to think that every child has the right to high quality education?

[ursigurke]

During the Leaders' debate on ITV David Cameron basically said that there is no inequality problem in the educational system. After all, charities and other organisations are offering great services in free school.
I am speechless (well not really). Shouldn't it be the duty of a government to provide free, equal and top quality education for each child, free from interests of any kind of private investor?
But this is just the perfect background what is currently going wrong in my very personal situation. And I am actually here to ask for your support.
I have set up a petition on www.change.org/p/save-maxilla to fight the decision of one of the richest boroughs - Kensington and Chelsea - to destroy Maxilla, an outstanding Children Centre and Nursery School in North West Kensington, one of the most deprived wards of London.
By the way, David Cameron used to live just around the corner of Maxilla.
Maxilla serves the local community since 40 years, they have an incredible staff there, not only nice but imaginative, modern teaching, they accept and love each individual child and support it in its individuality. They truly do an amazing job and it is so so needed in this area.
They have an amazing and huge garden, children can spend the whole day outdoor if they wish, it is an exceptional learning opportunity for children who mostly live in tiny and overcrowded council flats.
The borough actually knows how good Maxilla is, they use it as an example of good practice. A week after they announced the bad news to parents, they actually had visitors from other nurseries,.... to have a look how it is best done. (Or maybe to show them: If you are doing a good job, you will lose it?)
Officially they are not closing it, they are "moving" it to the federated nursery, except that they move it so far that it gets out of reach for many.
The Children Centre used to be a one stop place offering all sorts of different services. So vulnerable people felt secure with always the same staff around and would eventually open up. Now they will spread the services over several locations so we will lose the benefit of one location with integrated services.
The total number of nursery places will get reduced, in addition an other nursery school will merge with a nursery attached to a primary school and yet another primary school is currently discussing to close the nursery class.
According to the borough there is no over-subscription for nursery places in the area. But why are then private nurseries expanding?
Also, parents chose Maxilla because they believe that a stand alone nursery school is the more appropriate setting for 3year olds rather than a nursery school within a primary school.
This option will have disappeared if Maxilla is gone.
The borough uses cuts in funding as an excuse. The building is in a bad state, they do not want to invest in a place which they have to rent, nor commit to a long term lease (in which case Westway Trust who owns the building would finance a new building). RBKC has huge reserves, they invest in other projects in the south, the more wealthy part of it.
Rather than investing in the future of one of the most deprived areas of the borough they are actually cutting down services and investing in expensive flats and make it unaffordable to live here. This is social cleansing, even if it was hopefully not intentionally.
Sorry for the rant, you can find the full story on my blog savemaxilla.wordpress.com and please please please sign the petition www.change.org/p/save-maxilla
If we don't stop them now, what are they closing next?

Signed. Good luck!

Officially they are not closing it, they are "moving" it to the federated nursery, except that they move it so far that it gets out of reach for many

So they're not closing it then?

I've read it but am genuinely confused.
They are keeping the same services in the same area, just not the same building? Is this what is happening?

The borough uses cuts in funding as an excuse. The building is in a bad state, they do not want to invest in a place which they have to rent, nor commit to a long term lease (in which case Westway Trust who owns the building would finance a new building). RBKC has huge reserves, they invest in other projects in the south, the more wealthy part of it.
Rather than investing in the future of one of the most deprived areas of the borough they are actually cutting down services and investing in expensive flats and make it unaffordable to live here. This is social cleansing, even if it was hopefully not intentionally

To be honest, I don't know if I agree with your postioning on this. Is it run by the local authority? They have endured serious cuts in funding, all local governments have. If the builidng is in a bad state, why shouldn't they move it? It's still going to be in N Kensington yes?

I have just googled, the new site is 2.2 miles away if walking and 3.5 if driving. I imagine the old centre was on the doorstep? I can imagine that it's move will put it out of reach of a lot of people who would now have to walk an hour each way, or take a bus which may cost money they don't have.

2-3 miles is nothing to me, I have a car and love walking but I imagine it would make a world of difference if someone had to walk it everyday with their children in tow. There needs to be more centres like this in deprived areas, not less.

Thanks for your interest in this matter.

I know that all local authorities need to save money but RBKC is actually very rich, they are proud that they didn't need to raise council tax, they have huge reserves for building works and they do invest in other projects in the south of the borough. (also what they are going to save is actually about the annual salary of a senior borough officer - a lot of money for most of us but not for RBKC)
The problem is that this area is really poor and people can not afford private nurseries.
Keeping this place - which is not just about the nursery, also about the Children Centre, would actually help them save money in the future as it is an investment in one of the most deprived areas of London.
If they need to save money, they should rather close one of the places that is actually not functioning well.
And to be honest, I just don't think, you should save money by closing down educational institutions. It is the duty of the government/local authority to provide these services. You can't just say, oh there are enough private ones around.
(and RBKC is actually saving a lot of money because the wealthy part of it is sending their children to private schools)

The nursery school will be moved, but it will be too far away for most people. No one has a car around here, siblings are in local primary schools. It is not realistic for many of us to go there.
The google numbers are wrong, it is not actually that far because you can walk under the motorway. But it is too far for small children.
In my personal situation (but it is not about me here, it is about the community) it means that I have to drop off my daughter in primary school, then I have to walk for at least 25min, if I am walking really fast. My son will have to sit in the buggy as I doubt that he can do that distance on the scooter if we actually have to rush and after a long day in nursery.
I will have to pick him up earlier, so he will miss the end of day assembly where they talk about the day, to rush him back.
He will spend an hour each day sitting in a buggy. He will never be able to meet his friends for playdates, as it is too far to then go back. and back home again. We could take a bus but walking back and forth to the bus stop will result in about the same time plus we will get equally wet on rainy days (and it does occasionally rain around here ;) )

So, I don't think it is beneficial for him to go there and I am left with one option which is the nursery class in my daughter's school. I place that I would never have chosen.

On the Children Centre side, the changes will also have a huge impact. It used to be one place, so you will always see the same people in the same building, for the stay and plays, for health services, for parenting classes,...
Vulnerable people feel secure and staff can detect problems more easily.
If the services are in many different places, this huge advantage will get lost.

I agree, in theory moving wouldn't be the worst, but it would have to be more local (they could have taken it into consideration a few years ago when they just built a new leisure centre and secondary school around the corner).
Also, we would lose the garden. It is an amazing and exceptional spot. Most of these children live in tiny flats in huge blocks. This is an incredible opportunity and they will lose it by moving.

We would like them to work constructively with the current owner of the site. The Westway Trust is supposed to manage the land under the motorway for the benefit of the community.
They could easily turn it into a community project and it would be beneficial for everybody.

I hope I could explain a bit better, you see I have very strong feelings about it, but Maxilla is really worth it.