Barham Community Library offers Yorick, Picnic and much else

Latest news from Barham Community Library

1. OUR LEASE

This is still with Brent Council and we are awaiting a final draft following a meeting 3 weeks ago. It would seem the Council are too busy with other priorities.

2. HAMLET - last chance for tickets

The 80 minutes version of Hamlet specially adapted for Libraries by The Librarian Theatre is back in our building in Barham Park (660 Harrow Road Wembley HA0 2HB) on Tuesday 31 May at 7:15p.m. for 7:30p.m. start.

We have just a few tickets left so if you don't want to miss your chance please contact me (Paul Lorber) on barhamlibrary@hotmail.co.uk or on 07917094239. If texting please leave your name.

3. 150 YEARS OF WEMBLEY FIRE BRIGADE

This talk by Philip Grant of Wembley History Society will take place at Barham Community Library on Saturday 4 June starting at 2:30 and lasting around an hour. The event is Free but Philip is happy for visitors to make a small donation towards our Charity.

4. BIG LUNCH  on Sunday 12th June in Barham Park. Friends of Barham Library initiated this event and we are pleased to be joined by our partners Sudbury Town Residents Association, Sudbury Court Residents Association, ACAVA and others. The event is supported by Francis Henry and Daniels Estate Agents who are helping with publicity and in other ways.

The BIG LUNCH is a simple idea from the creators of the Eden Project in Cornwall - 'Get to know your neighbours by having a lunch with them. Just make some of your favourite food and share it with others'. 

We just thought that it would be a good idea to encourage local people to have a picnic in Barham Park (no BBQs please) and chill out. We have some book and other stalls and some outdoor games and see how it goes. This is the 3rd time we have encouraged local people to take part and hope that we have some good weather and the most successful event to date. So please bring your friends and neighbours along and share your favourite delicacies with others.

We will need some volunteers to help out on the day so if you are available let me know - barhamlibrary@hotmail.co.uk

5. BARHAM WALKERS

The walking in Barham Park takes place on Tuesdays from 10:30a.m. We have opened our doors in the morning on Tuesdays from around 10:30 to 12 to allow access to our toilets and to offer tea, coffee and biscuits. The walks are free as are our refreshments (although we don't refuse small donations to help replenish our stocks.)

6. WEDNESDAY SWECIAL

One of our volunteers has started Wednesday morning sessions for anyone interested in sewing, knitting etc. If you are interested please get in touch - at barhamlibrary@hotmail.co.uk

7. ART & CRAFT CLUB FOR YOUNGSTERS

We are keen to restart this if there is enough interest. Please contact Paul Lorber on barhamlibrary@hotmail.co.uk with ages of your children.

The sessions will probably be held on Saturdays - with sessions for different age groups - in slots between approx 11a.m. to 3p.m.

8.  VOLUNTEERS MEETING WEDNESDAY 1 JUNE 2016 6:45P.M. - BARHAM COMMUNITY LIBRARY 660 HARROW ROAD WEMBLEY HA0 3JF
(the entrance is the black door inside the black railings to the left of the building along Harrow Road as you face the building. Buses 18, 92, 182 and 204 stop nearby)

We will discuss initial opening times, future activities and other matters.


http://barhamlibrary.org/

Investors needed for school solar energy co-op in Brent

Details and documentation HERE

Tarmac to replace paving stones on Brent streets

Mixed pavement this morning in Kings Drive, Wembley

Sometimes seemingly small decisions pass by unnoticed but have a larger longer term impact. This may be the case with a Brent Cabinet decision made on Monday to adopt a default policy of replacing paving stone pavements with tarmac, except in conservation areas and 'frequently used footways'.

The Council is currently running a PR campaign on 'Love where you live' to inspire more pride in the borough. Tarmac pavements change the look of streets substantially but represent a small reduction in costs for a cash-strapped council. Whether they represent long-term 'best value' or inspire more pride is debatable.

There will be some patchwork tarmac repairs but in other areas entire stretches of pavement wil be replaced by tarmac:

Click to enlarge

The full report approved by the Cabinet which includes illustrations of different types of pavement surfaces can be found HERE

By reducing our freedoms the Government is doing the extremists' job for them - Jenny Jones

This is the text of the speech Jenny Jones, the Green Party member of the House of Lords, gave on Tuesday:

My Lords, I wish to speak about two proposed Bills: the Investigatory Powers Bill and the extremism Bill. I am not sure whether noble Lords know that the States, which has had similar legislation to this in the past, is now rolling it back partly because of privacy concerns but also because it has been found not to be very effective.

I have a little experience of the police and can tell noble Lords that they cannot cope with the data they have at the moment, so giving them vast amounts more data is very counterintuitive and is likely to worsen their work rate. This legislation, if adopted in its current form, would have devastating effects on people’s right to privacy and on other human rights. It seems to me that the surveillance activities proposed in this legislation go way too far, far too fast. Vast powers to monitor communications, access personal information and tamper with computers, phones and software are provided for. These powers are vaguely described, disproportionate and lack critical safeguards, including proper independent judicial scrutiny. I hope this House will examine these proposals carefully, some of which are technical and difficult. I am not very technically minded but I aim to follow the proposals closely, as they could have a serious impact on the privacy of all of us.

Turning to the extremism Bill, as others have said, the definition of “extremism” will be very difficult to pin down. This has caused problems in the past. Noble Lords may or may not know—I have mentioned it before—that I am an accredited domestic extremist as far as the police are concerned. It seems to me that if they can judge me an extremist, they are experiencing some mission creep. The minute you give powers to people, they will abuse them. They may not mean to. Indeed, they may think that they are doing their job properly. However, the fact is that I and several other senior Green Party people have been described as domestic extremists. That is absolutely ludicrous. We are elected and obey the law. I very much hope that at some point I may get an apology from the police, but none has been given so far.

I have some specific questions about the Bill and the proposal. I do not expect an answer today but they may inform the debate later as I shall certainly raise them again. Will I and other people on the domestic extremism database be banned from talking to schools, for example, under the new counterterrorism and safeguarding Bill, because that is one of the proposals? Will the list of banned people be separate from the list of those monitored on the domestic extremism database? Will there be categories? Will the proposed definition of an extremist be legally binding, or will it merely provide the police with “guidance” and thus enable them to include whoever they like on whatever list they like? Again, I refer to my comments about mission creep. Will the Bill allow the Home Office to include categories of people on the list in the way that the police currently include elected Greens? Will the definition of extremism be restricted in any way to those advocating violence—as I feel it should—or to those convicted of a serious crime, or will it bear absolutely no relation to whether the person is innocent of any crime, or even under investigation for a specific crime? How will a person appeal against being on the list and challenge the Government’s view that they are an extremist? I have tried to get to the bottom of who originally labelled me a domestic extremist and who decided that it was worth monitoring me. It has been impossible to get that information out of the police. They decline to talk about specific cases, even when they involve the person asking for the information.

If the Government reduce our freedoms, they are doing the extremists’ job for them. They are doing the terrorists’ job of changing our culture and our society. That is extremely damaging.

Get to know some of your Brent local history with Philip Grant

Wembley Matters readers, particularly in Sudbury and Kingsbury, may be interested in two local history events taking place in the next few weeks. Both are being presented by Philip Grant, of Wembley History Society, and posters are attached giving details.

The first is an illustrated talk on Saturday 4^th June, at the new Barham Community Library. Visitors will have the chance to see the facilities at Friends of Barham Library’s new premises at 660 Harrow Road (part of the Barham Park Buildings, which were home to Sudbury’s own public library from 1952 until Brent Council closed it in 2011), as well as to enjoy a talk which combines the story of Wembley’s own fire brigade with the involvement of a local family in it.

The second event is an illustrated walk from Kingsbury Library on Wednesday 22^nd June. As part of the “Festival of Learning”, those taking part can discover that history is not just what you had to learn at school, but things you can see as you walk around somewhere you may have shopped, without actually noticing them before.

Even if you cannot come to either event, you can still find out more about the local history of Brent (its people, places and occasions that have happened here) online. Recent improvements to the Brent Archives homepage, at: https://www.brent.gov.uk/archives , allow you to “click” on the local history articles link, to access a menu of illustrated pdf files on a variety of subjects, or on the online catalogue link, to search for places in the borough from over ten thousand pictures, from Victorian times to the present.

People's Chilcot Tribunal June 8th

From Stop the War Coalition

There is a growing sense of anticipation in relation to the publication of the Chilcot report. However, after years of lies and obfuscation, it is reasonable to be sceptical about the recent media claims that the soon to be released Chilcot report will provide a genuinely scathing critique of the process that led us into the Iraq War.

Former First Minister of Scotland Alex Salmond has already called for Tony Blair to be tried in the Hague for war crimes. It is well documented that Blair was committed to regime change (which is entirely illegal under international law) over a year before the invasion actually started.

It is also well documented that the intelligence dossiers which were used by the government to justify going into war were highly misleading. As Professor Steven Kettell noted, the weapons expert Dr David Kelly, who died in the wake of the invasion of Iraq, revealed that members of the intelligence community were alarmed about the way in which their opinion was ignored by Tony Blair's war-mongering clique.

Stop the War Coalition is hosting a People's Chilcot Tribunal to establish who was to blame for the catastrophes of the Iraq War, including over a million deaths and millions of refugees who are still fleeing the devastated country. There will be testimony from a wide range of people including former UN envoy to Iraq Hans von Sponeck, ex-soldiers Ben Griffin and Geoff Martin, writer Tariq Ali, Iraqi dissident Sami Ramadani, political commentator Peter Oborne, Stop the War convenor Lindsey German, CND chair Kate Hudson, Peter Brierley from Military Families Against the War, and former MP Alice Mahon.

You can book your place here. Please invite your friends as well. We will also hold a public meeting the day after the report is released

8th June 3pm-8pm Amnesty International Human Rights Action Centre. 25 New Inn Yard, EC2A 3EAJ
 

Find out about the new Call 111 service (non-emergency NHS phone line)

From Brent Clinical Commissioning Group

We are ready to update local people on our plans for a new NHS 111 service in the borough. We would like to invite local people to a public event where we can set out how the new system is going to work across North West London and get your views about our plans.

This event is part of a series of events North West London CCGs have held to develop the specification for the new service and find out how the service should be accessed by patients.

14 June (5pm - 9pm)

Sattavis Patidar Centre

Forty Avenue, (Junction with The Avenue)

Wembley Park,

Middlesex,

HA9 9PE.

Book  your place HERE

Character building FEAT on a concrete slab in Colindale

The concrete slab viewed through perspex window

Purple marks the proposed school site

Brent's new Cabinet will tomorrow  consider a proposed new free school to be built at the back of the new Morrisons Supermarket on the Oriental City regeneration site in the Edgware Road.

Both the design of the school and the chosen free school provider are likely to be controversial.  The Cabinet papers state:

The site comprises a concrete slab at first floor level with parking beneath.

It is proposed that the Council have a 999 lease interest in the land which it will then lease to the free school provider for 125 years at a peppercorn rent on the basis of the 'template' lease which the Secretary of State is empowered to grant.

The site is physically 'constrained' so it is proposed that the school will be on two levels (on top of the slab) with a roof top playspace for the 420 pupils as there is no space for a playground.  Add to this that fact that the school is very close to the traffic pollution of the Edgware Road and it is not exactly ideal.

The free school provider is Floreat Education Academies Trust (FEAT) of which more later. To enable them to take pupils from September 2016 the Council wish to grant FEAT a 3 year lease on the former Kingsbury Pupil Referral Unit in Church Lane, Kingsbury. This was refurbished to provide additional temporary infant class places but the Cabinet paper states 'but has not been used for classes to date as demand has not required it.' I also understand existing primary schools were relectant to take on the additional unit as a 'satellite'.

The fact that 'demand has not required it' but somehow there will be a demand when it opens as a free school  is a little strange.  It is very close to Fryent Primary School but a long way from the Oriental City site so it is difficult to see how there will be continuity between the two sites in terms of actual pupils. Pupils who live in Church Lane will have to take two buses or a bus (302) and a walk to get to the Morrisons site.

The Church Lane site

Never mind. Floreat seem to have assumed that the Brent Cabinet will deliver the goods. They have already set up a website for the Church Lane school LINK

So why do I sound a note of caution about FEAT?

It was founded by James O'Shaughnessy, (now Lord) former Director of Policy for  David Cameron. He was a visting fellow at the Govite Policy Exchange, consultant to Pearson, and an Honorary Senior Research fellow at the Jubilee Centre for Character and Virtue.  LINK

He has described current education 'reforms' as a 'huge battle in an already very long war.'

Thanks to Powerbase for the following information.

Ian Moore, Director of Education, was seconded from PwC to the prime minister's education delivery team in 2006 and a senior adviser to the Conservative Party's 'Implementation Team' 2008-10,

And then there is Annaliese Briggs, who at 27 survived for just 6 months at Pimlico Primary School (one of Education Minister John Nash's chain) having no teaching qualification. Nevertheless she is in charge of FEAT's curriculum delivery!

See Powerbase for more but you get the picture.

So what is all this 'character building' stuff?

Imported from the US (there is a statement from the US Secretary of State for Defense on the  Jubilee Centre's website LINK) it is rapidly becoming a government supported industry penetrating into our schools. This is their rather dull film about the programme:



 

An article by Matthew Bennett on the Local Schools Network website LINK explains some of the background:

‘No excuses’ charter schools are a product of the test-based accountability systems that have dominated American public education since George W. Bush’s first term.  In the same way, English academy chains like ARK Schools and the Harris Federation developed within the culture of ‘hyper-accountability’ – to use Warwick Mansell’s term – created by the Education Act of 1988.  The ARK Schools chain is, in fact, closely modelled on the KIPP ‘network’ of charter schools.  Both target the inner cities.  Both argue that severe economic and social deprivation is ‘no excuse’ for educational underperformance.  Both aim to demonstrate – by dramatically boosting test and exam scores – that privatisation can be the miracle cure for decades of failure by state or public schools.  Both have a surprising number of financiers on their boards (of the eight trustees on the ARK Schools board, five are hedge fund managers;  none has any background in education). 

The new character education cannot really be understood without looking at the methods of behaviour management used in ‘no excuses’ schools and their English imitators.  These schools love mnemonics – displayed in every classroom, chanted by students – and their mnemonics are quite revealing.  SLANT:  Sit up, Listen, Ask questions, Nod, Track the speaker.  SMARTS:  Stand and sit straight, Make good choices, Always 100% on task, Respect, Track the speaker, Shine.  HALL:  Hallway heads and eyes forward, Arms with finger on lips, Legs straight, Lips sealed.  The rules cover the smallest details of students’ behaviour, and the slightest infraction of the rules – for example, failing to maintain eye contact with the teacher at all times – meets with immediate punishment (this is what one defender of the model calls ‘sweating the small stuff’).  Sanctions include detentions, a period wearing a special ‘miscreant’s shirt’, or a deduction from the student’s account of ‘KIPP dollars’.  (In a training video aimed at teachers in charter schools, a student is told at one point:  ‘Laughing is ten dollars’.)  Some charter schools push the principle to insane extremes.  A list of complaints made by parents against a ‘no excuses’ charter in Texas, Nashville Prep, includes the following:  ‘One student received a demerit for saying, “bless you” when a classmate sneezed.  He also received detention (1) for saying “excuse me” while stepping over another child’s backpack and (2) for picking up a pencil for a classmate’.

James O'Shaughnessy is an advisor to the US Character Lab, co-founded by Dave Levin who also co-founded the KIPP network of charter schools.

It looks as if Katharine Birbalsingh will soon have a rival in the Brent 'scariest teacher' league.

Meanwhile I hear that Gladstone School's Maria Evans and Jim Gatten LINK are to move to Oxford in July.  Gladstone has announced that it is now not in a position to open to year 7 pupils in September as no site has been found.

Paul Phillips, in post since January 2014 as Principal Designate continues in his role.  Accounts have not been filed since 2014 and there have been recent changes in directorships.

Gladstone has yet to educate a single child but has spent £175,000 on 'educational operations'.

Click on image to enlarge