Supporting measures for local children following lockdown measures

The past two years have been an incredibly challenging time for us all, but they’ve been especially bewildering for our children. 

Throughout the Covid crisis, I stayed in regular contact with Wealden schools and advocated for them in Parliament to ensure that Wealden’s youngest residents have access to a robust support package after lockdowns.

Children and school staff have sacrificed so much to keep the country safe during the pandemic and it was my priority to ensure that children’s school lives were restored to normal as quickly as possible so they can recover their health, wellbeing, education, and their futures. 

I added my voice to the ‘UsForThem’ campaign to get schools back to normal without restrictions such as bubbles and self-isolation which were causing deep uncertainty and anxiety among a cohort who has already suffered enough. I’m pleased that having delivered a world-beating vaccination programme and thanks to positive working between Government, local authorities our headteachers and schools, our children can return to normal, full-time education this September.

I’m also absolutely thrilled and incredibly proud that following many years of continuous efforts and campaigning on behalf of the Beacon Academy in Crowborough, I helped secure just short of £1.4m for upgrades to the school via the highly competitive Government Condition Improvement Fund (CIF).

It has been a long journey of many meetings with the Education Department and I’m so pleased that persistence and perseverance have helped deliver funding for improvements to the roof of Sixth Form Centre and the upkeep of other buildings on site to keep them safe and in good working order. 

After another extraordinary academic year, the confirmation of this success was much-needed good news for Beacon Academy and the boost in funding will ensure that students at Beacon Academy can thrive in an improved environment and better facilities, enabling them to fulfil their potential. 

I want to ensure that every child in Wealden gets the same education funding and opportunities as pupils across East Sussex and the rest of the country and I will continue to lobby the Government to ensure better and fairer education funding.

Nusrat Ghani