Since our post on the 1st of December Barkingside 21 has joined together with local residents and parents to support the Council’s bid to open and run a new primary school on the site of the current Ilford Jewish Primary school. The online petition is still open at here and we have information leaflets available if anybody would like one. An open competition is being held to decide who should run it and bids were submitted by 3 organisations, including the Council, on the 13th of December 2010. There is a public meeting on 6th January where we will be able to hear from the proposers and we assume express our views, further details can be found on the link or are given below. On the 23rd of December details of the 3 proposals will be published and there is then 6 weeks for any interested parties to comment, so we will be campaigning until the end of January to ensure the views of those of us who support a community school are represented properly.If you support the establishment of a community school please sign the petition so that your views can be represented in the bidding process. The petition can be signed online, see box below, and there is a letter which can be sent to the decision makers available at our resources page. If you wish to sign a hard copy of either document or have any questions please click here or use the email address on right of page.
As a quick reminder we support the opening of a new community school which would be wholly run by the Local Authority because:
- The school will need to serve all of the diverse communities in Redbridge. We believe this can be best achieved by a school which is under the control of publicly elected and accountable Politicians and Local Authority Officers.
- A very significant investment is required to buy and develop the site. If the Local Authority is to invest circa £3m of tax payers' money into this project we believe that it should remain a community asset which serves the whole community equally.
Matt
The school will need to serve all of the diverse communities in Redbridge. We believe this can be best achieved by a school which is under the control of publicly elected and accountable Politicians and Local Authority Officers.
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ReplyDeleteAbsolutely right, Green Kokichi. Primary school age is the best time to ensure that people of different communities integrate and understand each other. A "faith school" will only maintain separation, suspicion and myth.
ReplyDeleteAn important resource such as this school building needs to be used and open for the entire community. I have looked at the initial public consultation and I am surprised at the number of people proposing a faith based school. Education must be secular and no faith based school should be allowed public funds if it directly or indirectly discriminates on the basis of faith, new or existing.
ReplyDeleteThe relevant word which jumps at me in this last comment by Riaz Bhatti is 'indirectly'.
ReplyDeleteAlso, lots of promises of fairness in admission on a geographic basis rather than religious one apart from a small percentage. Who is going to administer that? Who is going to check?
Our council?
annesevant