School Cuts (92% of schools will have their funding cut in England); Book Launch & Demo

Check out the http://www.schoolcuts.org.uk website and enter your postcode and you will see the schools around you that face savage Government cuts in funding. Incredibly 92% of schools face cuts, an average primary school will face £96,000 cut and average Secondary £290,000.

Locally there is a Newham bookshop/NUT book launch this Thursday called "Standing up for Education".

with Christine Blower, Louise Regan,
Victoria Baskerville and Mark Holding

“There is a crisis in our schools now. Children are facing rising class sizes,
there is a shortage of teachers and parents already face a crisis in finding school places.”
— Jeremy Corbyn at the National Union of Teachers Conference 2016.

What is education for? What should be taught? Who should control schools? How should educational progress be measured? What are the real barriers to learning? How much testing is too much testing? Are schools being privatised? Should schools be privatised? Do academy schools work?

These are just a few of the questions at the heart of a major debate over the future of education and schools. Many of the issues in this debate are long-standing concerns that have found new relevance in new circumstances. Some of the issues are new but demand an urgent and forceful answer.

Standing Up for Education offers a wide-ranging intervention into the education debate with contributions from teachers, politicians and students themselves. Its overall message is clear: current government policy is not fit for purpose and is failing teachers and students alike.

There are alternatives to over-testing, teacher shortages, demoralisation and privatisation. Standing Up for Education shows the way.

The panel

Christine Blower is international secretary of the National Union of Teachers (NUT) after being general secretary from 2009 to 2016; Louise Reganis senior vice-president of the NUT; Victoria Baskerville is a parent and is active in the Redbridge Against Academisation campaign; and Mark Holding is an assistant general secretary of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL), and is a founder member of Our Community – Our Schools and a parent governor.

and to continue the "Education, Education, Education" theme there will be (supported by UNISON)  Saturday 19 November the NUS and UCU have called a national demonstration under the banner of ‘United for Education’. It looks set to be the biggest demonstration in defence of education in many years. Students and staff will march together through central London, assembling at Park Lane at 12 noon.