From the WSTA weblog
We have news that McDonalds are introducing their own A levels and we have an exclusive preview of the paper:
Is McDonalds?
a) a vicious anti-union low wage employer?
b) a fast track to a heart attack?
c) fun in a bun?
d) animal cruelty incarnate
If your answer was (c) congratulations you now have a Mc A
level.
(before the Millionaire McLawyers get on the McPhone this is
a joke of course)
Monday, January 28, 2008
Thursday, January 24, 2008
Woodard Corporation takeover of schools
Teachers are up in arms about the transfer of three schools to the Woodard Corporation. this is the press release I was busy with yesterday:
Teachers in West Sussex are planning a campaign against proposals to turn three of the County's secondary schools into Academies, starting with a Public Meeting on Thursday 7 February at 7.30pm in the Assembly Rooms, Worthing.
Dave Thomas, local Secretary for the National Union of Teachers, said:
We are opposed to Academies in West Sussex because:
they undermine democratically controlled Local Authorities,
they put schools in the hands of unaccountable sponsors,
they threaten teachers' pay and working conditions,
they will introduce three more schools of a faith character, with minimal consultation and a reduction in parents' choice.
At a meeting of West Sussex NUT held on Wed 16th Jan, the following motion was passed unanimously:
'WSTA is opposed to the establishment of Academies in West Sussex. It further deplores the lack of consultation by the Woodard Corporation and WSCC with the staff and their representatives in the schools concerned, namely, Boundstone CC, Kings Manor CC and Littlehampton CC.'
The meeting was attended by NUT members from all three schools and from other schools throughout West Sussex.
The public meeting is open to parents, teachers, support staff and others with an interest in state education to allow them an opportunity to air their concerns.
Teachers in West Sussex are planning a campaign against proposals to turn three of the County's secondary schools into Academies, starting with a Public Meeting on Thursday 7 February at 7.30pm in the Assembly Rooms, Worthing.
Dave Thomas, local Secretary for the National Union of Teachers, said:
We are opposed to Academies in West Sussex because:
they undermine democratically controlled Local Authorities,
they put schools in the hands of unaccountable sponsors,
they threaten teachers' pay and working conditions,
they will introduce three more schools of a faith character, with minimal consultation and a reduction in parents' choice.
At a meeting of West Sussex NUT held on Wed 16th Jan, the following motion was passed unanimously:
'WSTA is opposed to the establishment of Academies in West Sussex. It further deplores the lack of consultation by the Woodard Corporation and WSCC with the staff and their representatives in the schools concerned, namely, Boundstone CC, Kings Manor CC and Littlehampton CC.'
The meeting was attended by NUT members from all three schools and from other schools throughout West Sussex.
The public meeting is open to parents, teachers, support staff and others with an interest in state education to allow them an opportunity to air their concerns.
Sunday, January 20, 2008
Workload and Pay
from Classroom Teacher
Hands up all those who have had this experience. We called a meeting at school to discuss the issue of workload. And at the beginning of the meeting I had to read out all the apologies of people who could not come because they were too busy!
For teachers "excessive workload" means workload which seems to serve no educational purpose. Colleagues who voted to boycott the SATS on grounds of workload were coming in every weekend for rehearsals of the school play. The obvious benefit for the pupils of the school play outtrumped the demerits of SATS.
I think if people are going to refuse excessive workload they have to have some confidence the union will back them. And that would require a ballot.
At conference the Executive argued against a ballot on workload because it would confuse the issue and we needed to concentrate on getting a result in a pay ballot.
Then there was a bit of a hiatus and this week a decision has to be taken, a "robust" decision perhaps? Woe betide the NUT leadership if they come up with an invertebrate decision instead.
There is a discussion about this on the TES website
You can join in here
Hands up all those who have had this experience. We called a meeting at school to discuss the issue of workload. And at the beginning of the meeting I had to read out all the apologies of people who could not come because they were too busy!
For teachers "excessive workload" means workload which seems to serve no educational purpose. Colleagues who voted to boycott the SATS on grounds of workload were coming in every weekend for rehearsals of the school play. The obvious benefit for the pupils of the school play outtrumped the demerits of SATS.
I think if people are going to refuse excessive workload they have to have some confidence the union will back them. And that would require a ballot.
At conference the Executive argued against a ballot on workload because it would confuse the issue and we needed to concentrate on getting a result in a pay ballot.
Then there was a bit of a hiatus and this week a decision has to be taken, a "robust" decision perhaps? Woe betide the NUT leadership if they come up with an invertebrate decision instead.
There is a discussion about this on the TES website
You can join in here
Monday, January 14, 2008
Action and Change for Teachers
A group of teachers who backed Martin Powell-Davies’ recent stand in the NUT Vice-President election met on Saturday January 12th . The meeting discussed what needs to be done to build action to defend teachers’ pay, cut our relentless workload and to halt the break-up of local authority education.
A leadership we can rely on
One thing that still holds us back is the lack of a fighting union leadership that teachers can rely on to build the united action we need. Martin’s campaign helped keep up the pressure on the NUT Executive to call the promised national ballot for strike action on pay. We hope that the Executive will vote to get the ballot under way when they meet at the end of January. By then the Government should finally have announced the miserly salary awards that they expect us to put up with for 2008-2010.
Building support for classroom teachers
Most teachers, struggling with the daily grind in schools, will know nothing about the debates within the Union. But they know they need support in standing up to the demands of bullying managers and the pressures of observations, league tables and performance management. Hard-pressed school reps know they need support in organising their school group and explaining union campaigns in a way that grabs classroom teachers’ attention.
Many hard-pressed Union Secretaries and officers will feel the same way. Too often left on their own to try and build school-by-school action in isolation, ground down by a rising mountain of individual casework, they also need support in building strong local Associations that can defend teachers and also to help bring in new members, especially young teachers, into activity.
It’s this vital task, of helping to develop a strong network of classroom teachers, school reps and campaigning union officers that the meeting agreed had to be our first priority.
A campaigning newsletter
We agreed to build our network by launching a new campaigning newsletter, “Classroom Teacher”, to circulate to schools, both by e-mail and as printed copies that teachers can distribute to their colleagues. It will focus primarily on the main pay and conditions issues facing classroom teachers and the campaigns we can build to defend ourselves.
The newsletter plans to be sharp and snappy, written by, and for, classroom teachers, reflecting the daily pressures we are under but also building confidence that together we can take action to turn the tide. We plan to put names to the articles reflecting the range of teachers involved in the network. At the same time, we hope to have room to include some more detailed commentary for teachers who also want to read something a bit more analytical about the problems we face. We also want to invite teachers to send in their own articles and comments and to be a real part of a growing network.
We hope that the newsletter can develop in to a larger bulletin – which will mean appealing for finances too. It will certainly be regularly produced so that ‘Classroom Teacher’ will be there in staffrooms at least every half-term for teachers to read.
A first flyer has been produced based on a Lewisham NUT newsletter “Too Much Work, Too Little Pay” which went down well at a recent national NUT Secretaries meeting. A further leaflet on the pay campaign should be out shortly.
The ‘Classroom Teacher’ network
The newsletter will advertise an e-mail, this blog and our website which will allow teachers to get in touch with the campaign and also post their own comments on our blog. We also have a Classroom Teacher account on youtube.
We have also set up a classroom teacher e-group which will allow members of the network to easily contact each other and exchange views and information.
We hope that teachers will forward our newsletter to colleagues and develop its circulation. We
want to make sure we know where it is being read, get feedback on what teachers have thought of it but, above all, get new teachers to join the network and write their own comments and articles.
Where there is support, we will also organise national or regional meetings around particular issues or campaigns so that we can bring teachers together and help plan a way forward. We can also produce material to be distributed at NUT Conference, although our main focus is going to be on classroom teachers rather than national NUT events.
We hope this initiative can help build a network of classroom teachers working together to defend our colleagues and to build a union ready and prepared to take action to change our pay, our workload, our union and our schools.
Contact:
classroom.teacher@yahoo.co.uk
Martin Powell-Davies 07946 445488
Thursday, January 10, 2008
Channel 4 political awards
The characters listed for this award are as follows:
Of those available I would probably opt for the anti-war protestors although this is technically voting for myself!
Tony Blair: Call 09011 27 27 01
or Vote by email
Ian Paisley and Martin McGuiness: Call 09011 27 27 02
or Vote by email
Ken Livingstone: Call 09011 27 27 03
or Vote by email
Alex Salmond: Call 09011 27 27 04
or Vote by email
The Countryside Alliance: Call 09011 27 27 05
or Vote by email
Anti-Iraq war protestors: Call 09011 27 27 06
or Vote by email
Don't use their premium rate phone lines, you can vote for free.
http://tinyurl.com/3yl9gh
What is the betting New Labour have full time staff phoning in day and night?
Of those available I would probably opt for the anti-war protestors although this is technically voting for myself!
Tony Blair: Call 09011 27 27 01
or Vote by email
Ian Paisley and Martin McGuiness: Call 09011 27 27 02
or Vote by email
Ken Livingstone: Call 09011 27 27 03
or Vote by email
Alex Salmond: Call 09011 27 27 04
or Vote by email
The Countryside Alliance: Call 09011 27 27 05
or Vote by email
Anti-Iraq war protestors: Call 09011 27 27 06
or Vote by email
Don't use their premium rate phone lines, you can vote for free.
http://tinyurl.com/3yl9gh
What is the betting New Labour have full time staff phoning in day and night?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)