NASUWT Islington Association

THE CAREER TEACHER’S ORGANISATION September 2002

www.islington.nasuwt.org.uk

To all Islington Teachers,

Well we survived the rain and the floods of another Summer and no doubt everyone's glad to be back after our Summer's rest. How do we manage to fill all that time ?....

Now that we are back, the bad news is that the government has decided not to give us a pay award, interim or otherwise, in connection with the London Weighting Allowance, despite the early day motion part sponsored by Jeremy Corbyn and the letter writing campaign. By now you should have returned the consultative ballot papers so we collectively know the strength of feeling of all members. Contact me if you are employed in an Islington school and did not get a ballot questionnaire. It should be sent to Rednal by Monday 30/9/02.

The negotiations over the Islington sport and leisure contract are still grinding on. It is expected that the Aqua Terra "Best And Final Offer" will be accepted at the end of October and a deal finally signed in December. The result should be a ten year contract, extendable by five years, beginning next April. This will remove uncertainty for our swimming instructor members.

Within Islington schools we have an increasing complement of unqualified teachers - 9% last January, not counting supply staff.. Some of them are from countries with teaching training programs at least as rigorous as ours, but some are either unqualified or on training courses (such as the graduate teaching program) that lead to QTS. While decrying the circumstances that have led us to this lack of qualified staff, NASUWT exists to protect the teacher in the classroom and it is important that these teachers are aware that full membership rights and protection are available to them from our union. For those on the GTP, it is free for the duration of the course.

Upper Pay Scale

Now this is a thorny issue. It is vital that your school rep makes sure that the local secretary knows how this is progressing in your school. It is a duty of headteachers to make an annual pay assessment. This year the process has been streamlined for pre-threshold teachers, so we hope that everyone will get their increment in September, rather than October or even November this year. The process should also be straightforward for those post threshold in that there is no need to make out a separate application; if the contribution to the school has continued to be "sustained and considerable" (as measured by the threshold process) then all those eligible should be recommended for the next point. The governors then have to find the money. Now if there is any attempt to pick who gets the point, you must contact me asap.

For our members that are overseas trained, Islington is involved in a scheme to arrange conversion to qualified teacher status. There will be two talks :

10/10/02 at Islington Arts and Media Sch

27/11/02 Barnsbury Centre

For more info, ring Sarah Ryan on 7527 5787

At the last AGM the following were re-elected to their posts:

Greg Robbins Secretary

Milena Lee Health and Safety

Treasurer

Don't forget that information on housing and similar schemes is regularly updated on the website. If you want to be on the e-mail list, please send a message to gregrobbins@nasuwt.net (rather than the usual e-mail.)

Greg Robbins

PS: answer to question: