Author: Freddie Whittaker

The union-led school funding campaign credited with bringing the issue to the forefront of last year’s general election campaign is not over, Kevin Courtney said today. During a barnstorming speech to the National Union of Teachers annual conference in Brighton this afternoon, the National Education Union joint general secretary defied critics of school cuts campaign, […]

Kevin Courtney, the general secretary of the National Union of Teachers, addressed the organisation’s last ever conference in Brighton this afternoon. Here’s what he said…   President, Conference I think that short video is such a good example of what is right about our union, its members and this Conference. Our activists Damian Walenta and […]

The government stands accused of starving councils of cash to help SEND pupils, after the number of pupils without a school place more than doubled in a year. Kevin Courtney, the joint general secretary of the National Education Union, said today that it was an “absolute disgrace” that councils did not have the resources they […]

The Labour Party will today launch a consultation on its plans for a National Education Service. Angela Rayner, the shadow education secretary, will announce the “NES roadshow”, an England-wide consultation on her party’s education policies, during a campaign visit to Swindon. The National Education Service is Labour’s umbrella term for a raft of pledged reforms, […]

More than a fifth of school staff are worried that pupils eligible for free school meals are not claiming them. A poll of 900 National Education Union members by the Child Poverty Action Group found that 60 per cent of staff believe all eligible children in their school are getting the free meals they are entitled […]

The National Union of Teachers has committed to ballot its members for strike action next year if teachers aren’t granted a 5 per cent pay rise. The union – now a section of the larger National Education Union following an amalgamation with the Association of Teachers and Lecturers last year – voted in favour of […]

Schools are increasingly cutting support for SEND pupils, particularly at primary level, a union survey has found. Seventy-seven per cent of primary school teachers and 55 per cent of secondary teachers told the National Union of Teachers their school had cut SEND provision. Last year, just 38 per cent of primary teachers and 44 per […]

Ofsted chief inspector Amanda Spielman “overstepped the mark” in her comments about pupils wearing the hijab, according to a leading teaching union, which plans to issue new guidance on sensitive uniform issues. The executive of the National Union of Teachers section of the National Education Union will this weekend seek to pass a motion condemning […]