Yesterday I had the pleasure of accompanying Keith Hill, Labour MP for Streatham, to the 35th anniversary celebrations of Lewin Baptist Church’s Pre-School. Some 50 children between the ages of 2 and 5 years old are registered with the school, with around 25 children attending in term time between 9.15 and 11.45am in the church hall and/or at the afternoon session between 12.30 and 3pm.

The school was established by a group of mothers from the church in 1973 and is now predominantly funded through voluntary donations. It offers a range of stimulating activities from sand play, dressing up, painting and crafts, to construction toys, play doh, puzzles and cookery within a caring environment, to the children during those all important formative years in their development. The school aims to assist the children in their social, physical, emotional and intellectual development in accordance with the Pre-School curriculum and to prepare them for school with confidence - Keith and I were able to see for ourselves that that is just what the school has achieved and its tremendous contribution to the local community. Happy Anniversary Lewin Pre-School! For further information on the Pre-School, click here: Lewin Pre-School.

The Prime Minister’s Labour Party conference speech last week and what it means for Streatham.

At the Labour Party Conference in Manchester last week, Gordon Brown gave a clear message of how he wishes to take Britain forward, outlining his vision of a fairer society. In his speech, the Prime Minister identified new challenges and goals, announcing a series of policies which will make a real difference to the lives of people in Streatham.

From next year, he announced that cancer sufferers will not have to pay any prescription charges, while over the coming years prescription charges will be phased out for all patients with long-term conditions. Cancer is one of the prime causes of premature mortality in Lambeth, so this is hugely important for those people in Streatham who suffer from this terrible disease.

Gordon Brown also announced that free nursery school places will now be offered to all two year olds. When Labour came into power in 1997, nursery provision was only available for the few. Since then we have made great strides by opening Sure Start children’s centres for every community, while 250,000 children have been lifted out of child poverty. Now, the government will introduce legislation to enshrine in law Labour’s pledge to end child poverty .

Schoolchildren will be guaranteed personal catch-up tuition, ensuring that no child is left behind in the essentials of reading, writing and counting. Although the percentage of children leaving Streatham’s primary schools able to read and write to a high standard has increased by 30% since 1997, this announcement of extra tuition reiterates the government’s drive to embed high standards of literacy and numeracy (Chuka is pictured left, outside Sunnyhill Primary school is Streatham where he has been a school governor for several years and sits on the board of its Sure Start children’s centre).

Commenting on Brown’s speech, Chuka said:
“What matters to people are the tangible things a government does which affects their daily lives. Whether you are a young parent with a toddler or an older person fighting the fight against cancer, there was something for you here.”

Gabriel Huntley

Congratulations are due to Streatham, Balham, Brixton, Clapham and Tulse Hill’s GCSE pupils who have achieved a fantastic set of GCSE results this year. All the hard work paid off for both pupils and teachers as Streatham parliamentary constituency’s secondary schools saw improvements on last year’s grades.

La Retraite Girls School in Atkins Road, Clapham, reported its best ever results to date with 81% of pupils achieving five A* to C passes.  Elsewhere in the constituency, Dunraven School in Leigham Court Road, Streatham, saw 72 % of pupils achieving five A* to C passes, while St Martin’s School in Tulse Hill saw a rise from 69% to 75% achieving five A*-C grades.  Bishop Thomas Grant in Belltrees Grove, Streatham, saw the biggest improvement in its results with a 13% improvement on the numbers gaining five A* to C passes since 2007. Over 90% of pupils at Streatham and Clapham High School achieved grade A* to C passes.

Across the constituency’s schools, there was an average increase of 6.25% of students achieving five A*-C passes and all Streatham’s schools are now above the national average of 65.7%.  The year on year improvements are tangible results of the many changes made by Labour since 1997, including improving weak and failing schools, increasing literacy and supporting more young people than ever to go on to university.

And the changes are continuing with Building Schools for the Future funding arriving in the constituency. Also, the new Elm Green School, set up by parents, will be opening its permanent site on nearby Elms Court Road in 2009.

Chuka, who himself is a governor at Sunnyhill Primary School, sees continued investment in primary, secondary and further education as a major priority and congratulated Streatham’s students :
“ Streatham constituency’s students have done themselves proud. They’ve tried their hardest and now have the opportunity to move on to further success in the future. While education is much broader than targets and tests, these results will improve the life outcomes of our young people, raise their aspirations and take them a long way to gaining meaningful employment .
“Labour has decreased class sizes, improved funding and given young pupils more choices in what they can learn. I’m committed to ensuring that this continues and that every child in Streatham has a place in a good local school.”

Labour has an ambitious vision for every child which sees schools at the heart of each community, providing a wide range of services for everyone and, with staff, students and parents working together to ensure the best outcomes for our children.

You can watch the BBC News 10 O’Clock News report featuring Dunraven School here: “A Generation of Labour Education”

Jamie Audsley