Schools/colleges

The Old Speech Room Gallery Arts Society are holding a Japanese Prints Exhibition from 19th January 0 27th June 2010.

Harrow School are displaying great works from the past. The displays will be available to see from 19th January - 27th June 2010.

WATERCOLOURS owned by Harrow School are the subject of one of two new exhibitions filling the school's Old Speech Room Gallery this autumn.
Running until December, 'Watercolours At Harrow' consists of paintings in the possession of the independent boys' school by artists such as Turner, Girtin, Cotman, Sandby, Cozens, de Wint, Roberts and Ruskin.
The second, 'France During The Vichy Years (1940-1944)', is a display of photographs and eye-witness accounts collected two years ago by John Stobbs, who is head of languages at London Oratory School and an amateur photographer.
Once the term begins on Monday, October 26, the public will be able to view both shows at the Old Speech Room Gallery, The Old Schools Building, Church Hill, Harrow on the Hill, between 2.30pm and 5pm on weekdays - except Wednesdays - until December 8.

HARROW School has applied to build a three-storey extension to its 1980s sports hall in Football Lane, Harrow on the Hill, to provide more fitness rooms and laundry rooms.

HARROW School has applied to build a detached three-bed staff house on the site of the former Dove Cottage in High Street, Harrow on the Hill.

Harrow Council approved the scheme in 2004 but that permission expired three years later.

Harrow on the Hill's Catholic college has applied to construct a new security checkpoint.
St Dominic's Sixth Form College is seeking permission to build a "discreet and hidden" security booth by the chapel north entrance.
It would have pedestrian turnstiles to better control access of visitors on foot and would overlook a separate raisable barrier with intercom for vehicles entering and leaving the campus in Mount Park Avenue.
The scheme would involve the loss of five parking spaces but the addition of one disabled parking space and 10 cycle spaces, as well as new railings and landscaping.

A deal to reopen The Old Post Office on the Hill is close to being agreed, a ward councillor has revealed.

The branch shut on July 3 2008 as one of 152 across London that the Post Office Ltd had decided to wind up three months earlier.

It had served the local community for five decades but customers, including the 800 boys at Harrow School, must use the next nearest service: down the Hill in College Road, Harrow.

Councillor Mark Versallion said: "Just before Christmas, I initiated Harrow Council and Harrow School talking to each other to save the Post Office.

"The school and the council are prepared to do this. We're looking to sponsor it."

"I'm very much lobbying everybody all the time to make sure we come up trumps.

"It's got put through [to the Post Office board] but since then it's dragged on.

"I'm confident we're going to succeed, though."

Mr Versallion said a reopened post office may not offer exactly the same opening hours and services at it used to.

The Observer's Save Our Post Offices campaign encouraged readers to take part in the official consultation process,and more than 500 wrote to the newspaper saying they wished for their local branch to be spared.

But despite the massive public outcry, four other post offices were also earmarked for closure in the borough.

A college-owned company that ran computer training programmes has collapsed after "quality and performance concerns" with its Government contract.

The North West London Colleges Consortium (NWLCC) had provided award-winning Learndirect courses since 1999 from Crescent House at The College of North West London (CNWL) and later Dexion House, Empire Way, Wembley, but was put in administration late last year.

Founding colleges Harrow, Stanmore, St Dominic's Sixth Form and The College of North West London took their share of the firm's modest profits, and so the only financial blow to them is believed to be the absence of future income.

In a statement, NWLCC's board of directors said: "It is very regrettable that, after years of successful trading and despite the high quality of the company's training provision, NWLCC encountered recent difficulty in covering the operating costs associated with the delivery of its publicly funded programmes.

"Other similar companies have faced the same challenges. NWLCC staff worked hard to make sure that, wherever possible, students completed their qualifications before the closure of the company."

Stanmore College principal Jacqui Mace, who was chairwoman of the board, said the firm's downfall was in part due to a delay at government body University for Industry (UfI) over whether to renew the company's Learndirect contract.

She declined to go into more detail, saying only: "They held back on the number of centres there were, and changed the system from having a hub which managed a contract for a wide area.

"That caused quite a few problems. There was uncertainty about the future and the biggest issue was cash flow. NWLCC wasn't badly run - it was well run."

But a spokeswoman for the UfI said: "UfI terminated NWLCC's contract to deliver Learndirect in July 2008. NWLCC's contract was up for renewal in July 2008, therefore there was no delay in the timing of the decision.

"The decision was taken by UfI not to renew NWLCC's contract because of concerns about performance and the quality of the learning being delivered by the organisation. All providers are made fully aware of the performance and quality standards required before signing contracts."

Proposals on how the land surrounding the replacement Whitmore High School will look have been sent to Harrow Council for approval.
The authority must agree the details of the landscaping at the new-look Porlock Avenue school in Porlock Avenue, West Harrow, before construction starts.
Land planners Capita Lovejoy have illustrated how the greenery, sports fields, ecology zone, communal garden, playground, car park, and outdoor teaching and ampitheatre will be appear once built.
Permission for a complete rebuild of the school - with a single two- and three-storey block in the shape of a lobster's claw - was granted by the council's strategic planning committee on May 23.

By Elaine Okyere

The head boy at a prestigious Harrow school has left after being caught using drugs.

The pupil at the world-renowed Harrow School, in High Street, was caught taking drugs in the school holidays and was withdrawn from the s25,000-a-year school by his parents.