Best year for Salford GCSEs

Salford has had its best year for GCSEs with provisional results rising to 76 per cent for pupils achieving 5 or more A* to C grades – around 11 per cent above last year’s national average.
The figures are a nine per cent improvement on the city's 2008 results and puts Salford ahead of the game against this year’s likely national average.
Results for 5 or more A* to C grades including English and Maths for Salford are at around 47 per cent, a seven per cent rise on last year narrowing the gap to the national average considerably.
In all Salford schools the percentage of pupils achieving at least 5 A* to C grades has increased so that two-thirds of the schools have surpassed 70%.
At St Patrick's RC High School every pupil passed 5 or more GCSEs with A* to C grades, the second year running the school has achieved this 100 per cent pass rate.
Four schools in the city have at least 92 per cent of their students gaining 5 or more GCSEs with A* to C grades including St Patrick's RC High School, The Swinton High, St Ambrose Barlow RC High School and Beis Yaakov Jewish High School.
One of this year's most improved Salford high schools is Buile Hill Visual Arts College with a 28 per cent rise in the number of pupils achieving at least five good GCSE grades to 81 per cent, and a rise of 16 per cent for five good GCSEs including maths and English.
Over the past five years Salford's GCSE results have improved dramatically from 38 per cent of pupils obtaining 5 more A* to Cs in 2004 to 76 per cent for 2009.
Almost a half of pupils are also obtaining 5 GCSE grades including maths and English in Salford compared to 32 per cent in 2008.
Councillor John Warmisham, Salford City Council's lead member for children's services said: "Performance has reached a new height for Salford schools today and I'm delighted to see the city's results getting better each year.
"I'd like to congratulate pupils on their grades and for setting such a high standard to the rest of the country.
"None of this would be achievable without the hard work of our teachers, school staff and governors with the support of their parents and carers and I hope these results give pupils the confidence to succeed in whatever they choose to do."

Out, loud and proud at Manchester Pride

Staff from Salford City Council will be ‘out, loud and proud’ at this year’s Manchester Pride 2009.
The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) festival is now in its 19th year. Funds raised go to LGBT and AIDS/HIV charities and groups.
Running until Monday 31 August, this year’s festival has a superhero theme.
From 1pm this Saturday, a Salford float will be travelling through the streets of Manchester. This has been designed by young people who access Salford Youth Service.
There’s also a council stall within the festival that with be awash with lots of information about our services and pink goodies to take away.
Staff from across the authority will be flying the flag, ‘loud and proud’ that they work for Salford City Council.
This includes members of the staff LGBT group, Salford Youth Service, Fostering and Adoption and Sustainable Regeneration. Volunteers from the Customer Contact Centre will also be on hand to raise awareness of council services and to promote the council as a diverse employer.

Another day and another Tory is talking Britain down

Another day and another Tory is talking Britain down. This time it is the man who wants to be Britain's Home Secretary.This morning the Shadow Home Secretary compared Britain’s streets to the blood-drenched streets of a city in an American TV programme, in which hundreds of people are shot and killed every year. It’s not the first time Chris Grayling, the Shadow Home Secretary, has used sensationalist comparisons with TV programmes to get his name in the papers. He’s already dismissed half of Britain for belonging to a Jeremy Kyle culture or a Shameless society. But this time his sensationalism is not just misleading – it’s dangerous.Gun crime is a serious issue that needs to be tackled soberly – to make policy based on sensation is reckless. If Chris Grayling was serious about gun crime, why did he and the Tories not vote for ma ndatory sentences for handling guns?Instead of talking Britain down, Labour believes that there is nothing that is broken in our society that cannot be fixed. Take Moss Side - one of the places Chris Grayling writes off: recorded crime is actually down in Greater Manchester, and youngsters on Moss Side estate are now also benefiting from Manchester Academy, which got rated outstanding by OfSTED this year.That is how we get crime down and build a better Britain – not by using the kind of unhelpful language that Detective Superintendent Darren Shenton, who heads Greater Manchester Police's Xcalibre anti-gang crime unit, has called “really sensationalistic”. I’m proud of Britain’s towns and cities - and I'm serious about tackling gun crime. If David Cameron is too then he should force Chris Grayling to apologise.Yours, Jack Straw

Thatchfuneral - epetition response

Thatchfuneral - epetition response
We received a petition asking:
“We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to not support a state funeral for Baroness Thatcher.”
Details of Petition:
“Baroness Margaret Hilda Thatcher is not deserving of a state funeral. To deem her worthy of such an honour is to overlook a host of awful things, like her support for General Augusto Pinochet, and to overlook many more deserving candidates.”
· Read the petition· Petitions homepage
Read the Government’s response
Thank you for your e-petition.
In the event of the death of any former Prime Minister, the Government is responsible for liaising with the family and representatives of the deceased about arrangements for a suitable service of remembrance, including any administrative support from the Government. For reasons which we hope will be understood, it would not be appropriate to make any comment about detail of any discussions.

INJUNCTION

Having worked with GMP and Salix Homes on this it proves that ASB can be tackled.

ASB UPDATE
Salix Homes Ltd, Housing Connections Partnership, Salford City Council (SCC) and GMP, working in partnership, recently made residents aware of an Injunction secured against Keith King.
The terms of the order are that KEITH KING (either himself or by encouraging or instructing others) must not:
Engage or threaten to engage in conduct capable of causing nuisance or annoyance to any employee, agent, servant or contractor of SCC.
Use or threaten violence to any resident or visitor to Malus Court.
Forbidden to enter or be within any part of Malus Ct, Hornbeam Ct or Salix Ct.
There is a' power of arrest' attached to all of the conditions outlined. This means that if you see Keith King (below) breaching this order, you must telephone the police immediately, whereupon he can be arrested.

Breaching an Injunction is a criminal offence carrying a maximum penalty of two years imprisonment.
The original Injunction Order outlined above expired on 31st July 2009. On the 10th June 2009, the order was extended for a further 6 months due to Keith King breaching the order by entering Malus Ct, witnessed by security. He was also given a 28 day prison sentence, which was suspended for the life of the injunction.
On the 11th June 2009, he breached the injunction again by attending Malus Ct, witnessed by security. He was then arrested and taken to court. Sentencing for this was adjourned until the 26th June 2009, where Keith King was sent to prison for 3 months.
Salix Homes, GMP and Salford Council will not tolerate this kind of behaviour and take a zero tolerance approach to this.
The police can be contacted in an emergency on 999, or for general reporting you can telephone 0161 872 5050.
At any other time you can report Anti Social Behaviour on 0800 218 2000 Salix, or 0161 909 6544.

No sex,please,we're Liberal Democrats

You'd think that Liberal Democrats would be grateful for anything to brighten up their their conference next month ("And now colleagues, Chris Huhne on border-control policy"). But senior members of the party fear that proceedings might be dominated by the sex lives of two MPs.

Mark Oaten is to publish a book on the eve of conference in which he will explain in eye-watering detail how he went bald, had a mid life crisis and hired a rent boy (although not,I must make very clear, on expenses).

Meanwhile, the nation is agog to learn the truth about Lembit Opik, the member for Hello! magazine, and Katie green, the generously proportioned and much younger bra model. Are they actually an item, or are they just teasing us all?

" We could do without all this," sighed a senior party figure. "It's all going to be a bit cringe-making. We just wish they'd stop going on about it."

Thanks to Atticus(Roland White) Sunday Times.

The Liberal Democrats are cringe making and we all wish they'd stop going on!!

Local councillors 'more trusted than MPs'

Local councillors are more likely to be truthful than MPs, a study carried out by ethics watchdog Standards for England revealed today.The poll found less than 1% of people felt local MPs "always" tell the truth, and 29% thought they "never or rarely" tell the truth - more than the 20% revealed in the same survey in 2007.Faith in local councillors was slightly higher than MPs, with more people feeling they "always" tell the truth, and fewer thinking they never or rarely did.Some 2% felt councillors were always honest, while 20% said they were "never or rarely" truthful.The survey, which repeated the same questions asked in 2007, was carried out in June in the wake of the MPs' expenses scandal.A total of 1,735 adults aged over 18 were polled between June 11 and 16.Today Standards for England chief executive Glenys Stacey said: "Anecdotally, we are told the MPs' expenses issue was much discussed on the doorstep during the recent local election campaign."It is pleasing, therefore, to see that trust in local politicians held up favourably compared to people's views about national politicians."She said local councillors sign up to a code of conduct along with "an effective local standards framework", which deals with 2,800 complaints a year about England's 80,000 local politicians.The system is supported by Standards for England, the independent national regulator.Mrs Stacey said cases of the most serious wrongdoing were rare, and only 19 councillors were suspended or disqualified as a result of standards complaints in 2007/08.She said: "Working with English councils, we need to do more to let local residents know how the standards framework is helping to safeguard high standards in local government."

Salford is eighth most improved area for school science results

Salford's primary schools are performing better than the national average in Maths and are the eighth most improved area in the country for Science results.
Exams taken by the country's ten and 11-year-olds show that Salford's test results for Maths and Science are up by one per cent this year, with 80 per cent and 88 per cent of children achieving the expected standard in the subjects respectively.
As well as being within the top six per cent of areas in England that have improved the most in Science - the results make Salford the 23rd most improved area in the country out of the 152 tested in Key Stage 2 Maths.
Tests for English show that 80 per cent of youngsters are performing at the nationally required standard for the subject .
In Maths, Salford's youngsters achieving a higher level of results than expected is up by two per cent on last year's performance.
Councillor John Warmisham, Salford City Council's lead member for children's services said: "This has been another great year for test results in Salford which are getting better each time.
"This year in particular, we've shown that performance in our primary schools in among some of the highest in the country with our achievements in Maths and Science and it's a tribute to the hard work of our pupils and staff.
"I'm delighted with the results and it's reassurance that children in Salford are starting our high schools with a brilliant primary education behind them."

Survivor of two world wars faces biggest battle

Saw this in the Times, thought it was a good analysis.
The Scott Trust will defend the Guardian at all costs. We've seen what has happened to the Salford Advertiser with possible worse to come in the future as advertising moves more and more online as well as easy access to news & sport coverage.
Young people don't read newspapers, they get their info through the internet and in future on their mobile phone. Newspapers may die out and be replaced by weekly news magazines. We're entering a new era, but what future for journalists?

Survivor of two world wars faces biggest battle

Dan Sabbagh: Analysis

It may have survived the Napoleonic wars, as well as the First and Second, but so serious is the advertising downturn, and the migration of advertising online, that The Observer, which is 218 years old, may not last much longer. The collapse in revenue is affecting every publisher and they must now rely on the size of their balance sheets for support.
Data collected by the Newspaper Marketing Association illustrate the gravity of the problem. Its figures are based on actual returns from publishers. Display advertising at quality dailies was down by 23 per cent in the four months to April and classified, once a stream of pure profit, was down 33 per cent. But if that sounds vicious, consider the figures for the Sundays, where the declines are 32 per cent and 42 per cent respectively.
Consumers have less shopping time available on a Sunday — so an under-pressure advertiser is more likely to concentrate its spending on a Saturday newspaper, when there is a whole weekend of shopping possibilities ahead. No wonder then that both The Observer and The Sunday Telegraph have been partly integrated into their daily sisters.
The recession is so severe though, that the initial cost savings have proven to be not enough. None of Britain’s quality titles are making a profit in the current environment, but the pressure is greatest on The Independent titles, with a parent company that is weighed down by €1.4 billion (£1.2 billion) of debt. The Observer had been thought to be relatively immune, because its parent company, Guardian Media Group (GMG), has about £280 million of cash available. But with losses of £61 million, and profits tied up in paying down debt in other investments, there is little cash coming in.
Unless there is another motive. A warning that The Observer could close will help to concentrate minds at the heavily unionised GMG, perhaps helping to make dramatic savings that will stop venerable Sundays coming to a full stop.