From BC Throne Speech

Investment in our natural capital must be matched with investment in
our human capital if we are to secure and protect our grandchildren's
future.

Strengthening families is at the centre of our economic and social
agenda. Government will take steps to renew and revitalize education,
to assist families with children and to secure affordable health care
for our grandchildren.

Education improvements will focus on the individual and unique needs of our children.

New research gives us a clear view of a way ahead that will provide
for the special gifts and special needs of every child in the province.

Early childhood development creates brighter prospects for all our children.

As we help children discover their passions and interests, so we will find our future as a province.

StrongStart BC Centres will continue to support the learning needs of children and their families.
Voluntary, full‑time kindergarten for five‑year‑olds will begin this September.
It will be fully funded and in every school by September 2011.
New partnerships with the private sector and parents will enable the
establishment of neighbourhood preschools for four‑year‑olds and
three‑year‑olds within communities over the next five years.
They will provide families new voluntary options for public and private preschool across B.C.

Several other initiatives will improve services for children and families.

A new Extended Family Program will modernize and improve upon the
Child in the Home of a Relative program, to provide increased
assistance, broader supports and new safeguards for children.

A new $180‑million integrated case management information technology
system will deliver better front-line services and supports to women,
children, income assistance recipients and those most vulnerable.

Significant changes will be introduced to improve timely access to
justice, combat crime, reduce impaired and dangerous driving and
improve public safety.

Your government will work with municipalities to dramatically reduce
housing costs for young families and to provide increased opportunity
for homes they can afford in existing neighbourhoods.

Government recognizes that families with children face additional costs.

A new Family with Children Property Tax Deferral Option will be provided to all B.C. families with children under the age of 18.

Those families will be given the right to defer their property taxes
under a new property tax deferral program similar to the one already
available to seniors and those facing financial hardship.

There are few services that can do more to lift a child to the full
opportunities of life than an unequivocally great education. That is
our goal for all the children of British Columbia.
Several significant reforms will be advanced to modernize our education system for the 21st Century.
New emphasis will be placed on parental involvement and on tailoring
our education system to each child's individual needs, interests and
passions.
New forms of schooling will be developed to provide greater choice
and diversity, centered on students' special interests and talents.
Smarter approaches will allow more resources to be focused on
students' learning needs while less is spent on administrative costs.
In concert with local governments, Neighbourhood Learning Centres
will integrate neighborhood needs with available capital resources and
under‑utilized spaces.
Seven‑day‑a‑week facilities management is fundamental to providing
critical community services that meet the needs of B.C.'s families
affordably.

A new Master Teacher program will be developed.

Improvements will be launched in advanced education as well.
Legislation will be introduced enabling our universities to remove
themselves from the government reporting entity.

We cannot let accounting policy stand in the way of our students'
interests or hold our universities back from pursuing their unique
areas of excellence in partnership with others.

The University of British Columbia's Living Laboratory initiative
will be expanded and enhanced so we all benefit from the new products
and new knowledge that it fosters.

The government will increase access to residencies for Canadians who
have received their medical undergraduate training outside Canada.

Innovation is the watchword of the new creative economy that requires imagination, ingenuity and new implementation strategies.

Innovation is also central to making health care more responsive to patients' needs and more sustainable for the future.

Several innovations will be introduced to give patients new choices,
to reward performance in health delivery and to protect public health
care for future generations.

Innovation in health‑support services, new hospitals and
public‑private partnerships all make our health services more
sustainable.

We must manage health care within the massive budget increases that swamp all other public goods.

Stemming the unaffordable growth in health costs is essential in meeting our obligation to rebalance the budget by 2013.

Ongoing financial discipline is essential.

It is the responsibility of all in this house to guide our economy and our public finances back to balance.

Balancing our budget is more than a financial imperative. It is a social imperative as well.

As long as we are spending more money to pay for our services than we are generating in revenue, we are living beyond our means.

We are adding to our children's debt. We are handing them our problems rather than giving them opportunity.

The tasks ahead are daunting but future generations deserve all the effort and wisdom we can muster in meeting this challenge.

We must curtail expectations of government and look for new ways of
meeting our needs within the substantial spending increases already
provided.

Our dreams for the future will not be won with our eyes shut, our heads down and our minds closed to today's hard realities.

They will be won with our eyes wide open, our sights set on the future and common resolve.

Montessori state school planned for London by 2012

Mr Bujak hopes the school will open in 2012

The first state Montessori primary school is planned for east London with the target of opening in 2012.

Montessori private schools, which allow children to design their own study plan, are usually associated with affluent middle class families.

But Philip Bujak, of charity Montessori St Nicholas, which is funding the new school, said it will be free.

The organisation is in talks with two east London councils and hopes to open the school in 2012.

Mr Bujak would not name the councils.

But he said the organisation was willing to spend up to £8m building a school, which it would then hand to the council to run.

In return Montessori St Nicholas wants freedom to run the school according to its educational principles.

Mr Bujak said: "We will do it as soon as we can find a local authority to work with us.

"We are going to open it in an area of social and economic hardship.

"Once it is built it will be funded like any other school, but we will have management of teaching."

Montessori teaching was developed in the early 20th century by Italian doctor Maria Montessori.

In a Montessori classroom, children work largely on their own with special equipment designed to develop their sensory, numeric, language and practical skills.

via news.bbc.co.uk