Brent teachers to strike over pensions on March 28th

 

Teachers in Brent schools will be coming out on strike again on Wednesday March 28th in further action over the pensions issue.  They will be distributing a leaflet to parents and carers setting out their case:

 

Why are teachers going on strike?

A message to all parents and carers in Brent

Teachers across Brent will be taking strike action on Wednesday 28^th March.

We know this may be inconvenient for you but we hope you will understand why we are doing this and that you will support us.

Teachers do not like taking strike action but we believe we have been given no choice by the government.

We are striking because the government won’t listen to us and insist on making unnecessary changes to our pensions. We believe these changes will be damaging for teachers and for education.

Below we list some of the facts about our pensions we think you should know. For more information please talk to teachers at your school.

FACT ONE

Teachers, and other public sector workers, are being asked to pay 50% more for their pensions, work longer and get a smaller pension when they retire.

FACT TWO

Teaching is an all consuming and tiring job and can be stressful. We do not believe it is reasonable to expect all teachers to work until 68 to get a pension.

FACT THREE

The government says our pensions are unaffordable but their own figures show that this isn’t true.

FACT FOUR

Many private sector workers have no proper pension scheme. The government should do something about this, not cut the public sector pensions.

FACT FIVE

Cutting public sector pensions will just make more pensioners poorer and put the cost of supporting them on to the State and taxpayers.

Jesus and Mary in trouble with teachers

The Convent of Jesus and Mary College in Harlesden is facing strike action by education unions. The NUT is balloting for a strike and other unions are considering it because they claim the College has not consulted properly over conversion to academy status.

This follows similar issues with Kingsbury High School and Claremont High Schools last year and warning shots over Alperton High School's possible conversion which led to the governing body taking a step back.

The unions are thought to be willing to call off action if the consultation period is extended to allow an independently run secret ballot of staff, all parents to be invited to hear the case against conversion in addition to the arguments for, for the unions to be able to address the governing body about staff concerns, and for them to be allowed to meet with the Headteacher and Chair of Governors in order to negotiate agreed procedures.

The Convent has claimed that it would gain £300,000 from conversion but the unions argue this does not take into account other services, insurance and pensions that the College would have to pay if it converted. 

Convent of Jesus and Mary Consultation Page LINK

"Brent school system works. Don't mess with it." say teacher unions

Brent Pupils ate Carbon Reduction project

 Against the background of some Brent schools considering opting out of the local authority system, the local teacher unions have issued a strong defence of that system as one which has put Brent schools in the top 10% nationally:

A report by Think Tank 'The Centre Forum' has published a list of performance of schools in all local authorities across England. Of the 152 local authorities looked at in the report Brent came in at 13th, putting it firmly in the top 10% in the country.

To quote from the Report, “Indeed, pupils of all types – including the poorest pupils and those from typically under-performing ethnic groups – perform better in London than in all other regions of the UK.”

The Brent joint teacher unions believes that this vindicates their belief in the state system. Shane Johnschwager, NASUWT secretary said, “This report proves that for Brent's schools, and their pupils,  co-operation is better than competition. Brent schools have the evidence now to show the successes of a decade of school improvement. For the academies programme to break apart the family of schools and jeopardise this process would be lunacy. If it ain’t broke don't fix it.”

Hank Roberts, ATL Secretary said, “Contrary to what Michael Gove proclaims private is not always best. Local authorities can work as Brent's case amongst others proves. Brent

Authority can be justly proud of its achievements and the Brent population should stand by its retention as opposed to it being dismantled through the government's academy and free school privatisation scheme.”

Jean Roberts, NUT Joint Secretary said, “Teachers in Brent schools work very hard to provide the best education for the wide range of children they teach. The overwhelming majority of them want to remain as local authority schools not to become Gove academies.”

The report should give ammunition for a concerted campaign locally of councillors, teachers, parents and pupils, for a defence of democratically accountable, comprehensive, local schools.

See you at the Torch tomorrow for biggest Brent strike rally for years

I will be back at the Torch Pub, opposite the ARK Academy in Wembley Park tomorrow, for a rally of education and other public sector workers who will be striking about their pensions.

The rally begins at 9.30am and refreshments will be available. Hundreds of teachers, lecturers, caretakers, teaching assistants, meals supervisors, school secretaries and supporters will hear speeches from several union General Secretaries and Presidents before leaving en masse about 11am for the demonstration in Central London,

It will be bigger and better than the last rally on June 30th as ATL, NUT and UCU will be joined by members of NASUWT, GMB, NAHT and UNISON who will be on striketo protect their pensions.

There will be a prize for the most imaginative placard.

The Torch is at the junction of Bridge Road and Forty Lane. Cross the road at Wembley Park Station and turn left along Bridge Road.

Kingsbury staff and parents vow to fight on after governors vote for academy status

Parents, staff and pupils back the strike

Yesterday, Kingsbury High School in Kingsbury, north west London was shut to all pupils and staff. Teachers from the NUT and NASUWT were taking strike action against their school being converted into a Gove academy. That evening despite all the opposition the governing body voted for conversion.

Hank Roberts, NUT Brent Secretary said at the rally outside the school, “We regret that we have had to take action today. This was entirely avoidable had our offer of not taking industrial action if the Headteacher had granted parents their wish to have an independently overseen secret ballot (as staff had) been accepted. We have even offered to pay the costs of any such ballot thus ensuring that the school would not lose anything financially”.

Shane Johnschwager, NASUWT Brent Secretary said, “We are prepared to contact our action committees indicating that, should the Governors either not withdraw this proposal for academy conversion or continue to refuse to accept our generous offer to resolve this dispute as above, we will be calling for further sustained strike action. We consider that the responsibility for any damage to Kingsbury pupils' education will rest at the Governors' door as there is a straightforward, zero detriment, and costless resolution to this dispute”.

“We asked at our meeting with the Chair of Governors and the Headteacher what possible damage could an independently overseen secret ballot of parents do to the school and education in it. Their answer was that there was none. But still they refused”.

Jenny Cooper, organiser of the Parents Action Group said after the governors voted to convert at their meeting yesterday evening, "It was reported that 74% of the parents wanted the school to become an academy. This figure is completely made up and we know it is not true. It was said that only 4 parents called for a ballot - the real figure is at least 70. The Headteacher knows this as he was at the meetings where parents asked en masse for a ballot. Governors were told that a 6% return of surveys was a signal for them to go ahead with conversion. It was actually a signal that parents boycotted the survey because of its leading questions".

Members of the two unions as well as parents will be planning their next moves and say the campaign is not over. The school does not convert until 1^st December.

The Willesden and Kilburn Times reported that Councillor Mary Arnold, Brent Council's Lead member for children and families called the plans ‘short sighted’...“As a school with a high community profile you would expect the views of the staff and parents at Kingsbury High to be paramount, and the governors should take them on board.”

Parents urge support for strike rally

A message from Kingsbury parents campaigning against academy conversion:

Mr Waxman, headteacher of Kingsbury High School, has today informed parents that the school will be closed Thursday due to strike action re the academy proposal.

This means a large number of teachers are striking and a large number of teachers are opposed to the academy conversion. So are ALL the local councillors and a large number of parents and many others in the community.

Although the school will be closed to children, the rally in support of teachers will go ahead as planned to show them our support. Please turn up in Princes Ave any time from 7.45am and preferably by 8.15am to come and stand together to show our opposition.

The government plans to privatise every school in the country; primary, secondary and special schools. Mr Waxman himself understands, as stated in his letter, that we all need to demonstrate to show our opposition to the government's policy which is trying to force all schools to take this step.

Please be there. See you Thursday!

Support Kingsbury High School Strike on Thursday

Kingsbury High NUT and NASUWT members in Brent will be on strike on Thursday 29th September against their Governors proposal to convert the school into a Gove academy. 

 

Please send messages of support to Geoff Williams, NUT Rep who has been doing a sterling job as a new Rep in galvanising staff to defeat this proposal. The Parents Action Group are supporting the teachers, pupils have already had a strike during the school day last term and the local community including the councillors are strongly against the conversion.   Please email Geoff at  geoffrey.williams@kingsburyhigh.org.uk
There will be a rally and picket at the school from 7.45 am on Thursday. Bring banners/placards
Kingsbury High
Princes Avenue,
Kingsbury,
London,
NW9 9JR

Waxman digs heels in under parent pressure on academy ballot

Jeremy Waxman gave an adroit performance at tonight's academy meeting at Kingsbury High School, which was arranged after Tuesday's public meeting, but he left parents dissatisfied. He rejected their call for an independent Yes/No ballot on whether the school should become and academy, and said that the postal survey he was conducting was a more 'nuanced' way of gathering opinion. In the face of repeated calls for a ballot and criticism of the allegedly biased wording of the survey he dug his heels in and insisted that was the form of consultation he had chosen and that a ballot was not a suitable way of gauging opinion. Waxman said he would consider allowing parents to use the Parent E-Mail system to send out information.

Reminded that the teachers unions said they would call off threatened strike action if he agreed to a ballot of parents he said that the teachers' strike vote had been about conditions of service and that the two issues should not be coupled together. He told parents that he was meeting with unions tomorrow and that he was offering a binding agreement that the proposed academy would follow the National Model Agreement on Conditions of Service. Under questioning he said that he was prepared to remove the clause that allowed the employer to rescind the agreement. He admitted that all this was subject to the National Agreement continuing and there were murmers from the floor that Michael Gove wanted to get rid of it.

Waxman went on to say that the school would follow the Local Authority Admissions Code and would be subject to the same rules about admitting SEN pupils as other local schools. He insisted that Kingsbury would continue to work in partnership with other schools and that part of  Kingsbury's academy submission was that it would support The Village School. Its role in the local sporting partnership would continue.

He was strongly challenged about whether he could offer any guarantees at all as he would not be headteacher for ever and government policies and legislation changed.

When parents claimed that the information given out by the school was one sided and that the opposing case had not been given equal billing he responded that after carefully weighing up the options he was doing was what was best for the school. He was unapologetic that his material 'made the case' for academy status because 'that is the stage we are at'.  He insisted that becoming an academy was in the interests of the pupils and the local community. He was challenged that this only meant the pupils at the school now and not future pupils and that his idea of community was only the immediate area around the school: the whole community of Brent should be involved as changes would affect the future of children still in primary school or not yet born.  Kingsbury becoming an academy would take funds away from the central budget so other schools, and particularly primaries would suffer as a consequence.

Time and time again Waxman returned to the necessity of the additional funding to preserve the 6th form as a consequence of the equalisation of further education and school funding. He was warned that as more schools became academies and with free schools being given a disproportionate share of the education budget the funding advantage would soon disappear.

Questioned about consultation with students Jeremy Waxman said that he had held some talks but they were poorly attended but there had been assemblies on the subject. Senior staff had presented the arguments and not necessarily the ones they agreed with. Pressed on the need for a balanced debate he said that there would be two school parliament sessions devoted to the issue for 11-14  and 15-19 year olds.

Waxman said that the academies programme was not one that he favoured politically but the government was committed to all secondary schools eventually converting. and that this was the right time to become an academy. Neighbouring schools in Harrow, and Claremont in Brent,  had already taken the decision and he did not want to be the last to go. The way to avoid what happened to Wembley High and Willesden High when the majority of secondary schools in Brent became grant maintained was for all to convert. . He thought that all the secular secondary schools in Brent would eventually do so and that they watching carefully  what happened to Kingsbury.

Academy strike vote at Kingsbury High but parents and community views to be sought

I understand that majority of NUT members at Kingsbury High School have voted  for strike action over the plans to become an academy.  However members are keen to wait to hear the views of parents and the community before going any further with their plans. They hope that a many as possible turn up to hear about the issues at the public meeting they have organised next week.

The meeting is at 7pm on Tuesday September 13th at the Father O'Callaghan Centre, 26 Hay Lane, Kingbury, NW9 ONG

Kingsbury High Governors vote for academy conversion despite massive staff opposition

Kingsbury High School governors decided last night to seek academy status by 15 votes to 3 despite being given the result of the staff ballot which showed 84.5% of staff were opposed to the move.  The three unions in the school will call a public meeting about the decision in September and have already notified the school that they will be balloting for strike action.

Mainly young, mainly female and all determined to fight for their pensions

There was plenty of excitement in Wembley this morning and it was nothing to do with Take That's appearance at the Stadium over the next few days.  Striking teachers and other public sector workers thronged the Torch pub in preparation for the march and rally in Central London,  The mainly young and mainly female workers were often striking for the first time and there was no mistaking their fervour and commitment.

There were some brief speeches before the crowd boarded the tube for Central London and one of the key messages was that the strike was not just about pensions but about the whole  Coalition Government's assault on the welfare state. Gains that had been made as a result of the post-war settlement were under attack and had to be defended.

Brent Labour councillors Helga Gladbaum and Pat Harrison dropped by to offer their solidarity and ex-MP for Brent South, Dawn Butler mingled with the strikers. Shahrar Ali offered support from Brent Green Party.

'Lesson preparation' on the Torch's verandah

Waterloo Road's Grouch adds his support

Determined  teachers from Kensal Rise Primary in the front row

Brent NUT, ATL and Fightback marched together in unity