Faith schools

“We are here on the picket line to ensure that students who are LGBTQ+ – including those who are LGBTQ+ and religious – feel seen, safe and heard.” – a JFS striker On 12 May, workers at the John Fisher School in Purley, South London – members of the National Education Union, mainly teachers – took...

The strike at the John Fisher Catholic school in the south London borough of Sutton, over the cancelling of an author’s visit and the sacking of governors in connection with it, has now been widely reported. See, for instance, here and here. The author, Simon James Green writes teen fiction that...

Cleaners in the United Voices of the World union (UVW) at La Retraite Catholic girls’ school in south west London have secured a 24% wage increase, full contractual sick pay, and the repayment of withheld wages, just three days into a planned 40-day strike. The strike, which involved cleaners...

The first the staff knew about this decision was from a leak in the local pub. An ex-governor had told another ex-governor that the Governing Body had made this decision in December 2019. The news spread like wildfire and therefore the governors had to announce it to the community in January 2020...

As in so many areas the Corbyn leadership and the 2017 manifesto marked a, welcome and significant, sea change in the party’s direction and vocabulary on education. Gone was the talk of driving up standards by competition, increased observation and greater punishment of teachers who didn’t make the...