Willow’s Windrush nightmare Families at breaking point Windy City victories TA sacked due to hostile The impact of knife crime on Chicago teachers on the gains environment. See page 19. our communities. See page 26. of recent strikes. See page 37. July/ August 2019 Your magazine from the National Education Union Give us what we deserve Taking to the streets for SEND funding. See page 7 END OF TERM PREVIEWS FOR SCHOOLS TO ARRANGE A SPECIAL END OF TERM PREVIEW SCREENING* CONTACT [email protected] WITH AND EMILIA SEBASTIAN NICK CRAIG KATE RUPERT ALEX LEE WARWICK SANJEEV ALEXANDER CHRIS DEREK KIM JONES CROFT FROST ROBERTS NASH GRAVES MACQUEEN MACK DAVIS BHASKAR ARMSTRONG ADDISON JACOBI CATTRALL ARE YOUR STUDENTS #TEAMROMAN OR #TEAMCELT? REGISTER FOR A FUN & FREE LEARNING RESOURCE FROM INTO FILM AT WWW.INTOFILM.ORG/HORRIBLE-HISTORIES IN CINEMAS JULY 26 *PREVIEW SCREENING OFFER AVAILABLE FROM MONDAY JULY 8TH ONWARDS. HORRIBLEHISTORIES.MOVIE HORRIBLEHISTORIESTHEMOVIE Educate July/August 2019 Welcome Protestors at the SEND National Crisis demonstration. Photo: Rehan Jamil Willow’s Windrush nightmare Families at breaking point Windy City victories AS Educate goes to press, members of the Conservative Party are still deciding TA sacked due to hostile The impact of knife crime on Chicago teachers on the gains environment. See page 19. our communities. See page 26. of recent strikes. See page 37. who will become the country’s next Prime Minister. July/ August 2019 The fact that candidates in the Tory leadership election have raised the issue of school funding is testament to all the hard work of campaigners to get Your magazine from the National Education Union this issue on the political agenda. When the dust settles on this contest, we’ll be holding the successful candidate to account. We don’t want pledges for extra funds that never materialise. We don’t want promises on the side of a bus. We need real money, for real children, in real schools. And we’ve been doing the maths. Along with our partners in other unions, we’ve come up with a figure, a sum of money that is urgently needed if we are to stem the tide of cuts and fully fund education. Give us what we We will be taking that figure to politicians of all parties to press our case for deserve Taking to the streets the investment our schools desperately need. for SEND funding. See page 13 As I write, our indicative ballot on high-stakes assessment in primary schools has just closed. NEU joint presidents: We have no results yet to share, but I would like to say a big thank you to Kim Knappett & Kiri Tunks the tens of thousands of members who took part in our campaign for a more NEU joint general secretaries: sensible alternative to the assessment regime. Mary Bousted & Kevin Courtney Politicians of all parties recognise that change needs to happen. Labour, the Lib Dems and the Greens have pledged to scrap SATs and baseline testing if Editor: Helen Watson they come to power. Administration: Sarah Thompson The Government’s pilot of baseline testing is already faltering – fewer schools than last time have signed up to the scheme and many are pulling out Journalists: before it even starts. Sally Gillen, Emily Jenkins, The absurdity of baseline is something to behold. Apart from the obvious Max Watson nonsense of expecting a four-year-old to work one-to-one with a teacher for Newsdesk 20 minutes, following instructions and answering questions – I mean, have the t: 020 7380 4760 authors ever met one? – the detail of the tests beggars belief. e: [email protected] Apparently, baseline is not designed to help teachers teach. The Government itself says it is not intended to “provide detailed diagnostic Design & subbing: Amanda Ellis information about pupils’ areas for development”. The results won’t be shared with teachers or parents and will remained sealed for SEVEN years! We know that a lot can change in seven years – since 2012, we’ve had four neu.org.uk education secretaries, three Ofsted frameworks, two national curriculums and billions of pounds in budget cuts. Baseline is an unreliable, waste of time and the union will be stepping up its facebook.com/ nationaleducationunion campaign to get it scrapped for good. Finally, I’d like to thank you for everything that you do for your pupils twitter.com/NEUnion and our union, and wish you a restful and happy summer break. To advertise contact: Kevin Courtney Leanne Rowley, Century One Publishing, National Education Union Alban Row, 27-31 Verulam Road, Joint general secretary St Albans AL3 4DG t: 01727 739 183 e: [email protected] Except where the NEU has formally negotiated agreements with Except where the NEU has formally negotiated agreements with companies as part of its services to members, inclusion of an advertisement in Educate does not imply any form of recommendation. While every effort is made to ensure the reliability of advertisers, the NEU cannot accept any liability for the quality of goods or services offered. Educate is printed by Walstead Southernprint Ltd. Inside pages are printed on paper comprised of 100% recycled, post-consumer waste. educate Your magazine from the National Education Union 3 Get your pupils FREE ‘PetWise’ RESOURCES! -with PDSA- PDSA’s PetWise School Award is a completely FREE, fully planned National Curriculum-linked programme. It consists of four easy-to-follow levels, each one crammed full of fun, free resources, including step by step lesson plans, PowerPoint presentations and worksheets. There’s no need for any extra work so regain your work life balance and sign up today! Sign up to the PetWise School Award to download your free resources pdsa.org.uk/petwise-schools Help your school #GetPetWise © The People’s Dispensary for Sick Animals 06/19 Registered charity nos. 208217 & SC037585 The rest is history 18 July, 1918 Contents Nelson Mandela was born in Qunu, South Africa. He joined the African National Congress in 1944 and was convicted of sabotage as a result of his involvement in the struggle against apartheid and spent 28 years in jail. In 1990, he was released and elected president of South Africa in 1994. He died in December 2013. Features Regulars 25 Michael Rosen 31 Polly Donnison & Warwick Mansell 35 Ask the union 36 International 39 Reviews 40 Teacher’s pet & letters 45 Noticeboard 49 Crossword & sudoku 26 Knife 50 Final word crime has 11 Facing the future 19 “I want justice” Radical change is needed if become an How a routine background we are to stem the exodus from everyday check turned into a Windrush teaching, says Mary Bousted. nightmare for south London concern teaching assistant Willow Sims. p26-29 21 Cleaning up our act Cycling, rambling and setting 13 A long battle for legal rights up a car pool. There are lots of Design and technology teacher things staff teams can do to Tanya Graydon beat cancer, but her improve air quality at work. toughest test was taking on her school leadership team. She spoke 26 “They wake up and think to Emily Jenkins. ‘today I could get stabbed’” The devastating effects of knife crime are being felt in communities up and down the country. Sarah Thompson looks at the issues surrounding the recent rise in knife crime and talks to those dealing with the aftermath. 37 Chicago teachers strike back Teachers at charter schools in the US city have won a series of important victories. Max Watson 37 19 spoke to a union leader in the thick of the struggle. educate Your magazine from the National Education Union 5 News Heads to march against ‘savage cuts’ Academisation Party conferences Disabled teachers’ conference Music for Youth Challenging racism Membership changes Middlesbrough runs the world History of the NUT A class act Mexican elections THOUSANDS of head teachers State, school funding has been savagely cut. THE will march on Downing Street and “On average, schools have lost eight per deliver a letter to Chancellor Philip TEACHER cent and colleges 20 per cent since 2012. It’s November/December 2018 Hammond setting out the worsening no wonder that head teachers are outraged, funding crisis in schools. especially when we’re made to look like we’re complaining about nothing.” It is hoped 5,000 heads will join this year’s He added: “It seems as though we are march on 27 September, ahead of the now being listened to, but we’re not being Comprehensive Spending Review. heard. There is a profound lack of vision from National Education Union (NEU) Government for our schools, our children leadership member Robin Bevan, who is head and their future. Spending more on schools teacher at Southend High School for Boys represents a sound economic investment in and a union executive member, is one of six the future of our country. I do not know of Head heads who will deliver the letter. any other developed nation where school teachers take to the It will call on the Chancellor to provide: funding policy is determined by the least streets n School leaders’ adequate funding for every school; amount that can be distributed to schools in cuts march n sufficient resources to support every child, order to avoid insolvency.” Your magazine from the National Education Union: NUT section especially disadvantaged and SEND pupils; Figures compiled by the NEU for 1 n funding to reverse cuts. schoolcuts.org.uk show that 91 per cent of Robin told Educate: “Despite the endless schools have had their funding cut. The front page of the Teacher magazine, featuring the and misleading claims of the Secretary of @WorthLessFF #stillnotlistening schoolcuts.org.uk last time head teachers marched on Westminster Tell your MP how much you value your child’s education A GROUP of London head teachers London Borough of Camden explains that look like it is going to get any better…we are have written to parents urging them to funding cuts have forced them to spend less on not asking you for donations, although our support their fight for more funding by staff and resources to balance the books.