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Early this morning a group of young activists re-occupied the Wembley Park Sports Ground, in protest of the community amenities being seized and privatised in the Ark Academy takeover of the grounds.

Having been inspired by the previous two-year campaign by Tent City Occupation, which ended last week, the protestors took matters into their own hands, squatted the land and stand up to the local council and private investors and try to save the sports ground for the local community.

Ark is expected to have the temporary lease finalised in the next few days and work on the site to build temporary accommodation, or refurbish the rundown sports hall – both of which will be paid for by the taxpayer – for the first 60 pupils could start as early as Wednesday.

Local opposition to the plans has been huge, with residents complaining the council has lied and misled them on numerous occasions, holding public consultations during work and school hours and then claiming the public have had their chance to air their concerns.

All videos of the two-year previous campaign can be found here on YouTube: one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven.

Stills taken Hi-Res Today 27/07/08.

Reel News has given near constant coverage to the Wembley Academy Campaign and the slow privatisation of the UK education system.

Save Our Schools 22-minute film available on Reel News issue 13
Stop them Privatising Our Schools available on Reel News issue 12
Wembley Occupation available on Reel News issue 10

Please support Reel News to keep our coverage going on the issues important to you.

All material on this blog – stills, video and print – is (c) Jason N. Parkinson 2008 All Rights Reserved.

Please contact the AUTHOR for access to any material and the extensive four-year video archive.

jasonnparkinson@googlemail.com

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Wednesday 16 July 2008: By the afternoon most of Tent City was gone. The bailiffs arrived that morning and issued a second injunction on every person and every tent on the Wembley Park Sports Ground, threatening all with arrest.

The council bailiffs said they would return later that day with specialist equipment to remove anyone on the sports ground rooftop.

So, Brent NUT and ATL Secretary Hank Roberts D-locked himself to the rooftop flagpole, that now flew a black flag with the words: “No Academy. Save Our Sports Ground.”

The “media” arrived, both freelance and independent, along with all the usual suspects – BBC, ITN, Evening Standard. Several supporters muttered to me that it always takes a stunt like this and someone facing jail for them to take an interest in such a story.

“If there ain’t blood, we don’t buy it.” I replied.

Later in the day NUT National President Bill Greenshields arrived.

“We don’t believe this is a process of anything to do with educational standards,” he said in an interview. “We believe it is the privatisation of public services.

“There is a huge amount of money to be made out of investment in education… [Education International] perceive this as very powerful and predatory entrepreneurs taking over the process of education and using it for profit, not for the benefit of children.”

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By Tuesday evening Brent NUT and ATL Secretary Hank Roberts had used a bicycle D-lock to lock himself by the leg to a ten metre flagpole on the Wembley Park Sports Ground sports hall rooftop.

This was indeed his last ditch attempt to make his voice heard, despite already suffering a £3,750 ($7,945) bill in costs, a two-year ban from the site and the possibility of facing prison over contempt of court charges. But it worked.

As well as myself, coverage from all the local newspapers, The BBC, ITN and London Evening Standard had picked up the story. The sports ground was crawling with photographers and supporters of the campaign arrived from across the city.

This all came at the time of the latest revelation in the Wembley Park Ark Academy scandal.

Already the school opening had been pushed forward to September 2008 with a temporary planning license, which would see 200 children facing their first two years in the school surrounded by a construction site. Then Ark representative Chris Randall let slip it would be the taxpayer funding the temporary accommodation for those pupils.

In last week’s Wembley and Kingsbury Times journalist Alex Wellman exposed the councils “stealing kids” tactics.

Brent Council were caught writing letters to parents with children already placed in other local schools, urging them to swap to the Ark Wembley Academy – that being the school that does not exist yet.

Yet again, this backtracks on the original reasons why Ark and Brent Council insisted the Academy must be built on the Wembley Sports Ground location.


First they, and the Liberal Democrats, said, it was the only location. It was not. There were two other known locations in the borough where the school was more needed. But Brent Council ‘forgot’ to inform Ark of that. Just as Brent Council forgot to inform the Brent taxpayer that the Church of England was also up for “sponsoring” the academy, leaving them only to Ark to “choose” from.

Second, Brent Council argued the Academy must be built or 200 displaced children would not have a school and lose out on their education. Now it is uncovered that Brent and Ark are stealing pupils from existing schools.

But this tactic exposes a more sinister approach. It is not just stealing kids. It has a knock on effect. The schools that lose pupils are already under capacity, Wembley Primary on East Lane at 86 pupils and Preston Park at 97 pupils.

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Tuesday morning, 15 July 2008, Brent NUT and ATL Secretary Hank Roberts entered Willesden County Court with his wife, Jean, and other supporters. Brent Council representatives were there too. And if the usher got his way I would not have been. Nor would the other four journalists that decided to cover the story.

In fact he took great offence at our presence, first refusing to let me enter, not until he cleared it with the judge, anyway. On his return the court usher exclaimed: “In all my 25 years I’ve never seen a journalist in here”.

“Well, there’s always a first time,” I replied.

“You better make that two,” said a voice behind me.

“I guess I count as three,” said another.

The usher looked confused and gave up, as not one but three journalists entered his precious courtroom. Then within five minutes another two from the North West London newspaper were greeted with his annoyance.

Brent NUT & ATL Secretary Hank Roberts

After a defence that was continually interrupted by the judge with corny and lack-lustre gags, he ordered Roberts and any other occupier to vacate the Wembley Park Sports Ground by 6pm that night.

Roberts tried to highlight the issue to the judge, but the old boy looked bored in his wig and asked Roberts if he was a “politician”. The judge stated firmly on several occasions that the High Court hearing on whether Brent Council’s planning application for the Ark Wembley Academy was illegal was a completely separate issue. He stated: “A 1000 flowers bloom in the Spring, tra-lar. But it has nothing to do with the case.”

But even the judge grew interested in the case as Roberts explained it was linked, because if the privatisation of UK education, and specifically the Wembley Academy, did not go ahead the Tent City Occupation would not be happening.

The Judge, at first, brushed off the idea Academy schools were profiting from education, but even the members of the public and several journalists interjected to add not only was it education for profit but the UK taxpayer would be paying for it. The judge then leaned back in his chair and seemed to scowl at the council officials. But he had a job to do, and the book said this was “neither here nor there”.

The Brent Council representatives, who sat giggling through most the courtroom drama, tried to hit Roberts as hard as they could, an attempt to destroy him financially, but even the judge frowned when he read the costs Roberts would be paying.

He cut the costs to £3,750 but approved the ban on Roberts – not to enter the site again for the next two years unless he had prior permission from Brent Council.

This was going to be hard to adhere to, as Roberts often accompanied his school children to football matches on the sports ground. He would also need access to the site when the school “officially” opened, in September 2008, to meet with teachers on union business, if Ark Schools would be employing unionised teachers.

This argument also failed as the judge proclaimed, much to the amusement of the audience: “Well, there isn’t a school there at the moment.”

Indeed. And there would not be a school there for another two years.

Roberts left the court defiant, saying he would ignore the injunction and the ban: “The fight for state education is as important as the fight for women’s suffrage in my view… all the other people before us who sacrificed so much and have often been to prison for fighting for what’s right.

“If that needs to be done I am happy to do it. And I hope ultimately others will do it as well, because that’s the only way we save and ultimately improve our state education.”

Reel News has given near constant coverage to the Wembley Academy Campaign and the slow privatisation of the UK education system.

Save Our Schools 22-minute film available on Reel News issue 13
Stop them Privatising Our Schools available on Reel News issue 12
Wembley Occupation available on Reel News issue 10

Please support Reel News to keep our coverage going on the issues important to you.

All material on this blog – stills, video and print – is (c) Jason N. Parkinson 2008 All Rights Reserved.

Please contact the AUTHOR for access to any material and the extensive four-year video archive.

jasonnparkinson@googlemail.com

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As the date at Willesden County Court closed in, supporters of the Wembley Anti-Academy Campaign gathered on Friday 11 July 2008.

Wembley Supporters

Over that Friday afternoon more than 100 people came on to the site of the Tent City Occupation
to show their support for the unending fight of the Wembley teachers to save the local sports ground and make a stand against the privatisation of UK state schools through ex-prime minister Blair’s “Academisation” program.

Tent City Pirates

On Sunday 29 August I interviewed Brent National Union of Teachers (NUT) and Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL) Secretary Hank Roberts from the Tent City Occupation. He explained, despite an impending County Court eviction order, he was prepared to defy any legal action against himself and even face jail, to make a final stand against private investment taking control of state education and profiting from it.

http://www.youtube.com/get_player
Hank Roberts: A Call To Action

Thursday 10 July saw a delegation from private school investor Ark, accompanied by several representatives from Brent Council, visit the site to price up the costs of plan B – to house the first 60 children in the sports hall.

Ark representative Chris Randall let it slip that it would be the Brent taxpayer who foots the bill for any construction work needed to prepare the hall for September 2008. It is already widely reported plan A – housing pupils in temporay hut accomodation – will also come from the taxpayer (see video below).

On that Friday afternoon as a month’s worth of rain fell from the sky in a day ATL president Julia Neal visited the site to give the union’s support to Academy opposition.

Neal had some interesting things to say about Academy schools, such as increased expulsion’s, as they tried to maintain their high-ranking status at any cost, and the lowering of teachers rights, pay and conditions.

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Brent Council will enter Willesden County Court on Tuesday 15 July 2008, to apply for an eviction order on the Tent City Occupation, who are currently squatting the Wembley Park Sports Ground, land promised to the latest privatised Academy school.

Wembley Tent City Occupation

Protesting teachers and residents opposing construction of the Wembley Park Academy on Bridge Road in North West London re-squatted the land two weeks ago in a last ditch attempt to halt child charity Ark’s plans to secure an advanced “temporary” planning application, which was approved by Brent council heads last month.

Up Go The Tents

The 2008 Tent City Occupation, follows a six-month occupation last year, which ended in the teachers scaling trees to avoid eviction.

Teachers Take A Breather

The Wembley Academy is one of the 12 private investment schools to be set up by charity Ark, founded by French/Swiss financier Arki Busson. Six of those schools are planned to open on the beginning of the 2008 term, including the Wembley Academy.

Brent NUT & ATL Secretary Hank (Tent City) Roberts

The only problem is there is no school there. It has not been built yet. Construction begins this summer and will continue until September 2010. In the meantime 200 pupils will be educated in the middle of a construction site, as the school is built around them, and private investor Ark will begin receiving taxpayer’s money to fund the project, and thus start down the road to profiting from education.

Last week the Anti-Academy Action Group made a call out to others to join them and make the last stand at Wembley Sports Ground the largest opposition to the privatisation of UK schooling, promising to use non-violent direct action to halt the Academy school if necessary.

Anti-Academy campaigners have asked for people to protest the Willesden County Court on Tuesday 15 July at 10.30am and have asked people to join them for drinks this Friday night for a “Back on Site or pre-eviction party – you decide!”, starting at 3.30pm till late.

You Tube videos.

Wembley Teachers Say No To Academy Privatisation Pt1

Wembley Teachers Say No To Academy Privatisation Pt2

Wembley Teachers Say No To Academy Privatisation Pt3

Wembley Teachers Say No To Academy Privatisation Pt4

Wembley Teachers Say No To Private Academy School Pt 5

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.

Please support Reel News to keep our coverage going on the issues important to you.

All material on this blog – stills, video and print – is (c) Jason N. Parkinson 2008 All Rights Reserved.

Please contact the AUTHOR for access to any material and the extensive four-year video archive.

jasonnparkinson@googlemail.com

>Friday 2 May 2008 saw The Synergy Centre host the launch night of the Creative Camberwell Network. I was hired to film the event and produce a short film of the evenings

Creative Camberwell is an umbrella organisation set up to join together and promote arts, performance and festivals in the Camberwell borough of South London.

Music came from The Synergy Centre resident drummers, Ghana’s own Kakatsitsi and Pan Andian band Kausary.

All material on this blog – stills, video and print – is (c) Jason N. Parkinson 2008 All Rights Reserved.

Please contact the AUTHOR for access to any material and the extensive four-year video archive.

jasonnparkinson@googlemail.com

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Wembley Sports Ground Tent City 2008

Following 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.

Please support Reel News to keep our coverage going on the issues important to you.

All material on this blog – stills, video and print – is (c) Jason N. Parkinson 2008 All Rights Reserved.

Please contact the AUTHOR for access to any material and the extensive four-year video archive.

jasonnparkinson@googlemail.com