Lyon Park support staff approve a settlement after strikes and intensive negotiations

 

Following talks involving the school and Brent Council and a final round of discussions with ACAS, the conciliation service,  staff at Lyon Park have accepted a settlement of the dispute.

The settlement covers the issues at dispute after the school management proposed a restructuring that cut pay, hours and jobs and worsened conditions of service.

Jenny Cooper, co-secretary of Brent National Education Union said: 

98% voted to accept the new, much improved offer, which was offered purely because of members determined strike action

A victory for the union.

Picket lines at the school were joined by Barry Gardiner, MP for Brent North, Daniel Kebede the new General Secretary of the NEU, Brent Trades Council representatives, retired teachers and many others.

Other Brent schools are faced with deficit budgets, and some have dug into reserves in order to balance their budgets. Restructures are taking place across the borough and this dispute has set a precedent for solidarity action that may be needed in other disputes,

Carnival mood as Brent teachers stage 'Education Festival' on their second strike day

 

Following a supportive speech from Barry Gardiner, MP for Brent North, strking teachers paraded along Olympic Way this morning, accompanied by colourful parachutes, musical instruments and whistles, for an Education Festival in Arena Square.

Representatives from local schools spoke along with the NEU Co-Secretary, Jenny Cooper, Roger Cox from Brent Trades Council and myself from the Green Party Trade Union Group.

The carnival atmosphere left little doubt that this strike is far from over. 

Nursery teacher Lucy Cox, dressed as a pink rabbit, addresses the crowd

At the end of the Festival, in a powerful moment,  NEU members held up posters demonstrating their opposition to racism and support for the  Resist Racism national demonstration to be held on Saturday March 18th.

 

 

TEACHERS IN EVERY BRENT STATE SCHOOL TO STRIKE OVER PAY TOMORROW

 

From Brent branch of the National Education Union

 

BRENT TEACHERS PLEDGE STRIKE ACTION ON PAY AND FUNDING TO SAVE SCHOOLS

 

NEU members will gather across 24 picket lines tomorrow morning from 7.30am in a bid to “save” their schools due to funding pressures and below-inflation pay.

 

Teachers will be on strike in an attempt to push the government for a fully funded pay award in line with inflation. They say that teachers in Brent are using food banks and cannot afford to live where they teach. After years of pay freezes and awards that were below inflation, and not fully funded, the NEU says Brent schools are in a sorry state and striking is a last resort.

 

Brent teachers smashed through the government thresholds placed on trade union ballots with a turnout of over 70% and a huge YES vote to strike. Many schools will be closed or partially closed tomorrow as a result.

 

All 3 Brent MPs have offered support to striking NEU members, as has the Leader of the Council, school governors and many parents.

 

Jenny Cooper, Joint District Secretary of Brent NEU and NEU national executive member has stated:

 

Teachers never take strike action lightly; we went into this job because we care about children and we certainly didn’t go into it for the pay! We feel it is our duty to do the only thing left that we can do to force the government to understand the mess our schools are in; this is another symptom of broken Britain,

 

 

Brent NEU issues urgent appeal to Brent MPs and Council leaders on contagion dangers of full opening of nursery classes

 Continuing his hapless mismanagement of the education service during the pandemic, Gavin Williamson has changed guidance on the opening of nurseries from that initially sent out at the beginning of term.  The opening of school-based nurseries had initially been left to headteachers to decide and in schools open to only vulnerable and critical workers (the latter a widened category compared with key workers) it made little sense to open nurseries to all children and thus increase the potential of contagion.

The DfE has now issued guidance that nurseries should be full open.

 Brent NEU has written a letter to Brent MPs Barry Gardiner, Tulip Siddiq and Dawn Butler; Muhammed Butt leader of Brent Council and Cllr Tom Stephens lead member for schools asking them to intervene in what could be a life or death matter.

 

Dear Brent Councillors and MPs,

 

As you know, there is great pressure to open nurseries and special schools fully during this lockdown despite the fact that Sadiq Khan has today declared a major incident and school settings have been shown to be a major transmission factor with the new variant of Covid-19.

 

In Brent our nursery and special school headteachers have, as usual, put safety first, and resisted opening to increased numbers of children. As you know this is in line with the policies of all education unions, the NEU included.

 

However they are now being pressured to implement this government's shameless edict just at the moment that deaths and cases reach a record high, the virus is out of control, we hear of deaths of our workers every day and the NHS in London is at breaking point.

 

I'm afraid I have to be brutally honest with you here. I cannot morally bring myself to advise my members (when they write to me concerned that their settings are going to fully open to children and staff) that they must go into their school or nursery, because the reality is that I know that if I give this advice, some will subsequently become seriously ill or die. This is the reality.

 

I feel I have no option but to advise against this. However it is within the gift of the council and MPs to come out publicly and state that you will not require your schools and council officers, in Brent, to adhere to DfE advice where that advice contradicts with the evidence we have on safety, risk and the headteachers' own risk assessments.

 

With that in mind I am asking you now if you can offer this support? Of course, not only would this protect my members from harm but it would help halt the spread of the virus, help save hospital beds and also prevent the deaths of pupils, bearing in mind that children with learning disabilities are six times more likely to die from Covid-19.

 

I am happy to meet with any of you to discuss this further, or indeed, organise a public meeting so that you can hear the views of our Brent community on this.

 

I look forward to hearing from you on this matter, as soon as possible.

 

Jenny Cooper

 

Brent NEU Joint District Secretary.

Vice Chair, NEU National Health and Safety Organising Forum.

 

Meanwhile the National Governors Association (NGA) has drawn attention to the problem of more than the expected number of vulnerable and critical worker children attended school, undermining the intention of school closures to stop the spread of the virus. Boris Johnson had insisted both that schools are safe and should close as they are vectors for the spread of the new strain:

One of the main issues we are currently in dialogue with the DfE is on the number of children who are attending schools despite there being a national lockdown with a stay at home request from the Prime Minister with supposedly schools closed to most pupils: significant numbers of governing boards are reporting that they have between 40 and 70% of their pupils attending in strong contrast to the first lockdown.  We are also aware that there are particular challenges for special schools, alternative provision and those with large numbers of disadvantaged children, but it is helpful to make the case if we have your stories to bring the points alive.

 

Mail to: covidfeedback@nga.org.uk