Liberal Democrats improving Education in Ealing

In Ealing, things are improving as we see that crime is down, there are more people in employment and millions of residents have been taken on apprenticeships across the country.

Those running Ealing Town Hall, like to take the credit for the improvements to our education system, however they forget to mention that the majority of money comes directly from the coalition Government.

So when our primary and secondary schools are maintained, expanded and improved, large chunks of money comes from the government.

Gary Malcolm

Liberal Democrats believe in giving every child a fair start in life. That's why we put an extra £2.5bn into schools each year from our 'Pupil Premium', as promised in the 2010 election manifesto. The money is targeted at those that need the most help, to achieve equality of opportunity.

In just one year seven schools in our borough received the following amounts:

• Hambrough Primary School, Southall - £126,000
• West Twyford Primary School, Acton - £81,000
• Selborne Primary School, Greenford - £107,100
• Gifford Primary School, Northolt - £325,800
• Perivale Primary School, Perivale - £83,700
• North Ealing Primary School, Ealing - £54,900
• Southfield Primary school, Southfield - £144,000
• St John's Primary School, West Ealing - £171,000

Some of the great examples of what the Pupil Premium has been spent on included a Maths tutor for a year 10 pupil who had gaps in their learning. Another was curriculum adaptations for pupils going into key stage 4, who were on the spectrum of autism.

The additional learning and communication helped them out massively. This will help those children to better learn and develop, so they can gain employment or an apprenticeship more easily.

Also a hot and healthy meal at lunch time greatly improves the health, behaviour and results of schoolchildren, providing them with their best start in life, enabling every child to fulfil their potential.

Evidence has shown that free school meals make a real difference in our classrooms. They were first piloted in 2009 and my aspiration is that free school meals is expanded to give free school meals to every primary school pupil in England.

We’ve also provided £150m to upgrade school kitchens and dining rooms, on top of a billion pounds of new money to fund the meals.

The government has also increased funding of nursery places for 2 and 3 year olds and agreed for an increase in paternal leave so they parents can spend more time with their new-born children. All of these policies are helping families across Ealing.