A Charter for Community Schools

Dear friend,

SAVE THE DATE: OCOS Public Meeting, Tuesday 21 October 2014

‘What do we want from our Schools? A Charter for Schools’

7.30pm, Harmony Hall, Truro Road, Walthamstow

Speakers include Melissa Benn (education writer and author of School Wars: the battle for Britain's Education) with other speakers to be confirmed shortly…

Read more here.

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After a summer break., Our Community Our Schools is back with a new public meeting. It’s almost exactly two years since our campaign was set up, prompted by the proposals to establish two Free Schools in the borough. We saw Free Schools, like Academies, as a dangerous way of fragmenting our school system, taking schools out of the hands of their communities and increasing social divisions of all kinds in our diverse borough.

Yet right from the start, we have tried hard to promote a positive vision of education and schooling as an alternative to the policies being pushed by the Coalition. Now, as Free Schools and academies come increasingly under the spotlight and their achievements are thrown into question, we want to start to build that alternative vision of education by starting a discussion in our borough about what people really want from their schools.

Our schools are answerable to national politicians, but shouldn't they also be  organic parts of their communities?

What should our schools be trying to achieve? How should they be run? How should we be involved in our schools?

To help start this discussion off, we are hosting a new public meeting on 21^st October and we’re delighted that one of our main speakers will be Melissa Benn, education expert, writer and author of the excellent book ‘School Wars: The battle for Britain's Education’. Other great speakers will be announced shortly.

We’ll also be publishing a discussion document in the form of a draft Charter for our Schools to help kick off the debate.

More details very soon. Watch this space!

Can you help us leaflet and promote this meeting?

If you’re prepared to help us by joining a leafleting team or leafleting your street to help promote this meeting, please emailwfdefendstateschools@gmail.com and let us know.

Yours

Jonathan White

Scarlet Harris

Alison Emmett

Kiri Tunks

Mark Holding

Tom Davies

Mickey Dean and everyone else at Our Community, Our Schools


To: adrian.stannard@btinternet.com

Is this email not displaying correctly? View it in your browser. Our Community Our Schools Book your place today for:   Public Meeting - What do we want from our Schools?   Tuesday, October 21, 2014 from 7:30 PM - 9:00 PM Melissa Benn, education writer and author of School Wars: the battle for Britain's Education John Cryer MP for Leyton and Wanstead Jenny Smith, Headteacher, Frederick Bremer School, star of ‘Educating the East End’ Kevin Courtney, Deputy General Secretary, National Union of Teachers Our Community Our Schools thinks it's time we, as a community, started talking about what it is we really want from our schools. How do we build a new, positive and progressive vision for our education system? We’re delighted to have a stellar line up of speakers to start that debate at our public meeting, including education expert and writer Melissa Benn, Kevin Courtney, Deputy General Secretary of the NUT, John Cryer, local MP for Leyton and Wanstead, and Jenny Smith, headteacher of our own Frederick Bremer School, currently starring in ‘Educating the East End’.   We'll be asking: How should we measure success in schools? Are our kids being ‘measured’ and tested too much? How should schools be run? Who should our schools be accountable to? How do we ensure that all kids get the same chances? How should we, as parents, be more involved in our schools?  Come and join the discussion. Help us to shape a Charter for education in our borough. Harmony Hall 10 Truro Rd , England E17 7BY Attend Event Events powered by EventBrite