Many carers, pupils and staff are collectively, extremely dissatisfied with the current draconian behaviour “modification" policy being implemented by the Athena trust across all settings and we are making a request for positive change. Specifically, but not limited to Launceston Community College. We feel there is a need to implement a layered or graduated response to rule breaking, to provide more alternative options prior to ‘reflection’ (isolation) and ‘suspension’ (short term exclusion) being implemented. The current system is viewed as unfair, and often disruptive to education. Students are being excluded for very minor misdemeanours, such as wearing the wrong colour socks. This is quite clearly a disproportionate and inappropriate response. While we can agree that we want to support children to behave well, the current system is often exasperating and worsening the behaviour of a key minority of student, causing more issues than it is resolving. Where there are persistent and repetitive cycles of undesirable behaviour, followed by punishment, followed by more undesirable behaviour, the cycle needs to be broken. There needs to be a new emphasis placed whereby “suspension” (fixed term external exclusion) and “reflection” (isolation) are being used only as a last resort. We are asking for Athena trust to adopted a new behaviour policy which both pupils and carers feel is fair and proportionate and which offers support to the most challenging, and often the most vulnerable, students within the school system. The most vulnerable students will no longer be given repeated exclusions and instead will be given the help and support they so drastically need. The SEN Code of Practice (2015) advises that reasonable adjustments should be made to ensure that expectations of students with disabilities are developmentally appropriate and fair. We request that lower, middle and higher order strategies to support all students to manage their behaviour are implemented. These will include, but are not limited to: · A verbal reprimand / warning · Sending the pupil out of the class for a few minutes · 'Time out' from the lesson · Expecting work to be completed at home, or at break or lunchtime · Detention at break or lunchtime. (Note - with lunchtime detentions staff will allow reasonable time for the pupil to eat, drink and use the toilet.) · Detention out of school hours (usually, but not limited to after-school hours) · Referring the pupil to a senior member of staff · Letter / phone call / meeting with the parents of the student · Putting a pupil 'on report' · Removal from lessons (known as “reflection’' for one lesson only) · Implementing a behaviour contract. · Suspension · Permanent exclusion Removal from the classroom or ‘reflection’ and ‘suspension’ (known as external fixed term exclusion) will become one of the higher order sanctions, which may only be use for a range of serious breaches of discipline, or repeated, persistent lower-level breaches of discipline, and will no longer be the first port of call, as this is causing a huge disruption to education for some and is causing unnecessary anxiety. We request that these changes to the behaviour system are made following an inclusive consultation with staff, support staff, SEN/SENCO staff, parents, carers and students whereby consent will be given by the majority. A new behaviour policy will help to foster a more positive atmosphere where students feel safe, encouraged and supported. This will help create safe, inspiring places to learn where pupils feel their opinion is valued and they are being fairly treated. The system which is currently disproportionate and punitive for many SENs students will be replaced by the additional support and help needed for this minority to thrive. This will result in better academic outcomes and improved mental health.

In the middle of a cost of living crisis where even families who are working are struggling to make ends meet and relying on food banks or starving why are we treating prisoners better than our children? In prison three meals a day are provided at the tax payers expense but we don’t give our children a free school Meal after year 2. Teachers can see the effect a decent meal has on children’s academic performance but the government would rather them stave. For some a hot meal provided at school might be all they have that day but yet our government deny them this basic human right unless parents pay. Why do prisoners deserve better than the next generation? In a time where millions are choosing between heat and eat and many are pushed into poverty why are we choosing not to provide all pupils in the uk with a hot school meal. The current maximum income permitted to be eligible for a free school meal is so low it’s a joke and it doesn’t alter even if you have more than one child it’s time to rethink the system. Parents are struggling with rising bills and are having to make choices between heat and eat. Pupils are going without hot meals or even a meal so let’s take one worry away and have universal free school meals for all from reception to year 11. Prisoners get three meals a day but the our children are only provided with a free meal until they finish year 2, how is this right that we treat criminals better than our future?

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.

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.

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.

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.

You should join our campaign because we think school meal prices here at Didcot Girls School are overpriced and together we can change that.

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.

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.

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.

SUPPORT OUR CAMPAIGN TO SAVE THE PAY AND CONDITIONS OF OUR SUPPORT STAFF

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.