'This is a coup' - Caroline Lucas on Greece

Caroline Lucas, Green MP, has labelled the situation in Greece as a ‘coup’.

She said:

“The oldest democracy in the world has been subjected to a coup. Over the course of just a few days the Greek Parliament is being forced to rush through emergency legislation to cut pensions, raise taxes and privatise swathes of the economy – without any time for genuine debate. The forces of darkness – the IMF, the Eurozone and the ECB – are subjecting an already deeply impoverished country to further needless cruelty. National sovereignty has, in effect, been suspended.

“A credible solution to Greece’s woes exists: European countries should come together to discuss ways to cancel at least some of the debt. It’s been done before – when Germany’s debts were cancelled after World War Two – and it should be done again.

“These are dark days for anyone who believes in democracy. The will of a nation has been superseded in favour of relentless, economically illiterate and socially destructive austerity. It’s time that politicians here in Britain, no matter where they stand on the economics of the Greek situation, take a stand for the simple right of a nation to manage its own affairs.”

One minute pitches from each of the Green London Mayor candidates

At the end of Saturday;s Hustings at Birkbeck College, each of the contenders for the Green Party's nomination for the London Mayor Election 2016 were able to sum up their pitch in one minute.

Green Party Mayoral candidates on Communication and Credibility

At yesterday's hustings Green Party candidates for the party's London Mayor nomination were asked how they would improve the Green Party's credibility and communication. They had just one minute to answer.

Green Party candidates for London Mayor speak out on the housing crisis

With council and social housing tenants fighting back against developer led regeneration schemes that will deprive them of their homes, families being shipped out of London and private landlords ripping off tenants, housing is likely to be a big issue in the forthcoming London Mayor and GLA elections.

Candidates were asked for their views at the London Green Party Mayoral Hustings at Birkbeck College today:

Brent Council: Does mere data gathering justify race equality award?

Nan Tewari has been following up the issue of Brent Council reaching the finals of the Race for Opportunity Award. This correspondence tells the story:

Dear Nan

Thank you for your phone call last week regarding Brent Council.

Our award categories are designed to celebrate and spotlight specific areas of best practice. The Transparency, Monitoring & Action Award specifically recognises best practice of the capture of ethnicity data within an organisation. It recognises organisations that are monitoring and evaluating the attraction, recruitment, progression, development, employee engagement, appraisal/performance ratings and retention of BAME employee in their workplace. We have this award because we believe that monitoring workforce data by ethnicity is one of the first and most important steps an employer can take towards understanding gaps in their workforce and improving diversity. 

We assess award entries against the criteria of the category being entered and this assessment is based on the information provided in the award application. Brent Council entered The Transparency, Monitoring & Action Award and their entry was scored in line with the award category criteria, and the entry met the requirements to be named as a finalist in this category.

All judging (our judging panels include external independent experts) has taken place and the winners will be announced at the dinner in October.  

Best wishes

Sandra

Sandra Kerr OBE

Race Equality Director

BITC

Dear Sandra,

I appreciate the time you have taken to reply and do not intend to take up your time with a protracted correspondence as this would be pointless.  I do however have some comments.

The mere exercise of data gathering does not confer equal opportunities status on an employer.  Brent has gone from being an Authority with significant BME representation in its management ranks to being the metaphorical pint of Guiness, notwithstanding the diversity of its population.

I have worked with many bodies that had been reluctant to change their ways of working on my recommendation citing that it would be contrary to their long established equal opportunity policies.    When I pointed out that the body in question notably lacked diversity in its ranks despite years of following these so-called equality policies, the light dawned and willingness to change followed.

I would respectfully suggest that your organisation could achieve much more by challenging monitoring and policy to actually deliver change, rather than to being ends in themselves.  Providing comfort to Brent Council by making an award to it (bad enough that it is one of two finalists!) would run completely counter to what BITC is supposed to stand for.

In the event that you are not familiar with the background to the uproar over ths issue by Brent residents and staff, I attach a couple of links for your information.  It is utterly unspeakable that Brent Council made no move to initiate disciplinary proceedings against its HR Director, Cara Davani, in the light of the Watford Employment Tribunal having found against her for race discrimination and victimisation.  No amount of statistical monitoring of diversity can eliminate the contempt which Brent Council has shown to its workforce by its having left this very HR DIrector in charge of a redundancy programme involving large numbers of (non-management grade) BME staff.    

WEMBLEY MATTERS: Tribunal finds employee suffered race discrimination, victimisation and constructive dismissal at hands of Brent Council

				WEMBLEY MATTERS: Tribunal finds employee suffered... The Employment Tribunals has announced its judgment in the case of Rosemary Clarke versus the London Borough of Brent and Ms Cara Davani, Brent's Director of...
				View on wembleymatters.blo...	Preview by Yahoo

WEMBLEY MATTERS: Brent Council Race Equality Award condemned

				WEMBLEY MATTERS: Brent Council Race Equality Awar... Following yesterday's revelation that Brent Council was a finalist for a Race for Opportunity award the organisation has received messages from local people about t...
				View on wembleymatters.blo...	Preview by Yahoo

 

Yours sincerely,

Nan Tewari

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Crest Academies to go co-educational from September

Crest Academies confirmed this morning that classes will be mixed gender from September. There was some confusion because the school website had an undated posting that said that although the staff of the hitherto separate Girls' and Boys' Academies will be united, girls and boys would contionue to be taught in separate classes.

The school will be updating that posting to reflect the decision to move to mixed classes.

The decision is controversial as some parents chose  the school originally because they were separate single sex schools.

There is a petition on Change.Org against the decision LINK. It states:

In June 2015, parents were informed of a proposal to fully implement and deliver mixed-gender education. The school leadership has not provided any conclusive evidence that a mixed school would better perform and provide equality for all.

Parents are highly concerned and are openly seeking to resist this draconian measure in the school’s delivery of learning and teaching.

 As the petitioner and as a Crest Academy parent I urge you to sign this petition in support of the above facts and information. As parents we have the right to exercise choice for our children, however, in this instance we have not consented to any changes nor been fairly consulted.

The London Borough of Brent’s schools are already impoverished and heavily oversubscribed.

 In final summation, oppose the plans of The Crest Academies (managed by E-ACT) for the following compelling reasons:

1. Sign, say ‘no’ and stand against the imposition of our school becoming a mixed-gender school
2. Sign, support us and show your dissatisfaction with such a short time to consult, in contrast to two months of consultation in 2013/4
3. Sign, share and speak the truth that we do not have a comparable girls’ or boys’ school in Brent for our children
4. Sign, stand together and support all the poorly served and let down children who have no choice or a voice
*Crest Newsletter - Edition 5 (published in year 2013-2014)

Phil Hearne, Executive Principal CONSULTATION RESULTS

“The formal consultation ran from 25 November 2013 to 24 January 2014, and an overwhelming 80% of those responding said they support the continuation of single-sex education. One of the issues that has concerned people though is whether girls and boys will mix. They will not: both classes and social time will continue to be single gender at all times.

The changes we are making are all about making the Crest Academies the very best single-sex school in the area. We want Crest to be the school of choice for any parent who values girls and boys being taught separately. This is something that both I and the Board of Governors are extremely passionate about Crest to be the school of choice for any parent who values girls and boys being taught separately"

At the time fo writing the petiton had only 219 supporters.

Phil Hearne has been replaced as Principal by Mohsen Ojja who told this week's Kilburn Times:

Our outcomes are significantly low. We have to do something about it. The two factors driving this change - a duty to ensure every single pupils can access the best education possible by managing the performance of teachers appropriately, and recruiting better teachers and leaders - and our duty to prepare pupils for life in modern Britain.

Single sex schooling is often controversial. In this case added to the arguments that mixed schooling during adolesence means loss of academic concentration, that girls suppress their ability in order not to 'show up' boys, that girls are used to 'soften' the behaviour of boys, that girls are more likely to opt for non-stereotypical subjects in girls only schools are religious arguments in favour of separation.

Some of the arguments in favour of girls' only schooling can be found HERE  Significantly, far fewer people argue in favour of boys only schooling, and it is often said that single sex schooling is 'Good for girls, but bad for boys' LINK

In Crest's case what is likely to be most significant is whether the school is able to make progress after its Ofsted failure.  The latest monitoring report dated June 2015 notes progress and says of the new Principal:

As Principal, you and the vice principal who was at the academy at the time of the Inspection have worked swiftly to begin to address the areas for improvement. Your own determination to improve the quality of teaching and raise students’ aspirations and achievement is very clear. Now that there is a full exec utive leadership team and other senior leaders have been appointed the academy is ready to build on the foundations laid in the post inspection action plan.

On the co-education issue Ofsted say:

The academy is currently undertaking a consultation with parents and carers, students and staff regarding a review of the provision for boys and girls. This has a clear focus, quite rightly, on ensuring equality of opportunity in the curriculum for all. There are already assemblies and some aspects of personal, health and social education that involve boys and girls learning together.

An  issue that will concern teaching and not-teaching staff is whether the changes will mean a reduction in staffing in a school that has already experienced  considerable job losses. LINK

There are two remaining single sex secondary schools in Brent which are both Roman Catholic as well as the fee paying (£6,700 per year)  Islamia Girls School. LINK

Gladstone Secondary Free School, a co-educational school in the same broad area as Crest, has failed to open as various sites have fallen through but still expects to open in September 2016.

Its website LINK still lacks certainty:

The Department for Education (DfE) has been searching for land or buildings to enable our school, a parent-led school, to provide places for Brent parents who might otherwise need to search for school places out of borough.

We have a temporary site suitable for at least three years, ready for development into a great building. We have lost out on four great locations for our permanent school site in Brent, as property developers have snapped up suitable accommodation for residential use. This has created an even greater squeeze on school places, and reduced further the availability of site options for our school. This has led to deferrals meaning over 200 families have lost out on their prefered choice for a place at Gladstone School over the last two years.

The DfE is looking for suitable sites right now, for our Autumn recruitment programme. Help us to help them find school sites.

Preston Community Library Cinema Screenings

 

 

From Preston Comminity Library

 

Come and watch our films and events on Monday 13th July and Thursday 23rd July - Details and times are all on the attached poster.

To Kill a Mocking Bird

 
First, at 4.30 pm on Monday 13th, we are going to enact the trial scene from Harper Lee's famous book - come and join in [be part of the Jury!].  Later on at 6.30pm library members can watch a screening of the iconic drama.  [Set in a sleepy South Alabama town during the Great Depression in the 1930s, this is a multi-layered story that dissects the white and black communities of the deep South.  Told with gentle humour, it focuses on religious turpitude and the ambivalence of adult morality.  [Note, if you haven't joined up to the library yet, you can join at the door - it takes 2 minutes]

This event is timetable to coincide with the release of Harper Lee's new novel, 'Go Set a Watchman'.

London: A Bigger Picture - Brent Archives on Film

 

Screening at 2 pm on 23rd July, this will show a selection of rare archive films of the borough from the Brent Museum and Archives, and will delve into the borough's rich celluloid history.   Covering a century of Brent's history, the extraordinary footage will see post war Wembley, the borough's uproarious coronation celebrations in 1953, and travel all the way back to 1923 to witness the incredible scenes as Wembley Stadium is mobbed by 250,000 supporters for the FA Cup Final.

London: A Bigger Picture is a major Film London project aiming to get Londoners enjoying the city’s archive film while building a wider picture of London life.

This event will see an expert from London's Screen Archives showing films from your area, exploring their history and explaining how you can donate your home movies to preserve them for future generations. 

London: A Bigger Picture will run for three years across 15 boroughs and is funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund.

www.filmlondon.org.uk Ι @Film_London

Historic Photos

 

We hope to have some historic photos of Brent provided by SKPPRA, our local residents association.  These will be on display in the library to  coincide with the 'London: a Bigger Picture' event.

We will have refreshments for sale.  The events are free, but donations to the work of the Preston Community Library and Hub will be graciously accepted.

See you there!

Preston Community Library & Hub

BBC Question Time in Wembley on September 17th

My dodgy blood pressure may not be up to it but if you are keen to be in the audience for BBC Question Time, scheduled to be in Wembley on September 17th, this is how to get tickets: LINK