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| Extract from Cabinet Agenda LINK |
Roe Green Strathcona School will be closed by strike action on Monday 9th September. NEU members are on strike in an attempt to save their school from closure. Despite giving the go-ahead to several new free schools in the borough, Brent Council wish to close this successful local authority run school.
Teachers and parents will protest outside Brent Civic Centre from 3pm Monday and following this will lobby the Cabinet meeting which begins at 4pm in a bid to save the school.
A handful of councillors support the action being taken by staff. Labour Councillor Jumbo Chan said today:
Under the current context of a decade-long assault on public education, Labour councils should be doing everything possible to retain and strengthen their local authority schools. It would be most unfortunate if the opposite approach were taken here in Brent.
Mary Addosides, Chair of Brent Trades Council, representing the unions taking action, called on Brent Council to ‘Save Strathcona for the children of Brent; no job cuts or redundancies.’
The council should listen to the 99.8% of teachers, parents and other members of the public who have formally expressed their opposition to the council’s proposals to abandon Roe Green Strathcona, and shelve their plans. A Labour Council should be supporting hardworking and loyal teachers, parents and students- including working with them properly to explore all alternatives- not casting them away.
Wembley Matters note:
In its report on the formal consultation Brent Council admit they received only one response that agreed with the closure proposal:
542 written responses were received by e-mail or post. The majority of respondents only indicated that they objected or disagreed with the proposals put forward by the council for the school organisation arrangements of Roe Green Infant School. One response indicated agreement with the proposals but gave no further comment.
The Council’s response to those opposing the closure and to alternative proposals can be found HERE
2 comments:
Brent Green Party and London Federation of Green Parties send Support and solidarity to the teachers of Strathcona school who will be going on strike with the support of the NEU to oppose the closure of the school. This closure which damages the education of students at Strathcona and the communities which it serves, is happening inspite of numerous objections from students' parents and other members of the public. Brent council should be acting to defend Local authority education and not diminish it.
P.Murry Trade Union Liaison Officer for Brent Green Party and London Federation of Green Parties
The report to Cabinet on the Formal Consultation says: '542 written responses were received by e-mail or post. The majority of respondents only indicated that they objected or disagreed with the proposals put forward by the council
for the school organisation arrangements of Roe Green Infant School. One response indicated agreement with the proposals but gave no further comment.'
The report does not fully admit that the result of the consultation was 541 out of 542 against closure, but that is what the figures amount to.
Does Brent Council understand what consultation means? How can they ignore such a strong rejection of their proposals?
Why waste time and money having "consultations" when they seem determined to take no notice of what their residents say?
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