Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Protests against education cuts at Hornsey School for Girls
Students at Hornsey School for Girls staged a sit down protest against the education cuts in their playground this morning. The school gates were then locked and no-one was being allowed to leave. The police were also called.
Several students who left earlier were approached by the police at Turnpike Lane station who were asking which school they attended and where they were going and why.
(thanks to Andy for this info)
Several students who left earlier were approached by the police at Turnpike Lane station who were asking which school they attended and where they were going and why.
(thanks to Andy for this info)
Tags for Forum Posts: education_cuts, hornsey_school_for_girls, public spending cuts
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Liz on
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OAE, having faced situations like this in a professional capacity, I don't recall the police being called to manage the situation. We would not have permitted anyone under 16 to leave but we handled the situation without summoning the police.
Let us not forget that these 15 year olds do have a slightly more immediate cut to face, that of the Educational maintenance grant which the coalition is cutting. Many many Haringey children rely on this to continue in further education even if their ultimate destination is not university.
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Permalink Reply by Old-Age-Emporium(OAE) on
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I'm conscious of the EMA cut and the importance of it to many/all post-GCSE students. (It's only been 7 years, Liz - I haven't forgotten!)
Michelle, nobody's buying into paedophile paranoia. I just wondered whether it's a parent's role to share images more widely of a spot of bother at the school they chose for their daughter.
It would be interesting to hear from the school how many police were involved and in what circumstances. At least one other parent told the Journal that there was only one security guard and a police officer, and that things were out of control (or words to that effect).
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I see Isabella Burton, a Year 10 student at HSSG, has an excellent response to Haringey Independent's report on yesterday's protest (Latest Local News). She did have a letter from Mum and left school at 11.00 am - apparently before police were called. I like the way she took up the point of the EMA cut but also her resentment at the suggestion that only Sixth Formers might have the right to be passionately opposed to Uni fees being hiked out of reach of many able students. She'll go far, I'd say.
Still curious about how many police were actually called. No arrests. But I'd hate to think that any budding young Aung San Suu Kyi, with or without a note from Mum, was crushed along Inderwick Road in a demonic pincer movement set up by the Reactionary Teaching Junta and the Myanmar PCSO Riot Squad.
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Hmm, the last time a controlling and authoritarian regime tried to control education in Hornsey, this happened
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Permalink Reply by Alan Stanton on
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Oh, Liz, please, please don't.
The Official Wing of the May 68-ers need no encouragement to trot out their how-to 'expertise'.
"What did you dream? It's all right, we'll tell you what to dream." -
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Even as we await the W5 tumbril conveying the obsessively controlling and authoritarian J towards Suicide Bridge, and her pitchforking by enraged students and parents onto the Islington side of Archway Road, memories of my first 'school strike' come to mind: 18 November 1968, Yengema, Sierra Leone. We couldn't attribute it to any 1968 spontaneist esprit de Paris - more to do with the generally disturbed political situation (post-military junta, pre-democratic election). Sparked off by our innocent appointment of two temporary teachers (one of whom was just out of prison in Freetown for fatally knifing his girlfriend's hubby). Within half-a-term they had quietly worked up our students against the 'authoritarian rule of the Principal, aided by his Irish and US pisscorpse' (Peace Corps). As we sounded the last notes of the National Anthem and saluted the flag, a barrage of stones and other weapons smashed every window in four barely finished classroom blocks, staffroom and admin office. Yes, school strikes in Sa Lone really meant 'strikes'.
Apart from the indignity of having to be rescued from our own besieging students by the security force from the local hq of the national diamond mining company, we did have the luxury of a seven-week school closure which allowed me to wander through Guinea and Gambia and celebrate Christmas and Eid ul Fitr in Senegal.
With this clearing of the air, school rebuilt and a few shortlived staff members back in Pademba Road Prison, the ensuing eight years were extremely enjoyable. I hope that, come the revolution and J dispatched, my HSSG colleagues and their students are as fortunate. -
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No issues, Michelle - I don't even have problems. I just wondered - possibly a slightly prejudiced hangover of mine from those balmy pre-facebook/twitter/HOL/instantcontent-sharing days when, in the rare event of the affairs of the great wide world invading the secret garden of our school's life and curriculum, we could always say: 'At least we have the parents behind us.'
Now that I know it's just Control Freak , and not the whole Hornsey Reactionary Teaching Junta, that's the issue - no more wondering on my part.
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Alan, Alan, we all become history in the end and the subject of scholarly debate.
These protests don't resemble 1968, this is a whole new kettle of fish.
My generation saying to our children, sorry you can't have what your grandparents gave to us, fair access to free education because we've gambled your inheritance away on the gaming tables of the big city.
Oh and we're going to tell you, you are a bunch of over-privileged brats who don't know you're born etc and you should pay us for the privilege of wiping up after us and paying our pensions when we are old.
Shame on my generation. Unfortunately we didn't die before we got old, we turned into King Lear. -
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Liz, I have no idea about similarities between today's young fish and the ones served-up in May '68. I was observing some of the knee-jerk reactions in the media. (And by a few people on HoL.)
I expect there are editors saying: "Student protest? 52,000 marchers? Right, right. Know all about it. I was there, y'know. '68. School kids joining-in? Great story. I used to have the Little Red School Book. Before I put Lenin on the compost at the bottom of my garden. Oh me, oh my. Certain little lady came by."
"So let's headline with "RIOTERS" and mention anarchist groups. Any Situationists? They were always good for a laugh. Email Tariq Ali and Peter Hitchens for some balanced pieces."
Now I'll shut-up. Anyone on HoL who went on the demos? Or has a son or daughter (or great-grandchild) who did? Let's hear from them! -
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Sorry OAE, there was me thinking your venerable self predated the 1944 Education Act. (whatever a cheeky emoticon looks like)
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Nice one, Liz. Strictly speaking I do predate the Butler Act but managed to be young enough to benefit from the 11+ & Grammar School (yep, I know that's heresy) and from a Uni scholarship that paid all tuition, board & lodging. If I'd had to repay the 1960's equivalent of a £30-40K uni debt, I might just now be looking for a sub-prime mortgage to get my doddery foot on the first rung of the ladder (or even Ladder).
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@Alan Maybe we are accessing different media (possible since I gave up the Today programme after the disgrace of their undeserving poor programmes and I try to avoid Peter Hitchins at all costs) but I don't get the sense that '68 is being invoked. Indeed, Clive James' attempts on Question Time fell very flat with his young audience. I think that is simply too far back in the mists of time for modern commentators. Where parallels are being drawn, it is with the poll tax riots of the 80s and more recently with the anti-austerity riots in Greece and France. Maybe its wrong to draw parallels with any other events, there is a point of view that no two events happen in identical circumstances so no lessons can realistically be drawn from one to the other.
With respect to my own parallel, it was really relating to location i.e. a Hornsey educational establishment where the management were felt to be unfair and overly controlling, not dates.
With regard to being there, I'm beginning to wonder why we are not.
These are our children being beaten with sticks and coralled like animals and some are watching it on tv and saying serve them right. Really? School children deserve to be denied food, water and toilet facilities for hours. Really?
Shouldn't we be there too?
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