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NEWS • VIEWS • INFORMATION • ADVICE





National action achieving success



The NASUWT’s Standing Up For Standards campaign of ongoing industrial action goes from strength to strength with examples rolling in of members using the action instructions to reclaim the classroom and defend their professionalism and statutory working conditions.



The campaign of action short of strike action is supporting members in securing their contractual and regulatory entitlements and making a stand against changes to pay, pensions, working conditions and job loss.



The NASUWT has striven to create an action campaign which is smart, intelligent and sustainable. It is pupil, parent and public friendly.



The NASUWT summarises the successes.



Here are just some examples of how the action is empowering members to stand up for their entitlements:



The executive head of a secondary school was drawing six names out of a hat every Monday morning for additional observations. Members were also being asked to do cover for absent colleagues. NASUWT members used the action short of strike action.



They stood firm and these observations stopped. An extra cover supervisor has been engaged and this has solved the problem of excessive covers.



School management were about to send in the local education advisers to observe lessons. As a result of NASUWT pressure we have managed to put a stop to this.



The school is now fully compliant with the regulations on PPA time and directed time analysis is being used to consider the consequences of any change in school, instead of extra workload simply being imposed on teachers. The NASUWT has secured regular meetings with the headteacher and deputy head for all union representatives.



As a result of the action short of strike action I have had a proposed department monitoring observation withdrawn. This observation was outside the performance management objectives. This has avoided a lot of stress for me and my colleagues in the academy where we work.



All lesson observations outside the performance management process have stopped and now the school has agreed to adhere to the three-hour statutory limit on observations.



Members were to be observed teaching by a chair of governors (who is not a qualified teacher) who proposed to prepare a report about the quality of the teachers’ work and present this to the governing body. Under action short of strike action members refused to be observed.



The headteacher had instructed all staff to produce two full- day lesson plans for five weeks up to Christmas in preparation for an inspection. Heads of department were supposed to monitor and assess the lesson plans. A letter was sent from the members to the headteacher within the context of the action short of strike action and the headteacher withdrew the proposals.