Tonight's Education Question Time at St Paul's Church in Hammersmith could be the start of a significant fightback against neoliberal policies in education. It is a chance to bring together teacher unions, parent groups, community organisations and governors in a concerted campaign to defend progressive child-centred and democratically accountable schools with broad educational aims from privatisation and narrow aims centred on international commercial competition.
Nothing could illustrate the current battle more than the fate of Sulivan Primary School, a walk away from tonight's venue. Hammersmith and Fulham Council has voted to close the successful Sulivan Primary School (ostensibly a merger with a nearby primary academy) and handing over its unique site to a boys' free school.
Staff, parents and pupils have all campaigned for their school and their views have been ignored.
Here are some of the questions tweeted for tonight. Add your own: #edqtime @nec2014
Nothing could illustrate the current battle more than the fate of Sulivan Primary School, a walk away from tonight's venue. Hammersmith and Fulham Council has voted to close the successful Sulivan Primary School (ostensibly a merger with a nearby primary academy) and handing over its unique site to a boys' free school.
Staff, parents and pupils have all campaigned for their school and their views have been ignored.
Here are some of the questions tweeted for tonight. Add your own: #edqtime @nec2014
Re:
ReplyDeleteWhy is SEN funding not linked to the wages of LSA's, especially where children have complex needs & need full time support?
I suppose that LSA's are 'Local School Authorities' and that the question implies that Special Educational Needs funding should result in qualifies staff provision.
Incidentally, the record of successive governments regarding lack of support for disabled jobseekers was previously highlighted in the fact that Kentish Town Jobcentre went through a spate of Disability Employment Adviser underprovision in 2000-2004. One DEA left and her replacement was an MSc in Computer Science who fairly promptly fell so ill with the stress of the job and the lack of preparation and support that the DEA for Camden Town Jobcentre had to cover for him. A subsequent Ministerial Question revealed that no central record is kept of DEA retention and absence rates, and that the nationwide figure of 650 DEAs for the whole of the Jobcentre Plus network had remained stable for about ten years.
When will UK Government honour the pledges made by a UK Government in 2007 and resource supports for disabled people, rather than relying on giving us the Atos Roulette therapy that suggests we are fraudulent claimants?