Where next in fight against ConDem attacks?

Heads urged to support a good school for every child

The Anti Academies Alliance has sent this letter to every primary headteacher:

Dear Headteacher,

We know it has been another busy year in schools. Your dedication and hard work means the vast majority of our children continue to thrive.

We are writing to you because we know many of you are worried about the pressure to become an Academy.

There are good reasons to be concerned. Most Heads and Governors didn’t go into education expecting to be running a small business, yet that is what will be asked of you. And if the government have their way, education will become a ‘market’ in which schools have to compete. Academy conversion is yet another ‘top-down’, politically motivated reform.

We all know that the key to school improvement lies in improving the quality of teaching and learning. As the McKinsey Report (2007) put it

              “the quality of an education system cannot exceed the quality of its teachers”. 

There is nothing in academy status that guarantees better teaching and learning. Some academies have done very well. Others have not.

The offer of extra money is disingenuous at a time when over 1000 jobs are disappearing from education each week. For every school converting, others lose out. And at a time of national austerity, it is sickening to think that each of the 831 schools already given the go-ahead to convert is given £25,000 for legal and organisational costs. That’s over £20 million wasted on structural reform. How much one to one tuition could that have provided?

There are also increasing concerns about the process of conversion itself. In many cases this has been done without fair and proper consultation. This is not headteachers’ fault. The Academies Act is a travesty. However, the poor consultation process is threatening to divide the different stakeholders in education. Staff, parents and children often feel left out of the decision making process. The absence of argument against conversion means that it is often one sided. There are some cases where legal challenges are being pursued.

We believe that every school considering conversion should have a full, open and balanced debate. Unsurprisingly we are happy to provide speakers to put the case against! We would prefer to do this alongside someone putting the argument for. It is much healthier to have the debate.

We would also like to know if you are opposed to becoming an Academy. A recent ACSL survey suggested 10% were for, 20% were opposed and 70% of heads were undecided. Yet Department of Education press releases make it seem like every school wants to be an Academy. Please let us know your views.

We wish your school the very best for the future, and hope that you will continue to stand up for an education system that delivers a good local school for every child.

Yours Sincerely

Alasdair Smith
Anti Academies Alliance National Secretary

www.antiacademies.org.uk

Don't clog us up with more waste plants - Darren Johnson

In June Darren Johns, Green AM,  visited Pinkham Way in north London, the site of a proposed new waste plant and refuse lorry depot. With over a thousand vehicle movements (including many HGVs) a day, the proposed waste plant at Pinkham Way would make air pollution in the area even worse and affect the health of local residents and local schoolchildren. The roads are already some of the most congested in London and residents are right to be concerned about more lorries belching out more fumes. Even without any further traffic increases, a local air quality monitoring station has already recorded 20 bad air days this year and could exceed the legal annual limit of 35 bad air days.

Darren made clear to residents that while it is vital that we have new facilities in London to deal with waste, he does not believe that huge facilities of this size or type are the way forward or appropriate in congested urban areas or close to residential areas. He argued the North London Waste Authority should be putting far more emphasis on encouraging collection of doorstep recycling and food waste, rather than concentrating on large new plant for unsorted black bin waste such as this. 

Similar issues are raised by the proposals for more waste processing plants in Park Royal, the Careys plant in Neasden, and the incinerator planned for Brent Cross.

Just Do It: Direct Action - a Matter for Debate

Just Do It - a tale of modern-day outlaws 

PREVIEW plus Q&A with director Emily James 

Monday 4th July, 8:15pm, £5

The Lexi Cinema 194b Chamberlayne Road, London  NW10 3JU

“Rousing stuff” **** EMPIRE

“Smart, funny, adrenalised portrait of 21^st-century activism” Danny Leigh, The Guardian

This Monday Just Do It gets a very special PREVIEW screening at the Lexi Cinema in North London. Hosted by the Tipping Point Film Fund - one of the film's very first supporters - the screening will be followed by a bumper Q&A featuring director Emily James in conversation with the Tipping Point Film Fund. 

Tickets are a bargain at £5 so don't miss the chance to catch the film on the big screen before it comes to cinemas nationwide from 15th July. 

Click here to buy your tickets now!

Just Do It – a tale of modern-day outlaws

The world of environmental direct action has remained a secretive one, until now. Emily James spent over a year embedded in activist groups such as Climate Camp and Plane Stupid to document their clandestine activities. With unprecedented access, Just do It takes you on an astonishing journey behind the scenes of a community of people who refuse to sit back and allow the destruction of their world. Torpedoing the tired clichés of the environmental movement, Just Do It introduces you to a powerful cast of mischievous and inspiring characters who put their bodies in the way; they super-glue themselves to bank trading floors, blockade factories and attack coal power stations en-masse, despite the very real threat of arrest. Their adventures will entertain, illuminate and inspire.

Just Do It is in cinemas nationwide this Summer. Find a screening near you: www.justdoitfilm.com/screenings

Mainly young, mainly female and all determined to fight for their pensions

There was plenty of excitement in Wembley this morning and it was nothing to do with Take That's appearance at the Stadium over the next few days.  Striking teachers and other public sector workers thronged the Torch pub in preparation for the march and rally in Central London,  The mainly young and mainly female workers were often striking for the first time and there was no mistaking their fervour and commitment.

There were some brief speeches before the crowd boarded the tube for Central London and one of the key messages was that the strike was not just about pensions but about the whole  Coalition Government's assault on the welfare state. Gains that had been made as a result of the post-war settlement were under attack and had to be defended.

Brent Labour councillors Helga Gladbaum and Pat Harrison dropped by to offer their solidarity and ex-MP for Brent South, Dawn Butler mingled with the strikers. Shahrar Ali offered support from Brent Green Party.

'Lesson preparation' on the Torch's verandah

Waterloo Road's Grouch adds his support

Determined  teachers from Kensal Rise Primary in the front row

Brent NUT, ATL and Fightback marched together in unity

We will Rise

Caroline Lucas: "I'll be on the picket line tomorrow"

Commenting ahead of the public sector strikes across the country tomorrow, Brighton Pavilion MP and leader of the Green party of England and Wales, Caroline Lucas, said:

“Many teachers and other public sector workers have contacted me over the past week to express hope that striking wouldn't be necessary – that the Prime Minister would start taking their pension concerns seriously. Sadly the Coalition Government’s relentless attack on this country’s public servants has left them with no choice.

“We know that public sector pensions are affordable – this is really about piling the UK’s debt burden onto the people who did the least to create it. I believe that fair pensions are worth fighting for, so I will be joining the picket lines in solidarity with my constituents who have been abandoned by the other main Westminster parties. 

“This isn’'t something I do lightly. I regret the disruption caused by industrial action and think it must only be used in special circumstances – and would urge trade unions to work hard to ensure support from the wider public.

“Yet when teachers are being expected to pay 50% more in pension contributions, work longer and get less pension when they retire – and when negotiations are failing – targeted and considered action is clearly necessary.”