Paralympic Torch Relay at Willesden Sports Centre

Plenty turned out despite the early start. In the end it was two hours late so additional people got to see it.

Brent Labour backs Central Middlesex campaign

Following a meeting between Cllr Krupesh Hirani and Cllr Muhammed Butt last weekend  three Brent NHS campaigners last week, Cllr James Denselow, Brent Labour Party's Communications Officer, has published the following statement:

Brent Labour fighting against the closure of Central Middlesex Accident and Emergency (A&E) services

Brent Labour Party has given its full support to the campaign against the Coalitions disgraceful plans. Labour Cllrs condemned the plans in the Council Chamber and have been working with campaigners to raise awareness of the issue. Both Cllr Butt and Cllr Hirani will address the march against the closures on 15^th September.

However, the reason Brent has been unable to run a Council backed campaign against the closures is because unlike in Ealing, there is not cross party support for the campaign. Both the Lib Dems and Conservatives in Brent have refused to criticise the plans put forward by their own Government.

Cllrs from both parties should get behind the campaign so we can fight the plans as a united Borough.

List of action being taken:

1.       Motion passed but only with support from Brent Labour

2.       Letter to Secretary of State Andrew Lansley MP to come

3.       We are out on the doorstep every single weekend in Brent talking to residents on this issue

4.       Online poll has been set up http://krupesh4brent.com/2012/08/20/poll-on-central-middlesex-hospital-ae/

5.       We are meeting with campaigners

6.       Council will be responding to the consultation through scrutiny

7.       Brent Labour will be at the march

8.       Difficult case to use taxpayer resources for a campaign in cases where we do not have cross party agreement – that is why we the Brent Labour Party will be campaigning on this issue without taxpayer resources

Gove's Olympic legacy in a nutshell

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.

Alf Filer's killer jailed for drunk driving

Alf with  students defending  the Harrow Mosque from the EDL in 2009

 The man responsible for the death of Alf Filer,  local activist in Brent, member of Brent Fightback and a lecturer at Harrow College before he moved to Worthing, has been jailed for drunk driving. Alf is greatly missed and often crops up in our conversations. If he was still alive he would be in the forefront of the current battles against cuts and austerity.

Here is the item as carried by the BBC:

A drink-driver has been jailed for six years for killing a man who was standing by his broken down car in East Sussex.

Joseph Lavelle, 36, of Worthing, West Sussex was two-and-a-half times over the drink-drive limit when he hit Alf Filer, 58, on the A27 in Hangleton. 

He was jailed at Lewes Crown Court having admitted death by careless driving under the influence of alcohol.

The painter was also banned from driving for five years, police said. 

Mr Filer, also from Worthing, died at the scene on 23 June last year.

The political activist and former lecturer had only moved into the area from London in the past year.

Sgt Neil Walker, from Sussex Police, said: "This is another tragic example of the way in which drink-driving wrecks lives. This terrible incident has robbed a family and the community of a well-respected and much-loved man."

Kids needed to promote the outdoors

Using the sense of touch to get to know a tree in Fryent Country Park

Seeing the reaction of children when they visit Brent School Without Walls LINK with me in Fryent Country Park and have the chance to run through meadows, build shelters, pond dip and bug hunt, always reminds me of the importance of such experiences.  Often children seen as behaviour problems in school surprise their teachers by their engagement and on one occasion that I remember a child who was an elective mute in class chattered happily about what she was doing.

Now there's an opportunity for children themselves to find ways of encouraging more children to make use of the outdoors.

A group of advisors – made up entirely of children – is being recruited by the National Trust to provide advice on how to encourage more of the nation’s children outdoors. The idea follows the charity’s recent Natural Childhood Report of 50 things to do before the age of 11¾ campaign. It shows the Trust stepping up its game in encouraging children to explore the outdoors and to experience nature at first hand.

The National Trust is looking to sign up ten children aged between seven and twelve to the council where they are to take up an important role in developing the charity’s outdoor campaigns as well as making their properties more fun for younger children.

The perfect candidate will be brimming with enthusiasm and fun, plus having a natural love for the outdoors and fresh air. Potential applicants are also required to have an adventurous spirit and a wild imagination. A fondness for rolling down hills or jumping in muddy puddles would be considered a bonus.

 Offering children the chance to try out the National Trust and to gain inspiration on what might be improved, if appointed to the Kids’ Council, the Trust has opened up its doors to children for free during the whole month of August. Over 200 places are be free of charge to children, giving the opportunity to explore National Trust properties across the country.

Successful applicants to the council will be announced later in the year. These children will be offered free year-long access to places for themselves and their family. Canoeing, surfing and camping will be part of the winning prize to offer kids and their families access to the full range of the National Trust properties.

The Kids’ Council will meet throughout 2013 and will report its findings to the National Trust’s Visitor Experience Director so that suggestions can be put into practice, helping make the outdoors more fun for the nation’s kids.

The application process closes on 7^th September 2012. Application forms can be downloaded from the website at www.nationaltrust.org.uk/kidscouncil and sent back via email or handed in at National Trust properties.

Tony Berry, Visitor Experience Director of the National Trust, comments: 

We are really committed to helping kids enjoy the great outdoors and we want to make our places the most fun and family-friendly day out destinations in the UK.  I’m really excited that our new Kids’ Council will help us do just that. Our Kids go Free promotion for the entire month of August will not only give kids and their families the chance to go out and explore, but hopefully inspire them to apply for our Kids’ Council and so let is know what we can do better in future.

November review for Dog Control Orders

I understand that there will be a review of  Brent Council's Dog Control Orders in November, 6 month's after implementation (rather than six month's after the policy was approved which seems fair enough)..  Paul Hutchinson of the Sports and Parks Service  wrote to Barn Hill Residents Association

We agreed to a review of the orders,(six months after implementation) which will take place November this year. This will give us the chance to look at whether we think that 6 dogs is still problematic and seek to change this to 4 if we wish.

We are currently working with Brent’s legal team on how best to implement the orders and whether we should give fixed penalty notices or address the issue of repeat offence through the courts. (I have attached a copy of the actual orders that were agreed by the executive for the purpose of clarity)

It would be fair to say that the implementation is proving difficult with current staffing resources, but we are targeting the problem sites and hope by doing this we can solve the problem. I understand that the ‘Control’ notices at Fryent Country park are being taken down by the dog walkers and that the Parks staff will continue to erect them where necessary.

I can only agree that the idea of large packs of dogs roaming our open spaces is not what we would like to see, and I can fully understand that it certainly does spoil some peoples enjoyment of our local open spaces and Parks. I would like to assure you that we are doing all we can to minimise the problem.

 As I pointed out at the Executive the current orders leaves a loophole where two people walking together can still have up to 12 dogs between them which means that the problem of a large pack remains. I suggest that a simple amendment along the lines of 'The number of dogs being walked together by one or more persons should never exceed six (or 8)' would deal with the problem.

Teather fails to support battle for Central Middlesex A&E

Cllr Krupesh Hirani, Brent Executive member and lead member for Health and Social Care, has tweeted that he door-stepped Sarah Teather MP today with the petition to save Central Middlesex A&E.

He says she refused to sign.