Wembley Park’s tile murals – now you see them … soon you won’t!

Guest post by Philip Grant

On Thursday, I saw the tile murals on the east wall of the Bobby Moore Bridge subway, for the first time since they were covered over with vinyl advertisements in October 2013.

Unfortunately, this wasn’t a cause for celebration. Work was in progress which will see all but one of the mural scenes hidden, perhaps permanently, behind illuminated advertising screens, attached to vertical metal struts, screwed into the joints between the tiles.

One of the workmen saw me taking photographs, and asked me if there was a problem. I said that I was sorry to see such a beautiful piece of Wembley Park’s story being covered up, and he replied ‘Yeah. This is history.’ He was right. THIS IS HISTORY, but it should not be “history”.

The heritage importance of the murals was the subject of a blog on 11 June LINK . Despite the evidence they had, Brent’s Planning Officers did not even mention heritage as a key issue in their reports to the Planning Committee meeting on 16 July. Although we tried our best to correct that false impression at the meeting, and explain the heritage and public art value of the tile murals for both residents and visitors, the Planner’s recommendations to approve the Bobby Moore Bridge applications were accepted, by 5 votes to 2 LINK .

Fixing metal struts over the Michael Jackson mural scene, with the 1948 Olympics show jumping mural next in line.

To be fair, the men I saw fixing the metal struts over the murals in Thursday did seem to be taking care not to damage the tiles. Unfortunately, that does not seem to have been the case with whoever fitted the struts that barriers around their “building site” are attached to, particularly at the southern end of the subway’s west wall:-

Damaged tiles at the edge of the “Olympic flame” mural scene.  

In their “Statement of Significance”, submitted as part of the application documents, Quintain’s agents said:

‘The lightbox panels will be fixed to the walls using screws placed between the tile joints, allowing the tiled mural to remain in situ and unharmed and therefore will not result in any loss or damage to the original mural.’

That statement was unrealistically optimistic, and in an “Addendum” to that document on 1 July, they said:

‘Quintain fully commit to repair any damage that is caused during the installation of the light boxes, should this occur.’

I hope that Brent Council will hold them to that promise.

For now, I would encourage anyone interested in the tile murals to pay a visit to the subway. Remind yourself of what a valuable record, of famous sports and entertainment events at Wembley Stadium and Arena, we are about to lose (thanks to Brent Council’s neglect, and Quintain’s commercial opportunism). Take some photos of your own, and perhaps share them on social media. It may be your last chance.

Philip Grant.

Death of former Brent councillor, Pat Harrison

I am sad to report that Pat Harrison, a former Brent Labour councillor and member of the National Union of Teachers has died.

This is the announcement made on the Brent Council website:

Former Preston Ward councillor, Patricia Harrison, passed away at St Luke’s Hospice this morning (25 July) following a period of illness.


Pat was a committed member of the community, serving as a Governor at Preston Park Primary, at the Crest Girls Academy for over 10 years and at Malorees Junior School for 9 years, where she was Chair of Governors.

She was a hard working councillor, spending time visiting all the schools in her ward, attending several community meetings, knocking on doors to hear residents’ concerns and serving as Labour group chair. She was part of several committees including Children and Families Overview and Scrutiny, the Alcohol and Licensing Committee and was a member of the Task Group on Youth Offending.

Muhammed Butt, Leader of Brent Council, said:

“Pat was quite simply a one of a kind councillor, selfless in her dedication to public life, generous and compassionate with her time and company; a true stalwart of the Labour movement, the like of which we can be proud to have known, we will cherish her memory indefinitely.”

The Mayor of Brent, Cllr Ernest Ezeajughi, said:

“Brent Council has suffered a great loss today. It was extremely saddening to hear the news of Pat’s death this morning. When I was first elected in 2014, Pat was a welcoming face and worked hard to help the many new Councillors settle in. I offer my deepest sympathy to her friends and family, on behalf of all at Brent Council.”

I have known Pat for many years through our membership of the NUT and involvement in local issuess. Despite latterly being in different political parties we maintained a positive relationship through our mutual interest in education and support for progressive policies. She will be greatly missed.

Great opportunity for 11-18 year olds at Sufra Summer Academy

From Sufra NW London (Ed: This is brilliant!)

The Summer Academy is our latest AQA accredited course aimed at young people between 11-18 years of age who have an interest in food – whether it’s eating it, growing it or cooking it!

The week-long course will be taught from our kitchen as well as on St. Raphael’s Edible Garden, and is designed to give participants a deeper insight into the principles of healthy eating, food preparation and horticulture. The course runs from Monday to Friday, with a free day-trip to the Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew on the Wednesday.

It’s a fun and engaging course that will help develop self-esteem and confidence, whilst also teaching young people to cook a range of nutritious meals. We provide additional support with literacy, numeracy and CV writing where necessary – which could open up routes into future employment or apprenticeships in the gardening or catering industries.

Course dates and times

We have two courses running over the summer holidays:

• Monday 19th, Tuesday 20th, Thursday 22nd and Friday 23rd August 2019, from 10am to 5pm
• Monday 26th, Tuesday 27th, Thursday 29th and Friday 30th August 2019, from 10am to 5pm

Notice: Please be aware that there will be no classes on Wednesdays.

If you are interested in enrolling, please download and compete the Registration Form (see link below) and return it to admin@sufra-nwlondon.org.uk

If you have any questions, please email us or call 020 3441 1335

You can download the Registration Form here

Please note: The course is offered free of charge, but we do require a £10 fully-refundable deposit for each participant.

 

Barry Gardiner's trenchant views on Brent Council's proposal to close Strathcona School

Roe Green Strathcona staff, parents & pupils protest at Brent Civic Centre

 The Brent Council Cabinet is likely to make a decision on the future of Roe Green Strathcona School at its September Meeting. The formal consultation closed last night.  It is worth reading the detailed letter that Brent North MP, Barry Gardiner, wrote to the June Cabinet which made the decision to move to formal consultation.

Meanwhile there is speculation about the possible plans that Brent Council may have for the Strathcona site including possible sell-off to a developer or provision for the Islamia Primary School which is short of space at its present site LINK.

Barry Gardiner wrote: 

I write to you prior to the cabinet decision to be taken on Monday 17^th June 2019 in relation to the future of Roe Green Strathcona Primary School.

You will be aware that it is very rare that I comment upon what I recognise to be the proper functions of the council. That I do so now is because I am deeply concerned by the proposal to move to a formal consultation on the closure of the school which I believe to be flawed on every level.

On the evening of the 6^th of June, 120 people attended a public meeting at the school to voice their protest against the Council, the substance of the proposal and the process by which the council has conducted its dealings with the school.

The officers report for the meeting of the council where the informal consultation was set out, presented what can only be described as an extremely partial view of the history of the school. In particular it failed to explain the discrepancies between the current reasons for the proposed closure and the original reasons for opening the school in 2014 and for confirming it with permanent status in 2016.

Brent Council’s stated rationale for closing the School is in response to an estimated surplus of pupil places in the borough’s “Primary Planning Area 2” at reception level, which has been predicted in Brent Council’s 2019-23 School Place Planning Strategy. The Council have also said that other high quality schools in the area have capacity to provide education to those pupils who would need to be relocated. It has also been suggested that the school receives an additional amount of funding for operating on a split site and closure would therefore save scarce resources.

However, this rationale is in stark contrast to the decision made at Cabinet only three years ago on 11 April 2016 to permanently increase the age range and expand Roe Green Infant School on a split site. At that time councillors were explicitly informed that whilst there was a shortage of places predicted up to 2019/20, thereafter there was expected to be a surplus of places. Councillors in 2016 were advised that this would enable Brent to meet the guideline of a 5% surplus which was deemed necessary to give appropriate parental choice. The current figure was then only 2.2% and was deemed insufficient. It is simply untrue therefore to claim that the current surplus was unforeseen and that the council are having now to respond to a new set of circumstances.

One of the key reasons put forward in 2016 in favour of making Strathcona permanent was that it would save the council £500,000 and it is therefore a matter of concern that councillors are now being told that the £200,000 split-site funding is a reason to close the school. I trust the cabinet will want to examine very carefully the basis upon which the original cost saving was predicated and why it no longer appears to be the case.

When doing so councillors will no doubt also consider that their decision in 2016 to make the school permanent also means that those teachers’ contracts which had originally been temporary, were at that point made permanent. A decision now to close the school would therefore also lead to serious redundancy costs which appear not to have been quantified in the earlier officers’ report.

Perhaps the most perplexing issue relating to the estimated surplus of places however, is that the council gave approval for a major expansion of places at Byron Court Primary and the creation of a new primary school at East Lane Primary AFTER the decision had been taken to make Strathcona permanent. The development at Byron Court was extensively opposed by local residents, and yet the council pressed ahead on the grounds that these places would be required. It seems perverse now to decide to close Strathcona when it was known at the time that the bulge in nursery admissions would decline by 2019/20.

The officers have suggested that other schools in the area would be able to provide places for the students who needed to transfer after any closure at Strathcona. This ignores the disruption to the education of those children who would be asked to change schools. Such disruption would be particularly acute for those children expected to go into year 6 at a new school just before they sit their SATS. The need to make new friends and settle into a different school routine would inevitably be damaging for those children’s achievement.

It is also right that the council consider whether their action has been fair on the whole school.

Roe Green Strathcona opened in 2014, in response to an emergency request from Brent Council. A large number of children were unable to be provided with a primary place. In fact many children had been out of mainstream education for as much as ten months. It was on this basis that Brent asked Roe Green Infants if they would set up a second site. Originally a site owned by Kingsbury High School was to be the location, but when that proved too costly the Council asked Roe Green to open the new site at Strathcona — some 1.6 miles away from their central site. This was an enormous challenge for the school, but it was a challenge Roe Green readily accepted.

The Governing Body of Roe Green Infant School agreed to manage a new provision of Students at the Strathcona site at a Governing Body meeting of 14 January 2014. Teachers and staff worked day and night for seven weeks in order to convert the dilapidated Strathcona buildings and meet the Council’s deadline for a fully operational School. This was achieved and the Roe Green Strathcona site successfully admitted its first pupils in two months later in March 2014.

In October 2014, the Cabinet approved the “School Place Planning Strategy 2014-2018”. A refresh of the strategy was subsequently considered and agreed by Members at the November 2015 Cabinet.

In this report, the Council recognised the need for school places, and also acknowledged that such places should be established through the expansion of existing schools.

In 2015, Roe Green Strathcona were informed by the Department of Education that their temporary status prevented the School from extending by more that two year groups. The School would be in breach of DoE rules, if a permanent school status was not formalised by the next academic year. It is important to understand that the Council officers did not approach the school to advise them of this. It was the DoE that notified them of this deadline. On 11 April 2016, a determination was reached by Cabinet, agreeing to expand and alter – on a permanent basis – the age-range of Roe Green Strathcona School, effective from September 2016 on the grounds I have set out above.

Despite all the significant work that the school has done and the cooperation it’s staff have given to help the council resolve the very serious problem they had with a lack of places, the council appears not to have reciprocated that good will. It has long been a matter of contention that Brent Council have continuously failed to ensure the school is properly advertised on the Council’s electronic enrolment system.

There have been significant difficulties experienced at the School with pupil admissions. Within the Cabinet Report of 11 April 2016, Brent Council acknowledge that pupil admission arrangements will be a big challenge for the School:

“Currently there is no mechanism for parents to select the Strathcona site. By making the provision permanent it enables the authority (as the admissions authority for Roe Green Infant School because it is a community school) to consult in winter 2016/17 upon admissions criteria for 2017/18 year that would enable parents to express a preference for the Strathcona provision.”

Despite this statement, the most recent Council report dated 17^th June 2019 now states that pupil admission arrangements at Roe Green Strathcona are “not considered to be sustainable”. This is hardly surprising when Roe Green Strathcona does not appear on the “drop down” list on the council’s website. It is unacceptable for the council to fail to ensure that parents are able to access information about the school on the electronic enrolment system and then accuse the school of not having “sustainable admissions”.

The effect is that parents are presently not able to choose Strathcona as a main option for primary provision on Brent Council’s website, and that the Strathcona School only ever appears as a subsidiary option of the Roe Green Infant School site. Indeed, councillors might be shocked to find that even when one uses the School’s postcode as a student’s residential address on Brent Council’s enrolment system, the Strathcona site is not offered. Only alternative local Schools are suggested in the search results. It is clear that there is a strong positive correlation between the decrease in pupil intake at the School, and the difficulty many parents have in registering their children onto the Strathcona roll.

Council officers have been alerted to this issue repeatedly but have never resolved the matter. It is also the case that in the past five years, up to 85% of pupil admissions at the Strathcona site have been during the middle of the academic year. I understand that Ms Sidhu, the headteacher, believes that in-year admission data has not been properly accounted for in any of the drafted Brent Council reports.

If council officers had actively been trying to prepare a case for the closure of the school, these are precisely the measures they might have taken. First ensure nobody knows about the place and even when they live next door, refer them to another school. In fact the head teacher has said that she has several reports of prospective parents who asked for their child to come to the school actually being told by council officers that the roll at Strathcona is full and they can take no more children. I would ask that the cabinet investigate these allegations which, if true, represent a serious breach of trust on the part of public officials.

Of course much of this might be more understandable were the school underperforming. In fact despite all the problems it has experienced, Roe Green Strathcona School is an excellent School, with their first cohort of Year 6 students achieving progress in the top 3% of Schools in England this academic year. This is particularly remarkable when one considers the extent of mid year admissions. In the public meeting held at Roe Green Strathcona on 6^th June 2019, which was attended by local councillors, many parents testified to the quality of teaching and the quality of pastoral care that the school provides.

Just 3 years ago Council officers made an urgent recommendation that Roe Green Strathcona School become permanent by September 2016. They are now trying to persuade councillors that the school is not viable. What was then a saving is now said to be a financial drain on the council. What was then required to cope with the primary admissions crisis is now said to be part of an unnecessary and unsustainable surplus. What was then said to provide parental choice into the future is now having its very existence airbrushed from the Council admissions website.

Teachers and staff at the Roe Green School are rightly proud of the progress that has been made since the creation of the Strathcona school five years ago. In a borough where children had been out of formal education for many months, the School has added significant value to the educational development of every child that has entered its classrooms. They have served the council well. If the cabinet were to rubber stamp the proposal to launch a formal consultation for the closure of the Strathcona School site. I believe they would be betraying that service and acting arbitrarily.

Thank you for considering the matters I have raised.

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Green Party backs September 20th climate stoppages and strikes - 'we can win a fairer world and safer climate'

The Green Party has expressed its support for the University and College Union (UCU) motion to the Trade Union Congress (TUC) annual conference calling on affiliated unions, student unions at colleges and universities and politicians and community groups, to support the call for a 30-minute workday stoppage in solidarity with the global school student strike on 20th September.

Jonathan Bartley, co-leader, said:

The Green Party has been proud to support the climate strikes, and we’re proud to be the first party to formally support UCU’s call for a stoppage of work in solidarity with the general climate strike this September.

We call on all individuals, workplaces, companies and institutions to support this call, and stand in solidarity with climate strikers everywhere.

It’s amazing to see the teachers at UCU pick up the torch from their students, and take it straight to the core of the union movement. Workers are at the heart of the solution to the climate emergency.

When we transition to a zero-carbon economy in the decades ahead, we’ll put the whole country to work. A Green New Deal would unlock billions of pounds of investment in this transition, ensuring a good, green unionised job for everyone who wants one.

With workers standing with school strikers and activists, we can win a fairer world and a safer climate.

Green Left , an influential Eco-Socialist group within the Green Party (GPEW)  also backed the strike.

Green Left said:

The struggle against Climate Change is taking mighty steps forward in the UK with three Trade Unions, University and College Union (UCU), Bakers, Food and Allied Workers Union (BFAWU) and National Education Union (NEU).

The Unions are both declaring support for the Youth Climate Change protests and strikes and are now taking a motion to the 5.6 million strong Trade Union Congress (TUC) asking for solidarity action on the day of the next Global Strike on the 20th September 2019.

Ordinary people, including workers are the ones who will be most impacted by Climate Change and we need to take action to defend ourselves.'

The motion is a call for workers to show support in a work stoppage for 30 minutes on the day as well as other actions.

A model template is available for local union branches at the CACCTU site HERE

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Kilburn organic grocery store launches crowdfunder to go plastic free

The Olive Tree, an organic grocery store owned by Costas and Virginie Papantoniou, has launched a crowdfunder to enable the store to go plastic free.

They have a target of £2,130 to raise funds to buy the food dispensers needed to enable custoomers to fill their own containers or plastic free bags.

With 8 days to go they have raised £1,645 from 40 supporters.

To support the cause go to LINK

The store is at 152 Willesden Lane.

Solidarity with Strathcona staff, parents & pupils - Meeting tonight at Brent Trades Hall

Protest at Brent Civic Centre

SPEAKER: Hema Dahale, NEU Rep from Roe Green Strathcona, fighting and striking to save her school:

Wednesday 24th July, 7.30pm, Willesden Trades Hall, 375 High Road, London NW10 2JR.

Strathcona School was opened by Roe Green School at the request of Brent Council to accommodate rising numbers of primary pupils. The two schools have been run as one and now the Council is consulting on the closure of Strathcona which would result in reductions in staff numbers and children having to find new schools.

Come and hear the case against closure and what you can do to help.

E-ACT moves to shrink Crest Academy

Architect's image of the Crest Academy building

The academy chain E-ACT has embarked on a consultation exercise to reduce the intake of Crest Academy (Planned Admission Number -PAN) from 330 a year to 200. If you take class size as 30 this reduces the number of forms from 11 to 7.

At first sight this seems in contradiction to Brent Council's claim in in its School Places Planning Strategy that MORE secondary school places are required as the primary school bulge, which meant expansions and bulge classes in that sector, move into primary schools LINK:

Demand for places in Year 7 increased in 2017 and this is expected to continue as the significant growth in pupil numbers in the Primary phase in Brent progresses into the secondary phase. The 2019-23 School Place Planning Strategy identifies the need for an additional 13 forms of entry (see section 5) by 2023/24. This additional capacity could be provided through a combination of permanent school expansions, temporary bulge classes and new free schools.

The Council is working with secondary schools that have expressed interest in expanding. In addition two new free schools that were approved by DfE in November 2016 will help to meet increasing secondary demand. The North Brent Free School, which will provide 900 secondary places, is expected to open in September 2020 on the Chancel House site. The Avanti Free School, an all-through school, is expected to provide a combined capacity of 1320 places (60 per primary year group and 180 per secondary year group). The school will be unable to open until a permanent site is identified by the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA). The Avanti Free School will have a Hindu ethos and is expected to attract students from a wide geographic area. As it is difficult to find sites, the Avanti Free School may not be located in Brent.

The North Brent Free School will be in the same planning area as Crest Academy although it may attract pupils from beyond that area. In a letter to parents Christina Fernandes. headteacher of Crest, states:

Our projections show that there will be sufficient places available for local children if the PAN for this school is reduced. Should the demand for additional places increase in the future, the Trust will consider raising the PAN again.

These are Brent Council's figures for the Crest's Planning Area that show sufficient capacity WITHOUT the North Brent Free School.

SCHOOLS: Capital City Academy, Convent of Jesus and Mary Language College, Newman Catholic College, Queens Park Community School, The Crest Academy

It could be argued that the North Brent Free School is needed for the Wembley growth area rather than Neasden  but its site depended on the availability of land and is decided by the ESFA rather than Brent Council. Pupils would travel south on the Jubilee line from Wembley Park to Neasden or via the 297 bus route. It will be counter to the present south to north flow of pupils going to Ark Elvin, Wembley Ark, Michaela and Preston Manor.

Clearly this is one consideration for Crest but there are others. Crest has had difficulty in filling up all its places despite the new £40m building, a major reason for the original academisation bid by the heads of the separate John Kelly Boys and Girls Schools.  When schools do not fill all their places it means that they become the school allocated to Year 6 pupils who do not get any of their choices of secondary school and for pupils who arrive in the country too late to apply for a place. This skews the intake and introduces a 'churn' when pupils leave as places become available at their school of choice.  This in turn presents a challenge for teachers and affects performance data.

A PAN of 200 could stabilise the school with E-ACT Braintcroft Primary School, just across the road from Crest, providing up to 90 of the 200 pupils.

Crest under its previous leadership in June 2015 scrapped the separate teaching of girls and boys inherited from the John Kelly Schools despite opposition from some parents.

Parents protest outside Crest  in favour of single sex education- then under construction

Mohsen Ojja, Principal at the time, explained:

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.

The move was supported by Ofsted and Crest was inspected in 2016  was categorised as 'Good'.  However there remains a group of parents who favour single sex education and resent the fact that it is not available  at secondary level except in Roman Catholic schools or the private sector. Crest may have lost some pupils to the private sector.

Ironically a monitoring visit by HMI and Ofsted in 2018 was very positive but noted regarding the building:

The extensive school site poses some challenges for school leaders. A school ‘line up’ happens three times a day and is intended to ensure that staff know where pupils are and are able to prepare them better for the next learning session. However, leaders accept that they need to give further thought to the rationale for this activity, the allocated time and the consistency of approach by pupils and staff.

The building, designed for 11 forms on entry will now house a much smaller number of pupils and raises questions about 'value for money' for the £40m spent on it.

Money is of course another factor, maintaining staffing and facilities for a larger number of pupils than actually attend produces a budget gap.  Cristalina Fernandes tells parents:

A large portion of funding received by schools is directly related to the number of pupils attending the school. If there are too many vacancies in our school this means that we will not receive the maximum venue possible. Therefore we are proposing to reduce the number of available places to enable the school to operate more efficiently and cost effectively.

Depending on how resources are deployed at present this may mean both a reduction in the number of staff and an increase in class sizes in the future.

More widely of course the whole matter raises the issue of the secondary sector academisation that has taken place in Brent, depriving the local authority of any real say in planning school places and creating a competitive 'market' between schools.

The consultation began on Monday July 8th and ends at 3pm on Friday 8th November.   Responses should be sent to The Headteacher, Cristalina Fernandes, The Crest Academy, Crest Road, London NW2 7SN.