Celebrate the life of Alf Filer

There will be a celebration of Alf's life on Saturday at the 'Tin Tabernacle' in Kilburn. Alf was a great Brent comrade and I am sad that I am unable to go as I will be at the Green Party's Conference in Sheffield. As a college lecturer and someone committed to education and social justice Alf would have been really pleased with the ESOL news reported below.

The celebration promises to be a memorable event and full details are HERE

ESOL REPRIEVE - more to fight for

The Dept of Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) led by minister John Hayes has reversed its decision to make cuts to funding which would have excluded up to 75% of adults on so called ‘inactive’ benefits.

This attack represented a huge threat to adult and further education affecting some of the poorest students in inner cities mainly from Black and minority ethnic backgrounds especially women who desperately want to learn English to support their children, find work, access education and play a full role in their communities.

This means most of the 250,000 adult places that were are risk this year can be saved and is an important victory for the Action for ESOL campaign.
The campaign included parliamentary lobbying by MPs, National Institute of Adult and Community Education (NIACE), the principals’ association (AoC), Refugee Council and the University and College Union (UCU). In addition colleges up and down the country held ESOL teach-ins and demonstrations which gave ESOL students a voice and exposed the hypocrisy of making some of the poorest people in society pay for a crisis not of their making. 

In London over 500 hundred ESOL students and teachers participated in a teach-out near Parliament and marched to Downing Street to hand in a 20,000 strong petition to Save ESOL.

 The u-turn means that the money is now there for ESOL. Colleges across the country have already begun to contact students who were turned away, asking them to come back and enrol for classes this year, refund students who had been charged fees, and some ESOL teachers who had been made redundant are being re-instated.

The reprieve is only for one year and the campaign still needs to fight for asylum seekers and those on working tax credit who have been excluded from the concessions.

This victory shows that campaigning together, ESOL students with the wider community and trade union movement, can work. Campaigners are now in a much stronger position to fight to defend ESOL and the eligibility changes planned for the coming year and the strength of the campaign can be used to go on the offensive to reverse the attacks on community Outreach provision, access to Adult Education and the defence of post-16 education. Is an important turning point in the campaign to defend ESOL and all Adult education and signals a way forward to address some of the frustration and inequality that people feel which fuelled the recent riots.

Thanks to the Education Activists Alliance for this  LINK

Academy strike vote at Kingsbury High but parents and community views to be sought

I understand that majority of NUT members at Kingsbury High School have voted  for strike action over the plans to become an academy.  However members are keen to wait to hear the views of parents and the community before going any further with their plans. They hope that a many as possible turn up to hear about the issues at the public meeting they have organised next week.

The meeting is at 7pm on Tuesday September 13th at the Father O'Callaghan Centre, 26 Hay Lane, Kingbury, NW9 ONG

What would YOU like to ask Caroline Lucas?

The Guardian's political correspondent is asking readers for questions to ask Caroline Lucas when he interviews her ahead of the Sheffield Conference.

Wembley Matters is read by many people who are not Green Party members so why not send your question in LINK

Will Wembley Central station improvements match the dream?

Present entrance to Bakerloo and London Overground platforms

The Harrow Observer LINK reports that £2.5m is to be spent on Wembley Central Station in time for the Olympics. Regular readers will know that I have blogged regularly about the sad state of this 'allotment shed' on the modernised Central Square.

The money is to be spent on much needed access for the disabled including two lifts and a stair lift and making the toilets accessible. Two platforms will be extended to enable longer London Overground trains to stop there.

However there is no mention of improving communication between the Southern platforms which serve East Croydon-Shepherds Bush-Watford Junction and Milton Keynes route and the Bakerloo and Overground lines. At present you have to exit the station to change trains.

Present entrance to Southern train platforms

The original plans for the station were shelved when the money ran out.  The picture below shows what the new station was supposed to look like when the Central Square development was finished.

The original plan back in 2008

Teather Avoids Accountability on NHS

Sarah Teather MP has refused to answer any questions from her Brent Central constituents on the NHS ahead of the critical vote on the Health and Social Care Bill on 7 September.

Letters to Teather are, according to her office,  'in a four week backlog which is growing daily'. Constituents  asking for a telephone conversation with the MP are told 'Sarah is too busy to speak with constituents on the phone or to meet in person this week'. Asked if there is a statement on the Health  and Social Care Bill by Teather her office advises that no such statement has been issued.

Commenting on this total silence by his MP, Graham Durham from Brent Fightback said:

The Health and Social Care Bill seeks to remove the duty on the government to ensure an NHS is in place and seeks to promote more private profit taking from the NHS. It has caused  huge concern to the BMA and all doctor and health professional organisations are opposed to it. Nowhere in the Coalition agreement or in the Liberal Democrat manifesto was this change suggested.

When she was elected as an MP Sarah Teather promised to be available to listen to constituents but she has now refused to even explain her position on this critical issue. The delay in responding to constituents by
letter is the worst of any MP representing our area in the last 30 years.

It seems the only way constituents can influence Teather before the vote is to attend the lobby of Parliament on  September 7th (meet St Thomas' hospital at 6.30pm) in the hope that Sarah might look out of the window.

Sign the e-petition to reverse street cleaning cuts

Kilburn High Road Protest Last Month

Following their protest against street cleansing cuts last month Brent Fightback has now launched an epetition calling for the cuts to be reversed. They are calling for residents of all politicla persusions and none to sign the petition by going to LINK or www.brent.gov.uk/epetitions

This is the petition:

We the undersigned petition the council to reverse the decision to cut street sweeping services and to retain the employment of properly trained street sweepers.

The proposed cuts in street cleaning will mean most residential streets will only be cleaned once a week (previously three times a week) and a reduced service on other streets including limits on weekend work. The ending of the seasonal leaf service will result in hazardous conditions for pedestrians as leaves rot and will open the council to compensation claims for injuries. Cuts in street cleaning will coincide with the introduction of fortnightly residual rubbish collections creating potential health and safety problems caused by excess litter.

Started by: Martin Francis (Brent Fightback)

This ePetition runs from 31/08/2011 to 23/09/2011.

5-50 signatures earns a considered response form the relevant council department, 50 or over is referred to chair of the relevant Overview and Scrutiny Committee, 2,500 or more the right to make a 5 minute presentation at  a public meeting of an  Overview and Scrutiny Committee and 5,000 or more a special meeting of the full Council..  So please get as many signatories as possible and pass on the message.

Kingsbury High Parents Urged to Seek Ballot as Staff Ballot for Strike Action

Why have Kingsbury staff voted against converting to a Gove Academy? Why have parents demanded a ballot? Come and discuss at a public meeting on Tuesday 13^th September at 7:00pm in the Father O'Callaghan Centre, Main Hall, 26 Hay Lane, London, NW9 0NG  

Dear Parents,

As you know at the Governors meeting on 14^th July governors voted for Kingsbury High to apply for academy status. This despite the fact that ...

è  84.5%, over 4/5^ths of staff opposed the idea and voted NO in an independently overseen secret ballot.

è   at two parents meetings the overwhelming majority of parents voiced outright opposition or serious concerns.

è   parents had not then (and still have not) had their own independently overseen ballot.

è   any extra money Kingsbury might receive if they became an academy would be taken from the budgets of other schools. Younger children of Kingsbury High parents could suffer in Brent feeder primaries, losing funding, resources and even staff.

è   any extra money provided would be temporary. Michael Gove has said “the government is clear that a school converting to an academy will not have a financial advantage or disadvantage”.

è   Councils have been granted leave for judicial review of the funding arrangements. Further, the Government is itself presently reviewing funding.

è   no business plan had been done or provided for stakeholders scrutiny.

 

è   the vast majority of Brent schools are not Academies and have no plans to become Academies.

      Further, the Headteacher deliberately withheld from the Governors the fact that the school had received formal notification that staff (reluctantly and as a last resort) would be balloted for strike action if Governors voted to apply. Staff are now in the process of being balloted for strike action

           The Headteacher may tell you that the staffs' only real objections are the loss of the requirement for                n         national pay and conditions, and it being part of the privatisation of the state education agenda. They

           are not. The prime concern of staff is the long-term harm this would do to the education of

           Kingsbury pupils.

      As you know the teaching and support staff at the school are dedicated and committed to providing the best education for the pupils at the school. They are clearly against academy status. There is no evidence to show that this school becoming an academy would raise educational standards.

This is a matter of democracy. Kingsbury High School is a community asset. Proper regard and due weight in deciding its future should be given to key stakeholders, including parents and indeed pupils.

NO FINAL DECISION HAS YET BEEN TAKEN. DEMAND A BALLOT AS STAFF WERE ALLOWED. MAKE YOUR COLLECTIVE VOICE HEARD.

Parents have set up their own action group. They can be contacted via khsaac@hotmail.co.uk

We are the staff's local professional association representatives. Please contact us if you have any questions.

            Hank Roberts hankr@hotmail.com      0208 961 2251 or 07762737306

            Shane Johnschwager johnschwager@hotmail.com  07734703072