Islamia Primary School (VA) parents call on Brent Council to help them secure a permanent building

Islamia Primary School

Parents of Islamia Primary School in Brent have launched an on-line petition asking Brent Council to provide a permanent building for the school after 10 years in limbo. Parents say that the children's education suffers from an inadequate building with Key Stage 2 pupils having to cross the busy Salusbury Road four times a day to reach the annexe. They have seen other borough schools expand with new build and free schools set up and feel that their children's needs have been neglected.

The school was founded by Yusuf Islam (Cat Stevens before his conversion) with his own resources and after a long struggle became voluntary aided. It is known for the good results it achieves and is substantially over-subscribed.

The petition which is accessible on the Brent Council website HERE is reprinted below.

Support Permanent Building for Islamia Primary School VA (2 form entry)

We the undersigned petition the council to 1. Stop ignoring the needs of Islamia Primary School and its pupils. 2. Treat Islamia Primary School pupils, parents and staff fairly. 3. Secure Islamia Primary School with a permanent offsite building to house all its 420 pupils.

Context:

Islamia Primary School did Brent Council a huge favour by taking on all pupils from the Avenue School in 2007 and has made huge sacrifices over the past 10 years, operating under very difficult conditions.

21% of our pupils (90 pupils) continue to make four journeys a day across two busy roads to access the annexe building.

Due to the failed new build programme, a CDT room, art room, two additional classrooms, the kitchen and canteen were all demolished with nothing put in its place except a temporary marquee.

This arrangement has been in place for 10 years and our school has remained in limbo ever since.

The Facts:
Over the past 10 years, Brent has failed to adequately house 420 pupils from Islamia Primary School, whilst opening more and more schools and expanding almost every school in the borough.

1. Brent closed The Avenue School, 5-7 The Avenue, London, NW6 7YG, and transferred the pupils to Islamia Primary School in January 2007.

2. New £8 Million build was due to be completed by 2012 but did not happen due to delays from Brent and pressure from local group ‘We Love Queen’s Park’.

3. In 2012, a new 3 form entry school was proposed by Brent as part of the South Kilburn Regeneration project for a 2018 opening. This building has since been ear marked to house existing schools Kilburn Park Junior (2 form entry) and Carlton Vale Infant (2 form entry) and Nursery for a 2019/2020 opening.

4. Brent Staff Development centre (Gwenneth Rickus Building) closed in 2013 and was given to Leopold Primary School in 2015 for their expansion plan (840 pupils).

5. In February 2013, Brent council sold the Brent Town Hall building to The French Education Property Trust who transformed it into an international French school called the Lycée International de Londres Winston Churchill, which opened in September 2015.

6. New £8 Million build was revived and was due to be completed by 2016 but did not happen again due to unacceptable conditions placed on the Foundation, which included putting a cap on numbers for the Independent Girls Secondary School.

7. In 2013, Brent granted permission for a new free school (The Michaela Community School) to open at Arena House in North End Road (previously College of North West London Wembly Park Campus). It opened in September 2014 and will have 840 students by 2020.

8. In September 2014, Ark academy submitted a free school application to the Department for Education, to open a new 3 form entry primary academy in Wembley. Brent agreed for Ark to open Ark Somerville Primary Academy (2 form entry) on the car park of the York House to be opened in September 2019.

9. In September 2015, a new school (Kilburn Grange School) opened on the site of the newly refurbished state of the art College of North West London (Kilburn campus) on Priory Park Road, which was also temporarily shared with Marylebone Boys’ School (a free school from Westminster).

10. In September 2016, Brent Council granted Marylebone Boys’ School (a free school from Westminster) permission to demolish an existing nursery building to create a “purpose-built, modular” building on land at the junction between Brondesbury Park and Christchurch Avenue (480 students). The temporary building remained for two years until July 2018.

11. In July 2017, The Carlton Centre, Granville Road, Kilburn was advertised for a 5 year lease. Although Islamia Primary School made a formal bid, the property was given to the Penny Appeal charity for a non-school related community project.

12. Although Islamia Primary School has been using Winkworth Hall since 2007, it was informed by Brent in November 2018 that it could never purchase Winkworth Hall even if it was totally vacant.

13. In November 2018, Brent confirmed plans for a new 6 forms of entry secondary school to be built on the site of Chancel House, Neasden Lane. It will be a free school with Wembley High Technology College, an academy, as its sponsor

Sign the petition HERE

Princess Frederica debates the pros and cons of expansion

The Brent Executive this evening approved the plans for school expansion with the new  lead member for children and families, Michael Pavey, challenging the view (which is also my view) that very large primary schools are not beneficial to small children. Quoting his experience as Chair of Governors of Wembley Primary (an 840 pupil school) he said that he thought large schools were not necessarily cold and impersonal and could offer a warm, caring environment.  He thought large schools were good for Brent. Wembley Primary had a complete rebuild in extensive grounds to accommodate four forms of entry. Schools which are expanded by adding extra buildings often lose play space as a result as well as the space being used by additional numbers of children. Often the school hall is too small to accommodate all the children in assemblies or performances.

Coincidentally plans to increase the size of Princess Frederica Voluntary Aided Primary School by one form of entry (210 children) has provoked debate. .In order to address some of the concerns raised the school governing body has posted information for parents on the school's website LINK

There are briefings and Q&As as well as this statement from the Chair of Governors:

As many of you will be aware, we dedicated the March meeting of the governing body to the school expansion proposal and invited in parents/ carers and the public to express their views. This is because the governing body takes very seriously its responsibility to make a decision about the proposal to expand the school and wants to ensure that everyone has a voice.

Brent Council asked the Governing Body to agree to open a statutory consultation on expanding the school at the meeting on 21 March. We decided we did not have enough information proceed with such a consultation.

During April and May representatives from the governing body and school met with the Brent school expansion team. We discussed the key issues about expansion, as outlined on this page. Following this meeting, Brent LA have produced a detailed report about what expansion of Princess Frederica might look like.  The governing body will be meeting on Thursday 23rd May, 2013 to discuss this matter and decide whether we now have enough information to agree to a statutory consultation. It is very important to note that if we have a ‘yes’ vote, we are still not obliged to proceed. As a governing body we are committed to ensuring that our questions are answered before we say ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to expansion.

I would urge anyone with an interest – including those within the school, as well as neighbours – to make their views public on the website via the questions and comment function. Alternatively, you can email me at admin@princessfrederica.brent.sch.uk subject line: FAO Chair of Governors or drop a letter addressed to the governors into the office.

A Moss (Chair of Governors)

BRAVO! Caroline's concise amendment to the Queen's Speech

Line 5, at end add ‘but respectfully request that your Government recognise that its programme fails to address either the worsening climate crisis or that austerity is failing; call on your Government to heed warnings that urgent and radical cuts in emissions are needed to prevent global temperature rises of 4℃ or more by the end of the century; urge your Government to recognise that, to fulfil its own commitment to keep warming below 2 degrees, around 80 per cent of known fossil fuel reserves must stay in the ground; further call on your Government to end austerity and instead reduce the deficit through an economic programme that prioritises investment in jobs, especially in labour-intensive green sectors and that pursues a goal of 100 per cent renewable energy by 2050, with policies for rapid deployment of renewable energy and energy efficiency technologies; and further call on your Government to lift the council borrowing cap to promote council house building, to tackle the cost of public transport starting with bringing the railways back into public ownership, to end cuts to welfare and take other steps to build a resilient and stable economy.

Caroline Lucas, Brighton and Hove

Battle likely at Copland following critical Ofsted report

Following Ofsted's designation of Copland High School as Grade 4 Inadequate and requiring special measures battle lines are being drawn over the possibility that the DfE will attempt to force the school to become an academy.

Unions representing teaching staff are overwhelming in favour of industrial action against any such move. School support  staff have still to reach a decision but they are the group of workers most likely to suffer a deterioration in conditions of service on academisation.

There are reports that Ark Schools, already running the Ark Academy in Wembley and negotiating to take over Kensal Rise Primary, have their eyes on Copland which is the last remaining secondary school in Brent which is neither an academy or faith school. 

Copland governors are unlikely to favour Ark as a sponsor.

The views of parents are mentioned but only 11 parents completed the on-line Parent View and there are 1,487 pupils in the school.

The report LINK gives an Inadequate grade to achievement of pupils, quality of teaching and leadership  and management and a Requires Improvement grade to behaviour and safety of pupils. In summary it states:

Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector is of the opinion that this school requires special measures because it is failing to give its pupils an acceptable standard of education and the persons responsible for leading, managing or governing the school are not demonstrating the capacity to secure the necessary improvement in the school.

Ofsted acknowledge the difficulties the school has been through following the allegations of financial mismanagement against the previous headteacher, deputy head and other staff and terms it 'an extraordinary turbulence in leadership.'

Significant weaknesses in the quality of senior and middle management remain. A number of senior staff, subject leaders and pastoral managers are currently absent or subject to capability.

Other background factors have not helped the school including the scandal of its poor buildings:

The building remains in very poor condition. This was also reported in the 2006, 2009 and 2010 inspection reports. Some classrooms provide a completely unacceptable environment in which to teach and learn. The budget deficit has been reduced significantly over the past two years, but still stands at around £1 million. The reduction in student numbers has meant that further budget cuts are necessary. The building and the budget are adversely affecting the school’s capacity to provide an adequate education for students.

Significantly, apart from eliminating the budget deficit and action on the  building, the role of the local authority is scarcely mentioned.The local authority's response to the Ofsted report and any support and improvement plan it puts into place will be of vital importance in resisting forced academy status