Alperton's Andria Zafirak a deserving winner of Global Teacher Prize

Andria Zafirak, a textiles teacher at Alperton Community School, has won the Global Teacher Prize. Andria's commitment to seeing her pupils lives in a holistic way, going beyond the school gates and recognising the role of creativity in education, are an imnpressive aspect of her practice. Congratulations Andria!

The BBC in reporting the award LINK said:
 
In her acceptance speech, she said schools should be "safe havens" and called for greater recognition for the value of arts subjects in school.

She warned of "deprivation" and "tough lives" where "children may not eat well because their lunch boxes are empty".

But she said school could make a great positive difference - particular through creative subjects.

"Too often we neglect this power of the arts to actually transform lives, particularly in the poorest communities."

The teacher from Alperton Community School has been praised for her work with the local community as well as with pupils.

She says the mix of people and languages in this part of north London is a "beautiful challenge" which creates a "buzzing" atmosphere.

Brent is claimed as one of the most ethnically diverse places in the UK, with 130 different languages spoken in the London borough. 

She has learned basic phrases in languages such as Hindi, Tamil and Gujarati and has visited homes to build links with the school.

Mrs Zafirakou has been praised for making her pupils feel secure, working with the police to make sure they travel to and from school in safety.

And she will have to stay in teaching, because a condition of the prize is remaining as a teacher for at least the next five years.

Quiet place to work

When she reached the top 10 shortlist, she spoke of the disadvantages facing many of her pupils.

"By getting pupils to open up about their home lives, I discovered that many of my students come from crowded homes where multiple families share a single property," said Mrs Zafirakou.

"It's often so crowded and noisy I've had students tell me they have to do their homework in the bathroom, just to grab a few moments alone so they can concentrate."

In response, she organised extra lessons during the day and the weekend, including giving pupils a quiet place to work.

 The nominations from Andria's school said:

"I am submitting a nomination for a teacher who is a true gem, one who inspires such possibility and potential in her students, their parents, the staff, her peers, the local community, and future teachers and leaders." 

"A phenomenal teacher and leader. She is guided by a moral compass that underpins a passionate desire to give every student at her school the world - no ceilings, no limitations, no boundaries." 

"She is a force to be reckoned with when it comes to ensuring that students deserve the best education possible."

"One lady with care and passion can make a huge difference to the lives of many. She is upbeat, full of character, highly regarded and I wish all schools were blessed with a senior leader such as her!"

Will Sir Bernard give us the latest on Met's Kensal Rise fraud investigation?

The Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police Service, Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe, is visiting Brent on Wednesday. The visit is advertised as a chance to 'talk to him, listen to his vision for London and share your thoughts and ideas'.

The meeting is from 6.30pm-7.30pm (doors open 6pm) on July 16th at Alperton Community School, Stanley Avenue, Wembley.

In the absence of any other commmunication from the Met perhaps he can tell us how the investigation into the fraudulent emails in support the Kensal Rise Library development is going?

Further union action planned on Alperton academy conversion

60 NUT members at Alperton Community school in Wembley were on strike on Thursday 31st May against their school becoming a Co-operative academy. Pickets at the Upper and Lower school sites reported that things were very quiet both in numbers of staff from other unions going in and the number of pupils. Obviously many pupils had decided to take the day off unless they had exams. Leaflets had been distributed to pupils for their parents the day before to explain why the teachers were on strike.

Martin Allen, one of the NUT Reps, said: “There is opposition among staff to academies and with how decisions have been made. There’s no evidence academies benefit students. We feel the consultation process at Alperton has been imposed rather than discussed.”

Hank Roberts, joint secretary of the Brent Teachers Association, said: “It was a successful strike with hardly any pupils or teachers turning up. We are seeking a resolution with the head teacher. Our members voted for discontinuous industrial action in a ballot which means we do not need another ballot to take further action.”

Jean Roberts, joint secretary of the Brent Teachers Association, added, "We left staff planning their next moves over breakfast in a local cafe. It was clear that this strike was only part of their campaign to stop the school becoming an academy and further action would follow in the near future".

NUT members will be meeting after half term to plan their next moves.

Alperton teachers strike against Co-op Academy move

Michael Gove - profits ahead for private providers?

On Thursday 31^st May NUT members at Alperton Community school in Brent will be on strike against their governors decision to convert to a Co-op academy. The message to parents below from the teachers at Alperton explains why they have taken this very difficult decision to strike. There will be a picket at the school on Thursday from 8.00 am at both the Stanley Avenue and Ealing Rd entrances.

Jean Roberts, Joint BTA Secretary said, “We are proud that teachers at Alperton are standing up against this decision. The academies programme is Gove's plan to worsen state education by removing legal safeguards on teachers pay and conditions ultimately allowing unqualified teachers to teach, privatising the management of all state funded schools and again ultimately opening them all up to be run for profit. Their idea is to have a chaotic free-for-all market in state education which they say will drive down costs and improve the quality of education.

“It will certainly drive down costs but the privatisation of state education for profit will no more improve the quality of education than it will improve the quality of service for the majority of people in the national health service.”

Dear Parents/Carers

Members of the National Union of Teachers at Alperton Community School will be taking strike action on Thursday 31^st May 2012. This is  as a result of the school’s  Governing body voting on Tuesday 22^nd May 2012 to become an Academy. 

We ask for your support for our action and want to explain briefly why we are doing this.

Academies are publicly funded but privately run schools outside of the Local Authority. The NUT, in fact all education unions and the TUC, are opposed to schools being run in this way and believe that this Government wants to privatise the management of education as they do with, for example, the NHS, Royal Mail and prisons. 

Even though Alperton has applied to become a ‘Co-operative’ Academy, there is no evidence that Academies benefit pupils and no evidence that they get better examination results. The teachers are concerned for the future of all students and staff in all schools that change to Academies.

The Government has overspent on converting academies and free schools by £600 million. There is no guarantee that the short term 'bribe' to get schools to become academies will continue, rather the reverse. All schools and academies will receive the same funding from April next year. In fact there has been overpayment of more than £120 million to academies, some having to pay this back by July. The first for profit company has been agreed to run a free school in Suffolk. Others will follow.

Members of staff at the school, both teachers and non teachers have voted by a large majority in a secret ballot against Academy status and the Chair of Governors has acknowledged that there is no ‘consensus’ amongst the different stakeholders.   As a parent you may have been given a letter by your child asking you to vote ‘yes’ or ‘no’ but there has not really been any attempt to provide you with both sides of the argument.

Teachers and staff at the school work incredibly hard to achieve the best results for students attending the school.  Teachers do not decide to take strike action lightly.  

We strongly urge the Governing Body of the school to reconsider its application to become a Cooperative Academy and to undertake a thorough and much longer consultation, with parents and carers being allowed fully to hear both sides of the argument before having their say.

Yours sincerely

National Union of Teachers at Alperton Community School

One Brent Primary to double in size and two others will expand

Brent Council is currently consulting on further changes in the size of primary schools as well as changes to the character of others.

Three primary schools are due to expand with Fryent Primary, in Church Lane, Kingsbury doubling in size. New children would be taken in year by year from January 2013 with the maximum size reached by September 2018:

School	Nursery	Current 4-11 (R-Year 6)	Additional  4-11	Total 4-11 by Sept 2018
Barham	90 PT	630	210	840
Fryent	54 PT	420	420	840
Mitchellbrook	30 FT	420	210	630

The name of each school above is linked to the  appropriate consultation document. Consultation closes on February 15th 2012

I have argued here and in the local press that we should think very carefully before making such large primary schools. On the plus side there are economies of scale and the ability to employ a wide range of specialists and run a comprehensive  extended schools programme. However the negatives include the family atmosphere of a small school, the headteacher knowing families well, and children feeling safe and comfortable in a smaller unit. There are particular concerns about very young children and those with special education, emotional or behavioural needs. Additional numbers can also lead to the loss of playground and playing field space, school libraries and IT suites. School halls can no longer accommodate all the children in one inclusive assembly or school performance.

Building new one or two form entry primary schools is not proposed although this is an option favoured by many parents and teachers. Mention has been made of a possible new primary in Fulton Way, Wembley but no firm proposals have been put forward.

Brent Council is also consulting on a change of character for Alperton High School. The document can be accessed HERE Consultation closes on February 24th, 2012. It is proposed that Additional Resource Provision (ARP) for up to 20  school students with statements for Moderate Learning Difficulties should be opened at the lower school site in Ealing Road. The building would serve as their base but they would spend some time in the mainstream school. The provision would be for pupils with low incidence and complex needs some needs which are currently met in special school provision.

Brent Council is proposing to change the character of Vernon House Special School, Drury Way, London, NW10 0NQ, from a 30 place special school for pupils with Behaviour, Emotional, Social Difficulties (BESD) to a 35 place special school for pupils with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD for those pupils capable of accessing the mainstream curriculum with specialist support) and Children with Complex Learning Difficulties and Disabilities (CLDD) from September 2012. They claim that the change to a broader designation will increase the flexibility of the school to admit pupils with a broader range of associated needs.

The school in January 2012 had only 14 pupils on roll and in 2010-11 had an occupancy rate of 45-60%. At the same time there has been an increase in the demand for special school places for children on the autistic spectrum. There is likely to be a debate about whether such children might better benefit being in a mainstream setting with support. The consultation closed on February 24th 2012 LINK

Brent Labour takes on fight for community schools as secondaries consider academy options

The academies battle field

It was a busy day on the academies front in Brent yesterday.

At lunchtime a joint meeting of unions at Alperton High School voted unanimously for strike action if the school's governing body decided to apply for academy status. They called for the governing body to support the unions' opposition to academy or trust status. If the decision was to consider academy status they demanded a fair public debate and a secret ballot of staff and parents.

In the evening the Alperton governing body decided not to go ahead with academy conversion at this stage but instead agreed to invite the Cooperative Trust to handle a consultation process with five options:

1. Seek other partners to become a Cooperative Education Partnership which would require no change in the school's status.
2. Become a single school Cooperative Trust School which means that the school would remain maintained but change from a Foundation to a Trust school.
3. Become a Cooperative Trust in partnership with other schools (eg neighbouring primary schools). The schools would remained in the maintained sector with one Trust Board bur separate governing bodies.
4. Become a Cooperative Trust as a lone school or in partnership with others with a view to moving on to Cooperative Academy conversion. This would gain the 'benefits' of academy status but embed Cooperative values and ethos.
5. Maintain the status quo, maintained Foundation school.

In the South of Brent, Queen's Park Community School governing body, is concerned that it will be the only secondary school not looking at academy status, but has made it clear that it would like to stay as it is - a community school in the Local Authority. Though they are keeping abreast of the Coop moves in the borough they will have been heartened to hear that Alperton has not decided yet whether to go down that route.

While the Alperton Governing Body was meeting, down in Stonebridge, Labour Councillors and Labour nominated governors were meeting with some local teachers to discuss the current issues in school organisation with particular reference to academies. I attended at the invitation of Cllr Mary Arnold, lead member for children and families.

Melissa Benn, who is the parent of a child at a local community secondary school, gave an over-view of the current situation and some of the contradictions of Coalition policy. Academies had been able to boost their results by using vocational qualifications but Michael Gove had criticised such qualifications. By changing the rules to convert 'good' and 'outstanding' schools to academy status, the government had made academy results look better. Michael Wilshaw had been appointed as an independent chief of Ofsted but was also linked with academy provider ARK. She suggested the long-term aim was destruction of local authorities with a substitute unelected 'middle tier'. Academy chains were likely to move in to fill that space with 'for profit' schools not far behind. Labour had been stuck for 18 months, failing to react. She quoted an overheard conversation between Labour MPs 'we don't have an education narrative any more'.

Mary Arnold said that they had to recognise the pressure for academy status for short-term gain. It was important to recognise the impact on the whole Brent community of schools of fragmentation and the financial loss to the authority through top-slicing of the budget. The latter would affect the LA's ability to provide viable services. She said that present academies cooperated in the Brent 'family of schools', one less so than the others. She said that the role of the LA was essential and needed to be publicised by governors. These included:

• strategic planning of school places
• tackling underperformance of schools and particular groups of pupils
• meeting the needs of vulnerable children including looked after children, those with special education needs and those who had been excluded from school

In a key passage in her briefing paper she said:

The local authority believes that there will be overall adverse effects on children and young people if strong collaboration and collective responsibility is not maintained and if the LA education function reduces to the extent that statutory responsibilities cannot effectively be fulfilled.

Cllr Arnold said that she expected a good take-up of the council's traded services for schools in 2011-12 . (Schools 'buy-in' these services but can also go to other providers). I pointed out that it was hard to back-up calls to remain with the local authority when they were cutting their services and staff reductions were making them less efficient. The campaign against academies and campaign against cuts were part of the same struggle.

Hank Roberts said that the issue was one of democracy and the right of staff and parents to have a secret ballot on academy proposals, with the unions taking strike action if the demand was not met. I added that schools did not belong to individual headteachers or even governing bodies, but to the whole community. In a sense academy conversion meant that our schools were being stolen from us. The need to involve parents and inform them of the negative issues association with academies was stressed by a number of contributors with calls for joint meetings of parents and governors. I asked if the database of parents held by Brent Council could be used to initiate ballots of parents if schools refused to hold one.

Among the suggestions to make Labour more proactive on the issue were:

1. Support for the right to hear a balanced debate pro and anti-academy and a right to an indepenent ballot, for and against, or parents and staff. Governing bodies would be expected to take the result into consideration. There was also a sugegstion that student actionm such as that at Kingsbiry High, hould also be supported.
2. A leaflet about the issue for distribution to parents.
3. Lobbying by councillors of schools where there was no nominated Labour governor if they were considering conversion.
4. Promotion of the services offered by the education authority.
5. A Brent Governors' One Day Conference on the academies and free schools issue with a 'for and against' debate and information available.
6. The relaunch of an Association of Brent School Governors
7. The formation of a broad-based campaign to defend community schools in Brent.

Fight Tooth and Nail for Decent School Buildings

Brent Council confirmed the impact of the BSF programme on Brent schools with the following release.

Head teachers and students in Brent were shocked at the announcement  by the Government to axe the Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme.

The timing couldn't have been more poignant for Brent's schools. As the Secretary of State for Education, the Rt Hon Michael Gove MP, addressed the House of Commons, students from Alperton Community School, Queens Park Community School, Copland Community School and Cardinal Hinsley Mathematics and Computing College were presenting to Brent Council their ideas and plans for their future buildings.

The four schools had been allocated £80m under the BSF programme.

Maggie Rafee, Head teacher at Alperton Community School, said: "There can be no denying that the news about the BSF programme being axed is absolutely devastating.

"This will mean our school will face uncertainty while we await the outcome of the review and go through whatever new hoops are set to secure the capital monies that the minister announced will still be available for schools in the greatest need. Our school will do whatever is necessary to make politicians sit up and take notice."

Students at the school have written to the Secretary of State for Education and invited him to visit the site and see why the investment is needed.

Councillor Ann John, Leader of Brent Council, said: "Yesterday's announcement will have a devastating impact on the educational opportunities of Brent's students for generations to come.

"The rising population in the borough has meant a shortage of school places and, with many of our schools in poor condition, this investment was vital.

"We will be drawing on the support of our MPs to argue our case to Government for this much-needed investment that goes beyond new buildings. Without funding Brent will not be able to meet the demand for pupil places in the future."

The axing of this programme along with the Coalitions claim that 'free schools' can be housed in closed down factories and warehouses, empty shops and disused churches, shows that they are completely out of touch with the needs of schools. We will be returning to private affluence (from whence most of them came) and public squalor.

I started teaching in the 1970s and remember classrooms with carefully positioned buckets catching rainwater leaking through ceilings, windows held together with tape and string,  walls covered with sugar paper to hid cracked and mouldy plaster. Are we really going to put up with this Government returning us to that state - along with oversized classes and shortage of text books and resources? 

The message given to pupils in such schools is: You don't matter.

We must fight tooth and nail to ensure our children have decent, sustainable school buildings which are fit for purpose.