Stockport District

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Welcome to the Stockport District web pages. Use the contact information on this page to get in touch about casework, local meetings and training, annual conference and other issues.

Cheadle and Marple Sixth Form College Members on Strike

NEU members working at Cheadle and Marple Sixth Form College will be taking strike action on Thursday 17 October to defend their pay, working conditions and employment. Cuts to 16-19 funding have been deeper and have gone on for longer than any other school sector.

Currently there is a £700 million shortfall in funding for Post-16 education. This impacts on our members and also students' education in this highly successful sector and is putting the future of sixth form colleges under serious threat.

NEU members are taking action to secure the funding needed to sustain fair pay, conditions and employment including reversing job losses, class size increases and cuts to teaching time and curriculum provision.

There will be a picket on the first strike day on 17 October to mark the beginning of a series of strike days extending into November, staffwill be at the Chealdle Campus from 7.30 am at the Cheadle Camplus, Cheadle Road, Cheadle Hulme SK8 5HA. If necessary, further days of strike action will take place on 5 November and 20 November.

Our Sixth Form Colleges and the staff who work in them have been hung out to dry by this Government.  Sixth Form Colleges have always been a beacon of quality, but funding cuts have had a savage impact on pay, conditions and jobs and have driven far too many colleges towards merger or closure. Strike action is always a last option but our members believe that it is necessary in order to solve our dispute and help save the sector.

Sign this petition to save our nursery schools

There are 392 nursery schools in England. The majority are located in the poorest parts of the country and, for many children, they are the only opportunity for early education. As a result of chronic underfunding, many nursery schools have been forced to close in recent years.

Unless the Government changes course, even more nursery schools will face threat of closure, as early as September 2020.

The Government has accepted that nursery school funding is insufficient. As a stopgap measure, it allocated some money to plug the holes – but only till 2020. Even with the recent funding announcement for schools and colleges, there is no funding commitment to secure the future of maintained nursery schools. Nursery schools face losing one third of their budget on average next year. This means severe cuts to the education and services they provide. In many cases, these cuts will simply put nursery schools at risk of closure.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson must guarantee proper funding for the long term and ensure no more nursery schools are forced to close because of insufficient budgets.  

Sign and share our petition.

School Funding Campaign

School funding cuts implemented by the Government put education at risk in Stockport, and huge cuts hitting schools now.  Increased funding is desperately needed to safeguard our children’s education. We want to change the course and ‘invest, don’t cut’ in our nurseries, schools and colleges.

Over the last few weeks, the Government have announced billions of pounds for our schools over the next three years. Make sure you read this to the end so you get all the facts.

This is the biggest boost we’ve secured for our schools so far — but it’s not enough.

You have made it politically unthinkable for any government to ignore the school funding crisis.

Until now the Government has refused to acknowledge the cuts that have devastated our schools for years.

Add it all up and that’s £21.1bn that we have won for our schools since starting this campaign.

Imagine what would have happened if we hadn’t come together, if we hadn’t marched, lobbied, written, leafleted, hung banners and talked to our neighbours.

Imagine the state our schools would be in right now.

This is your win, but be under no illusions, this announcement does not solve all the funding crisis.

You’ll hear on the news that there are no winners and losers, but that’s just not true.

All we have is the headline figures and they’re just not high enough. We know from experience that the devil is in the details. As soon as we know more we will do the maths and let you know what this means for our schools.

The Government wants you to believe that this money will settle the shortfall for every child, but here’s the bottom line: there is no way that’s true.

Sign up to https://schoolcuts.org.uk/ to keep up to date with how the campaign is going.

Together for Education week of action 2-9 November

Following on from our successful rally in June, the together for education partners are calling for a week of action on education funding in November. This week will include an activity a day. Please sign up to take part in this week and encourage others to do so here.

Other ways to find support

Your regional NEU office is North West Region. Call 012 0452 1434 or use the email contact form. If you need to speak to a member adviser, call AdviceLine on 0345 811 8111 or use the email contact form.