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P17: Your Union
My role in the Union
Chair of the NUT group
Jamie Duff is Chair of the NUT group at Brook House Sixth Form College (BSix) in Hackney, north London.
When did you first become active in the Union? As soon as I qualified as a teacher in 2003. I got a job in the brand new college so we set the group up from scratch.
How else are you involved in the NUT? I’m on the committee of Hackney NUT and a member of the Sixth Form College Working Group. What do the roles involve?
At BSix I help organise and chair union meetings and deal with the early stages of casework. I negotiate with the management. I’ve become more involved at local association level and am currently involved in a borough-wide campaign to oppose the expansion of academies and setting up of free schools. What are the best aspects of the role? Seeing the solidarity and collective strength that develops within a well organised union group. And the worst? Seeing people victimised for union activity. What are your other interests and involvements? I manage a local
community football team and am an active member of my local residents’ association. Who has inspired you? Hackney teachers – I was taught by them and now I work alongside them. My teachers at school were fully committed to comprehensive and inclusive education and this ensured that my friends and I all got a really good education. Now I have become a teacher in Hackney I have found that this commitment is still strong and thriving, despite the best efforts of this government. If you are interested in becoming an NUT rep, or playing another active role in the Union, go to www.teachers.org.uk/getinvolved. Tell us about your role – email teacher@nut.org.uk.
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100 years ago
The Schoolmaster, September 1911 Common Room Chatter
A series of schoolboy crimes in the Fatherland is giving rise to grave doubts amongst German educationists as to the soundness of their system.
We believe it is the result of the increasing severity of school examinations, and the absence of organised school games which do so much to relieve strain. The German youth has no sport to relieve mental tension and tends to become neurotic.
Unless school games are soon introduced, the German educational system is in grave danger in the future of producing a race of degenerates.
The weekenders
Birmingham primary school teacher Claire Fawcus and fellow teacher Guy Dowling celebrate winning the NQT prize draw of a weekend for two at Stoke Rochford Hall. The prize was sponsored by Teachers Assurance.