unions | Schools Week

Coronavirus: Unions urge government to ‘step back’ from June 1 school reopening plan

Unions representing hundreds of thousands of school teachers, leaders and support staff have called on the government to “step back” from its plan to have some pupils return to schools on June 1. A joint statement from unions in the Trades Union Congress with education members, including teachers’ unions the NEU and NASUWT, leadership union […]

Coronavirus: Don’t monitor staff performance, and 6 other points from joint union guidance

The National Education Union, National Association of Head Teachers and Association of School and College leaders have teamed up to provide their members with joint guidance on the coronavirus crisis. The joint nature of the guidance means that leaders, classroom teachers and support staff in the three unions are getting the same advice. Here are […]

Union ordered to reinstate sacked employee after whistleblowing row

England’s second largest teaching union has been ordered to reinstate a sacked employee after an employment tribunal found it was “likely” he was dismissed for whistleblowing. The NASUWT fired Richard Harris last October after he accused Chris Keates, the union’s general secretary, of lying, wasting police time and “acting like a despot”, a tribunal ruling […]

School support staff ‘increasingly’ teaching lessons, union warns

Schools are increasingly deploying support staff to teach lessons, a survey by the Association of Teachers and Lecturers has found. A survey of school staff found that 78 per cent felt they did identical work to that normally carried out by supply teachers, an increase of 22 per cent since last year, when 64 per […]