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RE Win THE 83RD EDITION FOR ALL PLYMOUTH TEACHERS FEBRUARY 2009

Don’t Work for Free!

December 31st 2008 saw the end of salary protection for teachers who
had Management Allowances and did not get Teaching and Learning
Responsibility points. Many of these teachers will have continued
carrying out the duties for which they were paid by their MA. These duties should now have
been taken away from them. No one should continue with duties for which payment has
ceased. Don’t work for free!
On a related issue, several members have recently rung the office to ask if, as a result of being on the
Upper Pay Spine, they can be asked to carry out extras duties. The answer to this is a very clear “No”.
Payment on the UPS has nothing to do with extra duties, as the School Teachers Pay and Conditions
Document (STP&CD) makes clear.
If you are experiencing any difficulties about being asked to do work for which you feel you are not paid,
please contact the us for advice—see page 4

COVER which means that you are not reason for this to happen. It is
The amount of cover a teacher being released from a class but certainly not required by OfSTED.
can be asked to do is limited by that you do not have a class at The following extract is taken from
the STP&CD. This year you should this time. Therefore, class-based the Union’s website:
be doing significantly less than the teachers should not have to do “The NUT is opposed to the use
38 hours stipulated maximum as any preparation or follow-up work of lesson grading
your school gets ready to to enable colleagues to teach at in classroom
implement the new rule, coming this time, and cannot be expected observation …
into force in September 2009, that to cover if they are absent. The NUT believes
says teachers should “only rarely If this is an issue in your school— that the use of
cover”. see page 4 for contacts. grades for class-
Performance Management room observation
Cover and PPA time Christine
You must receive your minimum In some schools teachers are neither provides
10% PPA time and this must be given grades for classroom constructive feed- Blower in
within the normal teaching day. observation as part of PM. The back nor supports Plymouth:
PPA time must be timetabled, NUT believes there is no good teachers. There is see page 3
more on page 3...

THE NUT: “We work up to a standard not down to a price”

Independent of Government and not affiliated to any political party
Tamarside and John Kitto community colleges have There is nothing a trust
announced their willingness to seek academy status, school can do that a
supported by Plymouth University and the Church of
community school couldn’t
England, without consulting staff, parents or the wider
community. Secret meetings with business co-sponsors do now. Why
have been confirmed by the HERALD. Plymouth City deliberately add another
Council believe they have to support these measures with- layer of
out the full realisation of the damage it would do to the bureaucracy and
wider community and the staff that work in them. remove community
The so-called consultation process is reported as a requirement before accountability? New
the controversial proposals go ahead. People understand that the
only way to get such schools approved is to deny the full facts to the governors can join your
stakeholders. One is that the national governors association, all the Gov’ Body now thus
classroom teacher unions and support staff unions strongly oppose the retaining your community
change from community schools to unaccountable, privately run status
academies.
The departure of Tony Blair and Lord Adonis has not prevented these
politically-inspired schools from being imposed on their unsuspecting
communities.
They were originally proposed for failing schools in inner city areas.
Plymouth has no failing schools so academies [or trusts] will not
improve the life chances of the communities they used to serve in the
way envisaged. How do we know? By researching the current crop of
academies to see how standards have “improved”. It is widely under-
stood that most improvements are achieved by changing the intake of
the students and widening the catchment areas. Parliamentary
committees have investigated the value for money of these
independent schools. They further show the often draconian changes to
staff conditions of employment—sometimes hidden during the early
stages, that only emerge after the academies have been set up.
Much has been written about the cost of academes and how they fail to
achieve their goals. A far better alternative is to allow the local
authority to retain control and support their communities by additional
funding, smaller class size, more specialist staff—all these measures
are much more affordable and the schools would stay within the family
of Plymouth schools. A new school can be built without the need to
become an academy—there are good examples in Plymouth and other
nearby local authorities.
Will the consultation allow a proper balanced debate? History tells us
Academies have reduced
that this is rarely permitted—a further example of the prejudiced maternity benefits,
position academy seekers adopt—if they had nothing to fear they increased the length of
would have the confidence to allow balanced information to be
distributed and expressed. Partial evidence is un-democratic. Creeping the school day and cut
privatisation and marketisation of education does not produce the out- school
come of a good local school for every child in every community parents holidays—just thought
and teachers demand. More information from
www.antiacademies.org.uk you’d like to know...
Student teacher recruitment at MARJON
nothing in the new performance
management procedures which
says that lesson grading should
be used.
OfSTED makes it clear that its
grades should apply to the over-
all work of each school.
The National Union of Teachers
has received assurances from
OfSTED that head teachers are
not required and will not be
expected to use the OfSTED
grades for the purposes of class-
room observation. Where lesson
grading is introduced in schools,
NUT members should contact
their union office…”
The NUT has published a PM
Policy which can be found on the
website: www.teachers.org.uk
The policy states that:
• Teachers should have
no more than three
objectives.
• There should be no
more than three class-
room observations for moment, but come the spring they
the purposes of PM and will be in a number of schools.
the evaluation of teach- Unlike minimum working
ing and learning (one temperatures, there is no hard and
observation for PM fast legislation regarding maximum
alone) in any cycle. temperatures, but this doesn’t mean
There should be no there is nothing we can do. The
other “drop-ins”. World Health Organisation
• Observations and reviews stipulates that 24°C is the maximum
should only be conducted by temperature at which most people
staff with qualified teacher can work before they begin to
status. experience ill effects. As far as the
• Oral feedback should NUT is concerned, anything above
be given as soon as 26°C is too hot. This is our line in
possible, and written the (hot) sand.
feedback within five The Union will also support
working days. No other members in situations where the
notes about the temperature may be below 26°C
observations should be but due to other factors such as
kept. poor ventilation making working
Please get in touch if you feel the conditions intolerable.
system at your school is
Moved schools? School name
unreasonable.
changed? New address?
Temperature too high? Update your membership
High temperatures might not seem records at HQ
too much of a problem at the Call 0845 300 1666

NUT Acting General Christine Blower, Acting General Secretary of the NUT, Jo
Secretary Visits Plymouth Ramsey of the NASUWT Executive, Phil Smith - local Secretary
In October Christine Blower, visited Plymouth and of the ATL, Neil Harrington from UNISON and Katherine Darcy
was certainly kept busy. Christine spoke with NUT of GMB. Teachers, support staff, parents, local authority staff
members at Plymstock School about the union’s pay and school nurses attended the meetings and many concerns were
campaign, visited the children of High Street Primary and voiced at the lack of consultation occurring at some schools seek-
addressed public meetings at the Novotel and China House on the ing a change of status.
issue of academy and trust schools. High Street Primary
Christine said: “I think this is the first time I have ever visited Between the pay campaign and meetings about academy and trust
Plymouth and it is lovely to be invited and made so schools, Christine still found
welcome!” time to visit a very successful
Public Meetings: Academy and Trust Schools city primary school; High
Two more public meetings were held in October, jointly Street. Whilst at High Street,
organised by the NUT, NASUWT, ATL, UNISON and Christine met John Pengelly
GMB. These unions are united in their concerns about the who had taught her daughter
effect of trust or academy status on the pay and working when he worked in London.
conditions of their members and the impact on students
and the local community.
Trust and academy schools are highly controversial and
have been criticised by the National Audit Office, the
House of Commons Public Accounts Committee, and
the MP’s Committee of Enquiry amongst many others.
One of the conclusions from the MP’s Committee of Enquiry was John Lynch meets
that: NUT A/General
“The enquiry heard repeated complaints from contributors of Secretary Christine
rushed, flawed and manipulated consultation processes with a Blower and below with
complete disregard for their views.” and, John Pengelly. Above,
“The governors should also investigate how to incorporate a Christine with Jo
democratic ballot for parents and teachers within the Ramsey, NASUWT
consultation process.” Executive member
Meetings at the Novotel and China House were addressed by
♦Every US President went to school—except one
♦Every US President has spoken English as his first
language—except one
♦Every US President has been married—except one
♦Every US President has been raised as a
Protestant—except one
♦Every US President has been voted in as President
or Vice President—except one
♦Every US President has either finished his term or
died in office—except one
♦Every US President has been elected for one or
two terms—except one
♦Every US President has been a white male—
except one
♦Answers next time...

It’s Official !
“Past Present & Future”
Wednesday 11th Feb
The NUT is the largest
The Reception Room teaching union:
Council House Plymouth
6-30pm—8-30pm
NUT 292 238
Entrance Free—Refreshments provided NASUWT 265 202

CAPTION
COMPETITION
What’s the soldier saying to
the girls on their way to
school? Your suggestions in
the next edition. No prizes
2009 however...

Your TT should Plymouth Division:

plymnut@teacher.clara.co.uk
show all PPA 01503 240527
Regional Office:
periods- south.west@nut.org,uk
it’s the law! 01392 258028