Great Torrington School takes steps to becoming a 'Foundation School'

A news release by Devon National Union of Teachers has revealed that Great Torrington School is moving towards 'Foundation Status'. They have produced a leaflet '10 things you need to know', which we are publishing here too. To get in contact and involved with the campaign to keep Great Torrington a community comprehensive school, you can email Dave Clinch, the secretary of Devon NUT, at Devnutsec@aol.com.

FOUNDATION STATUS AT GREAT TORRINGTON SCHOOL

10 THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW

The Head and Governors at Great Torrington School are moving the school towards Foundation status. This poses a real threat to comprehensive education at the school. It will effectively become a private enterprise. The process is irreversible. The legislation prevents the school from reverting to Community School status.

1 DEMOCRACY - Under the legislation the governing body will be less democratic and less representative. Governors elected by parents can be replaced by parents appointed by the foundation.

2 REPRESENTATION - The unions will be negotiating on behalf of members with an employer who may adopt different policies than the Local Authority at a future date.

3 LOCAL AUTHORITY ROLE - There will be a reduced level of support, advice and services. Foundation status is detrimental to the quality of education and the work of the local authority.

4 TERMS AND CONDITIONS - Teachers would transfer under Schoolteachers’ Pay and Conditions. The new arrangements could threaten those terms and conditions in the long term. Support staff are immediately vulnerable.

5 ADMISSIONS - Moving away from the Local Authority admissions procedure could lead to selection. We know that this is a real possibility from the actions of other schools which have taken this step. A good local school for all our children in every community means no barriers to entry.

6 TRANSFER OF PUBLIC ASSETS - The Government describes foundation status as a means to ’promote innovation and educational entrepreneurship’. Government has yet to publish any evidence that supports its arguments that the quality of education is enhanced by acquiring foundation status.

7 DIVERSITY - The proposers promote diversity between schools, which will lead in our view to potential divisions based on class and ability for example. The NUT promotes diversity within schools, in other words a good local school which serves the whole community.

8 FUNDING - The school would continue to be funded on the same basis as before, with the budget formula determined by the Schools Forum which has representatives from all school sectors, governors and trade unions. It is organised by Devon County Council’s school finance officers. There would be more financial requirements on the school and administration would increase, but it would not receive extra funding for this. If the school had a budget problem it would have to deal with it and could not expect extra support from the County Council.

9 LAND AND BUILDINGS - All land and buildings are transferred from the Council to the Foundation School Trustees and held in trust for the purposes of the school. Permission must be sought from the Council to sell off assets and the Secretary of State, who may decide that the local authority can share the proceeds. If the school were closed, ownership of the land and buildings would revert to the Council.

10 WILL THERE BE A BALLOT? - Will all interested parties in the local community be given both sides of the argument at the public meeting on Wed 4 June? Will they be ballotted? No indication has been given that a ballot will be conducted.

Devon NUT has offered to underwrite the cost of an independently run ballot of all 'stakeholders' following a debate, putting the arguments for and against foundation status. As yet there has been no response from the Governing Body. There is nothing in the legislation to say that a school cannot have a ballot.

Unity in action - together we can win!

In a show of unity and strength, public sector workers across Devon and the country have gone on strike in coordinated joint action. Taking part were teachers (from the NUT), further education lecturers (UCU) and workers in the Department of Work and Pensions (Jobcentre Plus) and the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (both PCS).

For teachers and lecturers, the main reason behind the strike was pay, triggered by an insulting below-inflation 'pay rise' for teachers and the continued underpayment of lecturers in further education. For the civil servants, pay is also an issue (a three year pay deal where some will receive a complete pay freeze!), but also privatisation and job cuts led to action. Teachers and lecturers are also concerned with this, as well as increasing workload.

In North Devon, all secondary schools were closed for the day, a reflection of the anger and determination felt by NUT members. At North Devon College there was a tremendous 35-strong picket. Socialist Party members joining the picket to offer support were received well. The lecturers were pleased at the turnout, and one striker revealed that the strike had led to several inquiries from non-UCU members about joining the union. The problems faced by workers in further education in organising effective action centre around the multitude of different unions involved and increasing casualisation. Workers are organised not just into the UCU, but also the ATL, ASCL, UNISON and GMB. Anti-trade union laws mean that without a full ballot members of these organisations could be victimised for participating in action with the UCU.

The increasing casualisation at the college means that about half of the teaching staff are employed on an ad hoc hourly basis. This insecure and irregular employment is bad for the lecturers and their students, and obviously makes them very reluctant to raise their heads above the parapet and take part in strike action. All of this illustrates the need to organise united action across all public sector unions, and build a new political alternative to the main parties, which would enthusiastically campaign against the restrictive anti-trade union laws introduced by the Tories and kept on the statute book by New Labour.

Socialist Students and Socialist Party members also attended pickets at South Devon College and Exeter College. A lot of students signed our petition expressing support for the strikers. Many students also took part in the rally organised by the UCU from Exeter College to a rally held at St James Park, Exeter City's ground.

The rally, organised by Devon NUT, was incredibly well attended. The room was full to bursting and many people had to hand around outside the room and listen in. The broad range of speakers representing unions from the NUT, to UNISON, UCU, FBU, PCS and back to NUT (well it was their rally!) was admirable, as was the consistent theme of public sector unity. Addressing the rally, PCS National Executive member and Socialist Party member Mark Baker stressed the need for a political alternative to the main parties (all of whom condemned the strike action) and for unity: "On our own we can't defeat Gordon Brown's pay freeze. Together we can, together we will."

Eight members of the Socialist Party attended the rally. One of these, student teacher Jim Thomson, spoke from the floor following the main speeches. He stressed the need to combat the neo-liberal policies of New Labour and the other two main parties. The disaster of privatisation and private involvement in public services is clear, and he gave the local example of the costly and unpopular PFI scheme which rebuilt Exeter's secondary schools. Obviously, as well as industrial struggles to fight for 'public services not private profit' there will need to be political struggles too, which means unionists and campaigners must build a new party to represent the case for well funded public services where the priority is serving those who use it, and not lining the pockets of fat cats.

The rally ended with a tribute from the South West regional secretary of the NUT, Andy Woolley, to the late NUT general secretary Steve Sinnott. The tribute, like the rally and the atmosphere on picket lines, was positive and celebratory. All those present were aware, as Steve Sinnott was, that this action was the beginning, not the end, and that more struggles lie ahead for teachers and all public sector workers, in getting a decent pay rise, stopping job cuts and privatisation, and starting the fightback against neo-liberalism and the idea that public service = bad, and private profit = good.

Unity in action - 24th April joint public sector strike - some pictures

From the top:

Photos 1 and 2 - Strikers at North Devon College in Barnstaple.
Photo 3 - A picture from the well-attended rally held at Exeter City's St James Park.
Photo 4 - Socialist Party member and PCS National Executive member Mark Baker addresses the rally.
Photos 5 and 6 - Jim Thomson, a student teacher and member of Exeter Socialist Party, speaks at the rally.
Photo 7 - The picket line at Exeter College.
Photos 8 and 9 - The UCU, with supporters including members of the Socialist Party and Socialist Students, march to St James Park.

24th April - Pay, pensions and 'public services, not private profit'

This Thursday, thousands of teachers, further education lecturers, Department of Work and Pensions (Jobcentre Plus) staff and council workers in Birmingham are going on coordinated strike action. The action will take place on the same day not just to maximise the impact and pressure on the Government and other public sector unions, but to reflect the fact that the issues all these workers face are similar and linked.

Teachers are striking about the insulting pay offer, but are also angry about high and increasing workload, the privatisation of education and performance related pay. As the strike bulletin of the grassroots campaigning organisation 'Classroom Teacher' points out, "The Government wants us to carry on working ourselves into the ground meeting their targets when the best they can offer in return is year after year of below-inflation pay awards."

Further education lecturers have their own problems with pay. It seems likely that the Communication Workers' Union will ballot for strike action soon over Royal Mail pensions.

Staff in the Department of Work and Pensions are staging action on a number of issues, including pay, privatisation and brutal job cuts.

What links all 4 actions is a generalised assault on public services and the workers who day after day keep them running, despite the dead-hand of Government bureaucracy and targets, and crass and exploitative management. The New Labour government is trying to privatise and marketise public services, just as the neo-liberal faith it slavishly follows is crashing and burning in the wake of the global credit crisis and economic slowdown.

We support the strike action. With real inflation running at well over the official inflation (a ludicrous 2.5%) the Government dishonestly peddles, the pay offers to public sector workers means a decline in standard of living, and more and more workers struggling to make ends meet. In addition to this, the Government continues to claim that public sector pay rises are inflationary, a flat out lie, as admitted by most economists, many of them no friend to workers.

It is critical that this Thursday is not the end, but a stepping stone to future action involving all public sector unions. United action around the banner of 'public services not private profit', but encompassing other issues common to most public sector workers such as pay, pensions, workload and bullying management would be the best way to fight back against the Government, who won't rest until every public sector worker has their pay, pension and morale crushed, and every avenue of opportunity for private sector vultures to make as much money out of public services has been explored and exploited.

Join us on the picket lines and at the rally at St James Park, Exeter at noon!