Good morning everybody. I am here to ask for your help and your signatures on our petition. www.change.org/p/save-maxilla
I live in Kensington and Chelsea, one of the richest boroughs (if not the richest) in London and I am a heavy user of Maxilla Children Centre and Nursery School - a wonderful place where it is most needed. North Kensington is actually one of the most deprived areas in London. I actually chose it because it is by far the nicest and also educationally best place in the area, better than all those private nurseries around here.
Maxilla has been rated outstanding by Ofsted, it has a huge garden, the children can spend the whole day outside if they want - for children living in tiny council flats an exceptional opportunity. The staff is amazing, they really care about each individual child and support it in its individuality.
The Borough knows how good the place is, they use it as a model of good practice for others. But now they want to close it down.
Officially they are "moving" it to a federated nursery, over half a mile away and it will simply get out of reach for many people. And as other nurseries in the area are merging or closing down we are actually loosing free nursery places in the area, while private ones are expanding. The Children Centre services will be spread over many locations and it will loose the character of a one stop centre with integrated services.
The building is in a bad state, the funding has been cut, they can not operate anymore but instead of investing in the future of these families and children, the borough just says, they do not want to invest in a place where they have to pay rent, the funding is calculated using the national formula, sorry. At the same time they are investing in other places in the south of the borough.
I am very worried what is currently going on in education and how the government is not supporting the weakest of our society.
You can find the whole story on my blog savemaxilla.wordpress.com
but please go, sign and share our petition www.change.org/p/save-maxilla
If we do not try to stop them now, they will just close the next one