This guidance sets out the steps members can take to ensure that parents and carers are not disadvantaged during the Covid-19 crisis by their childcare responsibilities.
The National Education Union councillors’ network thanks Marcus Rashford for speaking out about his family’s personal experiences and is calling on the Government to fully fund a summer holiday offer for learners.
Despite the uncertainty, there are opportunities- and practical reasons- why we need creativity and flexibility in our approach to the curriculum during coronavirus.
Summer 2020 provide LAs an opportunity to respond to the experiences of children and young people during lockdown, offered as a minimum to disadvantaged and vulnerable children and young people, to support their well-being and health this summer.
NEU legal advice if your school announces that it is open or planning to reopen for more pupils and asks staff to return to work at school before the lock down is lifted.
This is a worrying time. The coronavirus pandemic doesn’t just impact on physical health; mental health can be affected too. To help you explore some of the wellbeing issues you maybe experiencing an NEU professional development webinar has been developed.
The NEU thinks schools should not use an approach to learning at home which is solely online. Here are what schools can do to support students without digital access to continue with learning.
The NEU Hardship Fund has been established to provide financial assistance to members facing financial difficulties as a result of the Covid-19 crisis.
To help families get the information they need, the NEU has created a series of posters designed to be personalised for your school/college and emailed out to parents, carers, staff and students.
Join Andrew Morris, assistant general secretary and Jayne Phillips, head of legal services for a telephone town hall conference call for supply members at 3.00pm on Monday, 30 March.
As schools begin to open more widely for more pupils, teachers will be engaged in both face-to-face teaching and continuing to support remote learning.
The coronavirus pandemic has caused many specific issues and problems in our special schools and for members who work in them.
We have compiled advice and guidance for our members, leaders and workplace reps in special schools.
The following checklist will help you to assess, in discussion with the member, whether it is safe for a physical meeting to go ahead, and if not, whether a remote, digital, meeting is appropriate.
This guidance is specifically for NEU Black members and should be read in conjunction with our general advice on ensuring safety for staff at greater risk.
This National Education Union (NEU) checklist for supply members gives advice on work via supply agencies or directly with schools from 1 June onwards.
This guidance gives advice for NEU members who are in clinically vulnerable groups, or who live with or care for people who are clinically vulnerable, or who are in other groups known to be at higher risk.
Some schools plan to continue with academy conversion during the COVID-19 crisis. This is despite the current lockdown meaning schools are closed to most pupils.
During the coronavirus pandemic, many NEU members will be working from home, either on days they are not on the rota to be in school, or because they fall into the categories of those who should not be in school because they are vulnerable.
Schools are closed and there are lots of different opinions on what learning will look like over the next few months. In this unprecedented time, parents cannot expect that their children will be accessing a normal timetable or individual support on a regular basis.
Our major priority, during this awful crisis, is the health and safety of our members who are continuing to go to work to care for vulnerable pupils and the children of key workers.
The NEU is committed to helping you ensure safety in the workplace for all staff and students in schools and colleges during this very challenging time.
The outbreak of Covid- 19 leaves many women and girls in vulnerable and unsafe situations. Services to support women and girls remain open during this difficult time.
Mark Langhammer, Northern Ireland regional secretary's blog on social distancing, hiring more teachers, a 1 to 10 ratio, secondary spikes and a cautionary note from Azerbaijan.
How has Northern Ireland’s economy coped with lockdown, and how might the workplace change as we gradually emerge? By Mark Langhammer, Northern Ireland regional secretary.
Week of 30 March, Professor Scally published important articles in the Irish Times and Irish News which were widely read and debated, and get to the heart of the UK Government’s approach to the Covid-19 crisis. Prof. Scally’s article is reproduced here in full, without the need for further comment.
Ambitious proposals to regenerate the further education sector are welcome. The devil of course will be in the detail and we will need to see what is in the White Paper in September.
NEU Cymru welcomes an increase to the workforce. We believe that supply staff and those new to the profession will welcome the opportunity to provide extra support for those pupils who need it at this challenging time.
School leaders need clear guidance based on scientific evidence, but instead they are confronted by a Government which is rushing through ideas that seem more based on hope than on science. A poor plan, such as this one, risks failing children, parents and staff alike.
Advice from the Department of Education, Northern Ireland guidance on School Restart Programme, including responses to the questions asked by NEU members at the recent Zoom meeting.
NEU Cymru have written to the Minister for Education, Welsh Government calling for local authorities to be funded to make a summer holiday local offer available to children and young people.
Today’s data show the proportion of pupils in class sizes of 31+ now stands at 13.4% across primary and secondary. This accounts for almost 1 million children, a shocking figure.
Leaks of proposals for school re-opening in September are not helpful. Schools and parents need to see from Government a clearly thought-out plan outlining the scientific reasoning behind a return for all pupils.
A joint letter of agreement has been agreed and issued further to the announcement confirming that as a consequence of the current exceptional circumstances, the start of the academic year 20/21 will be from week commencing 17 August 2020.
The Prime Minister's hopes are not enough. He needs a plan for more teachers, to ask teachers who have left the profession to return, and he needs to be finding extra spaces in which they can teach smaller groups.
The NFER report shows that a quarter of pupils have limited access to IT at home. Gavin Williamson confirmed in the Commons last week that only around half of requests for the Government’s free laptop scheme for disadvantaged students have so far been met.
The figures released show what a very long way the Government has to go to convince the nation’s parents and teachers that a wider opening of schools is safe.
The government’s social distancing rules made it impossible for primary schools to admit all pupils before the summer holidays. Primary schools and secondary schools will not re-open to all pupils until September at the earliest.
The NEU calls on the Government and Public Health England to develop urgent advice on the issues of greater health risk identified in the Fenton Review.
It is deeply alarming that in an already parlous situation, this report forecasts that an enormous number of children will be thrown into poverty by Christmas.
The Minister’s statement in which she has opened schools to all year groups with effect from 29 June does not sit well with NEU Cymru. It is too much, too soon.
Respondents to a survey conducted by the National Education Union between 31 May and 1 June, reveals the pragmatism of schools when asked to open more widely under easing of lockdown.
The NEU sends its solidarity to the family and friends mourning George Floyd. We condemn the systemic racism that caused George's death and we support the urgent demands for justice for George Floyd, for his family and his community.
Today, two months since lockdown was introduced, the Government has finally granted access to some of the scientific modelling behind its proposal for schools to open more widely from June 1.
Independent SAGE set two crucial conditions for the safe wider opening of schools: low levels of Coronavirus in the community, and a robust track and trace system.
NEU Cymru welcomes no date set for opening schools in Wales. Like everyone, we want learners to be back in their classrooms. But not until it is safe to do so.
We are pleased that Sir Patrick Vallance, Chief Scientific Adviser to the Government on Covid-19 has told the NEU that information and papers from SAGE would be published and that they will prioritise its release.
It's really important that we are absolutely clear what the level of safety is and if it remains the case that we believe it to be unsafe, we will not back the wider opening of schools.
These studies raise real concerns about the impact that a wider re-opening of schools would have on the rate of Covid 19 transmission and its incidence in families.
On the eve of Sage meeting at which lockdown measures will be reviewed, NEU petition demanding schools re-open only when safe to do so nears 350,000 signatures.
As the Public Accounts Committee report makes clear, the Government approach on support has let SEND children down. Covid-19 means we have to put children's learning needs and interests at the heart of the offer in the classroom.
The General Secretaries of 10 teacher trade unions across the UK and Ireland have written to the Education Ministers in all 5 jurisdictions urging “significant caution in any consideration of reopening schools.
NEU has launched 5 tests for Government before schools can re-open. We believe that these test must be capable of being passed in order to create the necessary confidence amongst parents and staff.
We were relieved to hear confirmation from the Education Secretary that schools and colleges will not be returning during the summer holidays. Lockdown is not a holiday.
For our members, parents and learners themselves, staying safe at this difficult time is critical. We look forward to hearing more details from the Welsh Government in the coming weeks.
NEU Cymru has welcomed the announcement by the Education Minister, setting out the conditions under which schools in Wales will reopen. The union agrees that the safety of staff and students alike is paramount.
NEU joint general secretaries have written to the education secretary Gavin Williamson about issues affecting supply staff during the Covid-19 pandemic.
NEU welcomes Government's announcement that practical steps will be taken to test school staff for Covid-19. It is essential that staff who are self-isolating at home get immediate access to the test.
NEU Cymru welcomes the Welsh Government’s revised guidance today. Our members will be heartened to see that the Welsh Government is thinking about those children most in need of support.
Some pupils will need much more individual support than is possible, and many will need support for their wellbeing before any meaningful learning can take place.
We're pleased the Education Minister has focused on wellbeing in launching this policy statement. Like the Minister says, the wellbeing and safety of learners and education professionals alike is centrally important at this difficult time.
Extra £1.25 million for school counselling services will be invaluable to support the anticipated increase in need for mental health services as a result of social distancing and school shut down measures.
In the light of speculation on the re-opening of schools and colleges, the joint General Secretaries of the National Education Union have called on the Prime minister for clarity on how the Government will make such a decision.
NEU Cymru welcomes the Welsh Government plans to ensure social distancing in the workplace. These are challenging times, and it is right that we try and keep those in work as safe as possible.
The UCL review indicates that school closures are effective as part of a combination of tactics. Schools can only open safely on the basis of sound scientific reasoning. We are a long way from this point.
In a time of crisis it is welcome that the BBC is not just informing and entertaining, but remembering the other part of their original mission statement: to educate.
We are pleased that the Department for Education and Ofqual both recognise the professionalism of teachers. Exams are not the only way to assess someone’s ability.
Today four education unions, NEU, ASCL, NAHT and UCAC have issued joint coronavirus advice to their members calling for mutual respect, understanding and support.
During this time of crisis school leaders, teachers and support staff are doing essential work – caring for the children of key workers and vulnerable children in Wales.
The NEU guidance on distance learning out today makes very clear what should be acceptable levels of workload. Normal education is currently suspended, and teachers should not be teaching a full timetable, or routinely marking work.
The Covid-19 crisis means that school leaders, teachers and support staff are working in new situations and new ways in order to meet the challenges they face every day.
Supply teachers, agency teaching assistants and others working in the education sector must have proper financial stability, on a genuine like-for-like with their directly-employed counterparts.
We know many of our members will be worried, so need strong and clear advice to schools, to back up the head teachers, who are having to choose which young people can be in schools.
Our priority as a union is to our members and the children and young people they work with. We are concerned that Government advice for schools is not currently strong enough.
Schools should only remain open to those whose parents are key workers. The vast majority of children should stay at home. This is the safest place for them.
The Covid19 lockdown will have unique psychological impacts on children and young people as they deal with disrupted routines, loss of personal agency and disconnection from family, friends and favourite activities.
Want to know more about supporting children’s emotional wellbeing? Get involved in this unique training delivered by Professor Renold and the AGENDA team.
