Broaden and Deepen our Funding Campaign in Autumn

The National Executive last week discussed the need to both broaden and deepen our campaign over funding in the Autumn term, following our successful strike action earlier this month. There was agreement that we need to step up the campaign in the Autumn, reaching out to parent organisations, deepening the engagement of our members and increasing pressure on government, including through further strike action if Justine Greening is unwilling to act, as her predecessor was.

One amendment to the proposal was passed, calling on the Executive to link our Primary Assessment Campaign with the campaign on funding and terms and conditions. Two amendments, both of which sought to specify in one way or another what strike action would be decided on at the September Executive, fell.

Striking for School Funding

The 5th July strike over school funding was a huge success nationally, and in Oxfordshire where I attended events on the day. Below, I give a brief report of our activities on the day and the response but first I want to share the short video made by Leigh Seedhouse, one of our talented local committee members, using photos taken by Chris Honeywell:

We knew on the day that we had several objectives. On the one hand, we wanted to ensure there was a clear political focus on the question of school funding, both in terms of our trade dispute over the impact on terms and conditions, and in terms of the wider impact on education.

Opportunities for Community Outreach

Week #7 Meeting #17

Great to meet with teachers from the Blackbird Academy Trust schools today - Pegasus, Orchard Meadow and Windale. A really positive discussion about building the strike action and how we reach out to NUT members and to the school community.

In particular, members were keen to take up #greenfridays as a way of building confidence and solidarity within school, and also to have a stall at the three-school summer fete on 2nd July, with balloons, stickers and information about the strike action and wider campaign for families.

Have you thought of having an NUT stall at your schools fete? We can supply materials and may even be able to help with staffing stalls if appropriate - please get in touch.

Piecing Together the Jigsaw

Week #5 Meeting #11

My second meeting of the day was a joint teacher-parent meeting in Thame Town Hall. This one actually came about because a parent contacted me out of the blue several weeks ago to say local parents were concerned about the white paper and, if they booked a room and invited both parents and teachers, would I come and speak.

Obviously, I was only to happy to agree, not just because it would be our first NUT meeting in Thame for some time but also because I was keen to learn more about parental concerns. We publicised the meeting to local teachers and it was publicised to local parents by the organisers. On the day, we had a few teachers (mainly local school Reps), and a few parents (mainly from a particular local primary school).

So Much Support Out There!

Today was really uplifting in terms of showing me just how much support there is out there for our campaign. It has been a long week, starting with Sunday recording sessions for our own protest song - #ThisSchool:

The girls and I went down and really enjoyed the day, singing with others about something we passionately believe in.

Engaging the Community: The Campaign Kicks Off!

Week #1 Meeting #1

Today, it felt like our white paper campaign had kicked off in earnest locally with the first of 10 meetings for Reps & activists  in District 18 (or so I thought). The first meeting was in Windsor & Maidenhead, where a new committee has recently been elected after several years of no activity in the area. Much of the discussion focused on how to engage the wider community in opposition to the white paper.

National Executive: Campaigns Report

Kevin Courtney led the discussion on the campaigns report from Officers.

He began by addressing the question of further strike action.  The officers were clear that they were not recommending further strike action between now and the General Election.  Given the fact that 'purdah' begins on March 30th and, from that point onwards, no new legislation can be passed, any action we took would be a protest action against Nicky Morgan's disgraceful Workload Challenge response.

Organising and Campaigning in Reading

This weekend was Reading NUT's annual Rep Training Weekend.  School Reps and activists from across Reading come together on Friday evening for a keynote speech and dinner, then a day's training on the Saturday.  There were a number of sessions throughout the weekend but the key themes of the event were campaigning and organising.

This started on the Friday with the Education Manifesto.

National Executive: Standing Up for Education

When we launched our national Stand Up for Education campaign in March 2014, it would have been impossible to predict quite where we would be only 8 months later.  The campaign was a response to two things:

• The end of our joint strike action with the NASUWT and the first national strike action taken by the NUT alone since we began action on pensions 3 years earlier - this presented us with both dangers, in particular of being isolated, and opportunities, namely the opportunity to broaden our campaign and to deepen parental and wider community involvement.
• A developing feeling that the NUT, and the Trade Union movement more widely, had to build broader alliances in order to campaign effectively against policies which are not just limited to teachers' terms and conditions but which affect education in the broadest sense.

Some thoughts on #M26

Below are some thoughts on #M26, written the day after the strike.  They have been published on the Education for the People blog and in the Morning Star but I thought it might be useful to put them here for NUT members in my executive area to consider and respond to.  If you have any thoughts, email me at g.little@executive.nut.org.uk.

Uniting for Education

A new year has begun and, for those involved in education, the outlook seems bleak.  Teacher morale is dangerously low, something actively welcomed by Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Schools.  The government's 'free' school and academy programme has, as suggested by Gove's special adviser earlier this year, led to "disastrous teaching" and "financial fraud".  Possibly most worryingly, children's right to be taught by a qualified teacher has been removed, a move cynically announced on the opening day of the 2012 Olympics.