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11 June 2004

Report from Kelmscott School, Waltham Forest, London

A well attended NUT meeting at Kelmscott School in Waltham Forest heard Martin Powell Davies outline the NUT's position on the Workforce Agreement.

The meeting was given an extra dimension by the attendance of all the school's unions and this ensured that the importance of joint campaigning with support staff was underlined.

As one of the first schools to face the introduction of cover supervisors, much of the discussion was focused on Martin and the local unions  ideas for building a strategy for fighting the workforce agreement.

This discussion highlighted the desperate need for a national campaign to support individual schools and associations on this issue.

Not surprisingly therefore, Martin's General Secretary campaign with its focus on the nuts and bolts of building a fighting Union, went down extremely well with the meeting. 

The meeting closed with a ringing endorsement of Martin's decision to insist on taking a ordinary teacher's wage if elected.

Dan Gillman

UPDATE:

The need for a serious battle against the Government’s "remodelling" agenda was also one of the main issues discussed at meetings Martin attended in Bromley and Enfield on Thursday 10^th and Friday 11^th June.

Martin explained how the other teacher unions had signed up to a "review" of Management Allowances that meant that any posts of responsibility filled this year would only have Allowances awarded for just one year at most, pending review. This is part of the Government’s drive to move from salaries based on experience and responsibilities to payments determined by divisive performance management.

The Government wants to use this "review" to extend the range of posts that can be "remodelled" so that they are filled by staff without teaching qualifications. One NUT Rep from a secondary school at the Bromley meeting reported that this was already being implemented in her school. A Head of Year post had just been advertised as a post to be filled by non-teaching staff. Martin explained that the Union needs to stand firm and give teachers confidence to oppose these attacks on both teachers and education.