Tag: education

22/7/14: The Day in Trojan Horses.

The ‘Report into allegations concerning Birmingham schools arising from the ‘Trojan Horse’ letter’ authored by Peter Clarke CVO OBE QPM was published today, Tuesday 22 July 2014, and can be found here.

Also published today on this theme:

• Trojan horse: teachers may face misconduct hearings, says Morgan (The Guardian, 22/07/14)

• Trojan Horse probe shows ‘clear evidence’ of ‘deliberate action’ to introduce ‘intolerant and aggressive Islamic ethos’ (Birmingham Mail, 22/07/14)

• Watch: Oldknow Academy principal: ‘I was forced out by Trojan Horse plotters’ (Birmingham Mail, 22/07/14)

• Trojan Horse: Undercover report reveals school governor was racist bigot (Birmingham Mail, 22/07/14)

• ‘Disturbing’ Trojan Inquiry Findings (BBC News, 22/07/14)

I am grateful to The Guardian for their live online coverage of the Statement by Nicky Morgan on the Trojan Horse Letter debated in the House of Commons today, Tuesday 22 July 2014. The Telegraph and The Sunday Times, neither of which would sit on gogwit’s coffee table, should also be mentioned for running this story when it was being written off as right wing, Islamophobic, racist fiction.

I have used the local press as a source of many stories offered today on Gogwit’s Blog, I make no apology for this.
Local parliamentarians have spoken out on the “Trojan Horse” issue today Birmingham Hodge Hill (Birmingham schools ‘feel like the Balkans’ – The Guardian, 22/07/14) and yesterday Birmingham Perry Barr (Stop pretending Trojan Horse plot is fake, urges Birmingham MP – Birmingham Mail, 21/07/14).

The output from three news sources on one sunny July day. The content requires no further comment from gogwit at this time.

Other local news: Today many students are graduating from local universities and many local school children have begun their summer break. I wish them all the very best.

Gogwit’s Pick of the #LoveTAs Timeline…

Various posts on this subject have appeared in Gogwit’s Blog since June of this year.
Here are a few of them…

Let’s stand up with UNISON to champion the unsung heroes of the schools system

Pride’s Purge

Teaching Assistants in Woolwich ask the Public to Support Them

Cheryl Drabble’s “Dear Mr Gove…”

If you Tweet, make Friday 29 November a day to praise Teaching Assistants – using #LoveTAs – they are not teachers but they are key to the consistent delivery of inclusive education – day in, day out – in UK schools.  Do not let the leaders of your local schools make the mistake of seeing them as a soft target for saving money: those savings will likely prove short-lived and, over time, costly.

Use the hashtag #LoveTAs on 29/11/13!

Related articles

Let’s stand up with UNISON to champion the unsung heroes of the schools system

please read this; view the video and join the thunderclap.
support teaching assistants – help make the head and governors of your local school think twice about treating their TAs as a soft target for cutting costs.

 

leftstream's avatarLeftstream

This Friday, the UK’s largest education union, UNISON is planning a special day of celebration of teaching assistants (TAs) as the unsung heroes of education.

With tremendous changes within the schools system, teachers and support staff face increasing amount of pressures for the delivery of decent education to children. Earlier this year, it was reported that the government asked the teachers review body to look at teachers’ contracts – with a view to them taking on duties currently performed by teaching assistants. This summer, the value of teaching assistants came under sharp attack from the influential think tank, Reform.

Teaching assistants (TAs) carry out a huge variety of tasks, working with teachers to help children learn and develop to be the best they can be. 

They provide one-to-one support for children who need additional help. One-to-one support are often not provided by a teacher due to the importance of delivering lessons…

View original post 321 more words

Young People Respond to the Strike by Teachers in London, UK.

It is my pleasure, and privilege, to share the following link with you.
Islington Community Theatre – 17 October 2013
It is a different response to the strike by teachers in London which took place on 17 October 2013CE.
Please watch, please comment, please share.

Gogwit – The Gogwit.

South-East Teaching Assistants Petition to Spare the Axe!

GMB
GMB (Photo credit: Nick Efford)

South-East Teaching Assistants Petition to Spare the Axe!

Teaching Assistant members of the trade union (GMB) to which Gogwit belongs will be asking the public to sign a petition asking the UK Secretary of State for Education not to axe the jobs of around a fifth to a quarter of a million Teaching Assistants.

If you will be in the vicinity of the Woolwich Arsenal DLR Station on Saturday 27 July at around 1300BST please visit their stall (near the Green’s End entrance) – chat to them about why TAs are so important – and PLEASE sign their petition!

#June27 UK Teachers Begin Escalated Action in North-West England.

#JUNE27 UK Teachers Begin Escalated Action in NW.

NASUWT and NUT members in the North-West of England escalate their industrial action from action short of strike to strike action. Teachers from the two largest teaching unions – which have put aside historical differences to campaign on a common front, in solidarity, against the education policies of the UK Government, a coalition of the otherwise unelectable Conservative and Liberal Democrat parties, which aim to privatise and otherwise dismantle the UK’s famous universal free state education system.
This region, also badly hit by the Coalition’s other Austerity-driven socially divisive policies, sees the launch of a campaign of such escalated action on 27 June 2013CE.

Messages of support: campaigns@mail.nasuwt.org.uk
Twitter: #June27 #strike #solidarity #teacherstogether
Use the hashtags – be great to get the action trending!

Click the image for further details of the action.

Dear Mr Gove…

Teaching Assistants – we are not talking about a ‘mum’s army’ of unqualified staff replacing qualified teachers in a ‘race to the bottom, never mind the cut – feel the width’ pared down education system but an experienced and valued asset that makes the delivery of high quality, inclusive and relevantly differentiated education by experienced and well-qualified professional teachers achievable and affordable.

Plans to cut £4bn by axing teaching assistants make no sense, says special needs teacher Cherryl Drabble in the Guardian.

 

UNISON Launches Campaign to Protect Teaching Assistant Posts.

UNISON, the public sector trade union issued this advisory on their website on Monday 17 June 2013, arising from their conference.

This follows on the GMB pledge to campaign to protect its Teaching Assistant members at its conference in May and along with this 38Degrees petition by a teacher who values her TA support.

TAs are often considered to be a soft-option for cutting costs.  With widening public support, that may become something of a misconception.

 

 

10 Reasons why…

10 Reasons why...

10 reasons why the NUT and NASUWT have put aside historical differences to defend our education system.

 

Swedish Free School Operator to Close – A Warning to UK Education Policymakers?

Is this the shape of things to come for UK education?

It would seem that the free school experiment in Sweden is collapsing leaving a real mess all around.  The wheels have come off in Sweden: Is it time to ground the fleet?