Gove's disciple starts consulting on her 'elite traditional' free school

Arena House where 'elite' education will take place

 The Michaela Community Secondary Free School has embarked on a 'consultation' regarding its intention to open at Arena House, opposite Wembley Park Station. 

The person behind the application is Katharine Birbalsingh who was lauded at the Tory Party conference after attacking comprehensive education. Controversially she showed slides of her pupils as part of her attack.

She has used this appearance as a platform to put forward some decidedly odd ideas on the curriculum and is hoping that Michael Gove will follow up his enthusiasm for her right-wing ideas with plenty of tax payers' money for her new school - money that could have been used to support other schools in the borough.

Michaela promise an 'elite traditional' education and there will be a longer extended day with activities including 'competitive' sport, Mandarin, business and financial skills.There will be an emphasis on discipline. I hope Michaela and Ark Academy do not get into a who can be toughest war.

Free schools receive disproportionate funding and it is clear that Arena House will need a lot of costly work before it is fit for purpose. There will be 840 pupils and anyone who knows the building will realise that there is very little space that could be used as a playground. Its position right up against a noisy railway line and adjacent to a busy road is not exactly ideal either.

Emails advertising the consultation have been sent to local schools and consultation meetings will be held at Chalkhill Community Centre, Barnhill Road on Tuesday 26th March (3-5pm) and Thursday 4th April (6-8pm).

If the school does open its 840 pupils will join those of Ark Academy, which is not yet operating at capacity,  the1,000 students who will attend the Brent Town Hall  independent French secondary school,  pupils from the Preston Manor All-through school and children from Chalkhill Primary School in one small area of Wembley.

The consultation brochure can be found HERE

Chalkhill stabbing victim dies

I have come back to the sad news that Aaron, who was stabbed outside the Community Centre in Chalkhill the week before last  and appeared to be making a recovery, collapsed and died yesterday.

Local people are very distressed at the news as Aaron was well-liked. I understand that Aaron was a twin but lost his brother Anton to cancer a few years ago despite donating one of his kidneys.

Community leaders and residents are working to keep the estate calm.

Two people have been arrested in connection with the incident.

So what is the Olympic legacy for the people of Brent?

Harlesden street stall

One of many T shirt designs

Kingston

There was a fantastic atmosphere in Harlesden yesterday after Usain Bolt's performance in the Olympics. Along with the recent celebration of 50 years of Independence there was evidence of renewed pride in Jamaican heritage.  Jamaican colours were everywhere in shop windows, street stalls and especially on people,  young and old. Small children carried Jamaican flags and one woman proudly showed me matching green, yellow and black flip flops, t-short and beads.  A grandmother told me how she had let her grand-daughter  stay up to watch Bolt compete and another said that she had recorded everything so that her grandchildren could view the historic moments again and again.

Perhaps what was most impressive was that non-Jamaicans were also celebrating, somehow with Jamaicans such a vital part of Brent's community, we were suddenly all Jamaicans and sharing in the joy.

As last week the euphoria was accompanied by anger by militancy over the potential closure of Central Middlesex Accident and Emergency with many of those signing the petition people who have used the facility and a good few who were also workers at local hospitals.

Mohamed Farah

With daughter Rihanna

 Mohamed Farah's two gold medals are  likely to impact on the Somali community in Brent (putting aside disputes over rival claims from Somalia and Somaliland) and its status in Britain. Farah like many of his generation came to Britain  as a child (at the age of 8) and has built a successful life in London.  Children are likely to identify with his daughter Rihanna as she danced and ran around joyously after her father's victories. Mohamed's self-identification as a UK citizen of Somali origin has significance for the many Brent Somalis who have gained citizenship.

Greeting the Olympic Torch in Forty Lane

When children get back to school in September it will be interesting to see what impact the Olympics have made on them from the initial excitement over the Torch procession (above) through the opening ceremony to the actual events.  I was e-mailed by a German journalist a week or so ago asking about the 'Olympic legacy' in local schools. I am afraid I never replied but I guess the real answer is that it remains to be seen - it is not just the sporting legacy (which must include the success of women athletes) but something much more about children's motivation, how different groups feel about themselves and each other, and the nature of our diverse community.

It is good that these aspects, perhaps sign-posted in advance by the opening ceremony have far out-weighed the impact of the corporate sponsors.

In her poem for the Guardian, Carol Ann Duffy, went further to link the Olympics with broader political issues.

Translating the British 2012

A summer of rain, then a gap in the clouds
and The Queen jumped from the sky
to the cheering crowds.
               We speak Shakespeare here,
a hundred tongues, one-voiced; the moon bronze or silver,
sun gold, from Cardiff to Edinburgh
               by way of London Town,
on the Giant's Causeway;
we say we want to be who we truly are,
now, we roar it. Welcome to us.
We've had our pockets picked,
               the soft, white hands of bankers,
bold as brass, filching our gold, our silver;
we want it back.
We are Mo Farah lifting the 10,000 metres gold.
We want new running-tracks in his name.
For Jessica Ennis, the same; for the Brownlee brothers,
Rutherford, Ohuruogu, Whitlock, Tweddle,
for every medal earned,
we want school playing-fields returned.
Enough of the soundbite abstract nouns,
austerity, policy, legacy, of tightening metaphorical belts;
we got on our real bikes,
for we are Bradley Wiggins,
               side-burned, Mod, god;
we are Sir Chris Hoy,
Laura Trott, Victoria Pendleton, Kenny, Hindes,
Clancy, Burke, Kennaugh and Geraint Thomas,
               Olympian names.
We want more cycle lanes.
               Or we saddled our steed,
or we paddled our own canoe,
or we rowed in an eight or a four or a two;
our names, Glover and Stanning; Baillie and Stott;
Adlington, Ainslie, Wilson, Murray,
               Valegro (Dujardin's horse).
We saw what we did. We are Nicola Adams and Jade Jones,
bring on the fighting kids.
               We sense new weather.
We are on our marks. We are all in this together.

The Olympic Torch in Wembley

See the BBC video here LINK

 Wembley High Road 10.49 Wembley Park station 11.46 Forty Lane 11.47 (Chalkhill banners)

Championing the people of Barnhill ward

In response to requests from readers here is my leaflet for the Barnhill by-election:

If Brent Council can't keep our streets clean, what can they do?

Barnhill Road, near Lidl

Out and about leafleting and canvassing in the Preston Road area of Barnhill ward and on Chalkhill this morning it is clear that after library closures and general frustration over Brent Council's poor consultation record, dirty streets is a big issue. Street sweeping was cut last year LINK and when Brent Fightback organised a petition to get the cuts reinstated we were told that residents would not notice any difference,

'If they can't keep our streets clean, what use are they?' seems to be the general view. Of course the public are to blame for dumping rubbish in the first place but the council has an enforcement and a preventative role. On 'The Avenue' I spoke to one man who was using a litter picker to pick up cans, plastic bottles, vodka bottles and crisp packets from his front garden. They had all been discarded by people sitting on his garden wall waiting at the bus stop. He said he had repeatedly asked the council to install a rubbish bin there but to no avail. A simple solution.

On Chalkhill I was struck by the contrast between the cleanliness of common areas within the 'Science blocks' and the street. Metropolitan Housing Association and Pinnacle are clearly doing a good job. Outside as the pictures show Brent Council and Veolia are not:

'Flower beds' on Wembley ASDA's perimeter

The Chalkhill Park site

Chalkhill Road

Corner of Chalkhill Road and Bridge Road

On the Town Hall doorstep at King's Drive

The contract for waste management in Brent comes up for renewal in 2014 and should go out to tender soon. Will it be possible for the bidding contractors to meet the necessary standards of street cleanliness on the reduced budget Brent Council will give them?

Teather must stand up for Brent children

 

Brent children were involved in the Playbuilder consultation on playground improvements

Coalition cuts have again hit Brent children with Michael Gove's announcement of a stop on Playbuilder schemes for new and improved playgrounds. Sarah Teather, MP for Brent Central, will be under renewed pressure as Gove's cuts have already stopped building improvements in four Brent secondary schools, although articulating the Coalition's bias towards academies, he has announced that the Crest Academies building works will go ahead. Teather as 'Children's Minister' is having to defend the indefensible.

I declare an interest here.  I am passionately committed to enhancing children's opportunities for play.  Only one third of 7-14 year olds now play outside compared with 90% of their parents in their own childhoods. In our local election manifesto Brent Greens pledged a 'good local school and safe play facilities a for every child'. Play is vitally important for children's psychological, emotional, social and physical development.  I am a trustee of the Brent Play Association, a member of Play England, a governor of a primary school and run Brent School Without Walls which provides activities for children in Fryent Country Park.  I was one of the facilitators for the children's consultation which took children around Brent's play areas to put together ideas for the implementation of the government's Playbuilder scheme.  The enthusiasm of the children and the range of their ideas was absolutely amazing and inspiring.

All that is now threatened with the Department for Education's bland statement: "The coalition inherited unrealistic spending commitments for 2010-11. Play is important - but investment has to be affordable."

The council's Park Strategy makes it clear that the priority is to provide play facilities in areas where there are deficiences but one of the first areas to be hit is Harlesden and the Bramshill Road site. Two weeks ago I attended another consultation, this time at the Chalkhill Community Centre, where local residents put forward their ideas on play equipment for the new Chalkhill Park which is due toe be built on the old Chalkhill Health Centre site. Local people have already lost the Wembley Park  playing fields now occupied by the ARK Academy, will these cuts mean that they will lose their promised new park?