oversubscribed, priority will be given to children in the following order:
1. Looked after children
2. Children attending Victor Seymour Infants School
3. Children who are accepted as having an exceptional medical or social need.
4. Children with a brother or sister already attending the school or Victor Seymour Infants School
5. Children allocated a place on distance from the school.
You can read the full admission arrangements here.
(* admissions arrangements provided by Sutton Council.)
It appears that either Harris do not know the school’s email address or do not want anyone to email them.
On the Harris main website the email address for the school is shown on screen as harrisjuniorcarshalton.org.uk, but actually directs you to info@harrisprimarycarshalton.org.uk, which is also the email address given on the schools new website at http://www.harrisjuniorcarshalton.org.uk/.
We, and others, have tried emailing both of these email addresses but they do not get through, being rejected by the email system.
We would be interested to know what experience others have had in trying to email the new Harris Junior Academy Carshalton.
If the Harris Federation wanted a new school logo, there are many images they could have used that would be more relevant to the school’s heritage and place in the local community than a hot air balloon.
A simple trawl through the internet could provide a number of ideas.
For example using images from the Carshalton Urban District Council coat of arms:
The colours of Carshalton are gold and red.
Why gold?
Gold comes from John Fellows and the Earl of Hardwick, previous owners of Carshalton House.
Why red?
Just a few suggestions ! ….
Why do all Harris Federation schools have ‘Harris’ in the title and moreover, why is ‘Harris’ the most prominent word?
On the new school sign for the ‘Harris Junior Academy Carshalton’ the word that is made to stand out is ‘Harris’.
Why does the word ‘Harris’ have to be upfront in the name of all of their schools?
What is worse is that the school badge does not have the word Carshalton on it anywhere – just the word ‘Harris’.
It appears that the naming of the school is less about its location or its history and more about promoting the name ‘Harris’.
The name of the school should focus on the school not on the sponsor.
Harris does not need to be in the title of the school. The Harris Federation could easily identify themselves as sponsor on the sign or the letterhead, whilst keeping the original name of the school.
The new logo imposed on Camden Junior School by Harris has abandoned a perfectly good logo that served Camden well and which had a real back story.
Why red?
The colour red comes from the arms of the Mandevilles, Lords of the Manor of Carshalton at the time of the Domesday book. Red is also associated with the Gainsford and Scawen families who lived at Stone Court and Carshalton Park.
Why the rose?
The red rose represents the prominence in the area in Tudor times of the Carew family of Beddington, whose royal manors were confiscated by Henry VIII in 1539. It was incorporated into the official crests of Carshalton Urban District Council and Beddington and Wallington Borough Council in the 1930s.
The red rose currently appears on the civic coat of arms of the London Borough of Sutton and the mace and badge of the Mayor of Sutton.
In the Guardian article Harris Federation made an astonishing statement regarding the design of the logo. They said:
We always try to involve pupils in the design of their school crest and in the majority of our schools this has been possible. Where it is not possible we still hold a session with a group of pupils to introduce them to the design aspects of creating a new logo …. this will take place shortly at Harris Junior Academy Carshalton.
It is difficult to know where to start!
When the Harris Federation made their bid to run Camden, they told parents that pupils would be involved in the design of both the school crest and uniform. They have not delivered on either of these promises.
We would also involve pupils in the design process of the new Academy crest
The logo, when it was presented, was frankly no more creative than a piece of clip art. The pupils at Camden were not involved in designing the (or certainly we have not heard of any pupils from Camden being part of any form of design team). The crest was just presented to parents as part of the new uniform design announced before the start of the Autumn Term.
The design that has been adopted by Harris is, however, in line with the logos that Harris uses at their other schools.
It could be argued that by merely “introducing pupils to the design aspects of creating a new logo” they are being “involved”, but most people would not consider that this was fulfilling the spirit of the original statement from Harris.
This not only fails the test of normal logo design, but fails to recognise the importance that heritage plays in a school crest.
If there is truly a desire to get pupils (and parents) involved, then the design of a new logo is a process that can really engage people and give them ownership in the outcome.
In creating any image for any institution or corporation, the starting point is the values that the organisation wants to project. The final design should say something distinctive and relevant about the organisation.
What is so sad is that the new logo that has been imposed on Camden has no obvious connection with the values (educational, social, personal) of the school. Further, it fails to recognise the heritage and history of Camden Juniors and its place in the local community. In making this move, Harris Federation has abandoned a perfectly good logo in the red rose.
KeepCamdenLocal 