The Children's Space worked in conjunction with White Rose Primary school, providing a pre-school service as well as wraparound services. This ensured children transitioned into full time education seamlessly and allowed parents in the area to work full-time.  Please sign this petition and help us try and reverse the decision to close the facility

The library was open six and a half hours on a Saturday but this has been cut to just three. The Library is instead open on a Tuesday.  Saturdays are vital because they allow children and young people to visit the library.  This is not only for books, but as a place to do research, study quietly and use the computers. This is especially true in Swanage where many of our teenage children have to travel long distances to attend schools and colleges.  The cut in Saturday hours will reduce the time available for the fantastic educational activities targeted at children and young people that have previously been delivered by our kind and experienced library staff. By reducing the hours available for young people, Dorset Council are disproportionally disadvantaging those least able to improve their circumstances.  The recent consultation concluded that young people and the employed, wanted Saturday and late night opening. There was no demand to open on a Tuesday instead of Saturday. As this change is cost neutral, it should have no impact on budgets.  Well educated and informed young people are not only our legacy, they will provide the future economic growth Dorset so desperately needs.  Swanage opening hours from 1st July 2024 • Monday:  10 am to 5pm • Tuesday: 10 am to 5 pm • Wednesday: 12 noon to 6 pm • Thursday: Closed • Friday: 10 am to 5 pm • Saturday: 10 am to 1 pm • Sunday: Closed Swanage previous opening hours • Monday: 10 am to 6.30 pm • Tuesday: Closed • Wednesday: 9.30 am to 5 pm • Thursday: Closed • Friday: 9.30 am to 5 pm • Saturday: 9.30 am to 4 pm • Sunday: Closed

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.

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

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.

Private schools are classed as charities despite being run as businesses. Schools like Eton - who charge an eye-watering £45k fee - can get tax breaks of up to 80%. But Labour have promised to scrap these and use the funds to improve state schools instead of boosting private profits. If Labour were to get into Government at the next election, they would tax private schools as businesses. It would be the first step in levelling the playing field and ensuring that no matter what your background, you get the same start. But already opposition is mounting from these schools and the elites that support them. A huge petition to all political parties showing them how popular the plans are could stop them listening to the private schools and pledge to end the tax breaks.