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“Tent City Roberts Returns” claimed a local newspaper headlines this week, as the Wembley teachers and residents returned to re-squat the proposed privatised school site on Bridge Road in Wembley, North West London.
In a last ditch fight against UK school privatisation, the teachers and residents of Wembley said they would resort to non-violent direct action to halt the privatised Ark Wembley Academy school project and make this the largest stand against the privatisation of UK schools.
Wembley Sports Ground Tent City 2008Following Brent Council’s decision on 3 June 2008 to approve a temporary lease on the land and accelerate the Ark Academy opening date by one year to September 2008, immediately evicting several local businesses, including a nursery school, Ark now plans to house 200 school children in portacabins and a dilapidated and leaking community hall.
The Sports Ground Community Centre This puts the school children in the middle of a construction site for the next two years as the new school building, believed to be somewhere between three and six floors, is built around them.
Sports Ground Hall
Leaking Ceilings“State education is worth fighting for,” said Hank Roberts, Brent Secretary for the National Union of Teachers (NUT) and Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL). He added they will fight Brent Council and child charity Ark as hard as they can.
Reel News has given near constant coverage to the Wembley Academy Campaign and the slow privatisation of the UK education system, which culminated in the 22-minute film Save Our Schools! on issue 13.
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