A criminal destruction of teacher morale

This photograph tells a sad but shocking story - yet it is a photograph that could be taken in so many schools at present.

18 envelopes - to collect 18 leaving presents - for staff that felt they had no option but to resign rather than carry on working in intolerable conditions. That's 18 staff in just a two-form entry school !

As the teacher who took the photograph posted on Facebook: "Forced academy. Many of these people have served over decade, others more. All brilliant. Forced academies for you. A disintegration of a talented, loyal and dedicated workforce".

The short-sighted, Gove-inspired managements too often put in place by many of the sponsors of academy chains may be driving this demoralisation, but they are not alone. I have spoken tonight to a teacher in a Local Authority primary school of a similar size who is one of 12 teachers leaving this summer.

This scandalously high turnover and overall drop-out rate from teaching has become an established fact. Sir Michael Wilshaw has confirmed that 40% of teachers leave the profession within their first five years. Workload and bullying management is destroying teachers' lives - but it is also destroying stability and support for students and schools as well.

Yet the bullying culture of Ofsted/Estyn and 'Graded Observations' continue apace, despite the growing evidence of the complete lack of any reliability in the harsh judgements reached. Some teachers are being bullied out of their jobs as a result through 'capability' procedures, while the support and resources that teachers need are simply not being provided.

This is not only an issue for teachers in England and Wales. The lecturers' Union, the UCU, has just published a report condemning the use of graded observations in colleges. (http://www.ucu.org.uk/7105). The UCU website quotes the researcher Dr Matt O'Leary as saying: 'Attempts to measure the professional capabilities of practitioners through the lens of graded lesson observations are a pointless exercise based on a pseudo-scientific approach to teacher assessment ... The sooner we put an end to this pernicious practice, the better the sector will be for it. Although removing the graded element would certainly be a step in the right direction, it cannot be considered a panacea in itself. A root and branch reform of the way in which observation is conceptualised and engaged with as a form of educational intervention is what is required'.

In California*, the same anti-teacher mentality has led to a court judgement outlawing the existing contract on the basis that it needs to be easier to 'fire bad teachers'. Jack Schneider, writing for the LA Times website (http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-schneider-vergara-teachers-20140610-story.html) counters that "Engaged in difficult and demanding work, even gifted teachers need relevant, robust and continuous professional development opportunities. But very few get it, particularly in schools serving high-needs students. As a result, most teachers realize only a fraction of their full potential .. Making it easier to fire teachers — even if we imagine that such powers will be deployed judiciously by school administrators — will do little to ensure an effective teacher in every classroom. Instead, it will further erode trust between teachers and school administrators".

Of course, even the most supported, best trained teacher can only have so much effect. It's worth remembering that, as this US research points out (http://www.amstat.org/policy/pdfs/ASA_VAM_Statement.pdf) "most estimates in the literature attribute between 1% and 14% of the total variability [in test scores] to teachers. This is not saying that teachers have little effect on students, but that variation among teachers accounts for a small part of the variation in scores. The majority of the variation in test scores is attributable to factors outside of the teacher’s control such as student and family background, poverty, curriculum, and unmeasured influences".

Discussions at the campaign stall in Lewisham on Saturday

In explaining the action that we are taking to defend teachers and education, then we have to make sure parents understand the damage that Government policies are causing. We also shouldn't be shy in explaining the reality of teacher workload, the prospect of teaching at 68 and the effects of divisive performance pay and management bullying on teacher morale.

Our teaching conditions are our students' learning conditions. Let's have a serious struggle to defend them.

 * Messages of support can be sent to the California Teachers via http://d.shpg.org/46543107f?action_KEY=8688

Pensions when you need them – not when you’re forced into ‘early retirement’

Public Support for the FBU outside Euston Fire-Station

Somewhere in the Treasury, I suspect there’s an analysis of the real savings the Government expects to make from public sector pensions – not from increased contributions or newly-calculated career averages but from the blatant robbery of enforced “early retirement”.

If a teacher decides that they can’t last out to their ‘normal pension age’ (NPA) - and many can't - but need to draw their pension ‘early’, they have to pay a huge financial penalty of about 4% of their entitlements for each year below their NPA.

The calculators on the Teachers’ Pensions website show that a teacher who still has a protected NPA of 60 can choose to retire at 55 – but will only get 79% of their pension entitlements. That’s a massive saving to the Treasury.

If you’re a newer entrant with a NPA of 65, then going at 55 will leave you with just 61% of your final pension! 

So who would possibly retire ten years ‘early’ you ask? That’s when you have to remember that the NPA under the new Teachers' Pension Scheme could be as high as 68. The Government wants to make it even higher than that! How many teachers can work beyond 60 – especially when the Government plans wants to make our workload even greater ? So teachers will be forced to quit – and hand back much of their hard-won pension entitlements back to the Treasury. 

Of course, some older teachers won’t be given a choice. They’ll be told by their Head that they aren’t up to speed any more. If they can’t work themselves into the ground like some young teachers who are recruited, overworked and then spat out after a few years, they face the threat of trial by ‘capability’.

Of course, that’s exactly the same threat facing fire-fighters. Now it’s hard enough teaching a class at 60 but turning up at a school in flames to climb a ladder and rescue children is an even harder task at that age !

That’s why the FBU rightly took strike action today and I was pleased to be able to pass by the picket line at Euston fire station on the way to a Coventry NUT meeting tonight. I was even more pleased to find out that my television interview as a ‘random’ passer-by in support of their action had gone out on BBC London News tonight!

Fire-fighters, teachers and other public sector workers face the same attacks on our pensions, pay and conditions. It’s right that the FBU took action today and that the NUT and NASUWT will be holding regional strikes on October 1 and October 17. But wouldn’t be even better if we took that action together on the same day?

The NUT and NASUWT have already pencilled in a date for national strike action later this term. Let’s make it a day when fire-fighters, teachers, postal workers and every union in dispute with this rotten Government takes action together!

Teachers vote to escalate to strike action over excessive observations

For over a year, there has been an ongoing concern over excessive observations at a Lewisham secondary school. Even worse, those observation outcomes are then linked to a system where teachers are placed in groups according to Ofsted categories. These can, and have been, then linked to harsh capability procedures.

Following the announcement of our action short of strike action, the school NUT rep sought discussions with the Headteacher, seeking changes to procedures to meet the NUT/NASUWT check-lists.

Unfortunately, the Headteacher has said that the profiling system will continue with staff being allocated into the categories of Satisfactory; Satisfactory to Good; Good; and Good to Outstanding (now downgraded from 'outstanding' which is no longer listed as a category !)

Staff would be observed too often, without adequate notice, nor with agreement over the lesson to be seen – only being given a ‘window’ of 6 periods:
• Each observation period will include 2 lesson observations over a 6 period 'window'
• Each teacher receives 48 hours notice of their 6 period window
• A teacher deemed “Satisfactory to Good” would receive 4 observation periods over the next four half-terms – i.e eight observations. ‘Satisfactory’ and ‘inadequate’ teachers may receive even more.

A joint NUT/NASUWT meeting this evening agreed that these arrangements were unacceptable as they
• were in clear breach of the NUT/NASUWT Joint Classroom Observation Protocol
• focus on Ofsted categories rather than performance management objectives
• fail to provide genuine professional development and support to teachers

Following discussion, the meeting of 39 NUT members and 10 NASUWT members voted in support of proceeding to escalate to strike action. A secret paper ballot was issued to NUT members asking if they would support strike action if called upon by the National Union. The votes were 38 YES, 1 abstention, 0 NO. NASUWT members met as a sub-group and agreed to support the NUT’s decision.

The meeting agreed with a proposal that we urgently seek a meeting with the Head and Chair of Governors to seek urgent negotiation over an acceptable appraisal and observation procedure but that, if there was a refusal to meet before the half-term break, we would ask that the NUT and NASUWT issue a notice for strike action.

Look out for further updates on this story

Teachers’ Standards – avoiding the next trap set for teachers

The NUT has just circulated some important advice for teachers on the ‘Teachers’ Standards’ that came into force in England last month. If all schools get away with implementing this new legislation in the same way that some have been trying in recent weeks, this could become another serious blow to teachers’ pay and job security. However, with the back-up of the ongoing NUT/NASUWT action, teachers need to make sure they resist any such abuse of the new regulations.

The eight standards, ranging from “make accurate and productive use of assessment" to “set high expectations which inspire, motivate and challenge pupils”, are really just a summary of the things that teachers already do every working week as part of their job. Indeed, the task group that came up with the standards described them as reflecting the “timeless” values of teaching.

There is, however, also an additional “Personal and Professional Conduct Standard” which includes points like “not undermining fundamental British values” – which values are these exactly?

There is a real danger that the standards – and the additional separate bullet-points that go with each of them - become used as a detailed checklist against which teachers will be assessed. The standards would then become a huge list of targets which, in the wrong hands, could easily give managers the excuse to brand teachers as failures. That could then be used to threaten ‘capability’ procedures and/or to block pay rises (or even, as Gove is threatening in future, to knock teachers down the pay scale).

Some private companies have already tried to corner the market in advice on the new Standards, picking up on the fear of many Heads that they will be failed by Ofsted if they are not seen to comply with every new Government change. Some are producing detailed matrices so that Heads can produce a tick-list for every one of the bullet points. Yet even the DfE’s own advice confirms that “there is no requirement to record detailed assessments against each of the Teachers’ Standards and bullets”. The NAHT has also issued advice making clear that they oppose this check-list approach.

Some schools are going even further and producing advice explaining how teachers at higher points in the payscale must justify their higher salaries by showing higher levels of ‘performance’. But the advice issued shows the farcical results of such an approach. The NUT’s advice gives an example from one employer that suggests that, to show a teacher is ‘establishing a safe, stimulating environment for pupils rooted in mutual respect’, for an M4 teacher relationships are expected to be ‘consistently calm, warm and respectful’ whereas for M6 they are ‘always calm, warm, respectful and mutually joyous’!

Again, even the DfE advice contradicts this approach saying that “the Government agrees that it is not necessary or helpful for schools to adopt rigid models that seek to set out exactly what the Teachers’ standards mean for teachers at different points on the pay scale”. However, while that advice is useful to know, the reality is that the whole Government agenda is to encourage schools to find fault with teachers and to threaten their pay. With budgets becoming ever tighter, some governors will conclude that blocking teachers’ pay rises, or even cutting pay, is the best solution.

The only reliable response to these threats is for unions to be ready to take collective action. Already, as part of the ‘action short of strike action’ instructions, the joint NUT/NASUWT checklist makes clear that we will take action in schools where an unacceptable approach to the Teachers' Standards is used.

But we need to go further as well. Gove would like to get away with allowing schools to cut teachers’ pay where they have deemed them to have failed to meet appraisal targets and/or these new ‘Standards’. Those threats are too serious to leave to local action alone. They must be met with national strike action.

The NUT guidance on Teachers' Standards can be found on:  http://www.teachers.org.uk/appraisal

New term - prepare for action !

New joint NUT/NASUWT advice issued today

Await news from the NUT Executive on September 7

Lobby the TUC in Brighton on September 9

 
I hope most teachers have had a good break because we know that last year was tough, but this year could be even tougher - unless we stand up together for teachers and education!

On top of the continuing threat to cut our pensions and increase retirement ages to 68 or more, another barrage of attacks is coming our way. From this term, Michael Gove wants schools to adopt DfE model policies that could fast-track teachers onto formal capability procedures and would leave us open to unlimited classroom observations.

On top of a pay freeze and increased pension contributions, we also face ‘pay-cuts-by-performance’. Gove wants the Review Body to recommend that appraisal judgements are used to block our pay-rises - or even to pull us back down the pay scale! 

On top of harsh classroom observation judgements, some schools will also seek to use the new ‘Teachers’ Standards’ to find fault with their staff and pile even more pressure on hard-working teachers.

As the scandal over the marking of the English GCSEs has shown so well, the standards that teachers and schools are judged against are also  open to political manipulation too.

We face a Government that seems intent on blocking opportunities for our students, trashing teachers, cutting our pay and pensions and widening school privatisation - just  as Gove announces that Academies won’t even have to employ qualified teachers any more! 

I’m sorry that this a grim picture to paint so early in the term - but the important message to send to our colleagues is that “it doesn’t have to be this way!”

The NUT and NASUWT, making up over 80% of teachers, are working together on a joint programme of action to oppose these attacks. If this unity is used correctly to escalate action - and not to hold it back - then this can be a powerful force that can be used to successfully defend teachers and education.

Joint NUT/NASUWT checklists have just been issued covering appraisal and classroom observation policies. (Copies can be found on the national NUT website via http://www.teachers.org.uk/appraisal). 

With some managers already getting ready to bombard staff at upcoming INSET days with more targets and demands, it’s worth noting that the joint advice stresses that the new Teachers’ Standards must “not be used as a checklist against which teacher performance is assessed”.

On Friday September 7th, the NUT Executive will be meeting to hear the final result of our national action ballot. If, as I hope, the Executive votes to give the go-ahead for both national ‘strike’ and ‘non-strike’ action, then NUT school groups need to be ready to respond as soon as possible. Local NUT divisions and school groups urgently need to be fixing dates for meetings to bring staff together to discuss how to implement action in their school and Association.

‘Non-Strike’ action raises lots of possibilities - but will raise just as many questions as to how it will work in practice. It is vital that school reps raise their views with their Division Secretaries and Executive members and report on issues in their school. Different school managements, both across Local Authority schools and in Academies, may take very different approaches to adopting any new appraisal, capability and/or observation policies. 

The latest letter to NUT representatives from Christine Blower, NUT General Secretary,  states that: "The NUT is currently in dispute with the Secretary of State and, in Wales, the Minister for Education. In part this dispute is about the failure to negotiate a satisfactory system of appraisal and observation with sufficient protections. NUT members are currently being balloted for national industrial action in relation to this dispute. If the ballot is successful and action goes ahead, then members will be supported in refusing to cooperate with all aspects of a schools appraisal policy if it does not meet the terms of the joint NUT/NASUWT checklist and observation protocol. Where schools continue to refuse to adopt the provisions of the joint checklist and observation protocol the NUT and NASUWT will issue, in accordance with the required legislative procedures, a notice to the employer, to take further action"

But unifying national strike action is also needed - and pressure will need to be applied to make sure it happens. While unions like UNISON may have voted to settle on the Local Government Pension Scheme, other unions like the FBU firefighters and POA prison officers have voted to reject the Government’s proposals (see: http://www.shopstewards.net/news.htm)

That's why it's vital that the TUC Congress meeting in Brighton next week, agrees to support co-ordinated action against attacks on pay and pensions, as well as building for a mass turnout at the October 20th demonstration in London. October 20th can’t just be about letting off steam - it needs to be a springboard to determined united action. That should include building for a 24-hour General Strike right across the private and public sectors that can pile the presure back on this hated Government - instead of them piling pressure on us!

If you agree, then join NUT members and other trade unionists at 1 pm on Sunday 9 September at the Lobby of the TUC being called by the National Shop Stewards Network. Bob Crow (RMT), Mark Serwotka (PCS) and Steve Gillan (POA) will be just some of the speakers.

Transport is available from across the country with train tickets being available for just £5 return from London to Brighton (see details of transport arrangements on http://www.shopstewards.net/TUC.lobby.htm.

So make the most of any summer holiday you've got left - and then let's get ready for action!

Local Associations Network Conference meets in Liverpool

Over 100 NUT delegates gathered in Liverpool on June 16 for the founding Conference of the ‘Local Associations Network’.

The Conference was called in response to the failure of the NUT Executive majority to call further national action on pensions since November. Every speech reflected the frustration at the resulting loss of momentum but also a determination to rebuild national action on pensions, pay and conditions.

As Julie Lyon-Taylor, Liverpool NUT Secretary and NUT Executive member, said in opening the meeting, “we’re not here to sit and complain but to take action forward”.

Patrick Murphy, Leeds NUT and NUT Executive, explained that “What’s happening here today is a model for how trade unionists react when things go badly. When you have a setback you organise"

David Plews, a Lewisham delegate complained that the NUT Executive “had got scared, but my members didn’t get scared, they want to know what’s happened to the pensions campaign”. Jane Nellist from Coventry NUT explained how our inaction had damaged the NUT’s reputation as a fighting Union and let down PCS, UCU and others looking to co-ordinate action. “Teachers have power because when we strike, people can’t go to work. We have to use that power”.

Teachers certainly can’t work until they’re 68. The pressures in schools mean many are already forced out before the present retirement age of 60. Peter Glover from Liverpool described how many teachers felt they were “one classroom observation from the sack” with constant critical management visits to lessons being used to bully and intimidate staff.

The afternoon session concentrated on building support for the new NUT national ballot to extend our action beyond pensions and allow both strike and non-strike action on issues like excessive workload, observations and threats of fast-track ‘capability’ sackings.

The Conference voted to build for the biggest possible majority and turnout in that ballot, which opens on June 25. The prospect of united action with the other main teaching union, the NASUWT, will help encourage support. But the hold-up in the pensions campaign will have undermined confidence that the NUT has a clear strategy to win. The Conference resolved to call on both unions to implement a serious strategy to defeat these serious attacks facing teachers and education.

An amendment from Lewisham NUT was unanimously agreed calling for an escalating program of national action, starting from as early as possible in the autumn term, and to call on other teaching and non-teaching unions to join with us in setting that calendar of action.

The Conference concluded by voting unanimously for a statement formally launching the “Local Associations Network” and to organise a recall Conference next term. A proposal that the recall event be organised jointly with the Editorial Board of the ‘Campaign Teacher’ newspaper was defeated. Unity is important, but it has to be on a principled basis. Most delegates agreed that giving influence to a grouping that includes NUT Executive members that had opposed national strike action in March and June could compromise the Network’s aims. However, to show the inclusive nature of the Network, it was agreed by that each supporting Association would be entitled to a representative on the Steering Committee.

Roy Bowser, Barnsley NUT Secretary and a miner active in the 84-85 strike, closed the meeting. In his speech he highlighted the viciousness of the present government and called for an organisation that can meet the challenge and mobilise school workers for the fight. Speaking after the meeting, Roy said that the meeting “surpassed all my expectations but more to the point was a true outlet for the way most members are feeling. I think behind the rhetoric there is a real base for a rank and file bottom up push that hopefully will now help shape strategy.”

This Network, already supported by over 30 different Associations from a range of different areas and traditions, can be a powerful force both to pressurise from below for national action and to strengthen organisation at a local level too. Our immediate task is to build for a big ‘YES YES’ vote in the new national ballot.

Let's tackle the observations onslaught!

In the light of the new regulations brought in by Michael Gove, some Local Authorities and schools are opening discussions over new appraisal and capability procedures. 

The starting position in negotiations will be to stick with the 'status quo' where acceptable procedures are already in place. However, the NUT, ATL and NAHT have now agreed a joint appraisal policy to offer as an alternative to the punitive DfE model policy - a policy that links appraisal to fast-track capability procedures. The contents of the joint union model policy have been negotiated between the three unions - although in the end the ASCL rejected it.

The NASUWT have issued their own model policy - but, in the light of the joint declaration this week, let's hope that there can be agreement between the NUT and NASUWT over other key issues, not least an 'observation protocol'.

The joint model policy does include some safeguards on observations, for example stating that feedback from lesson observation should be developmental and not simply a judgement using Ofsted grades. However, no agreement over limits on classroom observations, especially unannounced 'drop-ins' and 'learning walks', was reached. 

But this is a key issue for many teachers who are facing an increasingly bullying observation regime, with teachers being criticised, demoralised and branded as 'failures', particularly through application of the harsh Ofsted framework. This is a framework which, after all, seems to be designed to 'fail' schools - perhaps so that they can be forced into becoming Academies!

That's why, backed up with the forthcoming ballot, NUT members need to fight to make sure that the NUT's reissued Classroom Observation Protocol (and the policy on Learning Walks and Drop-Ins) is adopted across schools in their area. 

You can find the joint policy and the classroom observation protocols on the National NUT website on: http://www.teachers.org.uk/appraisals-capability

Some of the key points in the protocols are: 

• Classroom observation for the purposes of performance management/appraisal will be limited to one observation per teacher, of a maximum of 60 minutes in length per performance management cycle, except in exceptional circumstances. Those exceptional circumstances are where the reviewee chooses to request a further observation, or where concerns have been raised about a teacher’s performance which require further observation to take place. 
• In the exceptional circumstances in which more than one observation of a maximum of 60 minutes is to be conducted, this governing body agrees that the amount of observation will be kept to the shortest necessary period on the fewest number of occasions, with a maximum overall limit of three hours of observation, made up of observations on no more than three occasions. This overall limit will apply to all observations carried out for the statutory purposes of performance management/appraisal and evaluation of standards of teaching and learning, meaning that no teacher will be observed on more than three occasions of up to one hour over an academic year, including drop-ins and learning walks.  
• The date and time of observations conducted for the purposes of performance management/appraisal or for the evaluation of standards of teaching and learning (or for both purposes) will be fixed at least five working days in advance. 
• Before any performance management/appraisal observation is conducted, there will be an opportunity for reviewer and reviewee to meet in order that the context of the lesson to be observed can be discussed.
• The arrangements for classroom observation for performance management will be included in the planning and review statement and will specify any particular aspects of the teacher’s performance which will be assessed
• Oral feedback from classroom observation at a pre-arranged time for the purposes of performance management will be given as soon as possible after the observation and no later than the end of the following working day. Written feedback will be provided within five working days of the observation taking place.
• The purpose or focus of a ‘learning walk’ should be explained to all relevant staff prior to its commencement. There shall be no evaluation of an individual teacher during a ‘learning walk’.
• Any teacher whose classroom is visited during a ‘learning walk’ will have the visit counted towards the overall maximum of three observations per year, each of up to an hour in length