Despite overwhelming opposition from pupils, parents, teachers; governors and the local community at Unity College, the County Council are going ahead with the next stage of fast tracking Unity to become an academy.

Richard Church attended the meeting, together with parents, pupils and teachers, where the Council’s cabinet member for schools, Conservative Councillor Joan Kirkbride made the decision to go ahead. There were many excellent conributions from those who spoke, and no-one had a good word to say about the proposal, or the botched consultation that has happened so far.

With the support of at least 7 other County Councillors, Richard is going to ask that the decision is ‘called in’ for examination by the councils scrutiny committee.

I shall be adding my support to the campaign against an academy at Unity. With a new Head and new buildings, Unity desperately needs a period of stability in which it can work to improve. Now is not the time to be fast tracked into another organisational shake up with little evidence that it will achieve anything that cannot be done under the current arrangements.

UPDATE Conservative councillors have blocked the attempted call-in, so the fast-track to academy status for Unity continues.

Andrew Simpson and Richard Church attended a meeting for parents and residents about plans to turn Unity College into an academy. This means the school would close as a Church of England Secondary School funded through the County Council and re-open as a Church of England Academy.

There was strong opposition to the plan from the parents present who spoke in support of the existing head teacher, who has been in post for less than a year, but would be replaced under this proposal. Their were also concerns (voiced by both Andrew and Richard) that the proposal would weaken the schools links with the local community , and that it was being proposed only to tackle a large defecit in the schools budget.

The academy proposal is being promoted by the Councty Council, together with Moulton College and Bishops Stopford school (a Church of England school in Kettering). A consultation leaflet can be found on the County Council website at www.northamptonshire.gov.uk and the sponsors website www.pcaaun.org and you can respond to esopp@northamptonshire.gov.uk.

Parents who are opposed to the academy move have their own website at http://www.saveunitycollege.org

I am honoured to have won the ‘I’m a Councillor Get me out of Here’ competition when the results were announced on Saturday at the Local Democracy Week event at The Guildhall.

It was one of the most challenging things I have ever done as a Councillor and I have really learnt a lot.

The ‘I’m a Councillor Get me out of Here’ event started on 6th October and involved 6 Borough Councillors being available online to answer questions from local school children and young people. The Councillors all had a manifesto and there were three live chat sessions. The other Councillors who took part were: Jane Hollis, Ifty Choudary, David Palethorpe, Phil Larratt and Keith Davis. It was the first time Northampton has taken part in the event which was part of National Local Democracy week. Cllr Ifty Choudary came second.

I have now been declared as ‘Youth Champion for Northampton for 2008′

There were some really good ideas from the young people which I now want to see if we can progress. One simple one was to hold a regular online chat session for young people to raise matters with their councillors. I have already asked the council if this can be done.

Next year I hope we can build on this event and make it even more successful I would really recommend other councillors to get involved it really opens your eyes to what young people are thinking.

There is currently a vacancy for a school governor at Wallace Rd nursery school. School governors play a vital role in supporting schools, and are an excellent way to give something back to the local community. Contact me or Richard Church rchurch1@northampton.gov.uk if you would like to put your name forward.

The County Council has decided to market the site of Raeburn Special School after the school has moved to its new site at Tiffield. Local residents are campaigning to keep the site for community use. There are no childrens play areas or community facilities in the area. The Focus team are supporting the campaign and Richard Church has spoken up at a recent County Council meeting in support of a petition presented by local community activist Karen Lennon.