The green space that may be lost to Gladstone Free School

I thought it would be worthwhile, before tonight's consultation on the proposed Gladstone Free School,  to take a look at the proposed site on the Metropolitan Open Land next to Gladstone Park.

I spoke to Anna, a local resident and Marcia who is the site representative on Gladstone Park allotments. It was very blustery today so please excuse the sound quality. However, the pictures on their own tell the story of what might be lost:

Copland staff declare 'no confidence' in IEB

Last Wednesday, in a joint union meeting, Copland staff passed unanimously the following vote of no confidence in the IEB (Interim Executive Board)  drafted in to run the school by Brent council after the sacking of the democratically elected governing body last July.  The resolution reflects the continuing and growing concerns of staff, parents and students on a range of legal, financial, democratic, procedural and professional matters.

The resolution, a copy of which has been forwarded to the head of the IEB, Grahame Price, reads:

Copland staff have no confidence in the IEB as they:

1. Continued and oversaw a massive, indiscriminate, hugely expensive voluntary redundancy programme in the  summer that took no proper account of the curriculum and failed to protect it to the detriment of pupils' education and the school.

2. Failed to take action to improve the school’s  intake

3. Failed to press action to get any of the money (£2.7 million) returned that was removed from the school under a previous administration, while at the same time claiming every cutback and redundancy was necessary on financial grounds.

4. Secretly applied to the DfE to turn Copland into an ARK academy without informing, never mind consulting, and not even providing a time line to staff or parents.

5. Have refused to allow an independently overseen secret ballot of staff or parents regarding their proposal, or properly negotiate on it,despite the Unions offer to pay for such a ballot.

6. Have engaged in a fundamentally flawed and unfair 'consultation' procedure over support staff redundancies and are seeking such wide scale redundancies both in teaching and support staff that theeducation and well being of the pupils can only be harmed.

7. Have adversely affected the school's finances by drastically reducing the 6th form numbers.

8. Have actively pursued an anti union agenda;

a) unilaterally abolishing the school's JCC

b) declining to formally consult the unions over the ARK proposal

c) unlawfully not allowing school union reps to go on training courses

Staff also voted unanimously :

 That a complaint be made to all relevant authorities and bodies** on the basis of the no confidence motion and any other irregularities that come to light

**E.g. Brent Local Authority, Brent Audit and Investigation Department, The Audit Commission, Teacher unions, Michael Gove, DfE

 That legal action be investigated following the successful judicial review by Barking and Dagenham Council in support of Warren Comprehensive school with a view to taking legal action over the attempt to force academisation without proper information or consultation.

Gladstone Free School accused of land grab

As the infamous case of outstanding Sulivan Primary School's closure to make way for Fulham Boys' Free School  is hitting the headlines, see BBC London News later tonight, Gladstone Free School is accused of a land grab in Brent in this guest blog:

Residents,allotment holders, representatives of Torah Temimah Primary School close to the proposed site of Gladstone Free School (currently allotment,a green open space and a hired rugby pitch (Kilburn Cosmos RFC) alongside the north of the  railway line as it passes through Gladstone Park (at the bottom of Parkside (off Dollis Hill Lane) NW2) will be attending the consultation by the proposed Gladstone Free School on Monday 27 January 2014 at 6pm at the Crown Moran Hotel in Cricklewood.

The land is Metropolitan Open land and Brent Council has already turned down an initial application - however recent enquiries to the Gladstone Free School (LINK )  have discovered that this open land is now the favoured site of the Department for Education and the governors of the Free School.

The Gladstone Free School is scheduled to open in September 2014 and apparently a temporary building is planned on the open land.

The backers of the school claim that there is a need for a new local secondary school - in fact there are many vacancies for September 2014 at Whitefield School NW2 and the newly refurbished Crest Academy ..both schools are within two miles of the proposed free school.

Governors argue that the site is where the former William Gladstone School stood ( until foolishly closed by Brent Council 20 years ago).This is false - the former site of the school is now a housing estate including Campbell Gordon Way.

From the school website. Proposed school is in blue but the open space has been coloured grey rather than green

We are opposed to the loss of our open space because :

- this  is a valued recreational space used by local residents for sports,relaxation,dog walking and gardening

- there is  heavy traffic use in the area caused by the primary school parents and staff 

- a new  road system for the 800 pupil school would destroy the tranquillity of Gladstone Park - used by thousands weekly 

Please come along and make your feelings known.

Free schools were introduced  by the Conservative/Liberal Democrat Coalition government in 2010 - they are state funded independent schools which do not co-operate with:

      the local Council or other secondary schools.The government hands over taxpayer money to build or convert new free schools and pay their costs.Research shows that Free Schools 

      discriminate against pupils from poor families and have lower levels of pupils on free school meals than their local catchment area.

Further note from Martin (Wembley Matters)

Gladstone Free School website has added a red running footnote at the bottom of the advertisement stating that the meeting is only to discuss the broad principles of the school. 

However the Agenda for the meeting on the panel next to this announcement includes the proposed location:

The plan for the event is:

• Welcome

• Background to the school

• Vision and curriculum

• School day, uniform, and induction

• Proposed location and equality assessment 

• Funding agreement

• Summary and Consultation questions

• Breakout groups:
  

  • curriculum;
  • premises;
  • completing admissions forms;
  • completing consultation form
     

Confused?

Let Gove and Wilshaw spit blood - we'll organise for an alternative

Following on from the successful West London Education Question Time last week, I attended the Anti Academies Alliance AGM, and left optimistic that at last the agenda supported by both Michael Gove and Michael Wilshaw (their squabble is more about power and ego than policy) is being challenged on a broad front.

The AAA recognised the connection between the neoliberal privatisation and austerity agendas by agreeing to affiliate to the People's Assembly. They agreed to participate in developing the education policies and actions of the PA and to support their local and national activities that accord with those of the AAA and the National Campaign for Education.

The importance of democracy and accountability highlighted by the struggles around  academisation was the subject of a motion on Parental Ballots which was agreed by the AGM.

The notion read:

The AAA notes

• that many of the schools converting to academy status - voluntarily or forced - are doing so without proper consultation of parents
• the recent decision of Barking and Dagenham Local Authority to organise ballots of parents in schools facing academy conversion

The AAA believes

• that parents should have the final say on the status of their children's schools

AAA calls

• on all governing bodies in any school consulting on academy status - whether by choice or by direction - to hold a ballot of parents
• on all Local Authorities to organise parental ballots for all schools converting to academy status

I hope that Brent Council will take note of Barking and Dagenham's policy and adopt it. But B&D have gone further winning an historic injunction, alongside governors,  in the High Court preventing the imposition of an Interim Executive Board and an Academy Order on Warren School.(1) After Warren went into special measures a year ago a partnership was established with Rober5t Clack School and Warrens's results have risen by 16%.

The Director of Children's Services at B&D had said:

I believe the Secretary of State's proposal will disrupt the progress made, and could negatively impact on children's education.

The ruling by Mr Justice Collins is itself very interesting as he not only questions the decision itself, saying. 'It appears to me this decision should never have been made' but also questions the legislation which allows such decisions to take place in the face of local demoracy and th best interests of the children concerned.

The Judge said:

This is an extraordinary piece of legislation (Academies Act 2010). The Secretary of State has wide powers to make am IEB (Interim Executive Board) and AO (Academy Order) and thereafter consult. On the face of it that is crazy. How can he be impartial by consulting thereafter?

He went on:

(It) seems from reports the present Secretary of State thinks academies are the cat's whiskers - we know of course some of them are not.

Cllr John White, cabinet minister for  children's services, and Michael Pavey's equivalent in Barking said:

This (injunction) is a victory for both common sense and the education of our children. Our position remains that the improvements at the school, and the arrangements we have in place, are having a very positive impact on outcomes for children, and as such, imposing an academy will be disruptive to children's education.

This follows on from the Snaresbrook Primary school's victory against forced academisation where an effective parental campaign was backed by the senior management team of the school, the governing body and the local authority.

Even in Hammersmith and Fulham flagship Tory borough, the decision to close top performing  Sulivan Primary School to make way for a free school, has stubled with the Scrutiny Committee's decision to call in the decision.

There seems to be the potential for a cross-party and non-party campaign to at least slow down Gove's juggernaut.  This is only a small step though because the three main parties are still wedded to neoliberal ideas of education emphasising marketisation and the producing of children who are 'fit for work' or even in the case of some academies and free schools, 'fit for military service'.

We must both win small victories to slow down Gove's reforms but also build and win support for alternative ideas about what education is for, how it is organised, and how decisions are made.

Having been elected to the National Steering Committee of the Anti Academies Alliance on Saturday I hope to make a contribution to this strategy.

(1) Acknowledgements to paper circulated at AAA AGM

How heads can resist forced academies

It was clear listening yesterday to the parents from Snaresbrook Primary School, who successfully fought against forced academisation, that they were greatly aided by the fact that the senior leadership team, governing body, and local authority all opposed to forced academisation and supported their campaign. In this video Rob Kelsall of the National Association of Head Teachers addresses what head teachers and governing bodies can do. So far in Brent there have been at least two forced primary academies and unfortunately the local authority has not been forthright in its opposition or in its support for parent campaigners.

The Big Garden Birdwatch in Wembley

My back garden

The RSPB's  annual 'Big Garden Birdwatch' is always an opportunity to sit in a comfortable armchair, cup of coffee at hand, to do almost nothing for an hour.

I have a tiny garden but it is designed to be nature friendly and is regularly visited by birds, However, the annual observation period is subject to interference from some unwelcome visitors. A pair of pigeons will perch on the seed feeder bracket for hours. They are unable to reach the feeders themselves but their bulky presence puts off smaller birds. They peer dimly at the  blue tits who bravely flit back and forth to the feeders but don't seem to have worked out that this is not time well spent!

They are the bird equivalent of dog in a manger.

There is also a neighbour's black cat that positions itself below the feeder and mews plaintively at the clinging birds, apparently in an effort to persuade them to plummet into its open mouth.

This morning the pigeons kept away and it was too wet for the cat, but a pair of raucous magpies made up for them and kept scaring off the other birds.

Nevertheless these were my results for the period between 10 and 11am:

Blue tit (5)
Great tit (4)
Nuthatch (2)
Dunnock (2)
Magpie (2)
Great spotted woodpecker (1)
Robin (1)
Blackcap (1)
Wood pigeon (1)
Jay (1)
Blackbird (1)

Each bird is counted only once  so when there is more than one they have to be in the garden at the same time - not the total seen over the hour as many of these will be returnees. Long tailed tits, a frequent visitor in groups of six or more, are missing. They usually visit mid-afternoon. I also see chaffinches and goldfinches but have not seen green finches for a couple of years after they were hit by disease.

The pair of nuthatches are regular visitors. They frighten off the blue tits and great its before feeding. This footage taken from my window shows a nuthatch's beauty and versaitility:

4,000 petitioners demand that the Queensbury Pub be saved for the community

Busy Rascals Mums and toddlers wait to present the petition

Local residents, especially parents from the Busy Rascals group, came along in strength this week, to present a 4,000 plus petition to Cllr Michael Pavey to save the Queensbury Pub from developers. Pavey is Brent Executive member for children and families so may seem a strange choice, but that is because the Queensbury is no ordinary pub - it is now recognised as an 'asset of community value' not just as an exellent pub but as the base for Busy Rascals, a parent and toddler group and National Childbirth Trust meetings.

Pavey received the petition, not in his official role, but as a councillor committed to the interests of children. Independent Make Willesden Green Candidate, Alex Colas (on the left of Michael Pavey) was there to show his support, as was I for the Greens and there were several prospective Labour Party councillors present, but the real message was that this was a non-politically aligned community campaign that intends to fight on for the common good.

Willesden Green has lost too much in the last year or so and cannot afford to lose any more community assets. The Queensbury campaign deserves all our support.

Brent's 2015-16 budget gap could still justify council tax referendum

Reflecting on Muhammed Butt's declaration yesterday that there were 'no plans to change course' on freezing council tax for the 2014-15 budget, I wonder what his plans are for 2015-16. In October the Council forecast a deficit for that year of  £34m (see below) a huge amount that on the council's own reckoning will put essential services at risk.

As political parties are deciding their manifestos for the May local elections surely they should be saying something about this crisis waiting for them in their first year of office.

In that respect a manifesto pledge to have a referendum on increasing council tax would make sense. Rank and file Labour party members and the wider public could than have a say and it could provide a launch pad for similar moves by other local authorities.  I do not think increases in council tax are the answer to the huge cuts in local authority funding, that of course requires the restoration of adequate funding, but a national debate post May 2014 leading up to the General Election in 2015 could feed into that demand. It will certainly put the future of local government on the General Election agenda.

The referendum debate in Brent, unlike in Brighton and Hove, may be closed in terms of the 2014-15 budget but should be very much a live issue for 2015-16. The electorate need to know how the competing parties would tackle the issue.

Meanwhile on February 4th the Budget Finance and Overview Scrutiny Committee will be discussing the draft budget for 2014-15. No details are included on the agenda except for the following statement:

The Budget and Finance Overview and Scrutiny Committee will discuss and make recommendations on the draft 2014/15 budget. Councillor Ruth Moher, Lead Member for Corporate Resources and Deputy Leader of the Council, will present the draft budget and answer questions from members. While the committee will lead the discussion, this meeting is intended to give all non-Executive members the opportunity to participate in the budget scrutiny process and raise any questions or comments they may have on the draft budget.

These are the figures published on Wembley Matters in October 2013 LINK that signalled the upcoming crisis:
 

	2014/15	2015/16	2016/17
	£m	£m	£m
Budget Gap at Council Feb 2013	20.4	17.1	17.3
Reductions in Revenue Support Grant	2.0	13.0	1.0
Business Rate Top-Up	-0.1	-0.4	-0.2
Additional Council Tax Freeze Grants	-1.0	-1.1	2.1
Business Rates - share of growth from baseline	-1.9	-0.7	-0.6
New Homes Bonus	0.5	2.7	-0.1
Collection Fund Surplus	-2.4	2.4
Council Tax Base	-1.3	-0.2	-0.3
Other Grants	-1.1	0.8
Capital Financing	-2.0
Latest Budget Gap	13.1	33.6	19.2