Hank Roberts, NUT Honorary Secretary Brent Teachers Association
Hank Roberts, NUT Honorary Secretary Brent Teachers Association
HOME: 27 RIDLEY ROAD, LONDON, NW10 5UB TELEPHONE: HOME: 020 8961 2251
MOBILE 0776 273 7306 E-MAIL:
Shane Johnschwager, NASUWT Brent Secretary
C/o COPLAND, A SPECIALIST SCIENCE COMMUNITY COLLEGE
Cecil Ave, Wembley, Middx, HA9 7DX Home: 07734 703 072 Email:
28/9/11
Dear Parents,
Firstly, thank-you to Mr Waxman for allowing us to use parent mail to communicate with you. It allows us to avoid leafleting the school-gate and the problems that this brings. It is thus better for everyone, we feel, and we are grateful to the school for agreeing.
The national action committees of the NUT and NASUWT have met. They have considered all of the circumstances. Namely:
ñ the result of the independently overseen secret ballot of all staff which expressed a 84.5% majority against becoming an academy
ñ the result of the ballot for action in which members of the NASUWT and NUT voted by clear majorities in favour of action
ñ the refusal of the Head and Chair of Governors to offer an independent secret ballot to parents despite parents having asked for this repeatedly
ñ that the unions at their meeting on Friday 15th September both offered to pay for this ballot and not to proceed to strike action if the ballot took place
ñ no cast iron legally binding guarantee that the statutory national pay and conditions would be maintained being forthcoming
Therefore the national action committees have authorised a day of strike action on the 29th of September. No educator would take strike action except as a last resort and in the most exceptional circumstances. Kingsbury High becoming an Academy would overturn 90 years of national pay and conditions and potentially destroy a long history of cooperation between schools in the London Borough of Brent.
For those who question the medium to long-term consequences of the Gove agenda to state education, look no further than America, where similar reforms in charter schools have led to a wide range of damaging consequences to the teaching profession and to education. This is from the Texas Tribune 27.01.2010 ‘Charter Schools Battle High Teacher Turnover’:
In all, more than 40 of nearly 200 charter operators the state tracked — some which oversee multiple schools — had to replace more than half their teaching staffs before the last school year. Even more established and successful operators, includingKIPPandYES Prepin Houston, lose nearly a third of their teachers annually.In contrast, just six of more than 1,000 non-charter school districts statewide had more than half their teachers leave, and none of the 20 largest school districts had a turnover rate higher than 16 percent.
Huge increases in workload have led to teacher burnout skyrocketing. This is what Gove intends. This is Gove on KIPP schools, who lose 1 in 3 staff in Houston annually according to the Texas Tribune: ‘From abroad, I am inspired and amazed by the achievements of the Knowledge is Power Programme (Kipp), the American charter school chain’.
As teachers we have asked ourselves what kind of profession and education system we want to see. We are fighting for a profession that allows a long, sustainable career. We are fighting for a profession that has fair pay and conditions set nationally. We are fighting for a profession that allows teachers to teach and children to learn without excessive hours chained to a desk. We are fighting to preserve our state, comprehensive education system.
We believe Mr Waxman when he says he wants to maintain national pay and conditions. If our objective was to temporarily safeguard teachers at Kingsbury, in the short-term, we would sign up to the model agreement tomorrow. Our objective, however, goes beyond the short-term. All the evidence points to a worsening of terms and conditions when schools become academies.
It is also worth noting that no one at Kingsbury, we believe, is seriously attempting to make the arguments in favour of the package of Gove reforms. The only in favour arguments being made are: we want the money (despite it being taken from other schools), we do not want to be left behind in this 'dash for cash', and it’s inevitable.
It is not inevitable. The money is not worth it (and we have yet to see a business plan proving it exists) and Kingsbury is in the vanguard. Overwhelmingly other schools in Brent have decided not to convert to Gove academies.
So, we are taking action on the 29th. We ask that you support the action and support your children’s teachers. We have made it clear that we will recommend to our members that action is called off should the school approve a secret independently overseen ballot of parents, which has been called for overwhelmingly at meetings of parents. The unions will pay for a ballot of parents.
We ask: what harm could a ballot of parents possibly do? What more reasonable offer could we make?
We have no desire to disrupt your child’s education. We have laid out the conditions under which the strike will be called off. If the school is unwilling to offer a pause and a parental ballot, the action will go ahead. We sincerely believe that by standing up for what we believe in now, we are fighting to avoid greater disruption and injustice later.
We hope you understand our position and support the strike. We will happily answer any questions and can be contacted on 07734703072 (Shane) or 07762737306 (Hank). Alternatively email us at or
Kind regards,
Hank Roberts Shane Johnschwager
NUT Secretary NASUWT Secretary