Month: Nov 2012

I think the idea of remembering the tragic events at Tattenham Corner in June 1913 with a minute’s silence during the Epsom Derby 2013 is excellent.
I have long admired Miss Davison and others involved in the struggle for equality of access to suffrage and higher education – for women and the working classes. That access to higher education is again a contentious issue is, in my mind a retrogressive step.

Lifelong Learning Matters

Several threads are weaving together in the Workers’ Educational Association (WEA) this week.

We have a Parliamentary celebration coming up on 7 November with WEA students, volunteers, staff and supporters joining MPs, peers, funders and partners at Westminster. Our Trustees will be taking active roles at the event, which we’re holding during National Trustees’ Week.

The WEA is also backing a new campaign for a minute’s silence at next year’s Epsom Derby to commemorate Emily Wilding Davison’s death in 1913. Emily made the ultimate sacrifice as a suffrage campaigner fighting for women’s rights to vote. She was one of our own, having been active in the WEA.

100 years on and the WEA is still campaigning for greater equality in politics. We launched a ‘Women into Politics’ project in Nottingham last Friday.

Parliamentary event, 7 November

There are more details about our Parliamentary event at: http://www.wea.org.uk/News/parliamentaryevent.aspx

We’re looking forward to celebrating award winners’ achievements…

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I will be present at the meeting in the Council House, Birmingham on Tuesday 27 November at 1930GMT.

Ask Parents First

Education is undergoing unprecedented change at every phase from early years through primary and secondary to FE and beyond, and in every aspect from structure to curriculum. We need a forum in Birmingham where these changes can be discussed and the case for a fair, egalitarian, democratic comprehensive education can be made. That is why we are proposing to set up a Birmingham branch of CASE – the Campaign for State Education.

CASE ‘believes that all individuals are entitled to high quality and properly resourced education, fostering life-long enjoyment of learning and enabling them to live free and fulfilling lives in a diverse, multicultural society. This is best achieved through democratic and locally ­accountable partnerships working in a spirit of mutual respect and co-operation.’ CASE has been campaigning for these principles since the 1960s – see the fuller statement on the CASE website. The CASE website carries regular briefings…

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