This is the second time in just over two years that the Council has proposed to close the school and is stating budget constraints and low numbers of 4 and 5 year olds in the area as its reason for its actions. This is not acceptable and will have a devastating impact for our school community. Queensway Primary School has more than 50% of children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND), a group that requires significant support. A recent parliamentary report highlights inadequacies in SEND provision on a national scale. Leeds is not an exception and the Council is currently asking both its primary and secondary schools to express interest in opening their own onsite provisions that the Council can utilise. Closing Queensway would exacerbate this problem, displacing these vulnerable children and forcing them to travel out of area for the support they currently receive locally – support that is already in short supply. Transporting these children to other areas not only incurs additional costs but also disrupts their education and wellbeing. This closure merely shifts the financial burden rather than addressing the root issues, making it a shortsighted solution. A recent OFSTED inspection (about to be published) has shown that Queensway has made incredible strides since the first closure consultation in 2022 – which it successfully fought and saw the Council say it wouldn’t put the School through this again. We wholeheartedly believe that Queensway Primary School effectively meets the needs of its students, particularly those with SEND. The Council should develop a comprehensive plan to fund SEND provisions citywide, rather than focusing on the closure of one school, which would have significant negative impact on the local community. We urge Leeds City Council to take immediate action to prevent this closure and ensure the continued support and education of the children at Queensway.

Please help us to show the council that music is so much more important than the they are giving it credit for. It is vital for our young people’s growth! It is a way for young people to engage with each other, it is so inclusive and people of all abilities can interact together; music is proven to have benefits to mental health, in particular stress and anxiety, in addition to this can give young people the ability to express their creativity and develop a great sense of worth and self esteem. Research shows that pupils who learn music perform better in many subjects and have a greater ability in problems solving and mathematics. Music helps young people to work collaboratively, cooperatively in smaller and larger groups. All of these points show that music helps our children to become healthier, well rounded, contributing members of society. Surely that’s what the government and our council want for our young people? 

The proposed cuts to inclusion will affect ALL children in Edinburgh schools, disproportionately impacting the most vulnerable.  Some of the proposed cuts are currently as follows - Removal of a central Additional Support for Learning (ASL) service - Removal of Forest school. - Removal of Hospital education services  - Restructuring of Educational Psychology department. - Removal or paring back holiday hub service that supports disabled and ASN children in the school holidays.  - Adding more duties to PSA job descriptions including the expectation that they will have to deal with physical violence as standard.  - It is unclear what will happen to English as an Additional Language services, one of the largest additional support needs in the city. Why is this petition important? Despite the spin that this is merely restructuring, it is quite clear that this is a cost-cutting exercise for an already overstretched service.  The cuts will have a huge negative impact on ALL children's education: disproportionately impacting both children with disabilities and those from minority ethnic backgrounds. Over the last year, the  families of children with ASN have already fought CEC attempts to remove Edinburgh Childcare for All (afterschool care for disabled children), the Enhanced Support Bases (support for ASN pupils in mainstream schools) and Holiday Hubs (holiday support for disabled children who can't attend typical holiday clubs). Concerned parents have attempted to consult with CEC over the last year but are extremely disappointed with how this has been handled. Surveys and engagement meetings appear to be tick box exercises, with concerns expressed by parents and teaching staff not being addressed and unrealistic timescales being imposed.  Therefore we need your help. We  ALL need to work together and raise our voices to make CEC listen and realise that their plans are not acceptable. By sharing and signing this petition and writing to your councillors,  you can add your voice to tell Edinburgh councillors loud and clear to STOP INCLUSION CUTS. What’s the bigger picture? School should be accessible to all children, regardless of disability or support needs. 48% of school pupils across Lothian have some sort of Additional Support Need, a percentage dramatically rising. Removal of any of these services is going to be detrimental to ALL our children. According to the Scottish Government, “Disabled people should have freedom, dignity, choice and control over their lives. We want to remove the barriers that stop people from enjoying equal access to full citizenship.” These plans are clearly at odds with this ethos.  The Holyrood Education, Children and Young People Committee 2024/4 inquiry into Additional support needs in Education found that local authorities were already failing to implement mainstreaming properly, saying 'the situation for children with additional support needs is intolerable' (Susan Webber MSP Committee Convener) By signing this petition, you are also telling the Scottish Government that they need make good on their promises and provide adequate budgets for councils to be able to protect these services. 

This is important for our colleagues but to us, nurses of all generations supporting each other.  This is important for students of University of Brighton to have a positive relationship of trust with the tutors of the University and the Exam board.  The NHS depends on each and every one of us to contribute to the immense gap in the workforce.  The decision of this board can encourage current and future students when taking into consideration their place of study. 

As students move up into KS4, there will be far more on their minds than spending 4% of their lesson time per week doing sports. While Year 10 students can be using this time to prepare for important assessments or even their mock exams, Year 11 students can be using this time to revise for their official exams which will completely shape their future. Considering there are approximately 39 weeks in each UK school year, 2 hours of PE per week would add up to 78 hours of wasted time in school. 78 hours can make a massive difference to academic achievement and boost possibilities for students.

Fourteen years of neglect and underfunding have left education – from early years through to post-16 – in tatters. It is imperative that all political parties address this in their manifestos. Not in vague terms, with piecemeal solutions. But with meaningful proposals about how this situation will be reversed if they form the next Government.   Our schools are chronically underfunded. Primary class sizes are the highest in Europe, and secondary class sizes are the highest since records began more than forty years ago. Teachers are underpaid and overworked, resulting in the worst recruitment and retention crisis in a generation. That will not be reversed unless there is significant change to pay and terms and conditions of the education workforce.  SEND provision and mental health support for our young people is practically non-existent. We have a curriculum and assessment system that does not engage many pupils, or give each of them the chance to thrive. Many of our school buildings are in a chronic state of disrepair, literally crumbling away with the ongoing effects of RAAC and asbestos.  This is a grim picture for one of the richest countries in the world. It’s far from the ‘world class ’ education system so regularly promised by our Government. It cannot go on.   We need a Government to invest in education and to invest in our young people. If you value education, vote for education. Let’s give our children the education they deserve. 

Under government law, it is compulsory for all children including those with special educational needs to study maths and English to the age of 19 alongside any other course until they reach grade 4 and above. Many SEN teens find this a huge trigger for overwhelm and anxiety. Many are bright creatives, musicians and artists who are finally able to focus on a course that suits them after years of school environments that have failed them. They are forced into retaking maths or English over and over despite trying the best they can and constant failure can seriously impact on self esteem and mental health. If the lack of one or the other of these qualifications are a barrier in life then the opportunity to come back to them without the added pressure of the clock ticking would be far more valuable than the way things currently stand. Metaphorically speaking, it’s time for this government to stop judging fish by their ability to climb trees. They are damaging our bright creative neurodiverse kids as a result. We want our bright, neurodiverse kids to have the best chance at an education that works for them. Currently it does not!

We need Aberdeen City Council to help it's many denominational communities including Christians, Catholics, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists and other faith based communities who send their kids to Catholic Schools. It affects a lot of locals who historically sent their kids to these schools, as well as ethnic minorities of Aberdeen.  We need a secondary school to continue helping the kids who studies in RC primaries to continue friendships and their school values.

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?

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.