Performing for the Environment - Harlesden, Friday 27th September - workshops and performances

Brent-based voluntary organisation BTWSC is calling on local organisations, projects, and youths to get involved in The Environment & Performance Session event. This free community event, which takes place Friday September 27, 6.15-9.30pm at Tavistock Hall in Harlesden, is an opportunity for organisations to take a stall or the microphone to publicise what they do, whilst young people can either join a workshop to prepare performing the 'Look Around The Environment' song on stage with rapper/singer Kimba, or perform a family-friendly song in the open mic slot.

The event aims to repeat the nice community atmosphere generated at the July 1 International Reggae Day event at the same venue by bringing back lovers rock singer Melo D, reggae veteran Prince Jahkey and local gospel singer Patreecia, plus The Brent Factor will be singing their soon to be released anthem, and author Shaun Cain will conduct a reggae quiz.

Kimba will be performing songs from BTWSC's It's Cool To... environmental projects, which creatively engage young people with environmental issues, particularly recycling, littering and flytipping. Workshop participants can learn the song by watchingwww.bit.ly/LookAroundDraft (above) and Kimba's rap version at www.bit.ly/LATEKimba.

For more details, contact Awula Serwah, btwsc@hotmail.com, and to bookAfricanHistoryPlus.eventbrite.com.

Brent Council nows faces further strikes as well as Call-in Scrutiny over Roe Green Strathcona closure decision

Encouraged by the support of Brent councillors who, as reported first here, have called-in the Cabinet's decision to close Strathcona School for further scrutiny, determined NEU members voted unanimously today to resume their strikes.

In the background both groups have been heartened by the support of Barry Gardiner MP who write to Brent Council back in July opposing the proposed closure LINK. This is a key section of his letter:

If council officers had actively been trying to prepare a case for the closure of the school, these are precisely the measures they might have taken. First ensure nobody knows about the place and even when they live next door, refer them to another school. In fact the head teacher has said that she has several reports of prospective parents who asked for their child to come to the school actually being told by council officers that the roll at Strathcona is full and they can take no more children. I would ask that the cabinet investigate these allegations which, if true, represent a serious breach of trust on the part of public officials.

Of course much of this might be more understandable were the school underperforming. In fact despite all the problems it has experienced, Roe Green Strathcona School is an excellent School, with their first cohort of Year 6 students achieving progress in the top 3% of Schools in England this academic year. This is particularly remarkable when one considers the extent of mid year admissions. In the public meeting held at Roe Green Strathcona on 6^th June 2019, which was attended by local councillors, many parents testified to the quality of teaching and the quality of pastoral care that the school provides.

Just 3 years ago Council officers made an urgent recommendation that Roe Green Strathcona School become permanent by September 2016. They are now trying to persuade councillors that the school is not viable. What was then a saving is now said to be a financial drain on the council. What was then required to cope with the primary admissions crisis is now said to be part of an unnecessary and unsustainable surplus. What was then said to provide parental choice into the future is now having its very existence airbrushed from the Council admissions website.

Teachers and staff at the Roe Green School are rightly proud of the progress that has been made since the creation of the Strathcona school five years ago. In a borough where children had been out of formal education for many months, the School has added significant value to the educational development of every child that has entered its classrooms. They have served the council well. If the cabinet were to rubber stamp the proposal to launch a formal consultation for the closure of the Strathcona School site. I believe they would be betraying that service and acting arbitrarily.

Brent Council did launch a formal consultation. In over 300 responses only one supported closure but the Cabinet have gone ahead with closure plans.  Brent North's Labour Party MP is rightly holding his Labour colleagues in the Brent Cabinet to account.

For the NEU this is a much wider issue than just Brent. It is the first attempt at urban school closures since the 70s and 80s when falling school rolls led to school closures and amalgamations and indirectly to some of the super-sized schools that we see today. Brent Labour Council is setting a precedent that if successful, other councils may follow. This is why it is important to win this particular battle.

Strathcona closure decision called in for further scrutiny

The faces of parents, staff and pupils in my photograph above says it all about how they feel about the proposed closure of their much-loved school.

Now there is a little chink of light as a group of Labour councillors have called in the Cabinet's closure decision for further scrutiny.

Cllr Butt addressing a teacher and parent lob by in June

I attended the Cabinet meeting and it was clear that concerns about flaws in the officer's report were not addressed and the Lead Member in responding did no more than read out passages from the report. Cllr Butt's justification of the closure was rambling, incoherent and often irrelevant. LINK

This is an opportunity to move away from mere rubber-stamping and explore the issues involved in depth.

Guest Author Event at Preston Community Library on Tuesday September 17th

'Wembley Park' deny that they intend to install facial recognition cameras but restrict political leafleting

'Wembley Park' Ltd (how did they manage to take over the name of our neighbourhood?), estate managers for the Quintain development have emphatically denied rumours that they intend to install facial recognition on their estate around Wembley Stadium.

In response to an enquiry from Wembley Matters they said:

We do not operate cameras with facial recognition and have no intention of installing them.

This is good news as installation of facial recognition cameras in the Kings Cross development has been extremely contoversial both in terms of their intrusion into privacy but also because of their inaccuracy.

The issue does highlight how much of what was once public space has been privatised and access open to restrictions.

This was brought home to me last weekend when I was part of a Brent Green Party group leafleting for support for the Climate Strike on September 20th. We were giving out postcards about the strike to passersby on the space between Olympic Way and Wembley Library and were  approached by a 'Wembley Park' security guard who asked us for our licence or written permission to leaflet. When we said we had neither he asked us to move out of the area. We could only leaflet on the narrow pavement on Engineers Way. Later when we leafleted on the pedestrianised road (Boulevard) that leads from Engineers Way we were again told to move on.

Not only have they taken over our neighbourhood's name but also our freedom to interact on political matters with local people.

The security notices define what is prohibited on the estate but end with a catch-all statement that gives 'Wembley Park' total control of what happens in the area:

When we queried this with 'Wembley Park' they replied:

Like every well-managed estate, we ask anyone who wants to distribute leaflets in #WembleyPark to approach our estate team for approval and to obtain the appropriate licence from Brent Council.

We responded:

There was a lot of controversy over the Brent Council leafleting licensing scheme. It was agreed the leafleting for political purposes was exempt: https://wembleymatters.blogspot.com/2012/04/now-its-time-for-james-powney-to.html

Our leafleting was for political purposes as defined by Brent Council. We were encouraging support for the September 20th Climate Action

We believe that leafleting for political purposes is a 'civic freedom' and vital for a healthy democracy. We hope you and Brent Council agree.  https://wembleymatters.blogspot.com/2013/05/petiti

There has been no  further response from 'Wembley Park'.

Discover Roe Green Walled Garden at free Open Day today & learn about volunteering opportunities

The brilliant and hard working Barn Hill Conservation Group have their Open Day at their Roe Green Walled Garden today.

Apart from running the garden the volunteers do invaluable conservation work in Fryent Country Park. They also run other activites in the park. Like any such organisation they can always do with more volunteers. This is an opportunity for you to help preserve a valuable green space, get healthy outdoor exercise without the expense of going to a gymn, and meeting like-minded people.

See the Group's full programme below:

Brent to stand in solidarity with youth climate activists on September 20th - please join in

“This is not a single-generation job. It’s humanity’s job... Let’s all join together, with your neighbours, co-workers, friends, family and go out on to the streets to make your voices heard and make this a turning point in our history.” Greta Thunberg and 46 youth activists from the international school strike movement

Local environmental activists, including Friends of the Earth and Divest Brent; trade unionists, politicians and parents are planning to answer the call from Greta Thunberg and other youth activists  adults to support the global climate youth movement by assembling at Brent Civic Centre at 9.30am on Friday September 20th in a display of support and solidarity. There will be a wide range of speakers united in recognising the urgent need to address the climate emergency.

Brent Council has given permission for staff to join the rally for 30 minutes as long as they seek their manager's permission and there is minimal impact on service provision.
Brent recently adopted a motion declaring a Climate Emergency and is planning to set up a a Citizens' Panel on Climate in October,

Brent National Education Union is urging its members to take creative action on the day:

After the rally many activists and supporters will move on the Central London to join the youth strikers at Mill Bank:

Further information:

UK Student Climate Network

Campaign Against Climate Change

Friends of the Earth

'Change your body; change your mind; change your life' - Author event at Preston Community Library

By Kazuaki Obazaki; numbered limited edition shikishi card print

From Preston Community Library

 

GUEST AUTHOR EVENT AT PRESTON COMMUNITY LIBRARY

Tuesday 17 September 2019 at 7.30pm

Please join us for an evening with Julian Daizan Skinner Roshi, the first Englishman to go to Japan and become a Zen master in the rigorous Rinzai tradition, and artist and meditator Lazz. They will be talking about and reading from their new book, Rough Waking.

Daizan is also the teacher of Samantha Warrington, Preston Community Library's yoga and meditation teacher.

Rough Waking is a project to raise funds for and awareness of people who are homeless or in prison, and to provide them with yoga and meditation, under the motto:

CHANGE YOUR BODY; CHANGE YOUR MIND; CHANGE YOUR LIFE

Prize-winning photographer and meditator, Lazz, uses words and images and an intimate knowledge of homelessness to illustrate his path through brokenness to creativity.

Inspired by Zen Master Shinzan’s joke that Zen life combines prison and homelessness, “Autumn in the monastery and other poems,” by Julian Daizan Skinner depicts pains and joys arising through his three decades in the Zen world.

Zen artist Kazuaki Okazaki who, after 18 years incarceration on death row was executed last summer, contributes a sequence of images depicting a spiritual journey from lostness and wandering, through the intense confinement of Zen training, and then onwards into a new homelessness – a vastly expanded realm of liberation and service.

The whole book underscores the Zen emphasis on direct confrontation with reality and how for all of us that alone leads to liberation

-->