How and why?

The Government is gradually integrating Children’s Centres into connected Primary Schools by ensuring that their budget and funding is now  accessed through the school.

Children’s Centres are being more closely scrutinised with respect to their value for money! This ignored the value that they provide to the community which they serve AND their value to schools in terms of identifying and implementing support for children and families before they even enter nursery.

Therefore when the Government is ready, it can cut the umbilical cord with ease. This will mean that their are systems in place already which will allow schools to take over the Children’s Centres, as well as, the funding for the necessary refurbishment. After refurbishments the funding will cease on the grounds that it was originally Sure Start funding.

What does this mean?

No Children’s Centres means no expense to the Government.

No Children’s Centres means no service provision for families.

Access to Educational Physiologists (E.P.s)

Access to E.P.s is becoming harder and research has shown that serious conditions, such as, Autism are increasing. Logic tells us that we would need better, more frequent access to E.P.s rather than less!

Early Years teachers and support staff are expected to continue to teach in a ‘Care in the Community’ type classroom. This makes the curriculum harder to deliver because teaching AND managing behaviour which is common to children of that age, as well as, behaviours caused by special needs and serious conditions is impossible without the right type of support .

Using Ofsted to force state schools to become Academies.

Ofsted criteria has just changed. AGAIN! The goal post has been moved. What would have been deemed a good before is now going to be closer to satisfactory. What was satisfactory will now be classed as a failing school! What happens to failing schools? They are FORCED to become academies!

Previously, the Local Authority had support systems in place to help failing schools. However, they are currently in a position where they can offer little or no support so the forced change shouldn’t be too hard!

What will this mean?

The result will be that more schools will fail Ofsted and be forced to link with, and then become, an academy! This will of course is in the name of raising standards.

Which schools will be affected?

Secondary schools have been in the news for restructuring along academic lines e.g. running vocational courses alongside GCSE and A’ Levels.

Eventually the Government’s aspiration is for local businesses to invest in the vocational courses and employ school leavers directly. An example of this may be that schools near Heathrow are supplied with the ICT to train students to use systems, such as, Galileo and DCI. This will put students are in a position where they can leave and be employed with the skill set that the employer needs. A ready made workforce. Sounds good doesn’t it?

The pros

Students are employed quickly.

Students go from school to employment without gaps in between the two.

Students will be skilled at the onset.

Airlines save money in terms of recruiting, employing staff who are not trained to their requirements.

Government has no expenses in this area.

The cons

Those who lose out are the students.

They are trained for one job only.

They will have little room for manoeuvre elsewhere in the job market.

The employers, for these reasons, are at an advantage because employees are less likely to change their job no matter how poor the pay or conditions are.

Some aspiration!

What will it mean for us?

There will be more stakeholders. These will include the Government, parents, governors, employers and local businesses.

Under academy status teachers are no longer protected by the Government set Pay and Conditions. Thus Unions will have less clout in negotiations.

What is to stop academies changing the school year so that schools are operational ALL year? They could give permission for children to take their holidays during any 2 weeks of the year. This could be the same for teaching and support staff. The parents would be happy as their holiday child minding problems would be taken care of. Thus school staff will be required to work for longer hours. Academies have been known to force staff to run clubs after school and during lunch time.

What’s wrong with any of this?

The change is justified as all other industries get 2 weeks of holidays per year. Thus why should school staff get more? Little do they know that school staff are NOT paid during the holidays! They are paid for the days they works but the wages are paid on a monthly basis. Thus although they physically get a wage each month, it is not earned for any of the time which is not classed as teaching time.

With these changes in mind, there may be a token amount given initially to remunerate staff and soften the blow. However, eventually that will be absorbed in the salary. Also any increases in wages will be kept low so that over time, these increases will vanish over time.

But hey…we can make it up because we will then be working until we are 66 years old!

Gold star

A large number of our community members have either already obtained their certificates of being ‘Overseas Citizen of India’ or are considering the possibility of doing so seriously.

The concern is what is the status of their British Nationality especially when visiting India.

Would the British Government provide any consular assistance should that become necessary or deny that assistance stating that the person concerned is considered a Indian National and not entitled to any Consular assistance?

There has been a lot of discussion about it which has caused anxiety to those who already have OCI status. However, it has also stopped many from applying for it!

Mr Gopal Bhudia of Freeman Solicitors has obtained a clear statement from the Foreign & Commonwealth Office. He has allowed the Institute of Jainology to publicise the response for the general benefit of the community at large. Mr Bhudia has kindly agreed to the reply he received being circulated freely.

A copy of the letter is shown below.

For further information or clarification should it be required please contact the Foreign & Commonwealth Office directly at the address shown.

Please click here to read a document called Handbook for Overseas Indians. I hope it also helps

Do you know about this march?

I think it’s so exciting! Empowering. For me, it also shows that there’s hope. That people are willing to be honest, open and transparent about what they want and don’t want. All too often there seems to be an increasing pattern, a culture of not being transparent. This is a refreshing change!

So why are we marching?

• Eliminating the deficit in just four years is a savage timetable that does not give economic growth the opportunity to raise the nation’s tax take. Indeed the deep cuts promised will depress the economy making deeper cuts necessary to meet this timetable.
• Raising four pounds through cuts for every pound raised through tax – and doing most of this through a rise in VAT that hits the poor and those on middle income the most – is deeply unfair. The recession was made in the finance sector, yet banks and those now enjoying gigantic bonuses once again, are not being asked to make a fair contribution.

Yet none of these policies were put to the British people at the election, indeed we were told that there was no need for cuts in front-line services.

People round the country are already campaigning against these deep, rapid cuts. Students have shown their opposition to cuts, the ends of EMAs and increases in fees. Parents and teachers have opposed cuts in school building. School sport, libraries and public woodlands all now have strong defenders. Few towns now don’t have their own campaign group.

The TUC’s March for the Alternative has two key aims.

1. First we want to give a national voice to all those affected by the cuts. This will be a huge event that in its breadth and support shows just how much opposition there is to the government’s programme. It will bring together public service workers and those who depend on good public services. Those involved in national campaigns, and those defending what is special in their own community.
2. Second we want to show that people reject the argument that there is no alternative. Of course the recession did damage to our economy. But these deep rapid cuts are not the best way to solve our problems, and may well make them worse.

That is why it is the March for the Alternative – an alternative in which rich individuals and big companies have to pay all their tax, that the banks pay a Robin Hood tax and on in which we strain every sinew to create jobs and boost the sustainable economic growth that will generate the prosperity which is the only long term way to close the deficit and reduce the nation’s debt.

Read here about why others are marching in their own words!

I attended an NUT meeting recently. It was all about academies. The guest speaker was Alasdair Smith. He represented the Anti Academies Alliance.

Here’s the minutes from the meeting. Alasdair was kind enough to check it and amend where necessary.

Some information about academies

• The previous government wanted to use them to turn around failing schools.
• The new coalition wants outstanding schools to convert – dangers of social segregation.
• This is about privatisation and deregulation.
• Government have admitted aim is to break up system of national pay & conditions.
• Schools & head teachers promising extra money are exaggerating the money available.
• The AAA is an alliance of parents, teachers, governors and all the education unions (ATL, NASUWT, NUT GMB, UNISON, UNITE) and the TUC opposed to academies & privatisation.

Dangers

• There is NO formal or legal requirement for governors, staff, parents or children to be consulted before taking steps to become an academy.
• The breakup of the National Pay and Conditions for teachers.
• The proposal of a National Pay and Conditions for support staff has already been abandoned. They will bear the brunt of schools becoming academies!
• Maternity, sick leave & other rights may well be changed.
• Once you convert, there’s no turning back.
• Staying with the Local Authority has advantages: the Local Authority steps in if the school burns down, bulk buys services to achieve economies of scale, provides many services which we are not necessarily aware of.
• If we opt out of this we’ll need to buy these services back from them or source them from private providers elsewhere.
• Academies standing alone may not be able to achieve economies of scale so they will need to join other academies and form a chain. This will create pseudo local authorities.
• Failing academies can’t go back to being a local authority school. It’ll just get taken over by another academy.
• Some liabilities which academies will need to foot the bill for are still unknown e.g., the pensions of support staff.

The logic

• Heads claim that they want to protect staff against cuts. Thus becoming an academy is the way forward! Protecting staff means protecting national pay & conditions. Becoming an academy wont achieve that.
• Currently schools get funding from the Schools Authority Grant. Education Psychologists, SEN, EMAS etc. are funded from the LACSEG budget. These services are currently provided to schools according to their needs and it is shared amongst schools in the borough.
• Becoming an academy means that the academy will SECURE an amount from the LACSEG based on proportion of pupils, as opposed to, need.
• Money available to others schools for these services will be cut.
• Also, the Government have said they will introduce a national funding formula next year so academies will only receive this extra money as a one off.
• If academy status truly guaranteed success, it would be moral and professional to consider it. The truth is that some academies do fail. The business of schools is to educate but there’s no evidence that academies improves standards at a faster rate than equivalent schools in the maintained sector. So why become an academy?

Questions from the floor

1. Will there be any continuity of service?

An academy will use TUPE to ensure that remaining staff can continue their terms of service.

New staff will have different terms of service.

However, if the head decides to restructure the staff by creating new posts, previous staff, as well as, newer members of the school will need to apply for their position. Thus the TUPE arrangements will be void!

2. Are pensions going to be honoured?

Yes!

However, if one builds up 28 years of ‘years of service’ in one school and then moves to an academy in which they work only 5 years; only the 5 years may be honoured for things such as redundancy severance pay.

3. Could we be paid more if we work for an academy?

Yes, in rare cases! Some academies are recruiting and paying over the odds for members of some staff. The national picture is that the head teacher’s wages increase but the wages of teachers doesn’t change. The national picture also shows that the wages of support staff goes down.

4. How long would an academy last?

Many academies are drawing up leases of 125 years. 7 years notice has to be given to terminate an academy contract.

5. What happens to parental rights?

If a parent is unhappy with a school under local authority provision; they can go and complain to the local authority.

If a parent of a child attending an academy is unhappy with the school; they have to complain to the Secretary of State! This is less likely to happen.

6. Who runs an academy?

The academy will have a few governors who form a business which creates a trust. They then select and appoint the other governors.

7. Can you exclude children in an academy?

The statistics show that academies exclude double the national rate, when compared with schools in a local authority.

8. Do we have statistics about academies?

There are 23000 schools.

407 are academies. 136 of those a new ‘Gove’ academies.

9. How might our rights as teachers be affected?

There are some ‘horror’ stories: staff expected to work from 7 a.m. until 7 p.m. , come in to school to work for 2 weeks during the summer holidays, work in school on weekends etc.

Some have changed performance management drastically. Others have introduced harsh forms of competency procedures.

10. What will we lose?

Local authorities rightly challenge and support schools. They do not control them.

Who will ensure this for academies? There is no system of local accountability for academies. They are in effect ‘government’ schools as their legal status is based on a contract (funding agreement) between the school academy trust and the Secretary of State.

11. Why are some local authorities telling schools to become academies?

The government is ‘top slicing’ a chunk of funding from all local authorities so that they can give it to schools that convert to an academy. If NO schools opt out, they’re going to take the money anyway! Thus some local authorities are telling schools to become academies as the funding will be lost any way. IS IT A CONSPIRACY?

12. Who will provide services if local authorities can’t?

Many posts of consultants & advisors etc. in local authorities are being scrapped. The very same consultants are setting up private companies and are waiting to offer their services to the up and coming academies!

13. How does the Union fit into academies?

Some academies won’t recognise Union rights for the staff. Most will. Staff will need to continue to be members of a union.

14. What are the cons of becoming an academy?

Once you work in an academy you are at risk of being isolated. You haven’t got other schools to support you in fighting for national pay & conditions or over local issues.

If there’s national uproar against, for example, proposed changes to the Pay and Conditions document; you won’t benefit from it because academies don’t have to uphold the Pay and Conditions document.

Extra information

• Make sure you find out what is going on in your school. As a Union Rep you can ask for speaking and listening rights at Governors meetings. Why not ask if you can speak about academies and make sure they know why it’s not a good idea?
• Invite Anti Academies Alliance speaker to address the staff and/or governors.
• Tell the support staff in your school. They WILL be affected and may even bear the brunt of this movement towards academy status!
• Write to your MP – http://www.writetothem.com/ – write to your local authority. Tell them that they were democratically elected and they mustn’t wash their hands with education. They should keep their role and fight this movement which WON’T benefit our children, parents or staff. The Lib Dem conference policy is against academies!

Summary

Serious danger of privatisation & deregulation, ultimately reducing the pay and conditions of staff.

It appears to be part of a strategy, not to raise standards, but to cut costs (due to the financial crisis we are in).

Do you want to let this happen or will you fight it? You need to act now. Pass resolutions to demand that your union ballots for industrial immediately. Do not delay

Contact the AAA for further help & advice: www.antiacademies.org.uk or email office@antiacademies.org.uk

Here’s some extra information in the form of a poster: -

Academies and funding

Academies and pay and conditions

The pros of Local Authorities

I was talking to a friend about this.

He was saying that there was no self respect in receiving benefits. He said that doing the honourable thing should come first. He explained that by this he means;

I would rather struggle than sponge. I have never claimed a day’s unemployment benefit in my life, and never plan to. I work hard, pay taxes and expect nothing. He continued to say that nobody in this country is as desperate as some people who live in Africa or India. They literally have nothing! We ALL can do SOMETHING. Something for ourselves and for society. This is the basis of modern progressive conservatism – doing whatever you can for the benefit of society and ones self.

A few weeks later I was talking to a girl at school. She said she walks home with her older brother because mum has 3 jobs and dad has 2. She goes to her gran’s house after school because the family care for her. She is very ill. She told me: -

‘….mum doesn’t want to claim benefits and be judged…’

So they work as much as they can, look after her gran and rely on the members of the family to support each other.

The brother who takes his little sister to gran’s also wakes his younger siblings up and makes them breakfast. Thus he’s always getting to school late. He’s only 10 himself.

I don’t think either situation is ideal but this example illustrates a family who are struggling, trying their best to remain ‘off’ benefit but as a result, have no or little time for their children.

Another family have a child who has ADD/ADHD. He’s been diagnosed with it and this means that he’s categorised as ‘disabled’. Mum says she copes. She’s not used his categorisation to claim disability benefit although she struggles and could really do with the support.

There are many cases where people who can claim don’t.

There are many employers who fiddle benefits for employers who don’t exist.

There are many employers who don’t put employees on their books for too long to escape being responsible for certain employee rights and benefits.

Is it really a clear cut reality of ‘those who sponge are fraudulent and undeserving’ and those who don’t claim are a ‘better’ people?

This is a strange one.

I went to a NUT course and met someone who didn’t agree with groups who are backing banning teachers who are part of the BNP.

I’ve put some arguments for and against banning them below. Do you have any other views?

Here are some arguments for banning teachers who are in the BNP: -

If they are teaching in a multi cultural school but they fear the very children and communities that they teach, are they in the right job?

Should they support a group that wants all members of ethnic minorities to be ‘sent back’ home, whatever ‘home’ means?

How can someone in a position of power be allowed to support such a narrow minded group?

What does it say about the teacher themselves? Do you they want to kill, hurt, get rid of all the non Caucasian people in the UK?

Are they looking forward? What will happen to  the economy? If these people are removed in whichever way, who will replace them? How can they be teaching the future generations?

The source of encouraging these ‘people’ to reside here was often governments who wanted ‘them’ to work in the UK and do jobs that the public couldn’t or wouldn’t. Will they take up these posts?

Here are some arguments against banning teachers who are in the BNP: -

Should the state or anyone else have a right to make this happen?

What about freedom and democracy?

If we force them out of teaching will others go ‘underground’, be full of resentment and then take it out on the children whom they teach?

You can be in the BNP and not want to harm anyone.

You have the right to support whichever political party you want to.

Where these people end up is not my problem. I didn’t invite them here. I just want them to leave.

The economy will be fine. The Caucasians will take up their posts.

I was sent an email via the Trisha via the Jain Vegans group and I was shocked when I clicked on one of the links in the email. I thought I had been horrified enough about cheese and how it was made but this post is about cheese is marketed to hook those who are more likely to become addicted to it!

Would you believe it if I told you that cheese has morphine in it which keeps us hooked in? Do you remember the anti smoking adverts that were all about showing smokers how hooked in they were? Well it’s kind of like that but in a more subtle way!

So anyway here are some snippets from the article.

A couple days ago I joked that I was detoxing from dairy and that I needed a 12-step program because I find it so hard to give up cheese. Amazingly, little did I know that cheese has actually been proven to be addictive. This explains why so many people like me find it incredibly difficult to give up cheese. It has been harder for me to give up dairy than cigarettes. I am not joking about that. Perhaps the more shocking thing is that the Dairy Industry has deliberately fed on cheese’s addictive quality…

The first hint of a biochemical explanation came in 1981, when scientists at Wellcome Research Laboratories in Research Triangle Park, N.C., found a substance in dairy products that looked remarkably like morphine. After a complex series of tests, they determined that, surprisingly enough, it actually was morphine.

 

….the enzymes that produce opiates are not confined to poppies — they also hide inside cows’ livers.

Opiates hide inside casein, the main dairy protein….The especially addicting power of cheese may be due to the fact that the process of cheese-making removes water, lactose and whey proteins so that casein is concentrated.

Scientists are now trying to tease out whether these opiate molecules work strictly within the digestive tract or whether they pass into the bloodstream and reach the brain directly.

The cheese industry TARGETS those most prone to being addicted to cheese

The cheese industry is miles ahead of them, having gone to great lengths to identify people who are most vulnerable to addiction. It dubs them “cheese cravers,” and tracks their age, educational level and other demographics so as to target them with marketing strategies that are tough to ignore.

At a “Cheese Forum” held Dec. 5, 2000, Dick Cooper, the vice president of Cheese Marketing for Dairy Management Inc., laid out the industry’s scheme for identifying potential addicts and keeping them hooked.

In his slide presentation, which was released to our organization under the Freedom of Information Act, he asked the question, “What do we want our marketing program to do?” and then gave the answer: “Trigger the cheese craving.” He described how, in a partnership with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the dairy industry launched Wendy’s Cheddar Lover’s Bacon Cheeseburger, which single-handedly pushed 2.25 million pounds of cheese during the promotion period.

The presentation concluded with a cartoon of a playground slide with a large spider web woven to trap children as they reached the bottom. The caption had one spider saying to another, “If we pull this off, we’ll eat like kings.”

Wow! This shows that Dick Cooper and his team know the affects of cheese, their primary aim is to use it to increase sales, regardless of the affects on the health of those consuming it and the cartoon referred to above shows how they cold they are about it all!

I can’t say anymore.

I’m shocked!