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.

Challenging 'A' Level stereotypes

From  today's Guardian

It was good to see the Guardian's front page story on A level results avoided the usual images of teenage girls (usually blonde) jumping up and down with excitement clutching their results.

Without taking away from the girls' achievements, with national concerns over the performance of black boys, and all the stereotypes flying around in the wake of the riots, it was encouraging to see a positive image of black male youth's educational achievements displayed so prominently.

Incidentally it is easy to blame the media for falling for the blonde girl stereotype but a journalist revealed on the Radio 4 Today programme this week that schools and colleges ring local newspapers up and say things like, "We have some exceptionally beautiful girls this year" in order to tempt their photographers along.

Meanwhile as results trickle in it looks like a good year for Brent schools so congratulations to all the students and their teachers, teaching assistants and parents.