Parents Defending Education - South London: Parents and Teachers Event

[ChloeDunbar]

Hello East Dulwich Parents - we need your power now!

A group of concerned local parents and teachers have set out to create an event in South London that aims to help further inform people (including ourselves) about the changes and challenges facing our schools.

We have organised a 'Parents Defending Education - South London: Parents & Teachers Event' and I wanted to see if I could encourage you all to come so we can get informed and involved together. Please spread the word to other parents you know too. All are welcome. We want it to be as lively, information rich and well attended as possible.

Thursday 16 June at 8pm at effraspace, 21 Effra Parade, London SW2 1PX

Here is a link to the Facebook event page which it would be wonderful if you could click if you will attend and share:

https://www.facebook.com/events/250401915318081/permalink/250500468641559/

The event has been created as an opportunity for parents to meet with teachers, share information and hear first hand the challenges and concerns facing our education system. In the last few weeks the media has been full of stories about the government's plans for schools but what will this mean for your child and school? Today 8 Lambeth schools received letters in their book bags saying that academisation was now on the cards. Your school may have been one of these or be next?

Hopefully the event will give you the opportunity to:

Discover more about how local schools are run and how this might change in the future? Academisation is still a route many schools may take - forced or not.

Understand what teachers and fellow parents really feel about SATs and the increasingly onerous regime of Primary testing.

Get to grips with how the governments funding freeze will be effect class size, number of teachers and assistants and support services.

Out of the meeting we hope to be able to agree what a campaign directed to government might look like, how to support teachers / schools further and what action we might want to take in our own school - at the very least discuss what questions we should all be asking?

We are very pleased to have received the backing of the NUT for our meeting. The meeting will be free and drinks and nibbles will be on offer.

Good campaigns to check out if you want more information are:

‪#‎letkidsbekids‬ ‪#‎parentsagainstforcedacademies‬ ‪#‎parentsdefendingeducation‬

Let's remember that our schools don't belong to the government. Our schools belong to our children, to the community, to the parents, to the teachers and support staff and to future generations.

Many thanks all.

[DaveR]

This all sounds very reasonable - concerned local parents, get informed etc. Isn't it actually just the Anti-Academies Alliance, by another name? Which in turn is a movement dominated by teaching and other public sector unions, with no interest in anything other than knee-jerk opposition to anything that disturbs their vested interests?

If you're appealing for people to join your (political) cause, just say so - don't dress it up as something else (however ineptly)

[uncleglen]

DaveR is right- the Headteacher should determine what goes on in the school and the less money spent on town hall bureaucracy, thus depriving the 'chalk face' -the better

[intexasatthe moment]

uncle glen - I don't understand your post .

Do you think headteachers currently determine what goes on in their schools ? What point are you agreeing with DaveR on ?

[ChloeDunbar]

Just to clairfy I can tell you now this meeting has been organised by a collection of local parents across a range of primary schools including very concerned parents with children in the 8 Gipsy Hill Federation primaries who are under threat of academisation. We want to defend education as a public service and open up a discussion about the fundamental changes that our government are proposing. Do feel free to come as we want a full exploration of all views.

[DaveR]

"Do feel free to come as we want a full exploration of all views."

But do you, really?

"Parents Defending Education" - from whom? Or is that something still to be decided?

"Out of the meeting we hope to be able to agree what a campaign directed to government might look like" - but there's definitely going to be campaign directed at government, right?

"We are very pleased to have received the backing of the NUT for our meeting" - have you checked with them whether they are interested in a 'full exploration of all views'? My view is that the NUT represent a significant threat to further improvement in schools - can we explore that?

"Let's remember that our schools don't belong to the government. Our schools belong to our children, to the community, to the parents, to the teachers and support staff and to future generations." My view is that this is meaningless, pointless nonsense - the real question is who should run schools, and in particular how to manage the tricky balance of power between govt (central and local), the management and governors of individual schools (and increasingly those of academy chains), and others, in particular whoever is carrying out the supervisory/quality control function, be it Ofsted or whoever. My sense is that this (serious and difficult) issue is one you're not interested in grappling with.

'Parents Defending Education' = simplistic nonsense.

[uncleglen]

I agree with DaveR on this point..

'Isn't it actually just the Anti-Academies Alliance, by another name? Which in turn is a movement dominated by teaching and other public sector unions,...'

And the fact that the NUT is backing your meeting kind of proves the hidden agenda.

Anyone who is 'in' education knows that local councils use schools (and other front-line public services controlled by the local council) as political footballs and will use every opportunity to manipulate local 'democratic' powers to denigrate the government's policies, when central government is conservative and local government is not as we all saw during the Thatcher years.

During the 1990s I worked in several different types of schools in Southwark, Lambeth and Lewisham- all of them seemed to have enough resources at the 'chalkface' - City Technology Colleges, Grant Maintained and Voluntary Aided faith schools but the locally managed schools- i.e. the ones in local Authority control- did not

[Chocky]

The frightening thing is that now and in the immediate future, funding for the education of our children in all schools and colleges is being cut - whether they are local authority maintained schools, sixth form colleges, academies. This is my concern as a parent of children just starting their education.