Community hubs

More evidence for my theory that schools need to be community hubs from Nansen School, where I ran a women-only coffee morning this morning, with the help of local hero, Rose Ahmed. I run these events because the truth is that women still don’t have their voice well heard enough in Birmingham. Our debate centred on how we build a stronger community starting with our children. But after a hour, we were clear that what we needed is safe places to play (open weekends and holidays, with cheap clubs for kids), excellent teaching – and also facilities open to adults plus, crucially, adult learning and skills training all in the one place. We’re incredibly lucky the Government is committed to spending so much on renewing our schools. If we make the right decisions, these places won’t just be schools, they’ll be hubs for the whole community.