Saturday 26 June 2010

Chorlton Surestart

Last Tuesday I attended a Fun Day at Chorlton Library to mark the launch of Chorlton Sure Start. Many parents and young children enjoyed face painting, balloon models, story time, a visit from the fire engine and much more.

Chorlton Sure Start is based in Chorlton Library and offers support to soon-to-be first time parents as well as parents and carers of children 0-5 years. A range of activities are on offer including:
Parent education classes
Stay and play activities
Baby massage
Advice on weaning
Childminders’ support group.
For more information contact Chorlton Library 881 3179

It is great that there is so much on offer for parents and carers thanks to the Labour Council and former Labour Government. The Lib Dem-Conservative coalition has stated that Sure Start should only be for the most needy families so how long will Chorlton parents have this excellent service?

Sunday 13 June 2010

School visits

As well as being a councillor for Chorlton ward I am the executive member for Children’s Services and I have the lead responsibility for education and schools in the city. As a result I spend a lot of time visiting schools throughout Manchester. Manchester’s schools face many challenges but many schools are doing excellent work and I hope the successes of the best schools can be spread to others.

Last Monday I visited the Willows Primary School in Wythenshawe. This excellent primary school has managed to achieve outstanding in two OFSTEDs despite being in one of the most deprived areas of the city

The following day I visited St Peter’s RC High School in Gorton. This high school has also achieved outstanding in its OFSTED at the end of last year and in the last two years has had a massive improvement in the number of pupils achieving 5 A*-Cs including English and maths. They have done this by focusing on the basics, and providing one to one tuition, as well as using new approaches such as gardening therapy.

On Thursday I attended a ceremony to mark a significant stage in the re building of Acacias Primary School and extension and refurbishment of Levenshulme High School for Girls. This is a very innovative £23.7m project. It brings together the work of the Building Schools for the Future programme which is rebuilding or refurbishing all Manchester’s secondary schools with the primary school rebuilding programme. The two schools will share a site and have some shared facilities.