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Saturday 20 March 2010

SEELB LMS Consultation Response

Here is the SEELB LMS Consultation Response, which has been obtained through the Freedom of Information Act and which we have permission to post here.

This was the SEELB response referred to at our last parent's meeting.


Posted by at 1 comment:

URGENT ACTION REQUIRED - write to Office of First Minister and Deputy First Minister (OFMDFM)

**YOUR LETTER or EMAIL NEEDS TO BE WITH OFMDFM IMMEDIATELY**

WHO?/WHY?/WHAT?/WHERE?/WHEN?

TO WHOM SHOULD I WRITE?

You should write to: Rt. Hon. Peter Robinson MP MLA (First Minister) and Mr Martin McGuinness MP MLA (Deputy First Minister).

You can write to them individually or jointly, in the knowledge that all responses must be signed by both Ministers anyway.

WHY SHOULD I WRITE?

The debate on 15th March was a hugely encouraging start to the political process. Unilateral cross-party support, with the obvious exception of Sinn Fein, meant the amended motion was passed without division.

Despite this, the Minister for Education maintained her proposed actions do not require decision by the Executive Committee (the 10 Ministers in the Assembly, 7 of whom belong to the parties supportive of the motion on 15th March & 3 of whom are Sinn Fein).

There are 3 criteria under which the decisions must be made at Executive level. These are matters deemed to be any of the following:

· Contentious (having a significant impact on a sector of society &/or attracting media attention)

· Novel (not so applicable in this scenario)

· Cross-cutting (impacting on the responsibilities of at least two other Ministers)

WHAT SHOULD I WRITE?

Whilst we anticipate full support from the First Minister, writing to OFMDFM is a means of demonstrating to the Deputy, in particular, your personal objections to the proposal & showing how your objections relate directly to the above 3 criteria.

Your letter should make specific reference to these criteria as relating to your personal circumstances & views.

A template is provided to help you piece together some of the main arguments you may feel relate to you. Please expand on them to reflect your personal circumstances & convictions. There is also a sample letter written by Alan Shields linked to below.

TO WHERE SHOULD I WRITE?

Rt Hon Peter Robinson MP MLA

Mr Martin McGuinness MP MLA

Office of the First and Deputy First Minister

Parliament Buildings

Belfast

BT4 3XX

Email Addresses-


ps.ministers@ofmdfmni.gov.uk


or


Peter.Robinson@niassembly.gov.uk


or


Martin.McGuinness@niassembly.gov.uk

WHEN SHOULD I WRITE?

RIGHT NOW Even if you did not sent your letter to OFMDFM by our recommended deadline of the 24th March which has now passed, PLEASE SEND A QUCK to-the-point-EMAIL NOW! It will take you only a couple of minutes to do this. The email addresses are just above.

Copy and paste this if you like...


Dear First Minister Peter Robinson & Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness,

Further to the relevant motion passed on 15th March 2010, I am writing to request that the entire matter of the proposed withdrawal of preparatory school funding be placed on the Agenda before the Executive.

Yours sincerely

*******************************************************************

Easter Recess at Stormont commences on the 27th March, but a pile of letters can be sitting on the First Minister's desk and in his mailbox for his return on 11th April.


Here are some longer templates

LETTER TEMPLATE 1

(Kindly donated by Liz Breadon)

YOUR NAME AND ADDRESS

Rt. Hon. Peter Robinson MP MLA

First Minister

Office of the First and Deputy First Minister

Parliament Buildings

Belfast BT4 3XX

AND

Mr Martin McGuinness MP MLA

Deputy First Minister

Office of the First and Deputy First Minister

Parliament Buildings

Belfast BT4 3XX

20th March 2010

Dear Mr Robinson/Mr McGuinness

Re Department of Education For Northern Ireland (‘DENI’) (published 7 January 2010) proposal to withdraw funding from the Preparatory Departments of Grammar Schools

I write to you to request that you ensure the proposal to withdraw funding from Preparatory Departments of Grammar Schools be brought before the Executive Committee. I detail below the main reasons, under The Ministerial Code, showing why I believe you should be pursuing this course of action:

The proposal is both contentious & cross-cutting under Paragraph 2.4 of the Ministerial Code, in terms of Finance & Equality, & specifically due to the following: (select any of these as appropriate)

The proposal impacts on more than one Minister, namely the Minister for Finance and Personnel & the First and Deputy First Ministers regarding Human Rights and Equality issues.

  • The Minister for Education’s proposals impact exclusively on children & parents from the Protestant &/or non-denominational sectors. She is, in effect, withdrawing an area of education which is inherently cross-community, thereby forcing our children into segregated schooling. The DEIA has already stated that this decision is likely to have a disproportionate effect on non-Catholic children (DEIA, page 17)

  • Daily media coverage (both national & local) prior to, & in particular, after the debate of the 15th March strongly suggests that; contrary to the Minister for Education’s comments on that day, the matter is & continues to be newsworthy, attracting regular, critical comment.

  • MLA & public support is significant, resulting in a cross-party acceptance of the amended motion on 15th March, with the obvious exception of Sinn Fein. Jonathan Bell MLA felt so strongly that the Minister for Education was misleading the House, that he became one of the 3 MLA’s ever to be dismissed from the House. Likewise the public gallery felt so strongly about the motion that they were verbally reprimanded by the Chair for their spontaneous applause in support of Mervyn Storey’s comments, an action which also made the front page of the News Letter the following day.

  • It has been made very clear throughout all the guidelines produced in relation to education facilities in Northern Ireland, that the parent’s choice is the most important factor. Article 2 of the First Protocol of the European Convention of Human Rights states that ‘the State shall respect the right of parents to ensure such education & teaching is in conformity with their own religious & philosophical convictions’. The Minister for Education has based her proposed policy on the view that funding provision in Preparatory Departments can only be accessed by children whose parents can pay the requisite fees & that this is not consistent with the principle of equity in the distribution of resources. However, the DEIA admits that the Education & Libraries (NI) Order 1986 places upon DENI a responsibility ‘to have regard to that principle that, so far as it is compatible with provision of efficient instruction & training & the avoidance of unreasonable public expenditure, pupils shall be educated in accordance with the wishes of their parents.’ The DEIA states that parents choose the type of education for their children & Preparatory Department education is the preferred choice of education for our children.

  • DENI promotes & funds integrated & Irish language schools at an 100% level & to the disadvantage of other sectors. I request you compare this with the current 30% level of Preparatory Department funding & it is clear to see that the threat to withdraw Preparatory Department partial funding is blatantly discriminatory.

  • What provisions will be put in place should parents be unable to continue to pay increased fees & they are unable to gain a place in a local primary school considerate of their choice & rights under Section 75 of the Northern Ireland Act 1988?

  • My husband & I have exercised our fundamental right to choose a non-denominational primary school, other than an integrated school. We are concerned that our & our children’s human rights are being infringed.

  • Regent House School & its Preparatory Department are Controlled schools, coming under the auspices of the SEELB. If DENI withdraws funding the ramifications on the viability & continuation of the Preparatory Department have not been considered & may include staff redundancies. SEELB have recently gone on record confirming this assertion.

  • As far as I can see, the Minister for Education has only one argument to support her proposals, that of equality of access, in that Preparatory Departments can only be accessed by children whose parents can pay the requisite fees & that this is not consistent with the principle of equity in the distribution of resources. All individuals have the right to choose how they spend their disposable, net/taxed income &, if Preparatory Department parents choose to forego other lifestyle choices to spend their money on their childrens’ education, then that is their individual choice, prerogative & right to do so.

  • DENI are currently paying for 2,426 Preparatory School pupils at an average unit cost of £840 or c.£2m per annum in total. Under the new proposals, they would be paying 2,426 pupils at a unit cost of £2,100 = £5m. This excludes the undoubted substantial redundancy payments to unemployed Preparatory Department staff. Despite this, the DEIA states that there is no potential impact on the DENI budget & the Minister for Education has stated this proposal did not have a financial motivation, but rather solely an equality one.

I thank you for reading this letter & trust you will concur that this contentious &, cross-cutting proposal must be decided upon by the Executive Committee. I request that you consider my request to advance this matter to that level at the earliest possible opportunity.

Yours sincerely,


LETTER TEMPLATE 2


Please click here for sample letter,


(kindly donated by Alan Shields)


Anyone should feel free to use this as a basis for their own letters and preferably tailor them to suit their own views, issues, etc. Remember personalising your own letter/email is best.


LETTER TEMPLATE 3

(kindly donated by Nicola Hunter)

Dear First Minister Peter Robinson & Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness,

Further to the relevant motion passed on 15th March 2010, I am writing to request that the entire matter of the proposed withdrawal of preparatory school funding be placed on the Agenda before the Executive.


I do not feel that the Education minister has treated my child(ren) fairly, in that she has failed to respect their individual rights and consult with them on their views/ opinions of their school. The Education Minister has failed to try to identify "a change management process" in a constructive manner to minimise any detrimental impact to my child(ren). Instead she proposes the withdrawal of funds that could potentially have the impact that the "controlled" preps may need to close. This would obviously cause my child(ren)'s safe and happy schooling environment to be disrupted.

Your sincerely

Posted by at 2 comments:

Friday 19 March 2010

Message to us from Michelle McIlveen MLA for Strangford 18.03.10

I would like to thank you for the fantastic job that you, other parents and interested parties have done to raise the public profile of this very important issue. This is a matter that has been and will continue to be of great concern to me and my Party colleagues. It was extremely heartening that so many parents were able to take time out of their busy schedules to attend at the debate on Monday. I know that many would have liked to have been able to come. The following is a link to the debate:


http://www.niassembly.gov.uk/record/reports2009/100315.htm#4


I was very pleased that we were able to obtain cross-Party support for our calls on the Minister to reconsider her decision. This is due in no small part to the lobbying power of parents and I would encourage you to keep up this fantastic effort.


Mervyn Storey, Chairman of the Education Committee, and I met with the Finance Minister Sammy Wilson following the debate on Prep Department funding to discuss the way forward in relation to current crisis created by the Education Minister. A number of options were discussed depending on the actions of the Minister - however, what we can confirm is that Sammy is awaiting legal opinion from the Departmental Solicitors Office clarifying whether or not the Minister has breached the Ministerial Code by refusing to bring this issue to the Executive. We would contend that she is required to bring the matter to her Executive colleagues as the issue is novel and contentious and failure to this puts her breach of the Code. This legal opinion is due early next week. If the Minister chooses to ignore the legal advice it is our view that this would provide the basis for an application for judicial review of her decision.

The Minister and her Party colleagues stated in the debate that the decision will be based on the outcome of the equality impact assessment of the proposal to withdraw funding from the Prep Departments to see whether it will have an adverse effect on any category specified in equality legislation. The Education Committee has been informed that the Education Department will not be in a position to discuss the outcome of the EQIA until early April.

In the meantime, however, it is our understanding that the budget allocations will be made to the Education and Library Boards and the Voluntary Grammars on the 25th March 2010. We suspect that for those schools with Prep Departments their budgets will be reduced accordingly. This is something which concerns us and we will be watching closely.

As ever, my Party colleagues and I will endeavour to keep you updated with developments on this issue. You can be assured of our continued support on this issue and that we will do all we can to bring this issue to a satisfactory conclusion.



Michelle McIlveen MLA

Constituency Office
1, Bridge Street Link
Comber
BT23 5YH
Tel: 028 91871441
Fax: 028 91871494
E-mail: michellemcilveen@hotmail.co.uk
Posted by at No comments:

Tuesday 16 March 2010

ACTION REQUIRED- Get your pens out again!

As we continue to push forward, we urge all parents to write letters to (or to email) the Office of First and Deputy First Minister requesting that the entire matter of the proposed withdrawal of preparatory school funding be placed on the Agenda before the Executive.


The reason for this is that Sinn Fein still exercises a veto and unless the matter is put on the Agenda by the joint Office then decision making power remains with the Minister for Education.

To be clear, the Motion passed on 15th March, does not defeat the proposal.


WE MUST KEEP THE PRESSURE UP!


Here is the postal address/email addresses you will need -


First Minister Rt Hon Peter Robinson MP MLA

Deputy First Minister Mr Martin McGuinness MP MLA

Office of the First and Deputy First Minister

Parliament Buildings

Belfast BT4 3XX


ps.ministers@ofmdfmni.gov.uk


or


Peter.Robinson@niassembly.gov.uk


or


Martin.McGuinness@niassembly.gov.uk


Please see sample letter, kindly donated by one the parent's group. Anyone should feel free to use this as a basis for their own letters and preferably tailor them to suit their own views, issues, etc. Remember personalising your own letter is best.


Here is a second sample letter, kindly donated by another parent.

Dear First Minister Peter Robinson & Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness,

Further to the relevant motion passed on 15th March 2010, I am writing to request that the entire matter of the proposed withdrawal of preparatory school funding be placed on the Agenda before the Executive.


I do not feel that the Education minister has treated my child(ren) fairly, in that she has failed to respect their individual rights and consult with them on their views/ opinions of their school. The Education Minister has failed to try to identify "a change management process" in a constructive manner to minimise any detrimental impact to my child(ren). Instead she proposes the withdrawal of funds that could potentially have the impact that the "controlled" preps may need to close. This would obviously cause my child(ren)'s safe and happy schooling environment to be disrupted.

Your sincerely


ANOTHER IDEA?


Please send a similar letter to Robin Newton (and Gerry Kelly), the two Junior Ministers who are on the Executive Sub Committee for Children and Young Persons.


Robin Newton MLA

Junior Minister

GD36 Stormont Castle

Stormont Estate

Belfast

BT4 3TT

mail@robinnewton.co.uk

ps.ministers@ofmdfmni.gov.uk


MORE IDEAS?


Perhaps we should be writing to the newspapers, keeping the Prep funding issue in the spotlight and keeping pressure on Ms Ruane to make a decision in our favour.


Please see link to Newsletter readers' letters re Prep funding here.


Please note the address to write to in the bottom left-hand corner.

Posted by at 5 comments:

NEWEST Media updates

Here are links to media regarding Prep Funding. If you find any others please add the website or details below as a "Comment" and we will publish it.

Newtownards Chronicle - 29th April 2010 - Axe lifted on Prep School funding

Newsletter 22nd April 2010 - Ruane in prep school U-turn

BBC 21st April 2010 - Minister unveils Education Budget

Belfast Telegraph - 19th April 2010 - Principals in the dark over NI school budgets

Down Recorder newspaper - Letter to Editor



BBC - 1st April 2010 - Schools in limbo over budgets




UUP website - 15th March 2010 - Ideology over good decision making?

Newsletter 19th March 2010 - We're making Assembly headlines!

Newsletter 19th March 2010 - 2 articles re Prep funding - "Irish funding outstrips preps" and "Ruane shows disregard for due process - SDLP"


Posted by at 4 comments:

Parent's Group Response re motion of 15/03/10

16 March 2010

Dear Parent/Guardian,

Following on from our meeting last Monday at Queen’s Hall, as a Parents’ Group we agreed to keep our lines of communication open & up to date.

As part of the ongoing political process, a Motion was tabled in the Assembly on Monday 15th March, opposing the proposed removal of Preparatory School funding. Whilst the Education Minister’s viewpoint remained, predictably, unchanged, the motion was debated robustly.

A strong contingent from our Parents’ Group & teachers were in attendance & we are pleased to advise you that the Motion, in its final form (Sinn Fein’s amendment having been rejected), received convincing cross party support. As promised, DUP & UUP had full party representation, however, we were delighted by the level of very vocal support & commitment shown by SDLP & Alliance. Our spontaneous applause at one point gave us the opportunity to express our support for the arguments being made, an action which was much appreciated by the Education Committee, but not so much by the Chair!

As expected, the Education Minister confirmed that no decision would be made until the findings of the EQIA Public Consultation were summarised & made available to her. We are, however, very encouraged by today’s proceedings & we will continue, on your behalf, to concentrate our efforts on political & legal response.

We will, keep you advised of progress made, including budgetary information, as & when this becomes available. The rhsprepfunding.blogsite.com remains the best & most immediate source of updates, especially if you subscribe by clicking at the top of the Homepage. Further mailshots & parents’ meetings will also follow, as appropriate.

In the meantime, could parents please return any outstanding questionnaires, duly completed to Michelle Edgar at John Ross & Son Solicitors, Frances Street, Newtownards. Should you require a blank questionnaire for completion, please give Michelle a call on 02891 813173. A reminder also that outstanding contributions relating to Counsel’s opinion should be forwarded to Michelle Copeland & Lucinda McKee at your earliest convenience.

Should you have any suggestions or queries, please direct these to your Parent/School Liaisons:

Nicola Hunter 07971 874940

Sarah Schűtzler 07809 373385

Les Simpson 07803 0164703

Yours

Parents’ Group

Posted by at 2 comments:

Monday 15 March 2010

Motion at Stormont 15/03/10 re funding -Video/Minutes/Written Answers to Questions

At the time of adding this post @ 9.40pm, 15th March, the following video was not yet available. If you click on this link below it will be available from the BBC Democracy Live website, as soon as possible.

Prep School Funding Motion and Debate at Stormont - Link

Also available

Minutes of the "Private Member's Debate - Funding for Preparatory Departments" (i.e. the anticipated Motion tabled by Michelle McIlveen to debate Prep Funding with the Education Minister)

Link to "Oral Answers to Questions" (Education - Preparatory Schools: Funding) answered on 15th March by the Education Minister, just before the Prep Funding motion/debate was held. Please scroll down to the section "Preparatory Schools: Funding", first question by Ms Anna Lo.



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