Brent NEU Reps advised that it is unsafe to reopen schools

Press release from Brent National Education Union

 

Shortly after death announced of pupil in special needs school in Waltham Forest, meeting of Brent union reps advises members schools should not reopen

38 union reps and safety reps from schools around Brent met tonight with their regional officials and branch secretaries prior to the proposed wider reopening of schools.

Members were told “The NEU’s Five tests have not been met and therefore it’s not safe yet”. 

Questions were asked about transmission between children. Phil Pardoe, London officer, stated “The evidence is not there yet”. Jenny Cooper, District Secretary, said “The BMA backs us, many parents back us and other unions back us. It’s not that we’re militant for the sake of it; this is a life and death issue”. She then went on to share the news of the death of a pupil in Walthamstow and the sad news that in one street in Brent 28 people died of coronavirus.

8 Brent schools were named which will not be reopening on 1^st June. Reps will be returning to their members in schools, teachers and support staff, to pass on the message that their union advises them not to participate in a wider reopening yet.

How Brent schools have been hit by real-terms funding cut

From the National Education Union

While schools have been doing all they can to shield their pupils from the damage caused by the £2.8 billion real-terms cut from school budgets since 2015, the lack of investment in education is really biting.

The latest research from the School Cuts Coalition, drawn from figures produced by the Government itself, shows that secondary school staff numbers in England have fallen by 15,000 between 2014/15 and 2016/17 despite them having 4,500 more pupils to teach.

Secondary schools have seen their staffing fall by an average of 5.5 posts since 2015. These cuts are affecting front line teaching, with each school losing an average of 2.4 classroom teachers and 1.6 teaching assistants as well as 1.5 support staff. 

The School Cuts coalition warn that the situation is likely to get even worse, as 17,942 (nine out of ten) primary and secondary schools in England and Wales are predicted to be hit by a real-terms cut in funding per pupil between 2015-19.

Hank Roberts, Brent ATL secretary said, “Government cuts to education are really hurting Brent’s schools. This new research shows the effect cuts are having on Brent's schools.”

Sotira Michael, Brent NUT secretary said, “We should be investing in our young people. Education Secretary Damian Hinds must make school funding is top priority.”

To see how funding cuts have affected your school, visit schoolcuts.org.uk

 

THE FIGURES FOR BRENT SCHOOLS ARE IN THE SPREADSHEET BELOW (Click bottom right square to enlarge)

The data is drawn from a comparison of School workforce in England: November 2016 and School workforce in England: November 2014. We have also used Schools, pupils and their characteristics: January 2015 and Schools, pupils and their characteristics: January 2017 to calculate the pupil : classroom teacher ratio and the pupil : teaching assistant ratio. 

Reading, Writing and Rip-offs and Brent Schools tonight

BBC Panorama tonight at 8.30pm, BBC1 apparently includes section on Brent schools exploited by IT companies: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01n2t2f

Don't let Reading Recovery get squashed pleads teacher

 I hope Michael Rosen doesn't mind me pinching this from his blog LINK but it is very relevant to children, parents and teachers in Brent.  I was trained to be a Reading Recovery teacher and taught it for many years, Tt is carried out very successfully in both Brent schools where I am chair of governors and in other primary schools across the borough.

It is an intensive, structured, 1:1 daily lesson by experts and so is 'expensive' - but it works.  With the change of college heading up the scheme, the possible demise of Brent School Improvement Services that provides training and continuing support, the government's exclusive emphasis on a particular phonics teaching method, and funding cuts, Reading Recovery is under threat.

This heartfelt post by a Reading Recovery teacher was carried on Michael's blog.

I am a Reading Recovery teacher. RR is based on more than 40 years of research and analysed data. It is proven to be cost effective. It works. The government knows it works. But it is not run as a business. RR's only purpose is to help children learn to read...

When we read we bring together 3 sources of information:
Visual, which means the words and letters and punctuation and layout etc
Structure, which means what is it possible to say in this language?
Meaning, does it make sense?

Children and adults who can read are using these automatically. When children learn to read, right from the start they are bringing together the 3 sources of information, as you well know.

When children who can read make mistakes on the phonic screener it is probably because their brains are overriding the nonsense; they are trying to make meaning because that is what reading is.
Lots of the readers at my school did not do well at the phonics screener. The head teacher was shocked - it is a high achieving / outstanding school in all other aspects. She said "But I can read and I know what the non-words say?" I said, "Yes but you are not 6 years old and you were expecting it. You are maybe more used to the world trying to catch you out?"

And from now on there will be even more phonic drilling, so that next year the schools will get 'better results', and the govt will say, 'Told you so, phonics is the answer'. We (but not me!) are going to be teaching children to deliberately switch off the use of structure and meaning and just decode using visual information like a robot can do.

At the moment the children get 30 minutes phonics a day and 10 minutes, if they are lucky, a WEEK reading with their teacher. They hardly ever get read to, just for the fun of it. Teachers don't have time for this. Given many children's impoverished oral language, these days, research shows that little children should be getting 3 stories a day. This never happens. Never.

Although I would make very different use of the time, 30 minutes phonics a day does have some relevance to real reading of real words, but is now going to morph into even more time spent on learning to sound out nonsense words.

Interestingly, the contract for supervising ECaR which also looks after Reading Recovery, has been removed from the Institute of Education and given to a university (Edge Hill) that is also now going to be responsible for pushing phonics schemes at us. The phonics people have been working very hard to squash RR and it looks as if they have done it. RR is trademarked and copyrighted etc, so is not available for someone to step in and make £millions out of it...

£millions have already been made out of phonics but it would seem the train is not yet full of gravy.

My soul is destroyed.

Do subscribe to Michael Rosen's blog it is a vital and entertaining ongoing  critique of the Coalition's damaging education policies.

Improved Brent pupil attainment highlights important role of local authority in school improvement

 Last week's Children and Young People Overview and Scrutiny Committee received a report that should stop advocates of the breaking up of the local education authority in their tracks. Enemies of democratically accountable community schools often talk of 'freeing them' from local authority control. An alternative phrase would be 'depriving them of local authority support'.

The report set out the academic standards in Brent schools in 2010-11. It shows that despite the borough having high levels of deprivation and pupil mobility that it achieves at or above national averages in many areas.  This an achievement of which pupils and schools should be proud. It should also be shouted from the roof tops of Chesterfield House and the Centre for Staff Development because the education authority and the School Improvement Service have contributed a great deal to that success. The report sets out the range of local authority support and how it challenges nurseries and schools to do even better.

This success is now threatened by schools opting out of the local authority and changes in the School Improvement Service which may see it drastically reduced, or even end, after April 2013.

In the Early Years and Foundation Stage the gap between Brent children and the national average narrowed to only two percentage points.  Indicating that Brent is making progress in overcoming the impact of poverty the permanence of children entitled to Free School Meals improved significantly and was above the national average. In terms of ethnicity the performance of Black Caribbean children has had a steady upward trend since 2008 and the gap between them and all children nationally is 6 percentage points. Somalian children performed strongly with a 19 percentage point improvement this year (39 over the past 5 years) to within 7 percentage points of the national cohort.

Few people would quarrel with the Service's priorities for the current year which are to:

• Intensify the levels of support and challenge to settings requiring improvement.
• Intervene more vigorously in private, voluntary and independent settings causing concern.
• Promote the sharing of effective practice.

For this to continue there will need to be  adequate finance to fund quality staff in the future.

At Key Stage 1 attainment at Level 2+ (the main national benchmark) was in line with the national average in reading and writing and just below in mathematics. Brent standards rose in reading, writing and mathematics while national figures were static or in decline. There has been a steady improvement over the past 5 years.

Level 2B+ which predicts attainment at Level 4+ (the national expectation) at Key Stage 2, remained below the national average but the gap narrowed. (Reading 71/74, Writing 60/61, Mathematics 72/74).

Free School Meals pupils achieved better than FSM nationally in reading writing and mathematics at all levels. Again Somali pupils improved significantly across the subjects with girls accelerating at a faster rate than girls. Black Caribbean pupils were largely static and in line with the group nationally.  Special Educational Needs pupils with and without statements attained better than the national average.

The report attributes the improvements to the local authority's emphasis on raising standards at this key stage which started three years ago. They have put a number of projects in place in schools include Communication Language and Literacy Development (early literacy), Every Child Reader (this increases the impact of the Reading Recovery programme - expensive but highly effective) and Every Child Counts (this focuses on child thought in danger of not reaching Level 2 at the end of the key stage).

The authority has set out key priorities which include running successful literacy programmes, tailoring support to schools' individual needs; securing more Level 3 grades in mathematics and extending opportunities for speaking and listening in the subject.

Things were a little different at Key Stage 2 where there were unusually high results in the previous year. Attainment at Level 4+ was in line with national averages for English and mathematics combined and mathematics on its own was higher than the national average. Performance at Level 5, higher than the expectation for the average 11 year old, was above the national average for English and mathematics combined, and much higher in mathematics alone (40/35) with figures for boys of 43/37.

Pupils on Free School Meals performed better than FSM nationally in all subjects at Level 4+ and Level 5. I terms of ethnicity Indian origin pupils outperformed Indian pupils nationally for the second year running.  However there was a disappointing result for Black Caribbean pupils (-3 percentage points), Pakistani heritage pupils (-4) and Somali children (-8).

Support will be provided to schools to improve performance and will include action research projects and targeted support in both English and Mathematics. It will include central and school-based training.

The monitoring that the authority does is clearly vital in pointing up areas of under-performance and enabling it to devise specialist support quickly.  Local authority coordinated action research on issues such as the decline in achievement outlined above will be able to compare results in different schools, investigate good practice and provide staff development on proven successful strategies. The demise of the local authority and increased 'independence' of schools could deprive children of the benefits of this challenge and support . If there is no local authority will under-achieving children be over-looked?

I would be first to say that all is not perfect but there is a tremendous danger in throwing the baby out with the bathwater when schools are tempted by short-term financial benefits to go it alone and short-term expediency persuades the Council to reduce the School Improvement Service.

Brent teachers to strike over pensions on March 28th

 

Teachers in Brent schools will be coming out on strike again on Wednesday March 28th in further action over the pensions issue.  They will be distributing a leaflet to parents and carers setting out their case:

 

Why are teachers going on strike?

A message to all parents and carers in Brent

Teachers across Brent will be taking strike action on Wednesday 28^th March.

We know this may be inconvenient for you but we hope you will understand why we are doing this and that you will support us.

Teachers do not like taking strike action but we believe we have been given no choice by the government.

We are striking because the government won’t listen to us and insist on making unnecessary changes to our pensions. We believe these changes will be damaging for teachers and for education.

Below we list some of the facts about our pensions we think you should know. For more information please talk to teachers at your school.

FACT ONE

Teachers, and other public sector workers, are being asked to pay 50% more for their pensions, work longer and get a smaller pension when they retire.

FACT TWO

Teaching is an all consuming and tiring job and can be stressful. We do not believe it is reasonable to expect all teachers to work until 68 to get a pension.

FACT THREE

The government says our pensions are unaffordable but their own figures show that this isn’t true.

FACT FOUR

Many private sector workers have no proper pension scheme. The government should do something about this, not cut the public sector pensions.

FACT FIVE

Cutting public sector pensions will just make more pensioners poorer and put the cost of supporting them on to the State and taxpayers.

Support Empty Classroom Day

Friday July 6th is 'Empty Classroom Day'.  This is a great idea to get children, teachers and parents learning outdoors. The aim is to get every classroom in London empty that day while children are out in parks, woodlands, open spaces, adventure playgrounds or city farms.

No desks, chair or whiteboards - liberate yourselves!

Sign up HERE

New round of cuts will impact on children amidst funding tussle

Brent Schools Forum and Brent Council are in a tussle over funding ahead of the Executive's discussion of the budget on February 13th.

The Schools Forum had made a recommendation of a 15% cut in central services. This is in the context of  many schools considering Cooperative Trust or Academy Status and an ongoing debate about the value of the services the Council provides. At the same time the Council eyes school surpluses.

LINK TO EXECUTIVE BUDGET REPORT

The Schools Forum adopted the following recommendation:

The Schools Forum recommends that the 2012/13 Schools Budget should be set with a reduction in central items within the Schools Budget of 15% with the resulting saving being passed onto schools.

The Budget Document states:

The Forum has no decision making powers in regard to this recommendation and can only make recommendations which the Executive can consider and then decide to accept or not accept. Officers would not recommend that the Forum’s recommendation is approved for the following reasons:

• The Schools Budget is already £7.2m in deficit and subject to special recovery measures.

• A rolling programme of budget reviews over 2012/13 has been agreed with the Forum that will allow the Forum to gain greater insight into the complexities of the main central item areas and make more informed recommendations rather than a blunt flat rate reduction.

• By far the largest central item spending areas consist of support for pupils with Statements of Special Educational Needs (SEN), for which the Council has a statutory responsibility. It would not be viable to make blanket reductions without impacting on the Councils ability to meet its statutory responsibilities.

• A long-term strategic plan to reduce expenditure on SEN is already in place as a One Council Project. This will deliver significant ongoing savings in central items beginning in 2012/13, so effectively savings in line with The Forum’s wishes are already being made.

• The latest DfE analysis regarding the level of Schools Surpluses shows Brent Schools as holding the sixth highest level of surpluses out of all London Boroughs. Care has to be exercised in reaching conclusions regarding this as in many cases surpluses are held by schools for long term capital schemes. Nevertheless this does not support views that more funding should be passed directly to schools at the expense of being able to adequately fund statutory responsibilities.

Appendix Dii of the document lists a series of 'Savings' (cuts and increased charges) in the Children and Families Budget for 2012-13. These include:

Children with disabilities and SEN: Reduction of £21k in SEN and early years support and increased charging of non statutory services of £57k
Increased charges for Brent Music Service £40k
Closure of Crawford Avenue Respite Centre £137k
Management restructuring £134k
Ending of Inner London Weighting for officers and manual grades £68k
Charge Target Mental Health in Schools to schools (previously LA contribution) £150k
Increased buy back/charging of Traded Services £150k
Cessation of information, advice and guidance (Connexions) to schools(responsibility passed to schools) £550k
Reduction in SEN Transport expenditure through revised criteria and application process and expansion of in-borough provision £200k (plus another £100k annually in 2013-14, 14-15)
Savings in Social Care Placements (West London Alliance project)  £150k (£200k, £234k)
Savings on administration  of Social Care management and Business Support across Children  and Families £50k
Reduced staffing for Duke of Edinburgh Award and charging for Summer University £100k
Amalgamate Youth Offending Service and Youth Service - cutting one head of service £100k
Reduce Children with Disabilities Teams from 3 to 2 and 'tighter monitoring of direct payments' ££60k
Reduction in Core Services to Schools which will be offered on buy-back terms with increased charges £700k (£150, £150)
Early Years and Localities - explanation is fairly impenetrable but involves 'end-to-end service review' and 'managing demand for children's social care', and 'reviewing scope and coverage of existing children's centres to move towards delivering of targeted offer'. £500k (£500k, £500k)
One Council initiative to review employee benefits £70k

Total: 2012-13 £3,216,000 2013-4 £1,000,000 2014-15 £834,000

While we are told time and time again that the Schools Budget is 'protected' it is clear that these changes, through shifting responsibilities and increased charges will eat into school budgets.  The Council has said it is confident that more schools will buy into services this year and is meanwhile considering a social enterprise model for non-statutory services next year.

The proposals for  SEN, Mental Health, Children with Disabilities, Children's Social Care and Children's Centres will concern many parents and schools.

 

Brent schools spend more than £8m annually on agency staff

More than £8m annually is being spent on agency staff in Brent schools a Freedom of Information request has revealed.  The agency staff are employed as teachers, special needs assistants, teaching assistants, administrative staff and other posts.

Unlike staff employed by the school who are Brent Council employees, agency staff can be dispensed with quickly with the school not responsible for redundancy costs or redeployment and the workers concerned having far less protection. In addition they are often not unionised. Schools have been switching to agency staff  and short-term contracts ahead of  expected education cuts that will take place over the next few years.

Because hours and pay rates vary it is not possible to say how many individual jobs are involved.

The privatisation of education through academies and free schools is the subject of fierce debate in Brent and wider afield. These figures show that even in community schools private companies, operating as agencies, are profiting from the state sector.

Although the figures represent only a fraction of the school budget they are considerable. Preston Manor spent £485,347 on agency staff in the financial year 2010-11, Copland High School £289,694, Newman College (formerly Cardinal Hinsley) £289,024 and Furness Primary £246,647. The Village School, with a large number of special needs assistants spent £342,063.

LINK to FOI Response and Excel Spreadsheet

Most Brent schools will be closed by pensions strike on November 30th

Most schools in Brent will be closed on November 30th as staff from the teacher, headteacher and support staff unions show their anger at the Government's plans to make them pay more, work longer and get less in their pension. The National Association of Headteachers has voted overwhelmingly to strike alongside the other teachers and lecturer unions ATL, NASUWT, NUT and UCU as well as the support staff unions UNISON and GMB.

On visits to schools around the borough staff have raised concerns with union representatives s, not only about their own pensions,  but how the Government’s proposals will put off young graduates from entering teaching. Already those young teachers with large loans to pay back are thinking twice about staying in the teaching profession if their contributions rise by 50%.

But the idea that teachers will not be able to retire on a full pension until they are 68 is the one that causes the most disbelief and anger.

Jean Roberts, Joint BTA Secretary said, “Everyone knows that teaching is a stressful and demanding job, one that requires a great degree of stamina particularly with younger children. Do parents want their children educated by 68 year olds? This proposal for a start shows that the Government have no idea of the realities of teaching today.”

Shane Johnschwager, NASUWT secretary said, “Teaching is a hard job that no one ever gets rich doing. A good pension has always been part of the deal and all Brent teachers are asking for is a dignified retirement. We are sure that Brent parents recognise how hard their children's teachers work. The Government wants us to pay more, teach until 68 years of age, and receive less. Can anyone see the logic of this? Striking is a last resort. We feel we have been left with no choice.”


Hank Roberts, ATL Secretary added, “ The bankers and financiers, with the Government aiding and abetting them, nearly bankrupted the country. We, the taxpayers, were forced to bail them out and now they are trying to make us, who did not cause the crisis, pay. George Osborne had said our pensions are being made worse and we have to pay more to pay off the deficit. We are not going to. We are fighting for a fair pension for teachers and a fair pension for all.”

On 30th November the joint unions are holding a rally at 9.30 am outside The Torch pub in Wembley Park (Bridge Road, opposite the ARK Academy and close to Wembley Park station). Speakers include Mary Bousted, ATL General Secretary and Christine Blower, NUT General Secretary who have made a special effort to attend before leading the march of thousands of education workers which will be held in central London.

Comment
As a school governor, retired teacher and NUT member I am strongly in favour of this strike for all the reasons stated above. Our teachers and our children deserve much better than the treatment they are receiving from the Coalition government. Most public sector pensions are not enormous, despite what the Tories say, and of course mean that such workers do not have to have recourse to pension credit and other benefits.

London Fire Brigade launch schools safety campaign after Neasden fire

The London Fire Brigade have issued the following statement:


Fire investigators from the London Fire Brigade have today released information about what they believe to be the most likely cause of the worst house fire in the capital in over a decade. 

Six people died and two people were seriously injured in a blaze that started in the early hours of Saturday morning in a two-story semi-detached house on Sonia Gardens in Neasden. Fire investigators believe that a chest freezer, which was in the hallway at the bottom of the stairs, may have caused the fire. The make of the chest freezer is not known at this stage.  

Earlier this week, the London Fire Brigade confirmed that a BEKO fridge freezer was in the house. However, this is not the same type of appliance as the one which fire investigators believe may have caused the fire and it has not formed part of the fire investigation.

Following the incident, the London Fire Brigade will be launching a fire safety blitz across the capital. The Brigade’s schools team will begin a pilot programme to visit secondary schools in Brent, the borough in which the fire happened. It already visits primary schools across the capital.

The Brigade will also be writing to every headteacher in London with fire safety advice they can give to children in assemblies. It will offer every primary school in London the opportunity of a visit, with a focus on children aged 6-7 and 9-10. Interested teachers should check the schools section of the Brigade’s website. 
Tomorrow, fire chiefs will also be launching a fire safety campaign on Facebook, which it hopes will reach one million people. The ‘Share it to Save a Life’ campaign will encourage people to share one fire safety tip with their Facebook friends every day for a week. People should visit the London Fire Brigade’s Facebook page for more details.

Today, fire chiefs are urging people to take four simple steps to protect themselves from fire:
1)          Check your appliances – if you notice any strange noises or smells coming from electrical appliances call a repair person and never overload plug sockets.
2)          Get a smoke alarm – fit it and check it regularly. One in ten homes still doesn’t have a smoke alarm. (Department for Communities and Local Government)
3)          Plan your escape  – know how you would get out of your home in the event of a fire
4)          Get out, stay out – in the event of a fire, get out, stay out. Call the fire brigade and do not attempt to tackle the fire yourself.
Assistant Commissioner for the London Fire Brigade, Steve Turek, said:

“Fire investigators will continue to piece together the tragic events of Saturday morning but early indications are that the fire was caused by a chest freezer in the hallway of the house. Our deepest sympathies are with the family and friends of those who died. This tragic event should focus people’s minds on how they can make their home safer. Our fire safety blitz will help people to do that. We will continue to work tirelessly to make the homes of all Londoner’s safer.

“There are four simple pieces of advice we are giving people to help keep them safe. Check your electrical appliances and sockets - if you notice anything strange, call a repair person. Everyone should make sure they have a smoke alarm and check regularly that it works. People should think about how they would get out in the event of a fire starting in their home and if it does, they should get out and stay out. Call the fire brigade and do not attempt to tackle the fire your self.”

Challenging 'A' Level stereotypes

From  today's Guardian

It was good to see the Guardian's front page story on A level results avoided the usual images of teenage girls (usually blonde) jumping up and down with excitement clutching their results.

Without taking away from the girls' achievements, with national concerns over the performance of black boys, and all the stereotypes flying around in the wake of the riots, it was encouraging to see a positive image of black male youth's educational achievements displayed so prominently.

Incidentally it is easy to blame the media for falling for the blonde girl stereotype but a journalist revealed on the Radio 4 Today programme this week that schools and colleges ring local newspapers up and say things like, "We have some exceptionally beautiful girls this year" in order to tempt their photographers along.

Meanwhile as results trickle in it looks like a good year for Brent schools so congratulations to all the students and their teachers, teaching assistants and parents.

Heads urged to support a good school for every child

The Anti Academies Alliance has sent this letter to every primary headteacher:

Dear Headteacher,

We know it has been another busy year in schools. Your dedication and hard work means the vast majority of our children continue to thrive.

We are writing to you because we know many of you are worried about the pressure to become an Academy.

There are good reasons to be concerned. Most Heads and Governors didn’t go into education expecting to be running a small business, yet that is what will be asked of you. And if the government have their way, education will become a ‘market’ in which schools have to compete. Academy conversion is yet another ‘top-down’, politically motivated reform.

We all know that the key to school improvement lies in improving the quality of teaching and learning. As the McKinsey Report (2007) put it

              “the quality of an education system cannot exceed the quality of its teachers”. 

There is nothing in academy status that guarantees better teaching and learning. Some academies have done very well. Others have not.

The offer of extra money is disingenuous at a time when over 1000 jobs are disappearing from education each week. For every school converting, others lose out. And at a time of national austerity, it is sickening to think that each of the 831 schools already given the go-ahead to convert is given £25,000 for legal and organisational costs. That’s over £20 million wasted on structural reform. How much one to one tuition could that have provided?

There are also increasing concerns about the process of conversion itself. In many cases this has been done without fair and proper consultation. This is not headteachers’ fault. The Academies Act is a travesty. However, the poor consultation process is threatening to divide the different stakeholders in education. Staff, parents and children often feel left out of the decision making process. The absence of argument against conversion means that it is often one sided. There are some cases where legal challenges are being pursued.

We believe that every school considering conversion should have a full, open and balanced debate. Unsurprisingly we are happy to provide speakers to put the case against! We would prefer to do this alongside someone putting the argument for. It is much healthier to have the debate.

We would also like to know if you are opposed to becoming an Academy. A recent ACSL survey suggested 10% were for, 20% were opposed and 70% of heads were undecided. Yet Department of Education press releases make it seem like every school wants to be an Academy. Please let us know your views.

We wish your school the very best for the future, and hope that you will continue to stand up for an education system that delivers a good local school for every child.

Yours Sincerely

Alasdair Smith
Anti Academies Alliance National Secretary

www.antiacademies.org.uk

Invisible menace threatens children's health

The North Circular at Neasden

I spent more than 10 years teaching at a primary school which was close to the North Circular in Brent. In contrast to other schools where I had taught there were high numbers of children on medication for asthma at the school. Classes often had 6-8 asthmatics compared with only one or two per class where I had taught before. Sports Day could be a nightmare. Although  local GP prescribing policies  may have contributed it appeared that the high level was down to the proximity of a very busy main road.

The impact of London pollution became clearer when we took children on residential trips. Children who had used an inhaler daily at school were able to do without them almost within hours of arriving at the Gordon Brown Outdoor Education Centre in Hampshire or the Youth Hostel in Epping Forest.As the coach reached the borders of London they began to request their inhalers.

New research by the Campaign for Clean Air has found that 1,148 schools in London are within 150 metres of roads carrying 10,000 or more vehicles per day and a total of 2,270 schools are within 400 metres of such roads.

This revelation comes at a time when new scientific research indicates that children exposed to higher levels of traffic-related air pollution at school and home may be at increased risk of developing asthma. Scientists say living near roads travelled by 10,000 or more vehicles per day could be responsible for some 15-30 per cent of all new cases of asthma in children; and of COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) and CHD (coronary heart disease) in adults 65 years of age and older.

Jenny Jones, the Green Party London Mayoral candidate says:

* parents and teachers must be told when there are high pollution days
*  the Mayor of London has to act immediately to lower fares and reduce the total number of cars on our roads.
* create a very low emission zone which only allows the very cleanest vehicles to enter central London.
*  the Mayor must stick to the promise that all new buses will be hybrids from next year
* reinstate the plans for hybrid taxis which he dropped last year.

A map which shows the schools affected across London, and enables you to see Brent in details can be found  HERE 
or you can download a PDF listing the schools 150metres from a road carrying more than 10,000 vehicles per day HERE

Among the Brent schools listed are Copland High, Gower House, Jewish Free School, Oliver Goldsmith Primary, Our Lady of Grace (Dollis Hill) Our Lady of Lourdes (Stonebridge), Park Lane Primary, Preston Manor High, St Augustine's Primary (Kilburn), Stonebridge Primary,

Simon Birkett, director of Clean Air in London, said:

The government and Mayor Johnson must tackle an invisible public health crisis harming as many people now as we thought during the Great Smog in December 1952.

We need one or more additional inner low emission zones that ban the oldest diesel vehicles from our most polluted roads, and a massive campaign to build public understanding of the dangers of air pollution with advice on how people can protect themselves.