On Thursday 23 October 2008 the Wembley Park Action Group (WPAG), also known as Tent City Occupation, set up a conference to discuss all the issues behind the ARK Wembley Park Academy and further inform people of what the national "Academisation" school program means to UK state education and democracy as a whole.

The main speakers of the night, from a varied political swing, were NUT President Bill Greenshields, Brent NUT and ALT Secretary, and stalwart Tent City Occupation campaigner, Hank Roberts, Green Party candidate Martin Francis and Conservative Councillor Bob Blackman.

Representatives from all parties were invited to the conference to argue their stance, for and against the project. The Liberal Democrats, Labour and Charity ARK - all those in favour of the academy - all declined to attend, stating no one was available at the time.

The two short films (approx nine minutes each) show highlights from the conference, expose the undemocratic processes by Brent Council to impose the ARK Academy school on the local community, how national public opinion has turned against academy schools, a brief history of some Academy sponsors and how the American inspiration of academy schools segregates pupils by social class and economic status.

Local residents expressed concern about the biased and misleading council-backed literature designed to sway them towards Academy schools and witnesses talk of the "vermin-ridden" Wembley Park site that now houses 60 pupils in temporary accommodation.

The ARK Wembley Park Academy opened at the end of September, a month late, and continues to look like a construction site, despite Jacqueline Steele, the academy head teacher, stating in July 2008 the children would not be on a construction site.

There is further information on some of the sponsors of Charity ARK here:

 http://jasonnparkinson.blogspot.com/2008/11/smash-school-privatisation-wpag.html

Videos can be seen here:

Part One:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YUjVHuY0Hfs

Part Two:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z90MBgwoWdA&feature=related

All stills and video are used courtesy of video journalist Jason N. Parkinson, (c) 2008 Jason N. Parkinson. All Rights Reserved. Please contact the author for further use.

 http://jasonnparkinson.blogspot.com/

A DVD covering the 2007 to 2008 Tent City Occupation campaign has now been released for £5 + £1 P&P. To order a copy and gain more information on the anti--academy national campaign see here.

 http://jasonnparkinson.blogspot.com/

 http://www.tentcityoccupation.co.uk/

 http://www.antiacademies.org.uk/