Despite the overwhelming support to maintain an effective Library Service across the whole of Barnet in the previous consultation, Barnet Council is continuing with its plans to limit the universal access to libraries for all people at all times. Our concerns include but are not limited to: • The 70% reduction in professionally staffed opening hours, which risks the safety of users and restricts the access of people under 16. • The reliance of volunteers, who might not be available in sufficient numbers to keep libraries open and whose of lack of expertise will rule out the provision of many services. • The massive reduction in space (more than 50% on average), which will reduce the resources and services the libraries can offer. • The rapidly increasing cost of killing off the library service, which far outstrips the proposed savings. Spending over £6m to save £2.2 million is a waste of taxpayer’s money. We call upon Conservative-run Barnet Council to halt these proposals and to work with residents and concerned organizations to develop a really viable and acceptable plan for the library service. These proposals are not only detrimental to the communities across Barnet but they are financially unsound with the cost of implementation far exceeding the proposed savings; we encourage the Council to see sense and scrap these proposals.

A group of Firstsite staff are leading a campaign to change the proposed staff restructure at the gallery, to enable the continuation of the positive changes that have begun to take place. We are calling for this rethink so we can protect jobs for people, particularly local people, instead of relying on volunteers to make up the majority of the customer facing staff. The cutbacks to the current staff structure will adversely affect the visitor experience and have a negative impact on the diverse and interesting programme of events, particularly within the learning department and the engagement of children and young people, currently one of the strongest areas Firstsite has with engaging with the community. The restructure addresses necessary financial savings that need to be made, but the proposed changes will result in short term savings, rather than creating a sustainable organisation that can generate income going forward. This will also perpetuate an unequal working and earning structure within the organisation. These changes will increase pressure on the remaining staff, many of whom already work outside of their job requirements, whilst offering a more than generous wage for the Director of the gallery.

I teach and am conscious that we are forced to teach to tests. This inevitably stops me from being able to target students' actual needs. The assumption that children should be able to apply specific skills at a certain age and design tests informed by that assumption, worries me. Children do not progress at the same rate. The idea that one can predict a target for GCSE when a child is 11 is another example of over reliance on statistics with little concern for the child's sense of self esteem. An evaluation is necessary but we should not have a system which presumes all children can attain at the same rate and should do so.

Our library is more than just a place to get books - it provides a real focus for the community with shared interest groups, computer access, skills sharing across all ages - the list is endless and growing all the time. Most importantly it is a place for people to meet and be with others.

Children are bombarded with sensory stimulation from video games, mobile phones TV and computers almost 24 hours a day. Add to that the pressure of everyday life ....tests , changes in the family make up, poverty, and overworked parents! Combine these factors with the already difficult naturally occurring stages a child goes through and we are heading for many more generations of depressed over pressured young people and adults. What coping strategies do our children have to counteract all this bombardment and retain their individual Humanness in a virtual world .... We need to teach them how to find a stillness amidst all of the business. What coping strategies are we providing to prevent more generations of depressed over pressured young people and adults ???????

We are a group of Hackney residents and parents of children at Colvestone Primary School. Without consulting the Education Department, and in the face of 70 objections from local people, Hackney Council’s Planning Committee has approved a development proposal that will significantly overshadow the nursery school next door. More than 30 children every year, and for generations to come, will be robbed of sunlight in the outdoor space of the nursery so that a developer can build “light-filled” private studio flats above the proposed ground floor and basement café. We are outraged by this decision. We expect the Mayor to put the education, health and well-being of the children first. • We have an independent expert review of the proposal which concludes that the building would cause “an increase of three to four times the existing levels of overshadowing” • A local resident, Judith Watt, has launched a legal challenge to the Council’s planning decision • We are urging the Council to act now to enforce historic property covenants that protect sunlight to the school's land. Please, Mayor, do the right thing.

The pressures faced by children and teenagers now are more harsh than ever. The pressure to succeed in a failing school system, the pressure to get the best GCSE and ALEVELS, family pressures, and children who have an intrinsic mental health concern, all these pressures have increased, and the support services that would enable a child to access support have not only stayed static, but in many cases have reduced in size. Last year 800 children aged 11 and under needed treatment in a and e for injuries caused by self harm, each week there is news of another teen suicide, or an autistic child that cannot receive access to a vital service, this needs to change, and fast, before a whole generation is lost. This vital service can no longer be a Cinderella service.

This is important to copious amounts of people and due to this change all around Britain schools this has made the lives of ks4 students in a very diffucult position

The scoring of children in their first weeks on entry to their new schools: -Is Damaging for children and inappropriate practice at an important transition time -Will undermine the current methods of assessment and practice used in early years settings -Will not improve the quality of schools -Is not a reliable source of data -Will lead to a further formalisation of learning in the early years and downgrading of play -Transfers funding from school budgets to private companies -Prevents the local education authority from having an active role in overviewing and monitoring assessments in the early years across the county and places this role directly into the hands of the private assessment providers and the DFE. We call on the County Council to write to the Secretary of State for Education calling for the removal of Baseline Assessment and the retention of the existing Early Years Foundation Stage Profile in our schools. We also call on the County Council to support any school that chooses not to implement the Baseline assessment.

All children deserve the right to reach their full potential. Education should be fully accessible to all, not just those who are capable of helping schools reach target figures .

As above it will mean higher payments for students and could put off future students attending uni. Is it not illegal to change the terms and conditions of a loan after it has been taken out?

Sign this petition to ensure the public an opportunity to respond to these outrageous proposals and a full enquiry into how the council have been allowed to enforce gagging orders on council employees to prevent them from speaking out. Our children's future is at stake. I am one of many parents in the area with a child who has additional needs. The proposal to remove support within schools affects all children. There maybe as many as 5 disruptive children in a class of 22 with the teacher expecting to deliver the curriculum without any assistance. The whole system will collapse. And this is just the BEGINNING of the cuts.