A sunny day in East Ham began with a meeting with architects and representatives from the Muslim community to discuss proposals for a mosque on Church Road.  Following the meeting, I travelled to the Tesco in Gallions reach where I presented pupils from Drew Primary School and Gallions Primary School with their Tesco School Voucher prizes.  The Tesco for Schools & Clubs scheme provides schools with a variety of useful prizes in exchange for vouchers earned with purchases from Tesco. The pupils were delighted to receive their prizes, which included sports and classroom equipment.

I then attended a meeting with representatives from The East London Rugby club who are looking to develop a community based sports project that encourages more people to get involved in rugby. The project will involve a number of open days that will welcome all players regardless of experience.

In the afternoon, I attended the launch of the Honours programme at NewVic Sixth Form College. The Honours Programme is targeted at students who are looking to gain entry to the most selective universities.  I gave a brief speech at the event congratulating NewVic on their recent success and wished the programme well.  This is the kind of thing we need to be doing to make the most of the opportunities being created by changes leading up to the Olympics next year.  Following the launch, I visited Kevin Jenkins at Community links to catch up, and went on, with Paula Jenkins, to Community Links’ outdoor events centre on Freemasons Road.

As usual, my day ended with my regular Friday surgery at Beckton Globe