Why a retired headteacher and current governor supports today's teachers' strike

It is simple really: teachers have no choice but to strike if they are to stop education spiralling into a crisis that will damage thousands of children. A one day strike is inconvenient - Michael Gove and the Global Education Reform Movement is a catastrophe.

The DfE and Ofsted would have us believe that the quality of education our children receive is dependent on tough 'super' head teachers and their senior management teams following government diktat. It is not.

What is important is the quality of the teaching force, their creativity and their commitment. At a day to day level is is important that they should not be tired, frazzled, over-burdened with paperwork and fearful of the next monitoring visit.

Labour and now the Coalition have put the teaching force under incredible strain in terms of workload and have accompanied this by attacks on their professionalism and their conditions of service. Pensions have been cut and contributions increased, take home pay has declined 17% since 2010 and they are now expected to work until the age of 68.

Imagine for a moment  teaching a class of  lively 5 year olds as a 68 year old! The fact is that it will be a huge strain and  bad for teacher and child. Governors and parents must realise this is something they cannot countenance. Teachers will end up retiring early due to ill-health or will be subject to 'competency' procedures that will end their careers on a sad and sour note. 

Teachers are leaving the profession in increasing numbers with many young teachers giving up exhausted and frustrated after five years. Recruitment of headteachers is in crisis. Morale is plummeting.

The introduction of performance related pay will tie teachers ever closer to target driven lessons related to spurious data based on testing. 'Standards' may go up but in reality will reflect more 'teaching to the test'.

But worse is waiting in the wings. The employment of unqualified teachers by free schools and academies is a wedge that will be used to increase the employment of unqualified teachers in local authority schools faced by declining budgets. This deskilling and deprofessionalisation is no accident because corporations such as Murdoch (Gove's ex-employer) and Pearsons are on hand to supply schools with ipad based curriculum packages for individualised learning - much cheaper than teachers and supervised by low paid teaching assistants.

I respect teachers and have seen their commitment over the years and now in the schools where I am a governor. I am not surprised that the research shows that they work a 60 hour week to keep up with the planning and paperwork. I am impressed that despite this they find time to organise and supervise residential visits with children, organise sleepovers at the Science Museum, run afterschool clubs and fund raise at the School Fair.

Their commitment to children and their learning is immense but continually undermined by government interference and bullying and an inspection system that induces fear rather than positive partnership for improvement.

Support the teachers today for a better tomorrow for our children.

Brent to tackle violence against women and girls

The Brent Executive and public gallery were hushed last night by a powerful report on 'Tackling Violence against Women and Girls in Brent' presented by Cllr Ann John.

The report, commissioned by the Overview and Scrutiny Committee, was written by a cross-party Task Group consisting of Cllrs John, Harrison, Hunter and Kabir, and used a mixture of quantative and qualiative research methods into female genital mutilation (FGM), forced marriage (FM) and honour based violence (HBV).

Cllr John said that the language used to describe these issues had undergone a major change. It was not now seen as a matter of culture and tradition, but of human rights and the violent abuse of children.

Firm statistics are hard to find but those that do exist are likely to be an under estimate so the Task Group recommended a mapping exercise undertaken with partners and specialist charities to find the extent of the practices.

The Harmful Practices Strategy will develop services, improve the quality of recording, provide clear guidance for staff and public on reporting risk and referrals, set up a single point of contact for those affected and set out clear responsibilities for the Children's Safeguarding Board and the Safer Brent Partnership. The Assistant Chief Executive's Department will take overall responsibility.

A programme of community engagement will include awareness raising events, training for key staff from all relevant agencies and joint work with schools and colleges,

John took care to say that the various practices covered many communities including those from Nigeria, Somalia, Egypt, Middle East,Turkey, the Indian Sub-continent and Indonesia.  Very young girls could be 'cut' in FGM and she gave the example of an 11 year old girl of Kurdish Iranian origin who had set fire to herself to avoid forced marriage. She was in hospital for a long time and when she returned home was treated with derision as she had no marriage prospects. She walked out of her village when she was 13 and evetually ended up in the UK. She likes living here because 'nobody stares at me'.  Another girl who was raped as a teenager and forced to marry her rapist, is now free of that marriage in the UK and loves living here because she is safe.

It is important to recognise that groups in the various communities in Brent are challenging these practices as they are also being challenged in  countries of origin:

SOMALIS FIGHT FEMALE GENITAL MUTILATION from AU/UN IST News on Vimeo.

It was clear that school and college staff had a particular responsibility as they are in direct contact with young girls and may notice changes in behaviour, requests for a long holiday or absences from schools that may indicate a problem. As I said at training I attende don the issue it is also important that schools provide a trusted available adult for chidlren to confide in and space for those discussions to happen. Cllr John commended Islington's PSHE (Personal, Social and Health) curriculum and work going on at the College of North West London.

The report included a copy of Stonebridge Primary School's Safeguarding Policy as an example of a school taking up the issue effectively.

Leader of the Council, Muhammed Butt, who was chairing the meeting turned down a suggestion that the other members of the Task Group be allowed to speak in order to allow Executive contributions.

Executive member  Cllr Choudry said that it was important for communities to take up what was happening in their own ranks and not hide from the problems. Cllr Roxanne Mashari said that the report reinforced her belief that there should a a lead member for women's issues on the Executive to take a strategic view on such matters. She stated that recommendations were not enough, What was needed was an action plan with clear mile stones. There should be tangible actions aimed at schools with a high number of Somali children.

Cllr John said that there was a real awakening among Somali women who were very conscious that change was happening.

Assistant Director Ben Spinks will return with a plan for action in June 2014.

The Executive approved the recommendations.

Readers may find this NHS video on FGM useful: LINK

CID investigation of email fraud should delay Kensal Rise planning hearing

Brent Council leader Muhammed Butt this afternoon tweeted 'Glad to hear Kensal Rise Library consultation fraud case is being taken forward by Met police CID'.

This confirmation arrives after substantial pressure from residents that the case should not be dropped, despite Andrew Gillick, the Kensal Rise developer, reaching an agreement with the Friends of Kensal Rise Library over community space in the building.

As argued previously on this blog, in the light of the investigation and possible prosecution, the planning hearing for Mr Gillick's development should be postponed until the outcome is known. A statement from Christine Gilbert, Brent Council's Acting Chief Executive, is awaited following consultations with Andrew Donald, head of Regeneration and Planning and Cllr Ketan Sheth, chair of the planning committee.

Powney misses out on Mapesbury.

Labour's Mapesbury candidates with Dawn Butler

Cllr Colum Moloney has been selected to complete the list of  Labour  candidates for the Mapesbury ward in the forthcoming local elections. He currently represents the Stonebridge ward. Three male councillors, Moloney, James Powney and Abdi Aden  were amongst the four candidates fighting for the position

Kensal Rise campaigners celebrate but reservations remain

The agreement between the Friends of  Kensal Rise Library and All Souls College and Andrew Gillick of Kensal Properties Ltd has been widely welcomed as it provides D1 space for a community library in exchange for support for that aspect of the developer's planning application. LINK

Clearly to have got this far is a tremendous achievement for a campaign that has kept going through thick and thin, including dawn raids by both Brent Council and the developers and the demolition of the pop up library.

The main fly in the ointment is that police investigations into alleged fraudulent emails has still not been concluded. As the outcome of the investigation is not yet known, and criminal proceedings against persons yet unknown are possible, it seems clear to many that the planning application should not be heard until the matters is cleared up once for all. It would be a disaster if the planning application, incorporating the community space agreement,  was heard and was successful, only to be thrown into doubt by court proceedings.

The alleged fraud was perpetrated not just against Brent Council and the planning department, but also against those whose identities were stolen or hijacked. The question remains: who stood to benefit?

Other reservations voiced over Twitter during the afternoon concerned thecommunity library being accessed via a door cut into a chimney flue, rather than the main building door and the amount of main space used as a circulation area restricting flexibility of use. There was also worry that the agreement is far from watertight with the developer treating the Friends of Kensal Rise Library as preferred tenant for a limited period only.

The campaign wll continue until a satisfactory outcome is safely in the bag.

Harrow College students on the path to sustainability

With students at Harrow College today

I was very pleased to be invited to Harrow College (Harrow Weald Campus) as a Green Party guest for their Sustainability Week today.

There were stalls on energy saving, bee keeping, water conservation, the wildlife area, recycling and People and Planet. I was particularly impressed by the work staff and students from the SLDD (Students with Learning Difficulties and Disabilities) were undertaking creating a pond, wild flower meadow and insect and mammal habitats.  The students were selling some of their potted plants as Mother's Day presents to help raise money for their project.

Inside the Poly Tunnel

The Poly Tunnel pond had tadpoles already with growth hastened by the heat

Students have painted a Hockney style mural on the container in the wildlife area to blend with the surroundings

Log piles provide habitats for insects and small mammals

Creating habitats from recycled materials

A competition win enabled the college to install a 12ft pond with stduents doing the digging out

Students at their stall

I left Harrow College feeling that from small beginnings something very special, environmentally and educationally, was being achieved. It was a privilege to visit. 

I hope the muntjac let the plants grow!

Willesden Green bus stop re-opens today

Brent Council has acted commendably quickly following resident complaints about the closure of the bus stop at Willesden Green.

They wrote to residents and and councillors stating:

We have received a number of complaints about the closure of the 52/302 bus stop at Willesden Green Library.

 

We’ve spoken to TfL and they have informed us that there were overrunning utilities works that were obstructing stop access. They therefore closed the stop temporarily whilst the works were being completed.

I have been informed that the stop will be re-opened later today.

 

Apologies for any inconvenience that this has caused.

Brent turns to academies and free schools to help solve school places crisis

As the video above shows the Green Party and Brent Council are united in the demand that local authorities should be given back the right to build their own new schools in areas of need.  The current Coalition requirement that bans any such new build and instead states any new schools should be academies or free schools is based on furthering the Coalition's privatisation agenda.

It has meant that local authorities have to rely on free schools or academies setting up in areas of need to provide extra places, rather than being able to plan new schools themselves. T address the places shortage Brent has resorted to bulge classes in existing schools (an extra class for one year group that then moves through the school as a 'bulge'), fitting more children into an exisiting building with subsequent loss of shared rooms such as libraries and IT suites, addditional building on the site-often reducing play space, or 'satellites' - use of buildings some distance from the existing school that come under the management of the parent school.

These solutions can sometimes work but I am concerned that they may also be storing up problems for the future in terms of overcrowded school sites, lack of play space, and over-large primary schools catering for more than 1,000 primary age pupils. When satellites are beyond walking distance from the main school it becomes difficult, if not impossible, to include all children in the special events that build a shared ethos and sense of community.

The Brent Executive will tonight consider going out to consultation on a new school places strategy  that includes the above actions but also advocates working with free school and academy providers. At a time when the DfE has barred 14 academy chains from taking on more schools because of their inadequacies LINK and there has been a furore over restraint of children at a Harris academy in Haringey LINK that approach will need very careful consideration.

The desperation of Katharine Birbalsingh's Michaela Free School revealed by it advertising in a fried chicken shop window in Bridge Road, Wembley Park, does not indicate that free schools are what parents want for their children.

The Executive document states:

Working with preferred promoters to open free schools is a means of reducing the call on council capital spend since the Education Funding Agency  will meet the cost of construction. The council’s Executive agreed in August 2012 a set of criteria for working with a free school partner. These are attached as Appendix 4. Where a site is identified as available and appropriate for a new school, a suitable promoter for a free school could be selected, using the criteria and an informal selection process used. This approach has been used in a number of London authorities, including Ealing, and can be used for the site which is definitely coming on stream in Brent, namely the Oriental City site.

 It is less clear on the academies route:

The academy presumption route whereby the council would put forward a school proposal which it could advertise and promote to potential academy sponsors. Under this route, the council would supply the site and use its own capital to build the school.

This becomes a strategy:

We should develop local capacity to sponsor or promote new schools, working with academies in the primary sector

 In the light of problems surfacing in academies and free schools this would mean the council providing the site and the cash for the building and then handing it over to a trust, charity or private company with no further control or oversight.

Obviously this is not  problem of the council's own making but the document does seem to make a virtue out of necessity, brushing over some of the issues I have discussed. In reality some school governing bodies have found themselves considering options for expansion or satellites that may provide extra places but could also impact on the quality of provision and education of chidlren currently in the school. Some have rejected requests to expand on this basis.

The report notes:

In respect of community schools only (so not for academies, foundation or voluntary aided schools), the local authority has the power to instruct schools to expand. This is not a power that this local authority has exercised hitherto

Ironically, if it were to use such a power, the council may find local authoirty schools converting to academy status in order to avoid what they see as damaging expansion.

The council lists a number of principles and then 21 strategies:

• All Brent schools should be good or outstanding

• All Brent schools should be part of a ‘family of schools’ which promotes resilience, mutual support and improvement

• The council and schools should work together to meet the challenge of providing sufficient school places

• Schools should operate in good quality, safe premises

• Children should be educated close to home

• Schools should work with their local communities

• Meeting the needs of children with special educational needs and disabilities should be central to our vision for education in Brent

• We should make efficient use of resources

Principle 1: We should only undertake expansions with good or outstanding schools where leadership is secure.

Principle 2: We should promote federations between primary schools, both to address quality issues and to address the future viability of one form of entry schools

Principle 3: We should actively consider two-site schools and 5FE schools and 5FE schools where there is leadership and management capacity

Principle 4: We should develop local capacity to sponsor or promote new schools, working with academies in the primary sector

Principle 5: We should work towards the amalgamation of separate infants and junior schools

Principle 6: We should not currently seek to develop more all-through schools

Principle 7: The local authority should establish a joint body with schools which oversees school place planning and school organisation, monitors the impact of the plans and programmes and makes recommendations to the council, diocese or DfE.

Principle 8: We should expect expanded and re-structured schools generally to meet government guidance on space standards but be prepared to consider innovative design solutions to achieve this.

Principle 9: We should seek to minimise disruption to schools during expansion and support school leaders to manage the challenges.

Principle 10: We should continue planning primary places using planning areas.

Principle 11: We should consider expanding voluntary aided schools where there is local Brent demand, working with the relevant partners.

Principle 12: We should continue planning secondary school places on a borough wide basis, with analysis of how admissions policies can be used to maximise choice and intake to Brent schools

Principle 13: We should consider how community benefits from school facilities can be maximised when we expand or build new schools

Principle 14: We should consult with local communities as part of the planning process to minimise/mitigate the impact of new school developments.

Principle 15: We should build inclusive provision into expansion and new school proposals

Principle 16: We should improve accessibility for all pupils, ensuring that all our secondary schools are physically accessible.

Principle 17: After assessing educational suitability, schemes for expansion

or new schools should be judged in terms of value for money and deliverability

Principle 18: We should identify potential sites for new schools where there is no capital cost of acquisition on the basis of suitability and location

Principle 19: Where a site is identified, we should seek a partner who could apply to the DfE under the free school route, using the criteria already agreed by the council

Principle 20: We should explicitly adopt the DfE recommended 5% surplus places to enable choice and to reduce the need for temporary accommodation

Principle 21: We should be ready with contingency plans for temporary accommodation, given the population fluctuations in Brent.

The problems outlined in this article makes it even more urgent to put on as much pressure as possible for loacal authorities to be given back the power to plan and build new schools. They are best placed to know the needs of the local area and have the resources to plan on a rational basis.