Schools in England

Unions tell staff ‘not to engage’ with plan for 1 June school openings

Sally Weale

By: Sally Weale.

Government plans to reopen schools in England face a mounting backlash from education unions, who say the proposals are not feasible and have advised teachers and support staff not to “engage with” preparations for a 1 June return.

The Department for Education (DfE) wants children back in primary schools in a phased reopening starting next month, with class sizes limited to 15 and a staggered timetable to limit the number of pupils and risk of transmission.

The education secretary, Gavin Williamson, has held regular meetings with sector leaders to try to keep teachers onboard, but relations appeared to be fraying on Tuesday with unions complaining they were not consulted on the 1 June return date or the year groups chosen to return first.

The National Education Union (NEU), which represents 450,000 teachers and other school staff, and the public service union Unison, representing school support staff, told members not to engage with planning for reopening on 1 June.

The shadow chancellor, Anneliese Dodds, meanwhile raised concerns about the potential safety risks. Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour, she said: “I would be more than happy to send my own child to school if I knew that by doing so I would not be potentially harming others. That’s the critical issue for me. And we don’t have that evidence, I feel, currently.”

The government has said it wants children in reception, year 1 and year 6 to be back in school first, with other primary years joining later, but headteachers have raised concerns about problems with physical distancing for younger children and health risks for pupils and staff.

Kevin Courtney, NEU joint general secretary, tweeted to members: “Education unions intend to work together. Don’t engage with planning a June 1 return to wider opening – await further union advice.” Schools are currently closed to all pupils other than children of key workers and vulnerable pupils.

The NEU says that, under health and safety legislation, any employees – including teachers – are protected if they believe they will be exposed to a serious and imminent danger should they attend their place of work.

“If such a situation does arise in a school or college, our members will continue working from home as they have been over the last six weeks,” the union said.

Patrick Roach, general secretary of the NASUWT teaching union, agreed there could be no compromise on health and safety.

“If this means that schools are unable to open safely before September because they are unable to make arrangements to safeguard their staff and pupils, then that position must be accepted.”

Geoff Barton, meanwhile, who is general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, described government ambitions for school reopening as “frankly unfathomable”.

The government also appears to have some way to go to persuade families it will be safe to allow more pupils after an NEU poll of 1,000 parents found that fewer than half (49%) would be prepared to send their children back as soon as schools reopened and a third (33%) would delay their child’s return.

Paul Whiteman, general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers, told MPs on the education select committee on Tuesday that primary schools would struggle to accommodate classes of 15 with physical distancing requirements.

“Our members are telling us that their building sizes on average would only accommodate classes of 10 to 12, rather than 15,” he said.

“So straight away we’re getting into some real practical difficulties about whether the government’s ambition can be practically accommodated. Let alone all the fears that parents have about bringing their children back into school, and the fears of the workforce too.”

Williamson said: “The latest scientific advice indicates it will be safe for more children to return to school from 1 June, but we will continue to limit the overall numbers in school and introduce protective measures to prevent transmission.

“This marks the first step towards having all young people back where they belong – in nurseries, schools and colleges – but we will continue to be led by the scientific evidence and will only take further steps when the time is right.”

Source of the article: https://www.theguardian.com/education/2020/may/12/plans-to-reopen-schools-on-1-june-in-jeopardy-as-education-unions-tell-staff-not-to-engage-with-prepartions-1
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Nearly 5,000 schools in England not given promised cash – union

Sally Weale

By: Seally Weale. 

 

England’s biggest teaching union has accused the government of breaking its promise to provide a modest cash boost to every school in England, claiming figures reveal that nearly 5,000 schools have received no extra funds or have even had their funding cut.

In the wake of mounting concern among teachers and parents about a school budget crisis, the education secretary, Damian Hinds, told MPs last year that a new national funding formula would guarantee each school “at least a small cash increase”, a pledge repeated by the prime minister in the Commons last May.

The National Education Union argued the offer was inadequate given the scale of the school funding squeeze, but its analysis of recent government figures subsequently revealed that 4,819 schools had either received no extra funds or had had their budget cut.

“This is yet another failure and another broken promise by government on school funding,” said Kevin Courtney, NEU joint general secretary. “The fact remains that schools were never going to manage on the money promised by government.

“However, headteachers, teachers, school staff and parents will be dismayed that even the meagre amounts of funds supposedly allocated to schools will not be received by everyone. Parents and school staff simply cannot trust what the government says on education funding.”

The NEU compared the schools block funding allocations for 2017-18 and 2018-19 and found that a quarter of primary schools (25%) and one in six secondary schools (17%) either received no cash increase or suffered an actual cut to their funding.

Responding to the NEU analysis, a Department for Education (DfE) spokesperson said that since 2017 the government had given every local authority more money for every pupil in every school in order to ensure fairer funding across the country.

“Government provides this money to local authorities and they have the freedom to work with schools to allocate their budgets in a way that best suits local needs,” the spokesperson said.

“While there is more money going into our schools than ever before, we do recognise the budgeting challenges schools face and that we are asking them to do more. That’s why we’re supporting schools and headteachers, and their local authorities, to make the most of every pound.”

According to the Institute for Fiscal Studies, total school spending per pupil in England has fallen by about 8% in real terms between 2009-10 and 2017-18.

While schools have been struggling to meet rising costs, many local authorities have been forced to divert money from the main schools funding block they receive from the government to their high needs budget in order to meet growing demand for special educational needs support – a move that has to be sanctioned by the DfE.

The shadow education secretary, Angela Rayner, said Labour would end funding cuts and increase per-pupil funding. “The Tories have cut billions of pounds from our schools, which have seen their budgets falling for the first time in a generation,” she said.

“With rising pressure on class sizes and teachers leaving in droves, a generation of children is paying the price for Tory failure.”

Source of the article: https://www.theguardian.com/education/2019/jan/07/nearly-5000-schools-in-england-not-given-promised-cash-union

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