Today's Student and School Student Protest

Thanks to Harrow United for this footage

Parents force academy retreat

Parents at Kenmont Primary School are on their way to winning the battle to halt governors' plans to turn the school into an academy sponsored by ARK which runs the Wembley academy.  Following a vigorous campaign by parents a new strategy has been adopted by the governing body which includes recruiting a new headteacher and involving  parent governors.

One of the parent campaigners, Polly Iannaccone, said  "We were determined to defend our right to keep our school they way we want it, which is a true reflection of everything that is positive about state education, and as a fantastic example of harmonious multicultural community life in inner London. Hopefully now we have done just that."

Although Kenmont is in the borough of Hammersmith and Fulham it is close to the border with Brent and attended by many Brent children.

Join the Carnival of Resistance

Support the Save EMA Campaign

 

About EMA

The Education Maintenance Allowance (EMA) is a means-tested allowance of between £10 and £30, paid to 16- to 19-year-olds who stay on in education.

Rolled out nationally in September 2004, EMA is intended to help with the cost of books, travel, equipment or anything useful to the continuation of learning. It’s paid straight into the pupil’s bank account, not their parents or their college, giving them independence and forcing them to take charge of a small weekly budget. The payments are under the condition that they attend classes regularly. If the pupil works hard or achieves good grades, there is the opportunity to earn bonuses.


EMA is available to 16-19 year olds who come from low income families and whose household’s net income is below £30,000 pa. There is an additional grant for those students from families household income is up to and below £20,000 pa. EMA currently exists all across the UK although the administering of it is devolved to the regional parliaments of Scotland and Northern Ireland.

About Save EMA

The Save EMA campaign aims to:

• Get every party to be as clear as possible about where they stand on EMA;
• Get those parties who oppose EMA to change their policy;
• Give a voice to those students currently receiving EMA to enable them to express support for it;
• Increase awareness of EMA and its benefits.

Sign the Petition HERE

Note:  Next year sees the 100th anniversary of the 1911 Children's Strikes.  Further information (from the BBC) HERE 

Get REAL about climate change!

Tuesday 23 November 7.30pm

Willesden Green Library Centre 95 High Road NW10 2SF

(nearest tube, Willesden Green)

Speakers:

Jonathan Neale, Campaign against Climate Change, author One Million Climate Jobs Now!

Derek Wall, Green Party, author No Nonsense Guide to Green Politics

Nick Grant, National Executive, National Union of Teachers (pc)

Ann Hunter, Brent Lib-Dem Councillor

We must find ways for this project to continue

The temporary pool

Seb Coe's visit to the temporary swimming pool at Chalkhill Primary School was a great success with the pupils who excitedly showed him the pool and talked about how much they enjoyed having it at the school. Many have begun swimming as a result of the 10 lesson programme and the pool has also been used by the local community and neighbouring schools.

It was a shame then that the next day we read in the Evening Standard  that Chalkhill may be the last school to have the temporary pool - at least for the time being. The two pools in the six borough scheme are to be moth-balled because London Swimming needs to find £250,000 to receive match funding from City Hall's £15.5million Olympic Sports Fund. The former is a small amount amount shared between six boroughs so I hope Brent Council will be able to find a way to help the project continue.

HOW COMPREHENSIVE SPENDING REVIEW WILL HIT BRENT

The Comprehensive Spending review announced unprecedented spending cuts with local government being one of the hardest hit areas. The government has, in effect, outsourced responsibility for spending cuts to town halls.

The effect on jobs and services in Brent will be devastating.

The full extent of the cuts in Brent will not be properly known until December when the Local Government Grant is finalised and a more detailed analysis of the Comprehensive Spending review has been undertaken. However, I anticipate that some services currently taken for granted will simply disappear and services which councils are not required by law to provide will be shredded.

The cuts will cause real pain and anxiety for people who provide the services and those who receive them. Consultants KPMG and PriceWaterhouseCoopers have warned that many councils may cease to become financially viable faced with cuts of this scale.

I urge everyone – fight to defend jobs and services.

Phil O’Reilly, Brent UNISON

In defence of public libraries

I have been a member of a public library continuously since before I started school (in fact the old Kingsbury Library now replaced). When I move house joining  the library is the first thing I do once the electricity and gas are connected and the furniture in. As one of a large family with parents unable to give me a lot of attention, the library was in a sense my home educator, and librarians actually quite important in encouraging me to widen my reading tastes. Without a library I think I would have not progressed much educationally,

Currently I see queues of young and older people outside the Town Hall Library, waiting for it to open, not all just to keep warm but somewhere they can advance their education.  Library staff could probably tell you that young children use local libraries after school as a place to do their homework, but also an unofficial safe place to be picked up by their parents when they finish work.

 A lot of the youngsters on the Chalkhill Estate use the library, encouraged by the school and by class visits, and there is also a high usage of the internet there, for learning but also for job seeking. This is essential if we are to tackle the gap between those who have access and those who do not.  They are fortunate in being near a library not down for closure - although it will be less accessible when it is moved to the new Civic Centre.

However youngster who currently use Barham Park, Cricklewood, Neasden, Tokyngton, Kensal Rise and Preston libraries, all down for closure, will be less fortunate. The proposal for the remaining six libraries to be 'community hubs' with other council services located there does not  replace the local accessibility of these small libraries.

 Brent libraries are also the source of much cultural input including Black History Month events and other activities that bring a diverse community together including language and citizenship test classes. The Town Hall library is currently running a reading club for primary school children and others have homework clubs for children without access to books or computers at home. As the recession bites this will become even more important. 

As Greens local libraries are important to us because we believe in easily accessible community resources which do not  involve car trips.A local library is a place where children of 10 and over can easily walk to on their own rather than rely on lifts from parents - this encourages one area of independence in a landscape where children are more and more dependent on adults, with few opportunities for independent activity. Libraries even save paper, and therefore trees, through multiple lending of one book rather than individual purchases of many books - and the authors get a steady source of income, albeit it small, from public lending rights.