NEWS
Tolpuddle Martyrs’ Festival 2010
Trade unionists will once again be gathering in the Dorset village of Tolpuddle this July to commemorate the founding of the trade union movement.
The Tolpuddle Martyrs’ Festival is an annual celebration of the six Tolpuddle Martyrs and their quest for workers’ rights, a fight that led to the formation of trade unions as we know them today.
The Martyrs were all employed as farm labourers and paid very little, living in poverty as a result. Their leader, George Loveless, decided to set up a union in Tolpuddle to give the labourers bargaining strength.
This was ferociously opposed by landowners who, supported by the Government, acted to suppress the workers’ protest. The Martyrs were sentenced to seven years’ transportation to the penal colonies of Australia, ‘not for anything they had done, but as an example to others’.
The three-day festival remembers the Martyrs’ brave sacrifice and attracts trade unionists from across the UK, including a delegation from the NASUWT, to take part in a march and enjoy a programme of music and speakers.
The 2010 festival is taking place from Friday 16 to Sunday 18 July 2010. For more details, visit
www.tolpuddlemartyrs.org.uk.
Ofsted research confirms remodelling benefits
Research by Ofsted has confirmed that pupils in schools that have implemented workforce reform properly are enjoying significant benefits.
The report, Workforce reform in schools: has it made a difference?, evaluated how effectively workforce reform had been implemented in a sample of primary and secondary schools and whether it had made a difference to the quality of teaching, learning and pupil progress.
Considerable differences in pupil learning were found by researchers in those schools that had remodelled effectively and were following the conditions of the National Agreement. Researchers stated that this was because leaders in these schools had ensured that all staff had clear professional status, were well trained, deployed effectively and had clear understandings of their role in contributing pupils' learning and wellbeing.
The NASUWT welcomed the findings pf the report as further confirmation of the importance of remodelling in raising standards.
Chris Keates, General Secretary of the NASUWT, said that the report showed the urgent need for school leaders, governing bodies and local authorities to ensure that all schools are compliant with statutory provisions and are deploying staff appropriately.
"There is a clear and message from Ofsted that more needs to be done to ensure that all staff are valued, respected, trained and deployed appropriately to make the most effective contribution to pupils' learning," she said.
"Every School needs a clear and coherent plan to deliver workforce entitlements and to build the education team around the child"
Education and Employers Partnership launched
Two new online guides aimed at supporting schools and businesses to work more closely with one another have been launched.
The NASUWT is represented by General Secretary Chris Keates on the Education and Employers Taskforce, a DCSF endorsed coalition working to ensure that every school has an effective partnership with employers. They have been designed to aid understanding of the real benefits of partnership to organisations, schools and
10 Teaching Today May 2010
young people and include a web tool that allows Diploma consortia to highlight areas where they are seeking employer engagement, such as providing work experience placements or mentoring. The Teachers’ Guide and the Employers’ Guide, both act as a one-stop shop for school staff and businesses to explain the benefits of partnership working and how this can be achieved and can be found at
www.employers-guide.org.
www.nasuwt.org.uk
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