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Upfront
Join the debate at Tolpuddle
This year’s Tolpuddle Martyrs’ Festival will feature a fringe meeting and debate on ‘Schools Under Attack’ in the Fringe Tent on Saturday 14 July at 3.15pm. Speaking will be Fiona Millar of the Local Schools Network, Kevin Courtney, NUT Deputy General Secretary, and Chris Keates, NASUWT General Secretary. ATL, GMB, Unison and Unite have all agreed to provide members for a panel to take questions from those attending.
NUT South West Regional Secretary Andy Woolley said: “This debate will give an opportunity for those working in schools, school governors and local councillors to discuss how to address the problems being faced by schools as a result of government policies.”
The Union will be running its usual marquee with information and materials for anyone interested in education, and packs for NUT members. The festival runs from 13 to 15 July. For further information see
www.tolpuddlemartyrs.org.uk or email the South West NUT Regional Office at
south.west@nut.org.uk
Academy anger at Alperton
In protest over a change of employer as a consequence of their school becoming an academy, 60 NUT members at Alperton Community School in Wembley took strike action on 31 May.
Martin Allen, one of Alperton’s NUT reps, said: “There is opposition among staff to academies and how decisions have been made. There’s no evidence that academies benefit students. We feel the consultation process at Alperton has been imposed rather than discussed.”
Campaign for Memory
Bradford NUT is supporting the campaign to protect Memory Juma from deportation to Malawi. Memory, who has Down’s syndrome and severe learning difficulties, is a pupil at Southfield Special School in the Yorkshire city.
In the village in which she was born, baby Memory’s disabilities were seen as shameful and the outcome of witchcraft. She was sent away to live with her grandmother, who eventually borrowed money to enable the girl to join her mother and aunt studying in Bradford.
Memory’s mother did not register her daughter at the time because she was afraid she might be taken away. Last year she became known to the Border Agency as a person over the age of 18 who has no legitimate immigration status.
Her mother applied belatedly for Memory to be granted leave to remain in the UK, but this was refused. Since then her friends at school and the local community have formed the ‘Friends of Memory Juma’ group to raise money for a last ditch legal appeal against her deportation that would put her at serious risk of extreme hardship or even death.
• To become a friend of Memory Juma, send £5 membership fee, payable to Friends of Memory Juma, to Friends of Memory Juma, 98 Haycliffe Lane, Bradford BD5 9ET. Any further donation towards legal fees would be welcome.
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