Teachers strike at Bacup and Rawtenstall Grammar School (From Lancashire Telegraph)
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Teachers strike at Bacup and Rawtenstall Grammar School
10:52am Thursday 12th July 2012 in News
teaching union leaders have spoke out in support of today’s strike at Bacup and Rawtenstall Grammar School.
The Waterfoot school is closed to all students as a result of the industrial action.
NASUWT general secretary Chris Keates said parents, teachers and the local community were ‘united’ in their opposition to governors’ plans to convert it into an academy.
More than 40 teaching staff at the school are members of the union, along with another 30 who are aligned to the NUT.
They are worried that the proposed transformation will result in poorer working conditions and risks lowering the educational standards.
John Girdley, NASUWT national executive member for Lancashire, added: “The governors assured us that the school would only convert for sound educational reasons.
“This is already a very high-achieving school.The employer has not done anything to convince the vast majority of their staff of the need for conversion.
“If this is a dash for cash by the governors, they should look again at other converter academies, which are now leading the way on teacher redundancies.”
The school is set to open as normal tomorrow.
Comments(3)
her from here
says...
4:32pm Thu 12 Jul 12
Sagacious 1
says...
10:15am Fri 13 Jul 12
The governing body seem to think they can operate as a cartel and ignore any opinion, If I could guess the Governing Body’s Mission Statement it would be: ‘See no evil, Speak no evil, Hear no evil’
I for one would support a vote to sack and replace them with local people who have integrity which is sadly missing at the moment.
RibbleLad says...
11:23am Thu 12 Jul 12
A similar local school that converted to an academy in January 2011 (Clitheroe Royal Grammar School) has had absolutely NO staff redundancies since converting. There have, however, been tens of redundancy notices issued by Blackburn with Darwen in respect of their maintained schools, as a result of their new "Super Schools" programme.
Clearly in East Lancashire it is a local authority that is "leading the way" as a redundancy declaring employer rather than a converter academy.
But since when did the teaching unions let the facts get in the way of a good, bigoted story.