Page 9

UPFRONT

Copland school head quits before disciplinary

A London headteacher, accused of serious financial mismanagement and pocketing £600,000 of taxpayers’ money, resigned before his disciplinary hearing in November.

Sir Alan Davies resigned as head of Copland school, Wembley, on 14 October. His deputy, Dr Richard Evans, was dismissed by the disciplinary panel for serious financial irregularities, but Sir Alan’s resignation meant he could not be dismissed.

Bonus payments to staff are alleged to have totalled £1.6m over seven years. Michelle Bishop, the human resources officer, also resigned before the hearing, while bursar Columbus Udokoro faces a hearing in December.

Former NUT executive member and Copland teacher Hank Roberts, who first blew the whistle on the scandal, said: “I’m not surprised Sir Alan Davies resigned before
his disciplinary hearing. The question now must be what action will be taken against him.

“Surely pocketing £600,000 from the public purse and being responsible for £1.6m being unlawfully dispersed requires criminal proceedings to be brought.

“Equally, as his knighthood was awarded for ‘services to education’, surely this massive disservice to education should lead to it being revoked?”


NUT demands fair play for Welsh children

The underfunding difficulties affecting schools in Wales are set to continue, following the Welsh Assembly’s publication of a draft budget for 2010– 2011 that offers a mere 0.9 per cent increase in education expenditure.

When set against a government inflation rate of 1.5 per cent, this represents a cut in real terms that schools will find extremely difficult to manage. It will mean cuts in resources, bigger class sizes, loss of jobs and narrowing of choice.

Funding per pupil in Wales is, on average, £496 a year less than in England. For a secondary school of 1,200 pupils this equates to almost £600,000. For a primary of 200 pupils the loss is about £100,000. Wales is the poor relation when it comes to education funding and this is set to get worse.

Please get involved by signing our petition and sending an email to your Assembly Member at www.teachers.org.uk/walesfunding. There is still time to influence the debate before the budget is finalised on 8 December.

NUT Cymru is organising a lobby of the Assembly at the Senedd building in Cardiff Bay on Tuesday 8 December, and all members in Wales are encouraged to join in. Participants should meet outside the Millennium Centre at 11.30am to walk to the Senedd building at noon. Please phone NUT Cymru (02920 491818) or your local division or association secretary for further details.

The NUT funding campaign will continue until we achieve adequate resources and funding for our schools and children.


Unfair dismissal win for contract teacher

NUT Cymru has won £62,504 for a member who was unfairly dismissed from her job in a Pembrokeshire primary school.

The employment tribunal in Cardiff ruled that Pembrokeshire County Council acted unfairly and infringed the basic employment rights of the teacher, who had worked on a series of fixed-term contracts. It awarded her the maximum compensation.

Nicola Wilcox had worked continuously at Golden Grove county primary from May 2005 to December 2007 on a series of contracts. The governing body dismissed Nicola when her last contract expired, even though a teacher of her experience and ability was still needed at the school.

Nicola was represented by NUT Cymru solicitor Sarah Morgan. “Mrs Wilcox’s former employers wrongly believed they had the right to terminate her contracts when they ended, without a substantial reason,” she explained. “It was the NUT’s view that this amounted to unfair dismissal, and the tribunal agreed.”

NUT Cymru secretary David Evans commented: “The case of Nicola Wilcox is far from unique. Local authorities frequently give the incorrect advice to schools seeking to save costs in this way. The practice is wrong.

“Many teachers treated this way do not seek help. This judgment sends a message to them and to the authorities that you cannot treat staff as disposable commodities.”


Half a century of service!

Eileen Goodwin, Hammersmith office supervisor for the NUT’s London region, retired in November after being an employee of the union for almost 50 years. Eileen came to the NUT straight from school in 1960 and served under six general secretaries.

Eileen’s send-off included a party at Hamilton House, followed by a night at the School Proms (see page 25) with husband Ron. She said it was “an occasion I will never ever forget. I was completely overwhelmed by my retirement farewell and seeing so many of my colleagues, present and past.”
Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52