No Child Left Behind

Dates for potential strike action over pay are yet to be decided, but are likely to be from the week commencing 30 January 2023.

Kevin Courtney, NEU joint general secretary, at the launch of the campaign to extend free school meals at Labour Party conference PHOTO by Jess Hurd

“When children are hungry they can’t learn. It’s hard for them to concentrate and harder to reach their potential.”

NEU calls for free meals for all primary pupils

THE NEU and The Mirror newspaper have launched a new campaign calling for the Government to extend free school meal (FSM) provision to every primary school child in England.

FSMs in England are available for all primary school children until the end of year 2, but from year 3 onwards, millions of children aged as young as seven miss out on a healthy meal at school.

In a letter addressed to former Prime Minister Liz Truss, and signed by more than 100 MPs, faith groups, charities and celebrities – including former footballer Gary Lineker and chef Tom Kerridge – the NEU wrote: “We are living through the greatest costof-living crisis in a generation, and too many families with young children are being pulled into poverty.

“Teachers and support staff see the difference a healthy school dinner makes. When children are hungry, they can’t learn. It’s hard for them to concentrate and harder to reach their potential. Free school meals for all would mean every child can learn and succeed.”

It is already well known that poverty can have a profound impact on attainment and educational outcomes. According to data from charity the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, by age 11, only around three quarters of children from the poorest fifth of families reach the government’s expected level at key stage 2, compared to 97 per cent of children from the richest fifth.

In 2020, Scotland pledged to extend FSMs for every child in primary education, and this year Wales followed suit. In the letter to the former PM, the NEU has made clear that “it is time for England to catch up”.

NEU joint general secretary Kevin Courtney said: “A hot school dinner every day will support millions of children whose families are facing the impossible choice of paying for heating or eating during the worst cost-of-living crisis in a generation. We must make sure no child is too hungry to learn.”

n Sign the letter at nochildleftbehind.org.uk

Survey shows 49% of trans and non-binary staff bullied at work

NEU research exploring the professional lives of more than 1,000 LGBT+ members reveals how LGBT+ inclusion is beneficial for all students.

However, in some workplaces, bullying and isolation continues to be a problem, and for trans and non-binary staff that picture is shown to be significantly worse.

Nearly a third (29 per cent) of all respondents had experienced being bullied at work. This figure rose to 49 per cent among trans and non-binary staff.

Eighty-nine per cent felt it was important to have visible LGBT+ role models in school, yet nearly half of respondents were not open about their sexual orientation or gender identity at work.

Feedback from schools also highlighted how much creative, inclusive teaching is underway. Many schools were evaluating their management practices and curriculum approaches. LGBT+ staff have great ideas and commitment but also a clear desire to do this work in collaboration as a whole-staff group.

NEU joint general secretary Mary Bousted said: “We want to empower all staff in schools to feel confident to model positive values. LGBT+ staff have employment rights that aren’t being realised and that’s where unions have a responsibility to negotiate better policies.”

Strike-breaking school agrees to pay compensation

NEU members have settled a dispute at Drapers’ Pyrgo Priory School in Havering, east London, after a row about the use of supply staff to break the strike.

Support staff members at Drapers’ Pyrgo had been on strike since the summer term over the school’s decision to downgrade support staff roles and cut hours (Educate, September/ October, page 12).

The school has now agreed to pay compensation (between £750 and £1,000) to all staff who have lost pay through having their hours cut. The strike action also won an extension of grade protection from one to two years. Some members had faced cuts in hours, others were to be downgraded, while some were threatened with both.

NEU regional officer Michael Gavan said: “The strike was definitely worthwhile. We’ve won significant compensation for the cuts to hours, which makes good the loss members would have suffered for between eight to 12 months. And we doubled the length of their salary protection, which helps soften the blow for those facing a downgrade.

“Our members also showed the employer that they would not let them break the strike by using agency staff.”

Attempts to break strike with agency

When 18 strike days were confirmed for September and October, the school decided to take advantage of a change of law that makes it legal for employers to use agency workers to cover striking staff. The school was thought to be the first to use this new law (see The right to strike boxout).

NEU members at Drapers’ Pyrgo on a picket line in October PHOTO by Michael Gavan

The right to strike

AT the end of September, 11 trade unions including the NEU put forward a legal challenge against the new law. They claim the Government has broken the Employment Agencies Act 1973 by failing to consult unions and is also violating “fundamental trade union rights” protected by Article 11 of the European Convention on Human Rights.

TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady said: “The right to strike is a fundamental British liberty. But the Government is attacking it in broad daylight.”

The NEU immediately wrote to Pertemps agency about its involvement in strike breaking. The agency responded, saying that Drapers’ Pyrgo had contacted it for supply staff but that it was “informed [it] was for sickness cover”. Pertemps immediately agreed to stop supplying staff to the school until the dispute was resolved, recognising its “ethical responsibility” not to undermine the dispute.

A second agency, Simply Education, also pulled out when challenged by the NEU.

Patricia Akel, a teaching assistant and joint NEU rep who has been at the school for 17 years, was facing a cut in her hours and her role being downgraded. She described the use of agency staff to break the strikes as “shocking” and “heartless”.

Holland Park members suspend anti-MAT industrial action

NEU members at Holland Park School have suspended strike action pending the outcome of a judicial review.

Parents and staff at the secondary school in London have been campaigning since March against the governors’ decision to end the school’s single academy status and join the multi-academy United Learning Trust (ULT), without any consultation (see Educate, July/ August, page 19).

NEU members have so far taken 12 days of strike action and, alongside parents at the school, have submitted three judicial review applications in the space of four months. The current judicial review application was made by parents and the NEU against the regional schools commissioner (RSC) (see Educate, September/October, page 14).

NEU members at the school said the decision to suspend strike action until the outcome of the judicial review was not easy, and that they remain “united in our rejection of the process by which United Learning was selected”.