VOTES FOR WORK

If you are struggling like we are in Glasgow to get your council to listen too you over your school make sure the leading party know about it in the next election. In Glasgow the Labour council have been running scared for some time now and as parents manned polling stations during the European Elections handing out Labour Out not Our kids leaflets to people as they entered and journalists out for photos of angry parents it kept our fight in the public eye.

Vote for people who work for the city not against what you believe in make sure the city council know your feelings and make sure you are there as a strong front on polling day!!!.

Will our children suffer on new route to school

Hey all Just had an interesting email from a group called Sustran who specialise in getting children to take healthier options of transport to schools e.g walk, cycle etc.

Do you think our new route to school will encourage people to use cars more to transport our children to school or will the longer route mean our children walk more.

Give us your ideas and leave comments below all comments will be added together on the 31st of July and information facts will be passed on to Sustran and possibly used in our fight against the City Council so tell us your opinion now!!.

Join the debate

Lynn
Site Administrator

Chat Time

Just a note of our next chat time available at 8pm this Wednesday night just click on the chat link and choose a nickname then chat away this chat time will be administrated by Lynn Scott.

Hope to see you all there

How to organise a Protest March

To organise a protest march in your town first thing to do is contact your local police station and ask who organises the march's in the city they will put you in touch with the right people and they will talk you through the legal side of the march. Once you have a date and route set for your march you NEED TO PUBLICISE IT and drum up a crowd theres no point in marching through the city on your own now is there. Make sure you give yourself enough time to prepair eg banners and costumes if required make it bold and bright the more people look the more your message is heard and if you have some particularly loud friends invite them along the louder the better.

Dangers to our children

One of our main fights was the danger's our children face on there Route to the new proposed schools. In Barmulloch we have to walk past Europe's Largest Asbestos removal site not to mention the building site that lines the other side of the road.

We felt that this was one of the best ways to make our feelings know. So we done a photo shoot for the press advertising Barmulloch Primary's New School Unifom of Asbestos suits and masks and school bags.

we protested locally at the present Barmulloch Primary Site and these photos were taken and published in the local newspaper.

During our protest we highlighted other dangers that face our children including severe flooding and gang violence that are ever present on the only available road to the new school site.

If you want to get in contact with parents that took part in these protests leave comments on the website or log on to our chat room at the regulated times (to be posted).

Keep us to date with our progress and keep in touch by visiting regularly and tell family and friends to log on.

Lynn Scott

april fools who's the fools

This was one of the most fun protests I think we were involved in April Fools day. Loud Proud "were no fools save our schools" was the chant and as we stood outside the city chambers onlookers joined in and tooted horns in support. Make your protests interesting in anyway you can the more eye catching the more news worthy.

Remember Its your protest and your message get it across in a way that suits you and get it HEARD!!!!.

Occupations of schools

Some of the parents involved occupied buildings in protest over the closues Wyndford and St Gregories buildings were occupied through the easter holidays and wyndford again after the close of schools in the summer. These Occupations gained worldpress and interviews with programs such as GMTV broadcast throughout the UK.

It took a lot of courage for these parents to give up there time for such a protest but we are proud that they did.

As part of a strong campaign your council needs to know you will not back down and nothing is too much.

Protests like these will get support for your campaign and help it gain momentum. Although not all protests need to be as dramatic as this a quick reminder to local councils that it is the people they serve and they need to listen to us if they want to keep there jobs.

Keep up the fight you are not alone out there, Join our weekly online chats. Look out for regular updates on times chat is available and talk to parents and protesters, gain access to information on how to move forward in your own campaign.

Lynn Scott

Site Administrator

Use the media and local politicians

For anyone who is involved in school closures or any other campaign we know all too well the press is one of the best ways to get your voices heard.

Contact Local papers, radio stations and local politicians these people are useful to get to know as we found out the more people who know who you are the better and the more help they are willing to give so get out and about contact news rooms email TV news channels etc it does work and your local council can't hide from there bad press forever.

Links to some of the papers and local politicians can be found under links and resources.

This was one of the many marches we did through Glasgows streets in protest over the decision to close schools.

Freedom of information Act 2002

During our campaign we began to find it difficult to gain information from authorities on some of the issues that related to our schools and our rights we found that if you quote you are asking for:

information on (whatever your subject is) under the freedom of information act 2002 and state under this act they now have 20 days to comply (please note it is 20 working days and will exclude all public holidays and weekends) but the information must be given for more information on laws in Scotland click on the link for scottish laws.http://www.scottishlaw.org.uk/

Please use our links to some of the councillors in Glasgow and as we progress we will put more links on here to other councils across scotland.

Lynn Scott

Whats this all about

Hi

My name is Lynn Scott I am one of the administrators on this site and im here to tell you a little about what the site is all about.

In January 2009 Glasgow City Council announced its intention to close 25 schools and nurseries across the city one of which was our local school Barmulloch Primary. Parents across the 25 schools and nurseries then grouped together to form a united front against the council in a bid to stop closures that made no real sense, parents protested gained some of the largest petitions against school closures in Glasgow within days of the announcement and staged sit ins at some of the schools involved. We fought long and hard parents gave up a lot of time and effort to try to make Glasgow City Council see sense but unfortunatley on the 23rd April 2009 a decision was made to close 23 out of the 25 schools and nurseries.

Our fight was not over in fact it is far from over we are still challenging the councils decisions by seeking legal advice on the flawed consultations and fighting for new schools to replace the ones taken away. We are looking for laws to be changed to stop this type of situation happening again to so many of our children across the city and indeed Scotland.

We have created this website to help others through similar situations and share what information we can that helped us in our fight and we hope you will join us by leaving messages of support and questions post pictures of your own campaigns against school closures in your area and chat at our regulated chat times which will be announced weekly with other parents to share ideas on how to campaign against such unlawful acts ever happening to our great city and country again.

Be strong we can win if we stick together.

Lynn Scott
School Closures Campaginer