• Should smart phones be banned in Scottish schools as England have now announced?
    While we all recognise the convenience of smart phones, on balance they causes more harm than good during the school day. School should be a 6 hour respite, free from distraction, bullying, hate and violence The direction of travel globally and across the UK is for increased restriction of phones in schools. The Scottish Government, which prides itself on youth mental and physical wellbeing, should be at the vanguard of this safeguarding movement. We are failing our duty of care as parents by not doing all we can to have this harm removed from the school day in face of the mounting evidence.
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    Created by pamela barclay
  • Removal of fence to create a walk way between Newman Close and Magnolia Avenue Loughborough.
    To create a safe walking route to school for both primary age at Outwoods Edge and Woodbrook High School. Today there has been a fence erected a face between a walk way Newham Way and Magnolia Close Loughborough. This is a key walkway for children at Outwoods Edge School and Woodbook Vale High School. This walk way provides a safe traffic free route to school and allows the reduction of traffic in the area commuting to and from the schools. This decision to put up the fence was not consulted with residents, the school or local community.
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    Created by Sarah Helmore
  • Get our lessons back - MU2001 and MU3001 scholarship students
    As some of us are already aware, MU2001+3001 scholarship students are entitled to one hour of lessons free a week - 30 minutes from the funding MU2001+3001 provides, and 30 minutes from our respective vocal/choral/instrumental scholarships. What we are actually provided with is 30 minutes from MU2001+3001 funding, and according to our singing teachers, the funding our scholarship should provide is left in a bank account; untouched and forgotten. This contraction of our lessons was only put into practice last year, where scholarship students would get an hour of lessons a week free. So why should we be the year to lose out? Signing this petition shows that we as a collective are disappointed with the lack of information provided to us when we were applying for our scholarship, and the department's current avoidance of addressing the problem and explaining their decisions to us as a collective of MU2001+MU3001.
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    Created by Vic Priestner Picture
  • Increase the number of SEN schools in Birmingham City Council
    Thousands of parents are having to go through mediation or tribunals against the local authority, due to refusing EHC needs assessments, issuing EHCP’s (Education Health Care Plans) disagreeing with the content of the EHCP or naming a special school. Often local councils are naming a mainstream school that can’t meet the child’s Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND). Or a special school can’t be offered due to being over subscribed or not suitable if a child's needs are more substantial. The cost to Her Majesty's Court & Tribunal Service is over £2000 per child. This pays for preparation, administration and the hearing day itself. Then there's the cost to the parties attending the SENDIST tribunal. Councils lose 96% of SEND tribunals at a cost of just under £60m. Almost 10,000 SEN unit places could have been funded with the money that councils wasted on unsuccessful court disputes with parents and carers seeking SEND support for their children. Of 11,052 SEND tribunals registered by councils in 2021/22, a staggering 96% were won by parents, carers, and young people. The result is £59.8m of public money wasted on SEND tribunals – enough to fund SEN unit placements for 9,960 young people. Furthermore, nearly 3,500 further cases were withdrawn or conceded before they got to tribunal hearing. The disturbing figures have been revealed in a study commissioned by the Disabled Children’s Partnership and published by Pro Bono Economics (Jemal & Kenley, 2023). Furthermore, the number of SEND tribunals being brought is rising – with the 11,052 hearings in 2021/22 representing a 29% increase on 2020/21. The £59.8m bill racked up by the lost tribunal cases is split between local authorities and the courts – they cost local authorities £46.2m and the courts £13.6m. There is significant strain being placed on children and young people, as well as their parents and carers, while they battle for support.
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    Created by Amy Jane Chapman
  • Break the barriers to school attendance for care experienced children
    Half of kinship carers report that their child has additional learning needs. Four in ten adopted children missed school due to concerns about their mental health in 2022. Adopted children are also more likely to be excluded and more than twice as likely to be suspended as their peers. These children have a right to attend school and to thrive when they are there. For families of children who are already struggling to cope in school, current approaches to tackling absence are at best antagonistic and at worst, create misery. Only when we equip schools and wider services to meet every child’s needs will we solve the attendance crisis.
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    Created by Alison Woodhead
  • Cheaper school meals for didcot girls school
    You should join our campaign because we think school meal prices here at Didcot Girls School are overpriced and together we can change that.
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    Created by Ophelia Lewis Picture
  • PROTECT THE FUTURE OF GODOLPHIN GIRLS.
    The Governing Board of the Charity “The Godolphin School” (Charity No 309488) have stated their intention, as of 01 February 2024 (in six weeks), to: i) Amalgamate with and transfer all the school’s assets to UNITED LEARNING (including significant valuable land in the heart of Salisbury). ii) Terminate Elizabeth Godolphin’s 300 year legacy for an all-girls education, by taking the school co-ed. This plan and longstanding negotiation has been carried out behind closed doors and with no consultation with parents or, it would seem, appropriate due diligence and we suggest this represents poor business practice and gross mis-management on the part of the current school leadership. Further, we contend that it is highly questionable whether UL are an appropriate organisation to whom to surrender the assets, independence and future of Godolphin School. Moreover, it is our firm view that the current financial and educational position of the school in no way warrants such extreme, reckless and irreversible action. We suggest many parents chose Godolphin because it is independent and over nearly 300 years has crafted a singular culture which enables Godolphin girls to flourish. We believe that to now subsume this into a huge national state-and-private academy trust without consultation is a betrayal of the trust placed in the school governors. There is a significant body of research that unequivocally shows that girls in an all-girls environment out-perform those in co-education. Notwithstanding commercial considerations, as parents of Godolphin girls we believe this is worth fighting for. We believe that there are no pressing reasons to take such a momentous and irreversible action. As we stand on the very cliff edge of this critical decision we demand a 12 month period of investigation and reflection in order to achieve the best possible future for Godolphin Girls. The Governing Board have quite deliberately announced this massive decision at the last minute and just before the Christmas break giving, it would seem, as little time as possible for this to be challenged. It is vital to act now to create time for the future of Godolphin Girls to be given thorough and objective investigation and consideration, to achieve the very best possible outcome.
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    Created by Elena Oderstone
  • Support in Schools for Grieving Children
    Statistics show that on average every 20 minutes a parent dies in the UK; this leaving 46,300 children in the UK bereaved of a parent before the age of 18. This will allow children to feel comfortable settling back into school after suffering a loss of a loved one. Teachers to be trained to support the grieving child so they can slowly adjust back into the education system. Many children do not get the support that they need during this time of their lives which could lead onto more problems later in life; a study in the UK showed that 41% of Young Offenders had experienced a bereavement. They are a part of the 78% of 11 - 16 year olds that have been bereaved of a close relative or friend.
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    Created by Amelie Szeto-Clarke
  • Statutory guidance to ensure local authorities and schools address peer on peer abuse
    All children deserve to grow up free from fear and abuse. Too many children are suffering sexual abuse and their parents are unable to protect them.
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    Created by Wendy Smith
  • SAY NO TO SUPPORT STAFF PAY CUTS AND UNQUALIFIED COVER!
    SUPPORT OUR CAMPAIGN TO SAVE THE PAY AND CONDITIONS OF OUR SUPPORT STAFF
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    Created by Jenny Cooper
  • Remove blanket ban on toilet breaks for children at Wroughton Academy
    We, the parents of children attending Wroughton Academy, need to show solidarity for the immediate reconsideration / update of policy that should already be common sense. Having researched the subject, it appears that schools do, in fact, have the ability to introduce policy to prevent children using the bathroom during lessons. This doesn’t mean that they HAVE to, or that it NEEDS to be a blanket ban. I would challenge the teachers to have some empathy and put themselves in the children’s shoes. How would they feel if someone denied them access to the bathroom if they were caught short? We’ve all been there, at some point or another, and this is as adults who are very used to dealing with bodily functions. Unfortunately the body doesn’t always do precisely as we wish it would, so how can this be demanded of children. I thought that we were passed the dictatorship days of classrooms gone by, but apparently we are not. Under no circumstances am I condoning the abuse, or misuse of this proposed change, but if a child is a “repeat offender” or it is suspected that they are just being disruptive, the matter can be brought up with the parents on an individual basis. The recent change in how the children enter the school in the morning has been touted as a way to give the children more independence / agency over their actions. I propose that this independence/ agency is also extended to unplanned bathroom breaks.
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    Created by James Goldsmith
  • Let ALL parents access free childcare
    By September 2025, most working families with children under the age of 5 will be entitled to 30 hours of childcare support from the Government, which is vital support when the average nursery place is an unaffordable £14,000 per year. But thousands of children are locked out of most of this support right now - forcing parents to give up work, denying children vital opportunities to develop and pushing families into poverty - all because of their parents’ immigration status. Even if children are British citizens, they are still locked out - it’s completely unfair. This Government are stopping parents from standing on their own two feet by depriving them of access to vital services, leaving families struggling even more during the cost-of-living crisis. Every child, no matter their race, class or immigration status, has the right to a fair start in life. Yasmin’s story - Yasmin’s first-born son didn’t get the chance to go to nursery because of nothing more than the fine print on her visa. The Government’s exclusionary rules locked Yasmin and her son out of this support. However, her daughter did get the chance because by the time she was old enough, Yasmin could benefit from government support with the costs. The impacts on her son have been long-lasting. His teachers have told Yasmin how he struggles more to make friends and interact with his peers than her daughter because he was robbed of this vital early years support. No child should be deprived of opportunities that are so important to their start in life, and no family should be forced into poverty because of government action.
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    Created by Ella Abraham