November 30th – Standing up for Standards

Well, it’s November 30th and we have had a day of action.

What has your association and your union been up to?

Strike Action

A very large number of schools across the county were either fully or partially closed. Many thanks to all for your support.

 

UNISON Rally in Hereford High Town

At midday there was a rally in High Town attended by a large number of trade union members who were taking action today.

Neil Jeffery, President of the Herefordshire Association of NASUWT, gave a the opening speech and was followed by members of UNISON, health and other unions.

Support from the public was tremendous – thank you.

It’s time to stand up for standards in education

Colleagues,

As you may well be aware, which you should be as your copies of ‘Teaching Today’ will have arrived, the NASUWT has undertaken to ballot its membership for action as a result of the unprecedented and relentless attack on state education, the teaching profession and the public sector.

Between 1997 and 2010 many gains were made by teachers in state education, which enabled us to focus on the one thing which we all consider to me the most important factor in our profession: learning and teaching and providing the best education possible to enable the young people of this country to make the progress they need to achieve the best possible outcomes in their lives. The requirement to cover for absent colleagues on a regular bases, guaranteed time for preparation, planning and assessment, the removal of the need to carry out tasks of an administrative nature that did not require the professional judgement of a teacher for their execution to name but three. Since the General Election of 2010 there has been a systematic change in attitude on the part of central government, and a number of items are seriously at risk.

• Changes in the performance management regulations which will link perfomance management to capability
• Increases in workload created by more government pronouncements that undermine the School Teachers’ Pay and Conditions Document
• Proposals to revisit the pay progression regulations

In addition we also have the proposed changes to our pension arrangements. Increased pension contributions are proposed, which will not actually be used to pay for pensions, but to contribute towards deficit reduction – a public sector tax; yet another increase in the retirement age, and a change of inflation link from RPI to CPI.

The most common argument used by government is that the current pension regulations are unaffordable, yet the cost as a percentage of GDP is projected to fall without any changes. In addition the total cost of all public sector pensions is £4.1bn annually, whereas the cost to the Exchequer of tax relief on the pensions of those earning over £150000 per annum (the top 1% of earners in this country) is £10bn.

It’s not often that we, as a union, take action, but the time is right to stand up for state education and the teaching profession.

I would urge you to vote yes to both questions.

Report on the 2010-2011 Academic Year

This academic year has seen a great deal of upheaval in terms of education in Herefordshire. The authority has continued to suffer from low funding (currently 149th out of 151 authorities in England), and in addition to this it has had to contend with the austerity programme drawn up by the coalition government, redundancy and an increasing numbers of schools converting to academies.

The 2011 National Conference in April was held in Glasgow. Four members of the executive attended for 4 days over the Easter weekend. There were many topics and motions debated, and Herefordshire contributed to debates. The Treasurer, Peter Hudson, gave a speech outlining the challenges facing supply teachers in the modern educational world, and the President, Neil Jeffery, made a couple of speeches, including tabling an amendment to the National Executive’s motion on education policy, where he successfully managed to include a vote of no confidence on the part of the Union in the education policies of the coalition government.

 

The one other major event in the year occured on March 26th, when three members of the executive represented Herefordshire in the ‘March Against the Cuts’ , in a march that numbered around 350000 people. It was awe-inspiring to be among so many fellow public-sector workers protesting about the sweeping cuts being made to services in the country.

Part of the NASUWT Contingent at the London March

 Please remember, though, that we exist for our members. We will act upon any issues or concerns raised by the rank and file membership of the Association. Do not hesitate to contact us if you wish to discuss anything.

Meetings for the 2011-2012 Academic Year

Thursday 22nd September 2011  8pm Social Meeting

Wednesday 12th October 2011  7.30pm General Meeting

Tuesday 15th November 2011 7.30pm Executive Meeting

Thursday 26th January 2012 8pm AGM

Wednesday 15th February 2012 7.30pm Executive Meeting

Tuesday 20th March 2012 7.30pm General meeting

Thursday 3rd May 2012 7.30pm Executive Meeting

Wednesday 6th June 2012 7.30pm General Meeting

Tuesday 3rd July 2012 7.30pm Executive Meeting

The venue for meetings will be notified nearer the date of each meeting

ALL MEMBERS ARE WELCOME TO ATTEND GENERAL AND EXECUTIVE MEETINGS

Mission Statement

The National Association of Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers (NASUWT) is the largest union representing members of the teaching profession in the United Kingdom.

On this website we will be offering a selection of things:

1 – Information about forthcoming meetings of the Herefordshire Association, minutes of meetings and issues directly affecting members in Herefordshire.

2 – News from the central NASUWT offices in Rednal, Birmingham

3 – Links to and comment upon articles in the media about matters affecting members

4 – Reports on conferences attended by members of the Association’s executive members on your behalf

If you have an issue that you need to discuss with the local executive, please find our contact details via the secure log-in on the main NASUWT website , by joining the Herefordshire NASUWT secure group on Facebook, or via Twitter (@NASUWT_Herefor)

Thank you.