4 November 2020

A lockdown that doesn't include education?

Since schools re-opened, virus levels are nine times higher among primary pupils and 50 times higher among secondary pupils

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17 April 2019

Labour councils must act now to save our schools!

A new Ofsted report shows that educational support for vulnerable children is failing. The report outlines how thousands of children are being taught in alternative provision, often in very poor conditions with no qualified teachers.

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30 May 2018

Springfield school strike in Birmingham against job cuts and workload

What a racket! Hundreds of car (and some bus and truck) horns were honked in support of Springfield Primary School teachers on 24 May when National Education Union (NEU) members took their first day of strike action against further job losses and increased workloads.

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11 April 2018

NEU conference: Teachers vote to strike over pay and workload

The National Education Union (NEU) conference (NUT section - the last ever before fully merged conference next year) took place in Brighton against the backdrop of a perfect storm building in our schools

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12 April 2017

School cuts can be beaten

Schools are under the greatest threat for more than a generation and an equally powerful response is needed. In the next couple of months, the scale of the cuts will be evident

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2 November 2016

One third of 2010's new teachers have already quit

Cut workload and class sizes, not pay and conditions: Nearly a third of newly qualified teachers who started work in 2010 have already left the profession. Teachers are entering a job that is more pressured than ever. As a newly qualified teacher, I work at least ten hours a day, and often take work home at weekends.

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14 September 2016

Fund smaller classes - not new grammars

Theresa May's vow to foster 'social mobility' through the creation of new grammar schools will have made the heads of teachers up and down the country spin. If you want to improve children's life chances, it's simple. Fund reduction in class sizes, and create an exciting and varied educational environment.

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31 August 2016

Education: fightback needed

Teaching unions must call coordinated national action: Education policy stands at something of a crossroads and the new academic year will be a significant one.

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1 June 2016

Birmingham Labour council takes credit for Tory privatisation

Birmingham City Council's troubled children's services are to be handed over to an 'independent' trust. The department has been in special measures for eight years following a string of high profile failures resulting in the deaths of vulnerable children.

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30 March 2016

Letter: Inadequate academies

Letters to the Socialist's editors.

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27 January 2016

Teaching: a perfect storm is brewing

A lack of school places, teacher shortage and cuts are compounding existing issues related to workload.

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14 January 2015

Workplace news in brief

Wales FE strike: Further Education union members in Wales delivered a mandate for strike action over pay in ballots that closed on 5 January

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9 July 2014

Them & Us

Capita idea: Big business continues to gorge on the public services honey pot, courtesy of the government's privatisation programme

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11 June 2014

'Trojan Horse': who is attacking education?

Birmingham schools: For the last two months, news headlines have been dominated by the so-called 'Trojan Horse' story

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Members of the teachers' union NUT on the 26 March TUC demonstration, photo Suzanne Beishon

16 October 2013

Why are our schools in crisis?

Headlines about the recent education report from the OECD blared that a quarter of adults in England have maths skills no better than those of a ten year old

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7 December 2012

Sheffield teachers' strike against 'mock Ofsteds'

Over 30 members of the National Union of Teachers (NUT) took strike action on Thursday 6 December at Westfield Sports College, a secondary school in Sheffield, writes Alistair Tice.

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18 January 2012

Ofsted: "requires improvement"

Ofsted, the body responsible for inspecting schools, wants to toughen the language of inspections in England - changing the "satisfactory" rating to "requires improvement", writes Derek McMillan, Mid-Sussex Socialist Party.

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