Is your child due to start secondary school next September? If so, YOU need to get your application in by the end of Thursday - 31 October.

Even though parents won’t find out if they have been successful in their choice until March next year, it is vitally important that they apply by the deadline.

Late applications could mean parents are less likely to secure a place for their child at their preferred school.

Over 100 staff and Councillors from Barking and Dagenham council were out collecting litter, on the first day of a new campaign designed to clean up the borough. 

 

Staff from across the council volunteered their time to take part in seven litter picking events in green spaces across the borough, to show their commitment to working with residents to make the borough a cleaner place. 

 

Students who achieved outstanding grades in their GCSE exams have been acknowledged at the annual Colin Pond Trust Scholarship Awards. 

In a glamorous ceremony held at The Broadway Theatre, 52 young people, from 11 schools across the borough, were recognised with a £500 grant each for them to spend during the duration of their A-level studies. 

Now in its third year, the scholarship awards recognise the top GCSE pupils who have chosen to remain in the borough to continue their education after finishing Year 11. 

Everyone has a part to play in keeping the borough clean – that is the message from Barking and Dagenham Council as it launched a new campaign to stamp out grime crime this week.

 

The ‘Cleaner Barking and Dagenham’ campaign hopes to tackle littering, overflowing bins, fly-tipping, and dog fouling. 

 

It comes as the council is investing more than £10million in new vehicles to clean up the borough, including 18 new trucks to help speed-up the collection of over 117,000 bins that get emptied each week. 

 

An estate agent in Dagenham must pay more than £2,500 after a six-foot-high pile of waste was found fly-tipped on land they owned.

The massive mound was discovered by enforcement officers from Barking and Dagenham Council during a visit to V W House, on Selinas Lane, in March this year. 

As well as the six-foot-high pile, they found several fly-tips including 14 drums of used oil, discarded tyres and a number of black bags full of waste. 

It was a big day down at Barking Abbey School on Saturday 12 October as they welcomed back former students to officially open their brand-new school building.

The new school block on Longridge Road, Barking includes two new design and technology rooms, two art rooms, five science labs, nine teaching rooms as well as staff facilities which allow the school to teach Key Stage 3 and 4 on both school sites.

The school also increased the size of the gym by building a brand-new sports facility to meet the needs of the students. 

Leys Primary School has been recognised for its outstanding work in promoting positive mental health and wellbeing across the whole school community.  

Deputy Headteacher, Richard Gough, and the school received the Wellbeing Award for Schools  and welcomed Councillor Evelyn Carpenter, Cabinet Member for Education and School Improvement to the presentation. 

Students from across Barking and Dagenham came together last week (Thursday, 10 October) for the second Mental Health and Wellbeing Summit for Young People. 

The event, which was hosted by Jo Richardson Community School and supported by Barking & Dagenham CCG, offered students and staff the opportunity to discuss how best to support each other and how to make people more aware about their own mental health and wellbeing. 

It might be nearing the 414th anniversary of the gunpowder plot, but this November marks the borough’s first Guy Fawkes Lantern Parade – and everyone is invited to take part.

The procession will take place on Saturday, 9 November and illuminate the dark winter’s night with live music and entertainment for all the family.

A host of new job opportunities are available exclusively for residents of the borough – but to access them you must be registered with Barking and Dagenham Council’s job shops.

This week there are trainee engineering roles, driver vacancies and site manager posts on offer, as well as full or part-time openings that need to be filled.

To view the roles, potential applicants must be registered with the borough’s job shops, which can be done for free online or in person at any one of the three venues in Barking and Dagenham.