The House Of Play and Education (HOPE) are running a holiday club this coming half term. Details are on the attached poster. We are lucky to have a number of inspiring organisations like HOPE, who do important work in our community providing extra opportunities for young people to develop their potential in a fun way.

Acocks Green has been, rightly, a big beneficiary of the introduction of the Pupil Premium by the coalition government. A key Lib Dem policy at the last general election, its implementation provides our schools with a significant level of extra resources to do whatever they decide they need to help disadvantaged pupils succeed. The latest […]

There has been huge local publicity recently about the proposal by Cottesbrooke Junior School to close at 1pm on Fridays. The school says this would enable better use of teacher PPA time – which stands for planning, preparation and assessment. I attended a packed meeting at the school last Wednesday, which discussed the plans. Its […]

Birmingham City Council has published a consultation document on the expansion of The Oaklands Primary School. The Council wants to double the capacity of the school from 210 to 420. Demand for places has grown rapidly during recent years due to increasing birth rates. Unless action is taken there will not be enough mainstream school […]

Many congratulations to everyone at Acocks Green Primary School which has been graded as “outstanding” by OFSTED following a recent inspection. This is the top OFSTED grade and is a reflection by many years of hard work by everyone at the school. The opening paragraph of the inspection report says it all: “Pupils make exceptional progress […]

Last week the Coalition Government announced that a Pupil Premium, funded from outside the schools budget, will be introduced next September. It will mean that from next year, schools taking disadvantaged children will get the additional money they need to provide them with the extra support they deserve, no matter where they are in the country. […]

I’m really pleased to see that, despite the current financial pressures, the Lib Dems have restated their commitment to scrap University Tuition Fees. The state of the economy has meant that to keep our plans financially responsible, phasing out fees will take a total of six years, but it will be done in such a […]

Ed Balls, the Education Secretary, praised the achievement of Birmingham’s schools yesterday. He highlighted the reduction in the number of schools in the City that have under 30% of pupils achieving 5 A-Cs at their GCSEs, and said: “I would say that Birmingham is one of the authorities which has really been embracing its responsibilities and driving this […]