‘I’m an Ark Academy apologist. Get me out of here!’

Copland staff  and parents underwhelmed by  ‘consultation’ process.  

Guest blog by 'Participatory Democracy'

Copland staff have always been a little sceptical about ‘consultation’, possibly since ex-Head Davies once announced to a full staff meeting (on applying for Trust status) : ‘the consultation period is over’, having omitted to do anything to indicate that it had ever actually begun. So when various Ark representatives, including the Ark Academy Head, Dame Delia Smith OBE, and IEB members fronted a ‘consultation’ meeting for Copland staff last Thursday, no one was expecting them to get a warm reception. And that’s exactly what they didn’t get. Still, as almost all the staff had only ever seen one member of the IEB before, it was, if nothing else,  a chance for them to get a glimpse of this year’s latest  new bosses. Or, as one ‘deleted’ teacher put it: ‘it’s always nice to be able to put a face to your redundancy notice’.

Five to go on to Labour's Brent Central ballot

Labour's Brent Central Parliamentary Selection Committee has chosen five candidates to go on to the ballot of members after today's interviews, according to my sources.

The selected contestants are said to be the four candidates who got most nominations from wards and affiliates: Dawn Butler, Sabina Khan, Zaffar van Kalwala and Parmijit Dhanda plus Dr Sundar Thava who as I reported via Twitter this morning has had a late surge of support.

This information has not been officially confirmed.

The ballot outcome will not be known until December.

Meanwhile Dawn Butler has tweeted her congratulations to Uma Kumaran followed her selection as Labour PPC for Harrow East.

Dinosaur and developer join protest against loss of Cricklewood green space

Demonstrators protesting against the possible loss of the green space outside B&Q in Cricklewood Lane in a deal between Barnet Council and the Brent Cross developers, coped quite well when they were joined by a dinosaur.

They were rather more surprised when they were joined by Jonathan Joseph, of Brent Cross Cricklewood Development Partners, and the man they have been battling since at least 2009.

Demonstrate tomorrow to save Cricklewood's only green space from developers

Outside B&Q :

Unit 1, Broadway Retail Park Cricklewood Lane Cricklewood, London LONDON NW2 

11am Saturday 
November 16th

Brent X Coalition LINK

Now Woodfield School consults on academy conversion

Woodfield School, a secondary special needs school in Kingsbury, Brent has announced that it is consulting on the possibility of converting to secondary status.

It would be the first special needs school to convert and the last of the local authority secondary schools to move to academy status.

The document below has sent out to interested parties and sets out the Governing Body's position:

The Governing Body of Woodfield School is exploring whether to convert to academy status. As part of this exploration, the Governors are seeking responses about whether to convert, especially the reasons for the views that are held. The responses will help inform Governors’ final decision.

Willesden's local harvest yields fruit, wine, cider, chutney and crumbles!

Photo: Jonathan Goldberg

Brent's fruit picking groups have had a bumper harvest this year, saving almost three tons of fruit that would otherwise go to waste in local gardens. The three groups, “Kensal to Kilburn Fruit Harvesters”, “Willesden Fruit Harvesters” and “Mapesbury Residents' Association” (MapRA) have between them picked a record amount of fruit, which has been shared with local schools and community groups.

Controversial school expansion plans bring accusations of skewed consultation

Princess Frederica Primary School, Kensal Rise

I have been reporting here for some time some of the controversies around school expansion: loss of play space, loss of additional rooms such as libraries and ICT suites for classroom conversion, and concerns that primary schools can become too big and lose the intimacy and family centredness valued by many parents.

Present government policy restricts local authorities' ability to build new schools where they are most needed so they instead expand existing schools to cope with increased demand.  The government argues that Free Schools can provide additional places but this is dependent on a provider setting up in an area of shortage and many actually set up where there are already enough places. In addition Free School are not democratically accountable through the local authority system and do not have to employ qualified staff.  They are also much more expensive to set up than a local authority school and thus deprive LAs of finance.

Barry Gardiner MP and Cllr Michael Pavey have both supported the campaign for local authorities to be given powers to plan and build new schools. Meanwhile the problem remains,

The proposed expansion of Princess Frederica Primary School has been particular controversial with parents raising concerns in a letter to the governing body as long ago as July.

Now a local parent and residents has written to MPs and councillors about his concerns over the way the consultation has been carried out and made a formal complaint to Brent Council:

Planning Committee upholds community use of Barham Park Library

 
Guest blog by Philip Grant

At Wednesday's (November 13th)  Brent Planning Committee meeting the Planning Officer's recommendation to grant permission for a change of use of the former Barham Park Library building from D1 (Community Use) to B1 (Business Use) was rejected by the committee, by 6 votes to 1 vote, with 3 abstentions.

The committee were not satisfied that there were grounds for over-riding Brent's Core Policy CP23, which states that 'existing community and cultural facilities that support community participation and development will be protected, or their loss mitigated where necessary.' The Planning Officer's recommendation had been based on a Community Facilities Assessment produced by an unidentified Council Officer, which claimed that there was no need or demand for the former library space as community facilities. This was based on the existing room at the Barham Park buildings which is available for short-term hire only being occupied for 11% of the time it was available (although this was at a time when before it was refurbished, and was not being actively "marketed" by Parks Service), and there being other community facilities in the area which could be hired anyway, such as church halls and school buildings.