On 8 June, National Education Union (NEU) members at Pimlico Academy (London) held their first strike day. A sunny Tuesday morning saw a strong turnout from members, with the picket line stretching all the way down the road. Workers carried placards with slogans including: “kick racism out of school...
On 2 June the government announced a £1.4bn “Covid Catch-up” programme for pupils and students, to cover up to six million sets of 15-hour tutoring courses for disadvantaged pupils and expansion of an existing fund for helping 16- to 19-year-olds with subjects such as English and maths.
Kevan...
The United Learning academy chain has pulled back from dismissing teacher and National Education Union (NEU) activist Kirstie Paton.
Staff and students at Pimlico Academy in London have already seen a first victory. On 18 May, the day before a National Education Union (NEU) ballot for strike action, closed, head teacher Daniel Smith announced he would leave on 31 May. Student protest and the threat of workers’ action has seen off...
Hundreds of parents, kids, workers and supporters braved the rain to march from Moulsecoomb primary school to a rally at The Level in Brighton on Saturday 15 May, demanding that the school remain in local authority control.
Despite overwhelming opposition, the Department for Education is...
National Education Union General Secretary Kevin Courtney reports:
Indicative ballot of NEU members at Pimlico Academy sees 93 per cent voting to move to a formal ballot on industrial action.
81 voted yes, 2 voted no; NEU has 87 eligible members at school.
Formal ballot was authorised...
The recent National Education Union conference passed this emergency motion on the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill. It was submitted by Bristol NEU. For a report of police violence against anti-Police Bill protesters in Bristol, and a statement from Bristol trades council, see here. For a...
At the start of the month we carried a report and analysis from a Future Academies worker about the rebellion by students and staff at Future's so-called flagship school, Pimlico Academy in London.
We also published this interview about how workers, students and the community in Stevenage fought...
The National Education Union (NEU) met online from 7 to 9 April for an annual conference of reduced length due to the exigencies of having to meet online.
All the articles in one place from our conference bulletin at NEU conference 2021.
Update, 27 April: Pimlico workers vote for strike ballot - see here
Following protests outside Batley Grammar School, a teacher has been suspended and there is a school investigation.
Delegates to the National Education Union (NEU) Conference will meet online on 7-9 April, 9.30am to 3pm each day. A "Defend NEU Reps" fringe meeting, Thursday 7pm, provides an opportunity to show solidarity and build the campaign to defend NEU Reps who are facing victimisation. The fringe meeting...
In 2017-2018, the workers, students and community of Barclay School in Stevenage waged a major campaign to prevent takeover by Future Academies, who have leapt to wider attention recently as a result of the anti-racist rebellion by students at Pimlico Academy.
We have just republished a 2019...
In the campaign in defence of victimised NEU [National Education Union] rep and NEU National Executive member Tracy McGuire, local trade unionists and councillors have signed a press release, and plans are afoot for community activists to seek a meeting with Tracy’s school, Rydal Academy in...
The NEU [National Education Union] Left was launched as “a membership organisation” on Saturday 13 March. It was “launched” as a brand over two years ago, at the NEU conference.
Over those two years, it has existed as a nebulous bureaucratic lash up between the Socialist Teachers Alliance (STA)...
Cleaners in the United Voices of the World union (UVW) at La Retraite Catholic girls’ school in south west London have secured a 24% wage increase, full contractual sick pay, and the repayment of withheld wages, just three days into a planned 40-day strike.
The strike, which involved cleaners...
A well-attended online organising meeting on 9 March discussed Tracy McGuire’s victimisation by Rydal Academy, Darlington, and since then there have been three days of strikes by NEU [National Education Union] members at Shrewsbury College in defence of NEU rep John Boken. Their strike action is to...
On 6 February, the Chicago Teachers’ Union (CTU) issued a “framework... relating to resumption of in-person instruction” to its membership, and their vote to ratify was reported on 10 February.
That framework included familiar features. Every CPS (Chicago Public Schools) facility must have...
Financial cuts and local falling rolls in Lewisham, south-east London, are threatening school workers’ jobs. At Conisborough College, a secondary school, a proposed re-organisation is threatening to lose six teacher roles. It is thought that a second re-structure of support staff may follow. In...
Karen Lewis, leader of the 2012 Chicago teachers’ strike, died of cancer on 7 February 2021. An obituary in Labor Notes here describes her role in building a rank-and-file caucus in the Chicago Teachers’ Union and then leading the CTU.
Pushed by school workers in the National Education Union (NEU) refusing to comply with school reopening on 4 January, the government on the evening of 4 January announced a new lockdown.
It is vital now for the labour movement to take the initiative and campaign on our own program, rather than...
Across the UK different regional governments have taken different approaches to the sitting and grading of school exams in the summer term of 2021.
In Scotland the National 5 (GCSE equivalent) exams have been cancelled and grades will be determined by “teacher judgement supported by assessment”...
The SWP's policy in the NEU of toadying up to the bureaucracy and siding with it against militant industrial trade unionism has exposed the organisation for the fraud it is time and time again.
In the latest episode Chris Denson (who?), a third rate SWP hack and bureaucrat who seems to be...
The first the staff knew about this decision was from a leak in the local pub. An ex-governor had told another ex-governor that the Governing Body had made this decision in December 2019. The news spread like wildfire and therefore the governors had to announce it to the community in January 2020...
The government has said GCSE and A level grades for 2021 will be done on teachers’ assessments.
That may be better than the botched algorithm attempted in 2020. But every school will seek to report results a bit better than 2020 or 2019. A student’s grades will depend as much on their school...
From 5 January all secondary and primary schools moved to being physically open only to vulnerable children and the children of key workers. Learning for other students is being offered online.
There continue to be struggles over the specifics of this. Firstly, the government has tried to widen...
If you support one of our motions get in touch with us to discuss the upcoming National Education Union conference and try to pass one of our motions through your local NEU meeting. Motions must be submitted by districts by midnight 3rd December.
By a London Teacher
Scottish school students received grades for Nationals, Highers and Advanced Higher courses on Tuesday 4 August.
Grades had been estimated by schools after exams were cancelled due the Covid pandemic. 125,000 grades, or a quarter of the total, were lowered by the Scottish...
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