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Pay Up 24

The Budget was a further kick in the teeth for hard-working educators. There was no more money to address the funding crisis in schools and colleges and nothing for your pay or for more staff. Read our response here.

Schools and colleges are at breaking point, yet this Government is more interested in buying votes at the imminent General Election, than doing what is right for our children’s education.

We must take a stand. Tens of thousands of teacher members have already voted in our preliminary ballot. But we need to redouble our efforts if this ballot is going to succeed and send Government a message – we are prepared to take strike action to force them to act on pay and funding.

As in previous ballots, the conversations reps are having with their members are making the biggest difference to turnout. Members spoken to by their rep are twice as likely to vote. And turnout in schools where we have held member meetings is twice that of elsewhere, including in schools without a rep.

 


The spring Budget fails our schools

What Jeremy Hunt announced in the spring Budget this week only scratches the surface of what schools need. We knew that schools needed £12.2 billion just to start reversing the impact of 14 years of Government cuts. Instead, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has committed nothing to reverse the cuts. The Chancellor pledged to build 15 new schools for students with special education needs and disabilities. But he’s allocated just £105 million — that’s nothing close to addressing the £4.6bn in real terms cuts to SEND funding.

The numbers are clear. We need £12.2bn to start reversing fourteen years of cuts.
Join the School Cuts campaign here.

 


NEU Ofsted Risk Assessment

NEU has published a new Ofsted risk assessment, designed to help employers, in consultation with union reps, assess the extent of harm that is caused by the Ofsted process and take practical steps to reduce the risks. As a pressurised and high stakes inspection system, which can cause harm as a result of anxiety, stress and unsustainable workload for staff, including leaders, Ofsted constitutes a hazard which needs to be risk-assessed.

Join us for an upcoming webinar – Exploring Primary Teachers’ Experiences of Inspection – where we will hear from experts from the Institute of Education and explore the findings of the Beyond Ofsted Inquiry. Thursday 21 March, 4-5pm. Register here.

 


Free School Meals For All

 

The London Assembly’s Economy Committee has this week published a report on its investigation into child poverty and Free School Meals in London. Its investigation found that while London is one of the wealthiest cities in the world, a third of children in the capital grow up in poverty – and parts of London have some of the highest child poverty rates in the country. It agreed that a long-term funding settlement for universal Free School Meals (FSM) is essential to address child poverty in the city – the NEU therefore welcomes the Mayor’s recent announcement of the continuation of London’s provision of FSM for all primary school children in the capital for another year. You can read the full report and recommendations of the Committee here, and watch a short video on the report here.