Wolsingham is a market town in Weardale in the west of County Durham. There has been a secondary school in Wolsingham, serving the Dale and beyond, since 1614. Children of the area have always been able to continue their education to the sixth form and Wolsingham School has consistently had good results. Some families have seen generations of children attend Wolsingham School. Wolsingham School is currently in the top five performing schools in the county and lies in an area of outstanding natural beauty. A recent refurbishment has provided state of the art facilities. The provision of sixth form education in Weardale is particularly important for children who live in the upper Dale, who face significant hardship and long travel times to suitable alternative sixth form providers. Some children will be required to travel for almost four hours per day and will then have to find time to study. Wolsingham School is more than a school. It is central to the sustainability and vibrancy of Weardale, a rural area covering around 200 square miles. As well as catering for the children of established Dales families, the school brings new settlers into the area in search of a rural lifestyle and a good education for their children. Of course, the entire infrastructure of Weardale depends on a stable population – shops, businesses, GP surgery, pubs and restaurants – and a threat to the school is a threat to the very life of the Dale itself. The Board of Governors has taken the decision without prior consultation with parents, students or the wider community, to suspend the sixth form for two years, from 2018 to 2020. Although this is reported to be temporary, closing the sixth form will lead to student numbers declining in favour of applications to schools with access to on site sixth form facilities. Indeed, parents are already choosing to take their children out of Wolsingham School. The Board of Governors can, and indeed should, overturn its decision. If Governors believe that suspension of Wolsingham's sixth form facility is a viable option then this should only happen after a major consultation exercise. We, the parents and wider community are passionate about protecting our school and ask the Board of Governors of Wolsingham School to: 1. Overturn the decision to suspend the sixth form; 2. Undertake a meaningful, open, inclusive and far-reaching consultation programme to present a range of options for the school to the Dales community; 3. Work with the parents and wider community to tackle the very specific issues facing the school to ensure its survival for generations to come.

We don't just use libraries to borrow books - we use them for reading, we use them for researching, we use them for the Internet services they provide and we need libraries to foster our learning. Older people need libraries, adults and young adults need libraries - and families need libraries. ... and this means libraries with trained librarians, not just volunteers. In spite of much deprivation and poor Internet access, Highbridge and many other similar communities are now growing - new houses being built and new young families moving into the area - this town needs a hub for its local services. What better place than the library? The current library opening hours provide only restricted access to library services - the town is expanding - this service needs expanding. The County Council has kept open the Highbridge Children's Centre and should be using the same arguments for investing in the Library. The Highbridge library is a valuable information hub - not only for the residents of Highbridge itself, but all those many, otherwise isolated, users in the outlying areas, some of which may only have mobile library access now, e.g. Mark, Walrow, Isleport, Bason Bridge & Watchfield. These are users who can get to Highbridge Library using the existing (yet slender) public transport links. Burnham on Sea Library is just one further step away. For a young parent with little children in Highbridge, it has been calculated that it costs £9.00 to get public transport to Burnham and back - but you can walk to the Highbridge Library! "Google Can Bring You Back 100,000 Answers. A Librarian Can Bring You Back the Right One." Neil Gaiman "Cutting libraries in a time of recession and austerity is like cutting hospitals during a plague." (adapted from Eleanor Crumblehulme library assistant)

This is extremely important: 1. We students are being under-represented 2. We have already paid for a service which we are not going to receive 3. We students must take a stand for ourselves and not allow people to take advantage of us. 4. Students and lecturers are both being financially penalised and we should not accept it.

This will help reduce the ever growing amount of plastic clogging up our planet. Think; there is over a 1000 students in my school. If we all use a plastic fork every day for a week that is 5000 plastic forks, then 20,000 a month, and in a school year that is an unimaginable amount of plastic .Think. Then imagine this all over the country. This is an unnecessary amount of plastic doomed to be lunch for an innocent sea creature. We have to stop this now and #STOPthePlasticTide because the health of the planet starts with us - the human race.

In King's Lynn, one of only two local residential respite units which supports many children with disabilities and Complex Needs has been earmarked for other usage. The remaining unit has only four beds and cannot accommodate all the children affected by this decision. Although Norfolk have a legal obligation to provide short breaks for disabled children, the council has still decided to shut it down. Residential Respite such as Morley House is essential to the well-being of these disabled children (who have already been assessed as needing the highest level of support) and their families who depend on the time to give other siblings or family members support, and access parts of everyday life (such as shopping, medical appointments and household maintenance it is difficult or impossible to do safely while caring for their disabled child). They allow children to make friends and try activities and days out which other children take for granted. Without access to Morley House, many of these children will be denied what every child should have, a life with friends where they can enjoy experiences in a safe environment with people who can understand and support them. In addition to the use as a residential respite unit, Morley House is also used to house educational boarders from the local Complex Needs School. This provision is part of their education. For my family and many others Morley House is a lifeline, the only place we know our child is safe and well looked after which enables us to relax and meet the needs of our younger child and give her the everyday experiences we cannot safely provide while caring for our older daughter, daytrips to the beach or even visits to the homes of family and friends are impossible apart from the times our older daughter is in respite. We need your support to reverse this decision and ensure our children and the many children who will come after ours still have access to this essential service.

The pension changes threaten young lecturers who are the future of higher education in the UK. Although we are aware that this strike is across the UK, this petition is to show that students at the University of Reading support and sympathise with their lecturers despite the disruption to their education. This petition is also vital because we deserve to know how the strikes will effect our grades and ultimately if there will be any reimbursement for the significant amount of education time missed, considering UK students are paying up to £9,250 a year for our education. This petition shows that students support their lecturers’ moral right to stand up for their pensions.

Because we're a local village school with an amazing history of over 50 years. If the school is closed there will be circa 100 pupils to relocate alongside 5 new local housing estates being built; needing schooling for their children, there will be an extreme shortage of primary school places in the local vicinity. The children are proud to be St Anthony's children so please help save our school. £750,000 of taxpayers money has just been spent on external repairs which whilst looking great now, caused lots of disruption to the pupils with it being a live building site during the works that finally completed - just days before the school Head being summoned to London to announce thought of closure.

We need answers from all parties involved. The school is a big part of our community.

Children would no longer have the opportunity to receive quality and accessible free music lessons in their schools. This would also mean that school ensembles run by instrumental instructors would no longer exist. Removing the Instrumental Music Service (IMS) from mainstream schools would have a serious and damaging effect on the attainment gap, one of the West Lothian Council's main aims. This is because poorer children will not have access to a service which is very expensive outside school. It will also have a serious affect on the community, as many children in West Lothian actively use these free services. Music education has a countless number of benefits, inside and outside the classroom. From being an outlet of emotion, encouraging creativity, to building resilience, team-skills and self confidence. To the children of West Lothian, the IMS has proved to be of great importance in many people's lives. This cut from West Lothian Council would be a devastating decision, that should be stopped.

One of if not the busiest most dangerous junctions in the area, Especially at school times.

Barwell Sure Start Centre plays an important part in our local community. It provides help to families who need it, access to books for young children (especially important after the closure of the village library in 2016), a place for parents (new or experienced) to connect with others and form peer support networks, and opportunities for both children and their parents to learn and develop relevant skills. There are also many parent volunteers who have been able to build up skills and training that have helped them, or will help them, return to work when their children start school. This can be a real issue for parents (particularly mothers) who have taken time out of the workplace to raise children, and we feel that our local Sure Start Centre plays an important role in tackling this. Our Sure Start Centre also plays host to Health Visitor clinics and other medical professionals - these services are also now at risk of being moved out of the village stranding those families for whom transport is an issue and increasing barriers to access. Closing the centre would be a heavy blow to our village. Barwell has already lost it's library and post office, now we face the closure of the Sure Start Centre and the loss of all but one of the village's parent and child groups with it. If this closure goes ahead the nearest centre to our village will be a walk of an hour and half - far too long for families with small children and pushchairs. A large proportion of our village do not have access to a car and cannot afford to take yet another bus on a weekly basis. Travel will pose a serious barrier to accessing early years services and will prevent families with young children from getting the help that they need. We are also concerned that the proposals indicate a move to online advice rather than in person guidance from staff. We feel that this ignores the many families in our village and across Leicestershire without internet access at home. As previously mentioned we have already lost our library - there is nowhere in our village for those without computers to access the internet. Again travelling to do so involves taking another costly bus trip or walking for 90 minutes. Barwell needs it's Sure Start Centre to remain open. Parenthood can be very isolating and overwhelming, and the connections made with other parents through the Sure Start centres help to prevent issues growing and becoming worse. If we lose our Sure Start centre we run the risk of leaving parents, particularly new parents, in a vulnerable and lonely position with no obvious way to get help - and that is how problems get worse. As recently as 2014/15 (while deciding whether to close our library) the Council themselves described Barwell as an area of deprivation within Leicestershire, and noted that 1 in 5 children did not have access to books at home. Barwell is exactly the kind of community that Sure Start centres are there to help - and we refuse to let the County Council take this vital service away from us! The public consultation currently taking responses can be found here. Please have your say and tell the Council to keep the 24 Sure Start centres under threat open! https://www.leicestershire.gov.uk/earlyhelp

Under current proposals Leicestershire County Council want to close 24 Children's Centres and one family centre and merge their services with all other family and young people’s services. These would be Supporting Leicestershire Families (SLF) scheme, Early Help Information Support and Assessment (EHISA) and the Youth Offending service (YOS).* Vulnerable families and children in need will be forced to make extended (and in some cases prohibitively expensive) journeys to the remaining centres. In addition they may feel stigmatised for going to a building that also houses Youth Offending. It will undoubtedly be children of the most vulnerable families who will be the ones least likely to attend the new centres. In addition to the council's own services many other agencies operate out almost exclusively out of Children' Centres, for example Health Visiting services, Breastfeeding Support, Child Health Events and many volunteer led groups such as Breastfeeding groups, Parent Carer Well-being, Sling (babywearing), Multiple-birth (twins etc) support groups, Childminder groups, singing and music groups. Finally the centres are also well used by the council's own GO LEARN service providing valuable education programs for parents in need. This will shift a sizable financial burden on to the NHS, while other services will often not be able to afford the rent on alternative accommodation and most of the groups will close. The Children's Centres and other buildings under threat of closure are: • Cobden, Loughborough, • Shelthorpe, Loughborough • Warren Hills in Coalville, • Mountsorrel • Barwell • Desford • Hinckley Westfield • Hinckley West • The Cove, Melton • The Edge, Melton • Ashby • Ibstock • Moira • Thringstone • Braunstone Town • Countesthorpe • South Wigston • Anstey • Broughton Astley • Fleckney • Bushby • Bagworth • Vale of Belvoir • Fairmead • Market Harborough Young People's Centre Finally the council's own report, Early Help Review, details the risk of Capital Clawback under this proposal, meaning that the council may have to pay back up to £5.8 Million in previously awarded grant money if the closed centres are not used as per the wording of the grant award. Children's Centres (formerly known as Surestart Centres) have transformed the lives of young children and their parents across Leicestershire. The important role that children’s centres play in providing effective multi-agency working is widely recognised both locally and nationally. Children's Centres are a lifeline to these families and others, providing support and services to those in need. We cannot allow these services to be cut from the lives of the most vulnerable and we must defend the jobs of the people who have dedicated their careers to assisting our most vulnerable young children. . . . . . *The consultation details can be found here https://www.leicestershire.gov.uk/earlyhelp please read the report and complete the on line survey. You can also email the consultation with any additional information that you couldn't get in the survey. Email - [email protected] or you can give your views over the telephone on 0116 305 3416 The consultation closes at midnight on Sunday 22nd April.