Nurseries who have children with additional needs can apply for funding to provide that child with additional support such as a one-to-one. Funding was applied for in advance of the term so the setting secured finances to employ staff as required. However from the summer term 2015 the panel will not be held until much later in the term, this term it will be June. This puts not only a financial burden on the nursery to provide the support necessary but there is a financial risk as it is not guaranteed that funding will be granted or they might not receive the level of funding applied for. Therefore nurseries might decide they can no longer offer places to children with additional needs. My 4 year old son has Downs Syndrome and has one-to-one Support as he is not verbal and communicates with sign. He also has no concept of danger and will run if he senses freedom so to have that allocated adult to supervise him is essential. However his nursery is a charity and doesn't really have the spare funds or profit to employ staff for most of a term and the financial risk of having children with additional needs must be a factor for their future. We have friends who have children with additional needs who had issues with the level of support their child has as the nursery have not been able to secure the full level of funding. If nurseries feel unable to offer places to children with additional needs then they miss out on valuable experiences and friendships with their peers and preparation for transition into school. Children in the nursery miss out on the joy of interacting with diverse abilities and experiences. Parents of children with additional needs miss out on important down time to recharge and get things done. The only benefit is keeping money in the council coffers for a few months. At what cost I ask! Please take the time to sign so all children can access nursery in Norfolk.

Both my sons went to Castle Nursery School a few years ago and I can't tell you how amazing this nursery is, they gave my boys the very best start to their school lives and Ofsted rate them as 'outstanding' too. Our children deserve the best as they only get one chance. Every parent should have the choice to send their children to and outstanding provider if they wish. But not only this Castle Nursery is also in the Arboretum Ward which is the most disadvantaged area in Derby and currently does not have enough childcare places for the children living in the ward. Derby City Council should be making residents aware that they can access this oustanding nursery not taking it away just because families don't know about the nursery or don't know they are entitled to 15hrs free childcare. Please help me make Derby City Council accountable for their decisions and make it known that we are not going to let them take away yet another invaluable provision just because they have mismanaged their budget. Thank you

Making sign language part of every child's experience will help to reduce the exclusion of deaf and speech impaired children and adults, but the benefits will be to all children e.g. on brain development, vocabulary, empathy and expressiveness and to society generally e.g. more inclusion, increased understanding between deaf and hearing communities and individuals.

I have created this petition because I believe BSL should be taught as a language in school. My daughter was born profoundly deaf she is 11weeks old and I would love for her to grow up in a world where hearing people are more excepting and understanding of deaf people and deaf culture. Why should it be deaf people that have to struggle to lip read, be left confused when people around them are talking, risk major surgery to stand a chance of some hearing threw implants, when we could so easily fit into their world by learning to sign. Help make this happen, stand up for the deaf community, accept deaf people have a right to fit in and be understood. Make a better future for my daughter and all deaf children like her. Thank you.

The Vic Studios is the only public building with a recording studio kitted out with it's own equipment in; with the pending removal of music from the National Curriculum, it is imperative that other means of accessing music is available to young people. Also see https://www.facebook.com/groups/savethevicstudioswrexham/ for updates.

It is important to celebrate and commemorate the social history of the past and the community education of the future. The site has English Heritage and National Lottery Funded support to proceed forward with a preservation project and more support is forthcoming! The freeholder and Hackney Council promised the site as a Heritage and Arts Centre as early as 2009, but are now reneging on that promise in acquiescing to the freeholder's desires to profit from the site's transfer to residential use. If you have time, register your support in favour of saving the building for Heritage Community use to: [email protected]. And - if you are a Hackney resident - write to your local ward councillor! Stop the Greed! Save the Schoolhouse!

Four outstanding grammar schools in Southend (Southend High School for Boys, Southend High School For Girls, Westcliff High School for Boys, and Westcliff High School For Girls) are facing an urgent funding crisis as budget forecasts show that they will not be able to cover costs of all their lessons in the next few years due to loss in government funding. This means young adults of high academic ambition and excellence from all backgrounds in the local area are having their education negatively affected. These four schools, as well as many other successful schools around the country, have long accepted a lower rate of funding because of their grammar school status. All schools have regularly received 'Outstanding' Ofsted reports and this success is in jeopardy. These schools are facing severe cuts and have had to introduce cost cutting measures including increasing class size, reducing class equipment and staff and reducing the number of subjects taught to pupils. These schools have survived and prospered for over a century and through two world wars. They have produced some of the brightest talents in the country in various industries. We must fight to keep up this prestige and continued excellence in some of our best schools. Forti Nihil Difficile (To the brave, nothing is difficult)

If you value the quality of further education in Bristol and the South West then we need to save this fantastic course that routinely develops and delivers excellent new teachers. These Level Seven graduates find employment within our local colleges, some of which include: 
Bridgwater College City of Bath College City of Bristol College- All campuses SGS Filton/Wise Swindon New College Weston College Wiltshire College The proposed closure of this course at the University of the West of England means that not only will local graduates have to travel further afield to Cardiff or Plymouth to take this course, but that our local colleges will have less and less highly qualified new teachers to employ within the area. Unfortunately it is not a government requirement to hold a Post Graduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) to teach in FE colleges, but more and more colleges are seeking this in new staff so that their students get the BEST teachers. Please sign this to show your support for QUALITY education from QUALIFIED teachers. Thank you very much, your support is heartily appreciated.

I find it shameful that when people look at our country, they see people making money by squeezing the education system, lowering the amount of money spent on each child. These academies have caused job losses for many teachers and the quality of schools has declined, speaking from personal experience. This new industry needs to see tight restrictions and needs to be open and transparent for us to inspect and scrutinise. Without this, we run the risk of seeing many people missing out in the highest quality of their education and cause a large decrease in the number of good, trained and experience staff that can keep standards high. Despite what David Cameron has said about schools improving under academies, this does not make them better places, reform to a state controlled system, with changes to ofsted, can easily improve standards.

First schools' plans in the Blackminster pyramid to keep year 5 children into year 6 from 2016 will seriously damage the provision at Blackminster Middle School for any year 6 students who still choose to go there and for year 7 and 8 students. It is likely that the school will be unsustainable with just two year groups and could close. There is no plan for where children in year 7 and 8 would be educated if this were to happen. There is no plan in this pyramid, which includes the De Montfort School, Bengeworth CE First, St Richard's CE First and St Andrew's CE First schools to become a two tier system. Any wish for such a huge organisational change has not been explored. The signatories below are concerned about any or all of the following considerations and urge the Governors of the named First Schools to fully consider the potential negative impact of their proposals on the education of children beyond First Schools before implementing them. - The proposed changes are not part of an overall strategic plan for our area and no work has been done to explore parent views beyond the First Schools in question, the impact of future pupil numbers on places in schools, issues around funding and continued sustainability of schools, staffing expertise and suitable accommodation for children remaining in small village schools. - The Local Authority have made it clear to heads and governors that they are not proposing any review of the three tier system in this pyramid: they cannot fund any changes which have not already been planned. There is no shortage of places so no need to effectively duplicate schools places in Y6, nor are there any educational drivers. - The proposals from First Schools are all being carried out individually, there is no coherent plan or rationale for the changes. This is forcing schools to have to work out individually how to move forward rather than working collectively. - The timescale suggested for change is unrealistic. - The experience of all other areas restructuring from 3 tier to two tier is of major disruption to children's education for several years. This is despite those restructures being strategically planned for and fully funded by their Local Authority. In this situation, there is no plan and no funding. - There is a real danger that good and excellent teachers will be lost in the potential restructuring and it is good teaching which makes the difference to children's progress, not structures and processes. - The uncertainty about the future of the pathway in the pyramid and the provision for pupils beyond first school may make parents look to other schools out of catchment. This could damage all schools in the pyramid. - School leaders are being distracted by the proposals rather than focusing on the enormous statutory changes such as a new curriculum and changes to assessment. All schools in the pyramid should be focused on school improvement and securing outstanding education across all phases. - The current system is effective but there is always room for improvement. That should be our focus. Working together is key. -

The School belongs to the community and needs to be protected for our children now and in generations to come. We do not want our school to be privatised. The proposal to join the Howard Partnership Trust who are known to redevelop school land must be stopped NOW. WE DEMAND A BALLOT.

Pershore High School’s proposal to take in year 7 pupils from September 2016 will not only affect year 7 pupils and the organisation of the high school (including its other pupils), but it will also have an impact (in some cases a very major one) on all of the children from schools that feed into it, since it will force a complete restructuring of the whole system. The signatories below are concerned about any or all of the following and urge the Governors of Pershore High School to consider their impact before deciding upon the future of our local education system. • The proposed changes are not part of an overall strategic plan for our area, considering demographics, properly researched parent views, funding issues, staffing expertise and analysing what the best options are for our children • Schools are having to work out, individually, how to move forward, rather than collectively • Any resulting restructuring is not being endorsed, managed, nor financed by our local authority • The timescale suggested for change is unrealistic • The experience of all other areas restructuring from three- to two-tier is of major disruption to children’s education over several years (and in all of those areas millions has been injected by their local authority) • Danger is that good and excellent teachers will be lost in the restructuring – and it is good teaching that is at the very core of our children’s success, not structures and processes • Danger that parents will be put off sending their children to schools in the pyramid with such uncertainty over the future. It is certainly not helping Pershore High School’s reputation with prospective parents as it has raised awareness of concerns about issues there that could be detrimental to the welfare of the children, thereby undermining confidence in the school • School management is being distracted by this process at a time when a more onerous GCSE national curriculum is being introduced • Our current system is working well, but everything can always be improved, so shouldn’t we be concentrating on how to do that?