NUTea

Week #5 Meeting #10

Great meeting with NUT members at Cheney School today. As with other meetings, there was a real strength of feeling about what this government is doing to education and a real willingness to fight for decent national terms and conditions that apply to all teachers, in schools and academies. However, it was when we got onto school level organising ideas that things got interesting!

 

The school has a 'staff tea' every Friday where each department takes a turn to host the staff for tea and cakes after school. So, on Friday 10th, the school NUT group will take a turn hosting staff tea, with a variety of green iced cakes and tea (not exclusively green tea)!

Linking Together

Week #3 Meeting #6

Great to be at a joint Reading & Wokingham meeting on the strike today. Meeting number 6 for me and meeting number 4 for Rosa and Clara (3 this week). It's been a gruelling programme (for me and them) - school, then meeting, then bed - each night but the strength of feeling in each meeting is really energising.

Reading/Wokingham was no exception, with strong opposition to the government's dismantling of state education, and equally strong support for strike action to demand national terms and conditions for teachers in all schools, colleges and academies, and increased school funding.

The Government Climbdown and the NUT Strike

Yesterday, the government announced a significant climbdown in relation to forced academisation. The white paper will no longer include proposals for legislation to force the conversion of every maintained school by 2022. This is a significant victory both because it withdraws one of the worst clauses of this paper and because it shows that, when teachers, parents and governors act together, we can win real concessions from government.

However, the government has replaced this legislation with sweeping powers for the Secretary of State to order the conversion of entire local authority areas in one go, and retains the aim of converting all schools by 2022. In addition, the other provisions of the white paper remain, including abolishing QTS, removing parent governors, and the threat to teachers pay and conditions.

Reaching Out to Members

Week #1 Meeting #2

Today, I was in Thatcham to meet with West Berkshire activists about the ballot campaign. The meeting was divided into two parts. There was a training on academy conversion in the afternoon with Regional Officer Nick Childs, during which we also discussed how to reach out to schools across the authority, and I led a briefing after school on the white paper, in which we discussed how to engage members at school level.

Green Fridays: Show Your Support for NUT Action on Pay and Conditions

As part of our broad campaign against the white paper, and in support of our ballot for strike action over school funding and national pay and conditions, NUT activists on social media have proposed a 'Green Fridays' initiative. The idea is that NUT members and supporters are encouraged to post photos of themselves and their colleagues wearing green on Fridays, using the hashtag #greenfridays, as a visual expression of support for these campaigns.

We got started early with the Eastern Region Young Teachers last weekend:

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.

Children Are More Than a Score

We’ve heard about the damage that high-stakes standardised testing is doing to our children’s education. We’ve heard about the impact it has on their self-esteem, on their mental health. So there’s a pretty obvious question to be asked.

Why, when the weight of educational research is against them, when the mass of parents are against them and when the professional judgement of teachers is against them, why would this government continue in its dogmatic obsession with standardised testing?

Nicky Morgan's Tables Test

I love maths. I’m not ashamed to say it. I took maths and further maths at A-level and went on to spend three years doing a maths degree at Oxford before training as a primary school teacher. After ten years teaching, I have spent the past two years writing and implementing a new maths curriculum, running a peer coaching project in mathematics teaching, and teaching maths to groups of students at risk of underachievement.

So, you’d be forgiven for thinking that I might welcome Nicky Morgan’s new focus on primary maths teaching.

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.

Mark Rylance Supports NUT Manifesto

Last night, the NUT announced that Mark Rylance, Director and Star of the BBC Wolf Hall adaptation, has given his support to the NUT Education Manifesto.

Education at What Price? Politics, Power & Privatisation

Over the past 5 years, we have witnessed the fragmentation of our entire education system.  This process has moved at an incredible pace.  In May 2010, there were just 203 academies, all of which were sponsored.  By January 2015, this had reached 4404, representing around 13% of primary schools and 55% of secondary schools.  Whilst there is strong evidence that the rate of conversion is slowing, this is a staggering change in under 5 years.

National Executive: Campaigning on Education

The NUT National Executive has just approved a campaign plan for the next 97 days up to the General Election and discussed how we build on this following the election.

In speaking to the report, Deputy General Secretary Kevin Courtney said, "There are 97 days to the General Election and this is a real opportunity we must take.  The task for us has to be to involve members in doing things around these issues."

UKIP and Local Hustings

Christine Blower clarified the NUT's national position in relation to the involvement of UKIP in local hustings.  The Union nationally does not have a formal 'no platform' policy in relation to UKIP and has decided that it should be left to local Associations to decide whether or not UKIP should be invited to any hustings meetings organised.

Conference on Privatisation in Education Globally

Today's NUT International Solidarity Committee meeting agreed a proposal to hold a conference on the privatisation of education globally.  This will be an extension of the work the Union is already doing around the Global Education Reform Movement and its impact on our children's education.

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: General Secretary's Report

At today's NUT National Executive meeting, Christine Blower reported on NUT involvement in the Centre for Labour And Social Studies (CLASS), which held its 2014 conference at the weekend.  Christine was pleased to report that she sat on the steering committee of CLASS for the Union and that the President has spoken at the conference.  She recommended that members who hadn't seen the work and publications of CLASS yet look them up.

National Executive: Striking for Public Services on 10th July

The main debate at the NUT National Executive on Thursday was of course on the upcoming strike action.

Organising Making a Difference

Thursday's Organising and Membership Committee received a report from the Union's Organising Department on the growth of academies and 'free' schools  and the latest developments in the NUT's response.

National Executive: Joint Strike Action on July 10th

Today's NUT National Executive agreed the next steps in our Stand Up for Education campaign and our dispute with the Secretary of State for Education.

The following paper was agreed:

A Message from the Teachers' Parliament 2 - Engaging Parents

Anyone watching the Newsnight 'expose' of the 'radical takeover' of the NUT on Tuesday might have been fooled into thinking that this year's NUT conference was entirely about strike action and the battle between 'moderates' and 'militants'.

It wasn't.