Lynne's Parliament and Haringey diary

Met with Sharon Shoesmith, Director of Education at Haringey Council. Wanted to float a couple of ideas with her as well as getting updates on some key Haringey education issues.

The TUC are planning to sell their education centre in Crouch End. My fellow councillors in Crouch End have been pushing for it to be considered as a possible site for a new school. The good news is that this is now happening and a feasibility study is about to be published.

Also asked about the situation on school places for local children in Muswell Hill. The planning mess at Haringey meant that this year something like 40 children were unable to go to school anywhere near where they lived. I am assured that planning is well advanced and more sophisticated than has been the case to date. We'll see.

One of the ideas I raised with her was the issue of pupil behaviour near schools. A few months ago I went to see the Head of Highgate Wood School about this. I often get complaints from residents around schools (not just this one) about the behaviour of pupils. I wanted to see how the school and local community could work together on the issue.

The Head suggested I follow up the idea through the LEA (local education authority) and Haringey Council channels. I’d heard nothing from them for some time, but the Director said she would follow up on this and let me know where the idea had got to.

My 'big' idea (well - the brilliant idea sent to me by a local resident) was to find if there were any retired teachers in Haringey who would like to help children with their homework after school in libraries. The person who had the idea was herself a retired teacher.

I thought this was brilliant – it would help children, help libraries and help retired teachers who still wanted to be active in this way. So I put this to Sharon Shoesmith, who liked the idea very much.

She suggested that instead of libraries - which might be difficult - the venue should be the after school clubs. This would make easier the police checks which have to be carried out on anyone working with children as they are venues already covered by this work.

I said that I would see if we could find if there were any retired teachers out there who would like to come forward. We will see - but she was open and enthusiastic about it - which is a good start.