And a new phase of forced Academy conversion begins

A comparison of the DfE’s latest publication list of schools applying for Academy status  with the list published in August shows that since August only 4 Birmingham schools have submitted applications to become Academies. Furthermore the current list up until December 2011 shows that last month no schools in Birmingham submitted an application at all, not one Birmingham school opened as a new Academy and no applications from Birmingham schools were approved by the DfE.

If this Wikipedia list of Birmingham’s schools is correct, there are 400 state schools in Birmingham – 296 Primary schools, 76 Secondary Schools and 28 Special Schools. Of these, 24 are Academies (7 Sponsored and 17 Converters). According to the DfE’s latest publication there are a potential 12 more in the pipeline. Assuming all 12 convert (which is by no means certain), that will make a…

This week’s Doonesbury is going to be about abortion and the right-wing craziness around it in America.  There is no weapon as sharp as sarcasm, and Garry Trudeau wields it with great finesse.  Here’s today’s strip, and I’ll be putting them up all this week.

(Note: as some readers have noted, although the strip is reproduced widely by others [including here], this deprives Trudeau of syndication money, or so I’m told.  So even if you look at the strip below, also click on the link above to make sure the artist gets the “click credit”.)

As MSNBC reports, some papers will probably pull this strip because it’s controversial:

Around a dozen U.S. newspapers have raised questions about an abortion-related “Doonesbury” comic strip set for publication next week, and some will likely not run it, the syndicate behind the cartoon said on Friday.

The cartoon’s story line for…

Thanks to Peter Threadkell, Chair of the WEA’s Eastern Region, for inviting me to the Regional Council meeting in Cambridge on Saturday 10^th March.

The meeting attracted a lively crowd of people who seemed to be chatting enthusiastically or listening intently throughout the day. At a rough estimate more than 100 people were there, with most of them being active volunteers. Various people described long journeys with early morning starts when they talked to me during breaks. Their commitment to the WEA is impressive.

The day was a good mix of formal business and workshop sessions on a range of themes that included:

• Publicity and marketing – How do we attract more learners to WEA courses? (Andrew Westwood-Bate)
• The role of the Community Programme within WEA (Gorete Downey and Sarah Moore)
• Branch Committees – How do we attract new volunteers and what can be done if we can’t? (Ron…

Ipswich Unemployed Action can reveal A4e’s performance on the Work Programme.

Despite clear instructions not to reveal ANY information on the scheme, A4e decided to publish the statistics on its website. I assume they don’t understand the clear instruction of not to defraud the taxpayer either!

Young people leaving care are some of the most disadvantaged in the city. They are over-represented in the prison population and among the homeless and more likely to be unemployed.

Yet despite this, the council are determined to push on with their program of cuts. They want to shut the doors by March 31st.

We know that with the support of local people, staff and residents we can win a campaign to save the home, just like staff and parents at Charles House respite centre who won their recent campaign to stay open.

The council have given two reasons they want to close the home:

Under capacity?

The council says the home is…