NAHT's 'broad and balanced' curriculum policy welcome and timely

There has been much concern about the narrowing of the school curriculum as a result of high stakes testing so the 'Broad and balanced curriculum statement' recently adopted by the  the National Association of Headteachers Executive is very welcome and timely.

There are similarities with the Green Party's curriculum policy and the commitment to high quality PSHE (Personal, Social and Health Education) is particularly welcome, as is the the declaration that the curriculum should not be 'distorted or restricted by external pressures of teaching and accountability.'

A broad and balanced curriculum
NAHT policy position for England and Northern Ireland

NAHT is working to ensure that the curriculum supports the learning, progress and success of all pupils and is not distorted or restricted by external pressures of testing and accountability.

NAHT supports the principle that a broad and balanced curriculum promotes the spiritual, moral, cultural, mental and physical development of pupils and prepares pupils at the school for the opportunities, responsibilities and experiences of later life.

In experiencing a broad and balanced curriculum all pupils should be given opportunities to:

•    Develop their skills in English, Maths and Science; 


•    Develop their knowledge and understanding of the world we live in, the 
environment, different religions and cultures, a foreign language, technology, 
computing, music and the creative arts; 


•    Participate in sport and physical activity; 


•    Engage in high quality PSHE; 


•    Develop positive character traits including resilience, communication, 
teamwork, problem solving and empathy; 


•    Develop positive attributes including high self-esteem, positive emotional and 
mental health, tolerance, managing risk, respect and ambition. 
Such a broad and balanced curriculum should: 


•    Encourage high aspirations and expectations for all; 


•    Enable pupils to become successful, lifelong, autonomous learners and 
responsible citizens; 


•    Be motivational and engage pupils in both the process and the content of 
learning; 


•    Promote an enquiring and creative approach; 


•    Include learning that takes place both inside and outside of the classroom 
and the school day; 


•    Enable pupils to achieve their potential; 


•    Be able to respond to individual needs and talents and to provide increasing 
opportunities for choice and responsibility; 


•    Be planned to reflect local needs in order to ensure it is relevant to the lives of 
the pupils; 


•    Build on the pupil’s own experiences, interests and strengths and help to 
develop their sense of identity as local, national and global citizens; 


•    Celebrate individuality and the broad range of pupil success in all areas. 


Should the public be involved in Brent's review of the Local Plan?

The report going to the Resources and Public Realm Committee on the Council's Planning Committee proposes a review of the Local Plan.

It proposes a 'Local plan Working Party' to carry this out made up of 'a representative group of councillors' . The first, rather clumsy, sentence of this section of the report mentions the local community but there is no mention of residents' associations or other community groups making a contribution to such a working party.

Surely they should be involved at an early stage to avoid further disaffection and feelings of powerlessness in the force of development and regeneration?

Extract:

To plan proactively for its future and guide development in the form and location where the Council and the local community feels it is most appropriate, the Council will need to start a review of the Local Plan. Whilst it provides the opportunity to refresh the Council’s approach to support current corporate priorities, it is likely to involve some potentially difficult decisions in prioritising housing delivery against other considerations, e.g. balancing affordable/family housing requirements against facilitating what will be high levels of housing delivery; the extent to which low density housing in areas with high public transport accessibility are considered sustainable in the long term; and safeguarding and providing existing infrastructure and non-residential uses against the need to meet housing targets. To meet housing needs and support timely regeneration/development, the Council is also likely to have to take a greater pro-active approach to site assembly/direct delivery than might have been the case in the past. 


To ensure a wider elected democratic mandate a representative group of councillors will be involved in and facilitate the content and direction of the Local Plan as it makes its way through the adoption process. It is proposed that this will be through a Local Plan Working Party, for example dealing with vision and objectives and how themes, such as housing and employment can best contribute to these. The extent and timing of the review will become cleared once a restructure of Planning has been undertaken and the Development Management Policies Plan has been adopted. 


Is Brent's 'Metroland' suburban housing under threat?

The Quintain site surrounded by 'low density suburban housing'

A report going to the Resources and Public Realm Scrutiny Committee on September 6th LINK highlights some of the issues facing Brent Council in the provision of housing.

It is estimated that 1525 new dwellings need to be built every year until 2026. The report expresses confidence that this can be met in the early part of the period through developments taking place, particularly in Wembley, but additional measures will be needed in the future.

One immediate problem is that developers favour one or two bed-roomed units to ensure a maximum return while Brent's  Strategic Housing Marketing Assessment 2016 said that to meet local needs 66% of them should be of 3 bedrooms or more.

The report says that one option would be for the Council to control dwelling size as a condition of the sale of its land, rather than at the planning stage. This comes up against current 'market sentiment' when the Council tries to meet the 50% 'truly affordable' renting target and developers have recourse to viability assessments as well as limits on the ability of the Council to cross-subsidise from other funds.

Given the recent controversy about the development of Heron House, near the Quintain redevelopment area around the stadium, this possibility for finding additional sites is a concern:

...on a potentially more contentious note redevelopment of extensive areas of low density suburban housing where there are high public transport accessibility levels

One of the Heron House residents' issues was that the development was out of keeping with the largely traditional suburban nature of the immediate area.

Could this mean that those traditional 'Metroland' homes in the north of the borough that happen to be close to tube stations and bus routes (see above) might be under threat in the future as high rise-high density housing becomes the norm? Could we see speculators buying up such houses, with their large gardens, in order to redevelop them into blocks of flats with the blessing of the Council?

Other suggestions in the report may also cause concern:

The opportunities for additional sites for housing are likely to be found from a variety of sources for example: 

·      within existing growth areas, through for example increasing densities on already identified sites and identifying new sites; 


·      extending where appropriate existing growth areas into adjacent areas; 


·      more supportive policies for redevelopment/conversion of existing 
residential into addition dwellings; 


·      having a more pro-active approach to identifying sites within town centres; 


·      the identification of further extensive growth areas 

·      a more flexible approach to existing non-residential allocations, the most obvious due to their scale and existing developed nature being employment sites. 

 


The last obviously raises the possibility that local employment opportunities may be lost as employment sites get used for housing.

Latest news from Friends of Barham Library

From Friends of Barham Library

LATEST NEWS ON OUR BUILDING

By now we have hoped to have had our lease for the building in Barham Park (Unit 4, 660 Harrow Road Wembley HA0 2H). Unfortunately at the last minute an issue arose with Brent Council which we hope will be resolved at a meeting of the Barham Park Charity Trust on Wednesday 7 September.

In the meantime we have been putting up shelves in our new Library space and filling them up. We are ready and hope to open as soon as the Lease has been signed.

In the meantime we are planning our activities including more Theatre productions, history talks etc

Brent Council has now decided to also Lease the wooden building at the back and we are considering whether to bid. The building is in a poor condition. There is no kitchen facility, the toilets are in a mess and the wiring, ceilings and floor covering needs replacing. The roof and wooden cladding also needs repairing. We estimate that the building may need between £50,000 to £100,000 spending on it and we are exploring sources for possible Capital Grants.

Our priority continues to open our Library and this will happen irrespective of whether we make a bid for the other building.

WHAT IS GOING ON

Afternoon English Conversation classes continue at Sudbury Town Underground Station on Tuesdays between 2 and 4. We are also holding evening classes on Tuesdays from 6:45 p.m. until 27 September 2016 and depending on demand and available tutors these may be expanded.

Frank who used to open up Sudbury Town on a regular basis broke his ankle two weeks ago and has his leg in plaster. Sudbury Town is therefore only open very irregularly until we find other volunteers who can help.

In Barham Park we are opening the building to the Barham Walkers to access the toilets and for  teas & coffee on Tuesday morning from around 10:45.

On Wednesday's Eva is running a 'Sewcial' - 2 hour session between 10:30 to 12:30 of sawing and chat activities. Just pop in if you are interested.

5th ANNIVERSARY OF CLOSURE OF 6 LIBRARIES IN BRENT

We will celebrate the Community Library movement in Brent by our annual Torch Relay between the Libraries. As it is the 5th Anniversary I plan to do another sponsored run to raise funds for the Barham Community Library. Besides a run there may be an opportunity to join in with a sponsored walk in Barham Park. Let me know if you want to join me or sponsor me.

7 SEPTEMBER 2016

As mentioned above there will be an important meeting of the Barham Park Charity Trust (managed by Brent Council) starting at 6p.m. at the Civic Centre in Wembley LINK. Issues relating to our Lease will be discussed and hopefully decided. The meeting is open to the public so please feel free to join us.

I hope to provide an update after the meeting.

All the best

Paul Lorber
for Friends of Barham Library

Grunwick memory sharing Saturday at Brent Archives

Painting by Dan Jones

From Brent Musuem and Archives

In 1976, six workers walked out of Grunwick Film Processing Laboratory in Willesden. They staged a strike against their poor working conditions, demanding the right to join a union.

Less than two years later, those six had been joined by 20,000 supporters in an historic dispute fighting for better rights for poorly treated workers. Predominantly Asian women, these strikers shattered stereotypes, challenged the establishment, brought a community together to support the rights of workers and changed the face of trade unionism.

40 years after the start of the Grunwick Strike we want to celebrate their bravery and take their inspirational story to a new generation by installing a mural, developing an exhibition and holding a conference.

Grunwick40, in collaboration with Brent Museum and Archives, wants to collect stories, memories and experiences of the strike. If you, or one of your friends or relatives was involved – we want to hear from you. We aim to include some of these stories in the exhibition, and all will be added to the collections at Brent Archives.

We will be holding a story sharing session at Brent Archives (Second Floor, The Library at Willesden Green) on Saturday 27th August 2-4pm, so that you can explore some of the material held by Brent Museum and Archives related to the strike, and share your memories.

Email us at museum.archives@brent.gov.uk for more information or call 02089373600.

Saturday demo: A CALL TO EUROPE: HUMAN RIGHTS FOR REFUGEES!

Trafalgar Square London 2-5pm Saturday August 27th

A Demonstration Called by:
Help4Refugee Children, Syria Solidarity Campaign, Calais Action & RS21.

Sixty years ago, the Refugee Convention defined rights for refugees, and most countries signed up to it. The first principle was that refugees should be treated decently. A little later, the world refugee year of 1959-60 was an attempt to get counties to face up to their responsibilities.

Since then, the situation of refugees has got steadily worse. Today their rights are everywhere disregarded, eroded, and trampled on; governments think they can gain popularity by treating refugees in an inhuman way. We say that this is unacceptable. No one is illegal; no one is inhuman.

WE ARE SEEING A GENERAL DEHUMANISATION OF REFUGEES - AND WE DEMAND THAT THIS MUST STOP, AND THAT WE BEGIN TREATING THEM AS HUMANS, WITH THE SAME RIGHTS AS OUR OWN.

The countries of Europe in particular have been trying to evade acknowledging the basic humanity of refugees, and the rights which they should respect. They have deliberately avoided:

1. Their responsibility for the wars in Syria, Iraq, and vast areas of the Middle East which have caused people to flee;

2. Their continuing responsibility for ensuring a safe passage to Europe (in particular across the Mediterranean) for thousands of refugees, as though they had no duty to protect them. Thousands have drowned through a deliberate state policy of neglect.

Worse, once the refugees arrive in Europe, no country will accept them although by the terms of the Refugee Convention once arrived in Europe they can apply for asylum. (Their situation is viewed from a frankly racist perspective - as though they represent an army of foreigners aiming to pollute a pure white Europe.) There is an increasing drive to make life impossible for them wherever they are, closing down what refugee camps there are (particularly in France).

The refugees are housed in shocking, subhuman conditions such as the ‘Jungle’ camp at Calais, where they are constantly harassed by police and threatened with eviction by the State. Indeed, this camp (home to 7000 people and 500 (unaccompanied children) is now threatened with another demolition; which will rob these homeless people of the little they have. The camps already have almost no facilities and are run by hardworking overstretched volunteers relying on donations, not official agencies.

The people who have reached the camps, after difficult and dangerous journeys, have clearly not done it from choice. Our failure to treat them with decency and humanity shames us.
We are demonstrating to demand a new start, based on respect and human principles.

TREAT REFUGEES AS HUMAN BEINGS WITH FULL RIGHTS, ON EVERY STEP OF THEIR ROAD!

Progressive Alliance misgivings? Emergency Motion for Green Party Conference as Lucas reiterates support for electoral pact

In an earlier posting LINK I wrote about some of the underlying issues that had emerged during the Green Party internal elections campaign. (Voting closed yesetrday) One of these was the 'Progressive Alliance' and misgivings about the way this strategy has emerged have now become the subject of an Emergency Motion to the party conference which begins on September 2nd.

The London Green Left blog has an article giving a range of views about the issue HERE

As with all emergency resolutions priority is decided by the number of signatories.

EMERGENCY RESOLUTION PROGRESSIVE ALLIANCES

The recent political climate, combined with the long-term struggle to achieve proportional representation, has highlighted the need for decisive, cross-party action to demand electoral reform and give the country the best chance of a representative, accountable government. However, ongoing issues with other parties have exposed and intensified hostilities in some areas, and therefore any political strategy proposed by the Green Party of England and Wales which resembles an alliance must be developed both in close consultation with members and local parties, and taking into account issues which would create barriers when putting such an alliance into practice.

It is felt by many that discussions around this so far have taken place without due transparency, and are tantamount to the leadership team and key elected representatives creating policy outside of the democratically mandated member-led process.

Conference instructs GPEx to assemble a working group to carry out a comprehensive, initial consultation with individual members, local parties, and member groups before the idea of a Progressive Alliance is developed any further; and that the responses are used to inform the terms of such an alliance should it become a realistic direction for the party’s future political strategy.

Conference notes: Once an arrangement is proposed, it must be supported by GPEx, and put to GPRC for agreement on behalf of the party, as per Section 11, clause (v) of the Constitution.

Green Party members who wish to support this motion should copy and paste this, signed with their name and local party, to soc@greenparty.org.uk

Meanwhile in an interview with the BBC today LINK Caroline Lucas reiterated her support for an electoral alliance but stressed that was her personal view and ultimately the party had to decide:

In a sign of the determination by the Greens' only MP to boost the party's presence in Parliament, Ms Lucas told the BBC she wants "all the options on the table" when it comes to the possibility of talking to other parties before the next general election.

She said:

It doesn't make sense for parties of the left to be constantly fighting each other and meanwhile the Conservatives come through and we've seen that time after time in the 2015 general election.

I think what we are looking at is those marginal constituencies where some kind of agreement between progressive parties might be able to make a difference.

Asked whether this meant she was prepared to see a Green candidate drop out of a constituency race so long as Labour did the same elsewhere, the MP for Brighton Pavilion said: "Personally I would".

Vote 'split'

Such a pact could be designed to prevent the "left" vote being split between Labour and the Greens in some constituencies, allowing Ms Lucas' party to target certain seats while offering Labour a clear run elsewhere without Green opposition.

She stressed it was ultimately for the party to decide on what was her personal view on the issue.