the way back - nervous breakdown and all that

 

Below is a letter to LSFed parents on the upcoming industrial action from NEU members.  After talks with members of the Governing Body at ACAS, we asked for permission to send you this letter outlining our position on Parentmail. We also requested to send it to all staff via Prendergast email. These requests have been ignored by the leadership despite being reiterated.  As a result we need you to share this letter widely.  We would like to reach all LSFed parents and the wider community.  NEU members from across the borough will be joined by LSFed parents and students tomorrow to March against the academisation of LSFed Prendergast schools. Please join us to support our campaign to preserve our borough's community of schools. Thank you so much for the support you have shown us so far: we cannot express our gratitude enough. Prendergast NEU members _____________________________________ Dear Parents/Carers, National Education Union members in the ...

I am writing as a parent with a child at one of the Prendergast schools to support the upcoming strikes by teachers and school workers (National Education Union members) to stop the drive to academise. I will be joining the demonstration this Saturday (11am, 22 April, Loampit Vale, next to Prendergast Vale) and joining the picket lines to support the teachers and other workers on strike against academisation - as will many other parents. I encourage all parents to do likewise. Numerous arguments why academisation is a terrible idea have been set out very clearly many times – for instance here https://stopacademiesinlewisham.org/prendergast and here  https://alexgwinnett.blogspot.com/2023/04/letter-to-lewisham-directorate-for.html . No wonder the academisation proposal is opposed by the great majority of workers at the schools, their unions, the vast majority of parents who have been able to express an opinion (given the refusal so far to hold a ballot), by the council and now ...

A good friend has shared this with me: The following passed at Ladywell ward Labour 12 votes to 1 against and 1 absention. Will now go to Lewisham Deptford constituency Labour. STOP ACADEMISATION AT PRENDERGAST Notes : 1. That on 20 February management at the Prendergast federation of schools announced they want to convert it into a Multi-Academy Trust. Ludicrously they declared only a six-week consultation. 2. That a consultation meeting called by the governors themselves at the St Mary’s Centre voted something like 70-3 against academisation. 3. That Lewisham National Education Union (NEU) is campaigning to stop the academisation. Its members at the schools have voted overwhelmingly to strike against it, with multiple strike days coming up – including 26 April and 3, 4, 9, 10 and 11 May (in addition to national strikes over pay). GMB members (support staff) are also balloting. 4. There have now also been student protests against academisation. 5. That in 2014-15 academisation at Pren...

This first week back at school  has been very stressful and stupidly busy as a teacher and union rep.  My union's position and proposed industrial action over our federatiojn becoming a Multi-Academy Trust (MAT) has been presented in a rather critical and one-sided fashion. I am extraordinarly grateful not just to be sent the following extremely supportive letter  signed by over 30 Prendergast Parents regarding how the consultation (James Kerr and I wrote about in previous posts) has been conducted , but also to be given the permission to share it on my blog.  Dear [Lewisham Directorate for Children and Young People], I am writing to you on behalf of a number of parents to raise our profound concern about the impartiality of the communication with pupils on the proposed academisation of LSFed Prendergast Schools. It has become clear from the previously confidential governor minutes (released on 18th March after a parent’s FOI request), that the LSFed governors ha...

James Kerr - L ewisham NEU Assistant District Secretary- has kindly agreed to let me publish a great article he wrote  about the MAT issue - it was first published in Education for Tomorrow  magazine.  Lewisham has historically had very  low numbers of academies, with only  21% of secondaries privatised,  compared to 80% nationally. This has  been the result of hard campaigning,  a resultant shift in the approach of the  Local Authority and preemptive  action in schools before  academisation rears its head. This is under threat as a number of  governing bodies in the borough are  looking to push through conversion to  Multi Academy Trusts. With big chains like Harris camped on  the border and United Learning with a  foothold in the borough, many of the  privateer vultures will be eyeing the  opportunity for breaching the dam in  Lewisham and opening up new  options. A longstanding plan to...

I mentioned in my previous post that much has been made of union members’ concerns over pay and conditions by the governing body. Consequently, our myriad other concerns have been belittled and pushed aside. I should not have to reiterate this but people who work in schools are not solely motivated by money. One word: vocation… There are a number of other motivations which are really quite important to us: ethics, ethos, community, staff and children well-being – to name but a few. Anyway, there are a few extra points that I would like to share. I cannot take credit for them: they were made by a Labour councillor at the public forum that took place last month who asked the board to consider the issue of academisation from a broader perspective. It is important here to state that in our borough, at present, only 20% of secondary schools are academised - whereas 80% are nationally. Anyway, the councillor began her statement by reminding the board that a while back it had taken a fail...

Let me begin by saying I am a passionate and doting teacher. Anyone who has had one of their children in my class will be able to testify to that. What is more, I love my current school: the children obviously, but also my colleagues, including the Senior Leadership Team. I am also intransigent when it comes to justice and integrity. I am union rep and do my utmost to look out for my colleagues. A happy school is made of happy children and happy staff: you cannot have one without the other.  And I say that from experience: at my previous school, I had a nervous breakdown as union rep because I stood up for what I believed to be right. I was victimised and gas-lit for months until I eventually broke down (see previous posts) and am still seeking accountability from the school and the council it depends on. I am categorically opposed to academisation in any form. The vast of majority of people I have met who have worked at academies have only bad things to say about them. The vast ma...