Sufra Foodbank Election Hustings, March 11th

From Sufra Foodbank and Kitchen

In the run up to the general election, we invite you to attend a hustings event for Brent Central on Wednesday 11 March 2015 from 6:45pm.

The event is hosted by Sufra NW London, in partnership with Mitchell Brook Primary School and St. Laurence’s Larder, and will provide an opportunity for local people, including those directly affected by food poverty, to challenge local candidates on policies affecting the future of the community.

Invited guests include:

Alan Mendoza (Conservatives)

Shahrar Ali (Green Party)

Dawn Butler (Labour Party)

Ibrahim Taguri (Liberal Democrats)

Venue: Mitchell Brook Primary School, Bridge Road, London, NW10 9BX

RSVP here.

"Heard it in the playground, not enough space!"

Mindful of current concerns about child obesity and the lack of outdoor play opportunities for children, I have been interested in how the current school expansions affected the play space available to children when at school. Following a Freedom of Information request I now have the figures which are tabulated below.

These show an overall reduction in the space (expressed in square metres) available per child after expansion. I have left out those for Mugas (Multi-use games areas) as these are likely to be used per class or after school activity, rather than shared. Clearly however access will be less because more classes will have to be timetabled to use it within the confines of the school day.

The amount of playground space available at break times and lunch times is of major concern. Recent research has shown that children use more energy then than when they take part in PE activities. The reduction in play space can be addressed by staggering break times so that different phases or year groups use the playground at different times, but this then reduces the time for their use for class games activities.

Over crowded playgrounds restrict the amount of space for 'tearing about' and using up surplus energy as well as increasing the number of collisions, bumps and scrapes. Competition for space, unless well supervised, can lead to more playground fights.

Mitchell Brook Primary has the additional resource of Gibbons Recreation Ground which it backs onto, but the other schools are less fortunate.


PLAY SPACE IN SCHOOLS SCHEDULED FOR EXPANSION (square metres to nearest 0.5)

FRYENT	Existing (420 pupils)	Per pupil	Proposed (840 pupils)	Per pupil after expansion
Habitat	262		310
Hard Play/Games Courts	2447	6.0	3325	4.0
Pitches/Soft Play	6714	16.0	4974	6.0
Muga	360		360
BARHAM	Existing (630 pupils)		Proposed (840 pupils)
Habitat	Playing field edge		Playing field edge
Hard Play/Games Courts	2501	4.0	3254	4.0
Pitches/Soft Play	4748	7.5	3713	4.5
Muga	254		254
MITCHELL BROOK	Existing (420 pupils)		Proposed (630 pupils)
Hard Play/Games Courts	3773	9.0	2738	4.5