Schools

The National Education Union's (NEU) first nationwide strike, on 1 February, was a success. The strike was of teacher members in England and Wales and support staff members in Wales. Hundreds of thousands of members struck. The big majority of schools in both countries were affected, with hundreds closed and many more with only minimal provision. The strike occurred on the same day as strikes by the UCU in colleges and universities and civil servants in the PCS union. There were rallies in cities and towns across both countries, involving hundreds of thousands. The NEU had recruited over 43...

In Wales, both teachers and support staff in the NEU will be taking official strike action on 1 February and on three more days in February and March. In England, only the NEU teachers’ ballot cleared the threshold of a 50% turnout (with more than 90% of those who voted voting to strike). The support staff ballot had more than 84% voting yes to strike, but 46.46% turnout, below the Tory-set threshold. The questions on both teacher and support staff ballot papers were almost identical. Both focussed primarily on funding for schools (making an above-inflation pay rise affordable). A victory for...

Over 18,000 members joined the National Education Union (NEU) in the week after the union announced on 16 January that it had beaten the draconian anti-union law thresholds and declared an escalating schedule of industrial action. That growth is only likely to increase and accelerate as the NEU’s first strike on 1 February approaches. The more members that join, the more schools will be closed, and the more disruption in those that try to stay open. It will make the strike more effective. Good! These figures show the real appetite among school workers to fight back for pay rises and against...

The National Education Union (NEU) will strike nationally on Wednesday 1 February, and follow that by three weeks of rolling regional strikes between 14 February and 2 March and two days of national strikes on 15-16 March.

The National Education Union (NEU) is balloting its support staff members in state schools (whose pay is either determined or indirectly influenced by local government pay negotiations) for strikes over pay and increased funding for schools. Shamefully, Unison’s bureaucracy has reacted by declaring that it is suspending cooperation with the NEU, accusing it of breaching an agreement which prevents the NEU negotiating for support staff in state-funded schools. However, rank-and-file activists in Unison, GMB and Unite who want to see an effective fightback over pay in 2023 will welcome the NEU’s...

According to the Guardian ( 28 May ), “two-thirds of providers, including some top universities, were told this month that they had failed the first round of the new accreditation process” for Initial Teacher Training (ITT). Those failing to pass the accreditation included the University of Nottingham, whose ITT had been graded as “outstanding” by Ofsted only two months ago and the University of Birmingham, which the Department of Education has chosen as one of the specialist partners for its new school-based National Institute of Teaching. The article says “Cambridge University did not apply...