Kilburn Times opposes privatisation of Brent education

Kilburn Times March 7th 2013

It was good to see the Kilburn Times focusing on the issue of privatisation of our schools on this week's front page.  Even more welcome was their editorial:

WHY WE MUST LIMIT NUMBER OF FREE SCHOOLS

This week education hit the headlines again as the Times reports on the startling number of free schools and academies in Wembley.

The government's education policy says that any group of individuals can set up a free school and subsequently set their own admissions policy and run their own curriculum.

Provided they get enough support from enough parents, a school can effectively pop up anywhere it likes, regardless of local provision.

This is exactly the situation currently unfolding in Wembley with two proposed free schools just a stone's throw from each other seeking to open their doors.

Control

Meanwhile less than a mile away the former (Brent) Town Hall site will be converted into an independent school.

Including the schools already in the area, one of which has chosen to adopt academy status, this could effectively result in five privately-run secondary schools all within a mile of each other.

With the increased funding they will get and their own unique way of running operations, the danger is that they will detract from the remaining (local) authority-run schools.

Brent Council has said it has no control over whether free schools and academies are built, but has told us it will work with those looking to set up schools to ensure the best outcome for parents, teachers and schools.

We hope this is the case and that education can still have a local voice and will not go the same way as the National Health Service, towards inevitable privatisation.

Cllr Powney courts controversy again

Parachute Games in what could become Willesden Town Square

Cllr James Powney has once again courted controversy with a comment on his blog. This time he turned his attention to the application to register the open space outside Willesden Green Library as a Town Square. A public inquiry by an independent inspector concluded some time ago and the inspector's report has taken longer than expected to be published. Some have concluded that it has not been such an open and shut case as Brent Council and the developer Galliford Try, who both opposed the application, expected.

Last  Sunday Cllr Powney wrote on his blog:

I am told that the report on a possible Town Green in front of Willesden Green Library Centre will take longer than anticipated.  There has always been a suspicion that the entire request is merely vexatious, and an attempt to delay the rebuild of Willesden Green Library Centre.  Certainly, the accounts I have heard of some of the testimony given at the enquiry would cohere with that notion.

To his credit Cllr Powney has published a number of trenchant comments on his 'merely vexatious' claim and they make lively reading. They can be read HERE

Residents were concerned that there was a problem of 'predetermination' around the planning application itself because Brent Council had instigated the redevelopment proposal and formed a partnership with Galliford Try/Linden Homes but was also the planning authority.  Now the question arises again as Brent Executive member Cllr Powney appears to be predetermining the outcome of the independent inquiry by suggesting that the application was vexatious. Brent Council makes the decision on whether to accept the inspector's report.

Sarah Teather to meet with parents over forced academies

Gladstone Park Primary School Parents Action Group is to meet with their local MP Sarah Teather to hear her report back on a meeting she has had with Michael Gove on the forced academies issue. Sarah Teather worked in Gove's department until her sacking at the last reshuffle.

When in opposition Teather was a vociferous opponent of Labour's academy programme but appeared to change her mind when she became a minister in the Coalition and took action to enable special schools to convert to academy status.

The latest strategy shift, in which Gove forces primary schools to convert to a sponsored academy after only one poor Ofsted result,  may be a policy that Teather finds repugnant. Certainly her democratic principles must be offended by the bullying nature of the 'brokers' who are charged by the DfE with the conversion process, the refusal to consult until AFTER governors have accepted a sponsor, and the failure to take account of the views of school staff and parents.  The most glaring issue is that the process does not at present allow any of the parties involved (staff, parents, governors) to reject forced academisation outright.

The meeting is public so I am sure if you are interested in the fundamental issues raised by forced academisation that you will be welcome to attend. It is expected that some of our Brent councillors will be attending.

TAX BANKERS - NOT BEDROOMS

Roke parents get DfE and Harris 'flustered' on forced academies as they take legal action

The Save Roke parent group, along with school governor, Malcolm Farquharson have instructed a lawyer specialising in academy law to prepare a legal challenge to the plans of Michael Gove to hand their primary school over to a private academy.

The group started fund raising on Tuesday and they received their target amount within 24 hours.

Roke campaigners believe that they may have a case in law to challenge the Secretary of State’s actions, which they believe have gone beyond his powers by referring the state primary school in Kenley to the
Harris Federation when the school is not a “failing” school and also on issues surrounding the legality of the consultation process.

Roke parents joined forced with parents from other protesting schools yesterday and issued a statement  in which they announced a new campaign organisation 'Parents Against Forced Academisation'. They called for an immediate public enquiry into bullying behaviour and fake consultations endemic in forced academisation of schools.

Yesterday evening, Roke parents received the first of several what they termed 'sham consultation' meetings run by the preferred academy sponsor the Harris Federation at the school. Parents received no representation from any other party and Lord Nash has already declared the decision irreversible.

The campaigners said:

After we announced our plans for legal action on our facebook group and the Save Roke website, and after the DfE received had complaints from Roke parents about the legality of the consultation process and the fact that parents had not even been asked if they wanted to become an academy on the official consultation questionnaire, the DfE and Harris last night moved pre-emptively, and issued a new consultation questionnaire with the question added. This suggests that the initial consultation document was not indeed not legal, and that we had got them flustered enough to move very quickly to close this legal loophole. This demonstrates that legal process has not been followed with due diligence by the DfE or Harris.

Lucas: Government must reverse brutal economic policies to avoid disastrous slump

Caroline Lucas, MP, a member of the Green New Deal Group [2], challenged conventional IEA (Institute of Economnic Affairs)  thinking on the economy today by urging the Government to increase employment to reduce the deficit - channelling investment into urgently needed green infrastructure.

At a working lunch at the IEA, Lucas said

With scant evidence of the kind of strong recovery expected after previous post-war recessions, it's time to admit that austerity in the UK has failed and that an alternative approach to reducing the deficit is needed.

SINCE 2010, CENTRAL BANKERS AND POLITICIANS HAVE PRESIDED OVER THE APPLICATION OF BRUTAL ECONOMIC POLICIES THAT HAVE IMPOVERISHED THE INNOCENT, ENRICHED GLOBAL FINANCIAL ELITES, AND EXACERBATED THE WORLDWIDE SLUMP.
 
In our 2009 report, 'The Cuts Won't Work [3]'_the Green New Deal Group set out what is now clear: that austerity and cuts in public spending during a slump - when private debt has grown to become 5 times the size of public debt - is completely delusional economics.

It is extraordinary that the government focuses so ferociously on public debt - which now stands at 70% of GDP - but turns a complete blind eye to private debt - now at 420% of GDP. A massive overhang of private bank debt goes a long way to explain why banks are not lending and why private sector investment is stalling.

The Group also predicted the 'triple crunch': a credit-fuelled financial crisis, combined with accelerating climate change and growing energy insecurity, which would "develop into a perfect storm, the like of which has not been seen since the Great Depression".

So it has come to pass - we're now in the sixth year of a widespread, international depression, with 2.5 million unemployed in the UK, many millions more under-employed, and youth unemployment at tragic levels.

The impacts of the climate crisis are becoming ever clearer, with 2012 going down in history as a year in which our weather spun out of control - and having carelessly assigned the nation's energy security to the invisible and unaccountable 'hand of the market', we face an insecure energy future with all the economic implications that brings.

A programme of productive investment financed by loans from the government's own nationalised bank - the Bank of England - is a crucial way to reduce the public debt, channelling public money into projects such as a comprehensive programme for retrofitting Britain's ancient housing stock, increasing our energy security and reducing bills.

THIS IS NOT INDISCRIMINATE SPENDING, BUT ‘TRANSITIONAL INVESTMENT’, WHERE ENERGY AND MATERIALS ARE FOCUSSED ON INVESTMENT IN INFRASTRUCTURE THAT WILL LEAD TO A REDUCTION OF DEMAND FOR THEM IN THE FUTURE.

A public works spending would succeed where traditional quantitative easing has failed - going straight to help employment and companies, and the projects which can add to national well-being, generating income through employment.

Caroline Lucas concluded:

Keynes argued and proved that such spending would pay for itself. The Government must now rise from its deep torpor, ditch its flawed economic orthodoxy and finally begin to undertake the level of public investment needed to reverse this disastrous slump.

 [1] http://www.iea.org.uk/
[2] http://www.greennewdealgroup.org/
[3] http://www.neweconomics.org/publications/cuts-wont-work
[4] http://www.carolinelucas.com

Roke Primary appeal to mount legal challenge against forced academy

BREAKING NEWS The Save Roke campaign has just launched an appeal via the Anti Academies Alliance website to raise funds to mount a legal challenge against the Department of Education. All donations no matter how large or small gratefully received. We have an initial target of £600. Thank you for your support!

This money will allow us to instruct leading lawyer, Laura Hughes to mount a case to fight off the DfE and forced academy at Roke. Laura has a reputation in the field of academy law. 

Follow this LINK to donate via PayPal

Brent's Chief Exec being paid through private company rather than payroll

 The Local Government Chronicle, following a Freedom of Information request,  has established that Christine Gilbert, Brent's Interim Chief Executive, is being paid via her private company rather than Brent Payroll. LINK

Christine Gilbert Associates will be paid £100,000 for 6 month's work.

Pressure on the BBC over similar arrangements for their staff led to a change of policy.