To All Islington Teachers,
Hopefully you will have received the newsletter at school,
but in case you did not, the text of it is below. It is shorter than usual
because of the Regional Centre move, but the next one will be bigger again with
information on UPS and the Pensions Campaign.
The next General Meeting of Islington NASUWT will be this
Wednesday 9th February at the new London Regonal Centre at 65, St Johns Street,
Farringdon EC1, beginning at 4:30pm. This will be the first meeting anybody has
at the new centre and it would be great to see as many people there as possible
to mark the occasion (and nose around a bit too.)
Agenda
AGM minutes (information only)
Secretary's Report
Pay policy
UPS3
Aqua Terra
Remodelling
Classroom observations
City Academies
Health and Safety
Stress Policy
Asbestos update
Finance
Budget
Report on last year's
expenditure
National Executive Report
Pensions
UPS3
Management Points
Union Learning Representatives
Reports from Schools
AOB
It seems a lot, but most of it is for information and we
hope to get through it all fairly quickly. Light refreshments will be
provided.
and now, the newsletter .....................
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Welcome back all Islington Teachers,
I know it's a bit late to wish you all a Happy New Year,
so I begin this newsletter with a moan. While we do all we can to support
members, in negotiations with the Local Authority, we sometimes need to
substantiate our claims to demonstrate problems exist. I circulated a
questionnaire in the September newsletter and am frankly disappointed by the
response. Please take the time to complete and return the form on the back of
this newsletter.
Something that's better news:
The Greater London
Regional Centre is moving to Islington. 65 St John Street, Farringdon to be
exact. This will make training and union facilities more available to us and we
will record the event by being the first association to hold a meeting there on
Weds 9th February.
Unfortunately that means that printing facilities are
reduced, so we will go back to the double backed A4 newsletter this month.
Apologies if it's a little harder to read.
A number of school reps and
H&S reps have not yet attended training. Dates for Spring and Summer
are:
Rep I (2 day) 11/3/05 14/3/05
Rep II (2
day) 9/2/05 15/6/05
H&S I (2
day) 22/2/05 24/5/05
Rep I (2
day) 16/5/05 17/5/05
H&S II (2
day) 23/6/05 24/6/05
PPA (1 day) 26/1/05
or 27/1/05
Dealing with difficult
children 18/5/05
Last but not least; we are still discussing this years pay
policy with CEA. This was not helped by a circular released last week which
confused threshold and UPS requirements. You've heard it before - you do not
need to apply for UPS 2&3 - by law all eligible teachers must be considered.
No date has yet been set as a deadline for Islington teachers to apply for the
Threshold this year. Contact me at the address below if your head brings
the circular to you.
I simply can't squeeze in enough
about the management
allowances -
that will have to wait for the next newsletter,
but
contracts are changing. Teachers whose work is based on teaching and
learning will not lose out. That's all I can squeeze in, so please answer the
questionnaire and get to the meeting.
Greg Robbins
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Remodeling.
Across the borough most heads have said
they are successfully implementing the national agreement. The truth of this
varies somewhat. I need members to keep me informed of any ongoing issues. While
we may bend the rules to help out friends occasionally it is important to refuse
management requests which contradict the agreement.
The next stage is PPA
(planning preparation assessment) time a legal right from next September. More
info next term, but you should have seen the flyers for the PPA courses on 26 or
27/1/05. This is the same training your headteacher will do. Please try and get
there if you can.
Where schools do not comply, as well as the usual forms of
action, NASUWT will also take legal action to enforce our
contracts.
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Joint NASUWT and NUT Workplace Survey, January
2005
A properly formatted version is available on the website
if you don't like the boxes out of line.
(Please don't spend more than
10 mins on this questionnaire)
How many times have you been observed in the last 12
months: (do not count OFSTED)
not at all 1-3 times
4-6 times more than 6 times
Are there any special reasons for observations (special
measures, capability, NQT) ?
What reasons are given:
performance management
school improvement none given other (please
specify)
Do you
know in advance about an observation?
Were comments received fair ?
I felt
supported by the process
Was extra work incurred ?
Were all staff treated
the same ?
It gave me access to training/CPD or resources
I always
received the follow-up help promised
How often do you cover for other staff (or take split
classes) ?
never once/twice per term several times per
term once /wk more than once /wk
Including briefings how many meetings are you expected to
attend each week ?
none
one two three
more than three
Do you have someone to whom routine tasks can be delegated
(copying, ordering, displays) ?
Yes yes for most things
yes for some things only through my HoD no-one
If you feel that you have too much work to cope with and
ask for support, would you expect to be told:
"We're all struggling, we need
to pull together, don't let us down."
"Take as long as you
like (/more time) over the tasks, but they must be done."
"Prioritise
the most important issues, the others can wait for next
year."
"Don't be such a perfectionist, you're taking it too
seriously"
Something
else..................
If you have a problem with a parent, would you expect your
line manager/head to:
reassure you, but expect you to resolve
it.
immediately investigate the
matter.
speak to you and then to
the parent, reinforcing school policy.
explain to you the
importance of good school-parent relations, taking the parent's part.
explain how to proceed, but explain that the school cannot upset
parents.
Something else ..................
Please complete this form and send it to the address
below. You can use internal mail if you wish.
NB We will not use this
information to begin action in any school unless asked to by members
there.
Contact: Greg Robbins, Richard Cloudesley School, Golden
Lane EC1Y 0TJ tel 020 7251 1161 fax 7251 4911
Thank you for your time. Please feel free to add any other
comments you may have.