Union Rights & Education Funding: TUC Day 3

Today kicked off with many unions' impassioned pleas to support the TUC's response to the Government's  2nd Reading approval ( narrowly)  of their TU Bill, which greatly limits TU activity, and the Right To Strike, the Right To Picket, and which brings the Police ( already stretched!) into the whole process. Reps' time off to support members ( Facilities time) will be greatly restricted! Supply Agencies to be used to break strikes by covering classes where staff are out on strike! Need I go on?
The new voting system requires an substantial  number of members to send a postal vote for strike action to unions. An Abstention, and even failing to vote, will be taken as a No vote!
And yet, ironically, this Government was elected to power by 24% of the National vote! So, 76% of us don't want the Tories!!  Crime Commissioners were indeed elected to power on 14% of the vote! We'll need 40%!!!
Most businesses elect their Boards on far less!!
Electronic Balloting is surely the 21st Century way forward! But we are denied this option. Young people expect to be able to use this facility. Therefore, We must  'Kill The Bill'. Lobby Your MP!!
'We need to go to Manchester,en masse,  and disrupt the Tory Conference!' urged Malcolm Davies, of UCATT. He quoted Bob Crowe, ' if you fight, you may not always win, but if you don't fight, you will lose! '


The  Education  debates here have backed up everything we knew about education issues locally!

ATL's Shelagh Hirst,  said of the Supply Agencies that there wouldn't be enough agency staff to cover, so would staff there be quickly recruited, not properly CRB checked? No proper handovers between staff? So would vulnerable pupils, those with medical needs etc be put at risk?  Many financially desperate agency staff would be forced to cross picket lines. Future staff relations within schools would then be significantly damaged!
The current Education Funding Crisis was  seen as a disgrace, and a  TUC campaign on Funding was agreed.
6th Forms and FE's were keen to point out the attacks on pay and conditions of staff in all Post 16 institutions, and in universities.  There have been 24% cuts this year alone.

Campaigning by the TUC will follow to reverse the recently cut funding support for disabled students, and those with additional support needs!

Many speakers, including the NUT, spoke of how poverty affects the learning and life chances of vulnerable children today!

The Living Wage was cited as essential therefore, as a start.

The role of fast food chains, Sports Direct etc were mentioned as poor employers, who pay far less, and the use of zero hours' contracts as being a barrier to pulling workers out of poverty!indeed, encouraging poverty for profit!!

Some speakers talked of how some teachers try to help students by paying for their lunches, by getting clothes for them from schools' Lost Property Boxes.

 How, for those on Free School Meals, that lunch will be the only decent meal they'll get all day, and that at the weekend, they'll go hungry again, waiting for Monday, and dreading the school holidays!!!
Powerful stuff!!!

The TUC will campaign, using the United Nations Convention on The Rights Of The Child, which states: ' The best interests of the child must be a top priority in all decisions and actions that affect children' and ' Every child  has the right to a standard of living that is good enough to meet their physical and social needs and support their development'.

Hold tight! Jeremy Corbyn to speak at Congress this afternoon! Can't wait!!

Sarah Carter
SE Region NUT
TUC Delegate

#StandUp4Edu at Folk Weekend Oxford

This weekend, Oxfordshire NUT continued our weekly Stand Up for Education stalls in a new and different way.

We were proud to be the sponsors of the Folk Weekend Oxford 'Family Festival'.  We supported the 'Offshoots' schools concerts, where children from Windmill, St Andrews, Wolvercote, Marsh Baldon, Garsington and West Kidlington Primary Schools performed, and also the excellent family Ceilidh with the superb What's up Folk! from John Mason School.

The events were stewarded by Oxfordshire NUT volunteers who also had Stand Up for Education material available:

Over the weekend, 58 new supporters signed up to the campaign and many more took away information.  Most importantly, it was a great showcase for talented young musicians from Oxfordshire's schools.

Well done to all involved!

Stand Up for Education (Wheatley Park)

NUT members from Wheatley Park were joined by colleagues from John Watson School to discuss the upcoming Strike Action on 26^th March. Many teachers were still teaching or unable to attend due to the demands of paperwork – a vivid illustration of pressure teachers are under and of the hours they are working. Colleagues discussed the background of the action and celebrated the recent successes – the findings of the STRB and the publication of the Working time survey – both in direct response to union action.

Members went on to discuss our action next month, not only is it justified but it is also very well timed – now is a very good time to be applying pressure on a weakened secretary of state – it was stressed that strike action will only be effective if it is accompanied by lobbying of politicians and backed up by support form parents and communities. Members were urged to write to their MPs, to talk to parents and carers and to urge them to sign the petition to ‘Stand Up for Education’.

Ed

Stand Up for Education (Henley)

Really good meeting tonight in the Henley cluster. We discussed how we can build in our individual workplaces for the strike as well as the importance of keeping the pressure on after Michael Gove suffered the set back of the STRB report. We also discussed the support we have in the public and how we can get parents and communities involved. To do this, we are going to be leafleting in Henley on the 15^th of March, meeting at the Town Hall at 11am.  All local teachers are welcome to join us.

Dave

Stand Up for Education (St John's, Banbury)

NUT members from several Banbury schools met at St John's RC Primary on Thursday February 27th.

Those present discussed the proposed changes to teachers' pay and conditions and their likely effect on teachers' workload and professional relationships.

We also talked about effective communication with parents and others as to the consequences if the changes go through.

Discussion then moved on to the importance of organisation and representation at school level, building informal local support networks and using these to exchange experience and ideas.

The meeting lasted about an hour. Thanks are due to St John's Headteacher Kevin Griffiths and his staff for their warm and generous hospitality.

Ian

Stand Up for Education (Cheney)

Great meeting this afternoon at Cheney School.  Strong support for the campaign from the 25-30 teachers present.  In particular, a number of younger teachers commented on the importance of making the campaign about education, not just pay, pensions and workload.  It is not that teachers don't care about these issues - many at the meeting said the workload was almost unbearable - but that they care even more deeply about the quality of education their students receive.

The parent leaflets were very well received, as was the focus on engaging parents, pressuring politicians and strike action on 26th March.  A number of teachers have signed up for local leafleting and lobbying meetings with their MP.

All in all, a good start to the campaign.  This is the first of a number of meetings (nearly 20 now - 16 below, more to be announced).

Looking forward to getting to more schools over the coming weeks and meeting more NUT members.

Gawain

Stand Up for Education: Your nearest meeting

Over the next few weeks, we will be attempting the biggest series of NUT meetings in Oxfordshire for some time.

So far, we have 16 meetings set up and more in the pipeline.

I hope that you can join us at your nearest meeting.  If there is not one near you, get in touch and lets set one up at your school or in your local area.

Gove, Wilshaw, Governors and Education

Came across this petition I thought colleagues might like to sign:

Gove Must Go Petition | GoPetition

The damage that has been done to education by this government in its first three years in power, seems set to be compounded by the rest of its term.

Michael Wilshaw's latest attack on governors exposes Gove & co's complete disregard for anyone who genuinely cares about education. Their proposals for reform of governing bodies (opposed by the National Governors' Association) suggest they would be very happy to see parents, teachers and members of the local community completely replaced by paid directors like in any other business.

But the reality is that education is not just any other business. It is about the education of our children. And that process involves the whole community. It means people from within that community, whether parents teachers or others, taking a lead in the running of their schools.

There are inspirational people in schools all over the country doing precisely that, and it is those people Wilshaw is insulting with his ill-informed, ideologically-driven comments today.

Willshaw and Gove have a single agenda, to make our schools more and more like the private businesses they so admire and from which their friends make so much profit.

Our agenda must be different. It must be to develop an education system which supports every young person to achieve the best that they can. And that means working with all those who are passionate about this vision, especially those who give their time voluntarily as governors to achieve it.