Matt Harmer and I met a small group of very angry Year 6 parents this week - whose children had not been offered a place at any of the schools they had put on their forms. They either had been offered Hounslow Manor or none at all.
As we have no mixed secondary school in Brentford, most people apply for Elthorne Park or Chiswick. Green is also popular for some families. However, unless families already have a child in one of those schools, no-one from Brentford is being offered a place. I am not sure what the situation is for Isleworth & Syon - would welcome an update.
The reason we are in this situation is that there are more children than ever in the system, our local schools are very popular, and there has not been sufficient expansion of places to keep up. The applications system is based on distance from the school (after siblings have been offered a place) and people who live at any distance from any mixed secondary school havn't got a hope of being given an offer.
Over the last year or two I have met with the Director of Children's Services twice on this issue.
With the email in-box bulging on the issues, and meeting several parents too, on Friday I wrote to the Director asking; a) what progress there is on the idea of getting a new school for Brentford, and
b) whether any of the local schools could have a "bulge" class for September. I will let you know the response.
Some parents have asked if Brentford School for Girls could become a mixed school.. We would be interested in views on that. It is a popular school, but a significant proportion of the students come from some distance, and from other boroughs. It is felt that if it was mixed it might serve local residents better.
Views welcome!
Sunday, 7 March 2010
Thursday, 4 March 2010
MBE for Hounslow Language Service
I was honoured to be invited to Sunday evening's celebration of Roz Carter's MBE, to be given to her by the Queen in April. Roz set up and ran HLS until her retirement a couple of years ago. Through her leadership and continuing legacy HLS is respected nationally and internationally for the quality of support given to teaching children with little or no English language capability. The service has meant that Hounslow's children who arrive in our schools not speaking or understanding English, achieve results that are as good as or better than locally-born children - and that Hounslow's school results are a massive success story across the board.
Until this year, HLS was funded through the Government's EMAG (Ethnic Minorities Acheivement)grant with an additional £500k of direct council funding. Both the grant and the central funding were pooled, with the specialist teachers being centrally employed and trained, then being allocated to the schools as needed. HLS has developed a body of knowledge and professional expertise that can be shared among their specialist teachers and with schools, to ensure the best start for children. This expertise is so valued that the Government's London Challenge scheme is funding HLS to spread that knowledge with schools and local authorities across London. Apparently, many schools in other areas treat EAL (English as an Additional Language) children as though they have "special needs", when many will have been in school since their early years in their birth country.
The council funding meant that the teachers were allocated to schools according to both the need in terms of numbers in a school, and where possible matching teachers speaking the language of the pupils. One school may have several HLS specialist language teachers visiting them during the week. It also means, that as happened at one local school, that if on the first day of term, several children arrive unexpectedly speaking only Polish, HLS can provide a Polish-speaking teacher immediately to support those children through their first few days in school. This is incredibly valuable for schools with children who have many different home languages, and the kind of support that will not be available now.
A year ago the Tories running Hounslow pushed through the cut of the central funding - £1/2 million. As a result HLS is being virtually broken up. Those schools with sufficient EMAG grant are employing teachers directly - probably only one at each school, so the range of languages available to a school is gone. The professional support and learning is decimated, and some schools are using their grant to employ teaching assistants to provide specialist language support which should be provided by qualified and properly trained teachers. We opposed the cut last year, but to no avail, despite overwhelming support received in the way of petitions, letters, phone calls and meetings. Unfortunately it fell on deaf ears - many of the Tory group thought HLS was a mother-tongue service. Most had no interest in the needs of children arriving in our schools and who need all the tools they can to integrate and play an active part in our society.
A sad day indeed, and an insult to Roz Carter and all she acheived over 28 years.
Until this year, HLS was funded through the Government's EMAG (Ethnic Minorities Acheivement)grant with an additional £500k of direct council funding. Both the grant and the central funding were pooled, with the specialist teachers being centrally employed and trained, then being allocated to the schools as needed. HLS has developed a body of knowledge and professional expertise that can be shared among their specialist teachers and with schools, to ensure the best start for children. This expertise is so valued that the Government's London Challenge scheme is funding HLS to spread that knowledge with schools and local authorities across London. Apparently, many schools in other areas treat EAL (English as an Additional Language) children as though they have "special needs", when many will have been in school since their early years in their birth country.
The council funding meant that the teachers were allocated to schools according to both the need in terms of numbers in a school, and where possible matching teachers speaking the language of the pupils. One school may have several HLS specialist language teachers visiting them during the week. It also means, that as happened at one local school, that if on the first day of term, several children arrive unexpectedly speaking only Polish, HLS can provide a Polish-speaking teacher immediately to support those children through their first few days in school. This is incredibly valuable for schools with children who have many different home languages, and the kind of support that will not be available now.
A year ago the Tories running Hounslow pushed through the cut of the central funding - £1/2 million. As a result HLS is being virtually broken up. Those schools with sufficient EMAG grant are employing teachers directly - probably only one at each school, so the range of languages available to a school is gone. The professional support and learning is decimated, and some schools are using their grant to employ teaching assistants to provide specialist language support which should be provided by qualified and properly trained teachers. We opposed the cut last year, but to no avail, despite overwhelming support received in the way of petitions, letters, phone calls and meetings. Unfortunately it fell on deaf ears - many of the Tory group thought HLS was a mother-tongue service. Most had no interest in the needs of children arriving in our schools and who need all the tools they can to integrate and play an active part in our society.
A sad day indeed, and an insult to Roz Carter and all she acheived over 28 years.
Budget Farce
Tuesday night we had an intersting night where Phil Andrews claimed independence (from the Tories) for less than half an hour.
The budget proposed by the Conservatives was originally voted down.
After a 20 minute break, it emerged that £250,000 was to be made available for unspecified 'community uses'. The ICG leadership then supported the budget.
This was a shoddy deal with no indication as to where the money would come from or what it was going to be spent on. It just proves that the
Conservatives and the ICG are happy to waste residents' money in order
to please themselves. If this money was available, why isn't it being spent on proper public services? They are wasting residents' money while services get worse.
The rest of the Tory cuts remained, with the exception of the removal of the school uniform grants, and the subsidy for community use of school buildings. Lets hope there's still some admin staff available to administer the grants to the families on very low incomes who really need help with these costs.
The budget proposed by the Conservatives was originally voted down.
After a 20 minute break, it emerged that £250,000 was to be made available for unspecified 'community uses'. The ICG leadership then supported the budget.
This was a shoddy deal with no indication as to where the money would come from or what it was going to be spent on. It just proves that the
Conservatives and the ICG are happy to waste residents' money in order
to please themselves. If this money was available, why isn't it being spent on proper public services? They are wasting residents' money while services get worse.
The rest of the Tory cuts remained, with the exception of the removal of the school uniform grants, and the subsidy for community use of school buildings. Lets hope there's still some admin staff available to administer the grants to the families on very low incomes who really need help with these costs.
Thursday, 25 February 2010
Should Council tax payers provide Councillors with Laptops
Councillors have access to PCs in the Civic Centre, but there is a proposal circulating among Councillors to provide us all with additional lap-top, a dongle, printers and data sticks after the election. The total cost would between £95,636 and £142,436 over the next 4 years. We are told that we all need dedicated Council lap-tops as that is the only way we can get into the secure intranet and emails. But people who work for large companies and the NHS, when they are working from home, get into their employers secure intranet from their home emails, using security systems that cost a fraction of the cost of a load of new hardware. I feel that if people need a lap-top, and they are councillors, then they should be able to use their council allowance to pay for this (possibly using the Council's buying power to keep costs low).
In these cash-strapped times, is it really right that scarce funds should be provided for this purpose?
In these cash-strapped times, is it really right that scarce funds should be provided for this purpose?
Monday, 22 February 2010
Cross-border, cross-party collaboration oppose backland develoment.
Back from holiday and catching up on emails. Good to hear that Ealing refused planning permission for a little house stuck in a tiny space behind homes in Whitestile, Darwin and Junction Roads (on the borough boundary). I had written a formal objection to Ealing's planning committee after a local resident had alerted me to the committee report - where planning officers had recommended refusal.
Matt Harmer came back from his break as I went away, and along with Andrew Dakers, ensured the story got in the local papers, and that Northfield Councillors (Tories) also opposed at the committee.
Matt Harmer came back from his break as I went away, and along with Andrew Dakers, ensured the story got in the local papers, and that Northfield Councillors (Tories) also opposed at the committee.
Thursday, 11 February 2010
Not everyone wants more trees
I had always thought the Tory/ICG COuncil pledge of a 1000 new street trees would be one of those "motherhood and apple-pie things and dificult to object to. However I have now been contacted by 2 different residents, faced with new trees being planted in their road who want me to get them stopped. 1 objects to the fact a tree will go right outside their windows, and the other - to say they have more than enough trees in the park opposite their house, and the money would be better spent maintaining these trees and clearing up the leaf mulch in the autumn.
Any views?
Ruth
Any views?
Ruth
Monday, 1 February 2010
Ice and Fractures
I continue to seek answers about the gritting policy, particularly as I've just found out that West Mid had a 50% increase in fractures in A&E during the icy week in January, AND that this was a greater increase than other London hospitals. Environment Services confirmed that their priority 1 gritting on footways does not extend the length of the footway. They expect to get to Priority 2 footways within a day. I'm sorry but this did just not happen, and I am calling for a review of their gritting schedule, so that people can safely walk along busy pavements.
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