Stephen Yaxley Lennon is not a martyr.
He has been remanded in custody until his court case next Monday.
The case against him is contempt of court for deliberately ignoring a court order.
He lost a libel case and had to pay damages of £100,000.
He kept repeating the libel.🧵 The judge told him to stop; he didn’t.
He said he was going to repeat it again on Saturday. He still says his associates will repeat the libel. He wants to make himself a martyr, as part of his plan to whip up hatred.
This isn't a case of two tier justice:

I’m in tears at this.

A Holocaust survivor, the daughter of a holocaust survivor, the granddaughter of a holocaust survivor stand together against the genocide in Gaza.

Let love not hate dominate.

#CeasefireNow Genocide is an internationally recognized crime where acts are committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group.

ushmm.org/genocide-preve…

Cuba and Palestine. Did you know that:

✅ In 1959, just after the victory of the revolution in Cuba Che Guevara and Raul Castro visited the Bureij refugee camp in Gaza. ✅ Since 1982 many thousands of Palestinians have trained in Cuba - as doctors, engineers and other professions.

ULT’s attack on the Teachers Pension Scheme - a 🧵

The United Learning Trust says that it will offer starting salaries of £45,000 in London to teachers who leave the teacher pension scheme. It claims this is not a cost saving measure - but if this scheme actually comes in then many other multi Academy trusts will offer similar schemes.

The existence of the teacher pension scheme would be threatened.

And after it is destroyed then there will be huge cost savings.

This is my assessment….

The NEU moved the Government: They would have not accepted the 6.5% from STRB report and would have gone with around 5% if it were not for the threat of further action next term.

🧵 The Govt was convinced we could mount action next term because members kept the action going so strongly - even during difficult days in July.

This was a real achievement by NEU members. It has put more money in their pockets their schools than if they hadn’t stayed strong.

I’m on my way to Parliament to talk to MPs and Peers about why we have profound concerns about the Oak National Academy.

Oak is a supposedly independent “arms length” body.

However… ❌ Oak is expected to “align strategically” with Government aims.
❌ It has appointed an Ofsted inspector to each of its Subject Expert Panels
❌ The business case admits that Ofsted inspections may be “influential in accelerating the uptake of Oak’s services.

The Government offer:
1. To fully implement the STRB recommendations: a 6.5% increase from 1 Sept on all pay points & allowances.
2. Extra funding for schools to pay for it of £900m per annum *
3. A set of commitments – agreed with the PM – to measures to reduce teacher workload * We have reassurances that this extra money will not come from any frontline services, including
Special Educational Needs (SEND) funding,
Schools’ capital
Nursery schools or
16-19 funding.

Teacher vacancies are 93% higher now than in the year before the pandemic. Government is forecast to recruit only 79% of the primary teachers it needs this year.

just met two science teachers, delegates to our annual conference.

The biologist told me her department, at quite a nice grammar school, has just advertised for a biology A-level teacher. No candidates with a degree in biology came forward. They currently have a maternity leave, which has no full-time teacher covering the classes: support for the children has just been bodged together by staff in the department.

What those WhatsApp messages confirm (a 🧵):

December 2020 - a new variant was tearing through the pandemic, especially through school children. Vaccination had only just got started. Matt Hancock was following scientific advice and wanted schools closed in January*.
Gavin Williamson was following Tory Testosterone and wanted schools open under all circumstances.
Astonishingly, Johnson supported Williamson.

Astonishing figures from Ipsos.

Teachers are the third most supported strikers - by the general public. Which is fantastic.

But amongst PARENTS - those who know our work best - 6 in 10 support the strikes!

6 in 10 parents support teachers going on strike – only 1 in 5 oppose Keiran Pedley, Research Director at Ipsos said of the findings:

“When we look at public support for potential strike action, we tend to find more sympathy for teachers than many other professions and that is reflected in this data too.”

Why are teachers feeling hard up?
Why can’t schools recruit the teachers they need?
These numbers explain a lot.

Please watch and RT Why are teachers feeling hard up? (part 2)

The cumulative impact.

Nearly 25% of your salary gone!

If you want to break this sequence, if you don’t want it to be even worse next year, you have to vote.

What a way to run a country:

Recession for two years,
High price inflation,
Low wage growth.

What is going wrong?

Well… Price inflation isn’t being caused by wage growth,

But the Bank of England is behaving as though it is,

Increasing interest rates to slow the economy,

Further increasing cost-of-living

A constant Government line on nurses’ pay, and on teachers’ pay is:

“We have followed the recommendations of the independent pay review boards”

Sounds good.

But are those boards independent?

Consider these 3 points… 1. The Government handpicks all the members of these boards.

None of the members are appointed by the unions.

None are appointed by ACAS.

What’s the truth about the 9% pay rise for teachers story?

The story this week is a confection designed by Govt to confuse the public.

Here is the truth.

Thread… FIRSTLY - starting salaries.

In Nadhim Zahawi’s evidence to the STRB - in February - he suggested a 9% pay rise in the starting salary for new teachers for Sept 2022.

He also suggested a further 7% rise in the starting salary for Sept 2023.

Schools White Paper Warning - a thread

The newly positioned Regional Directors will have significant powers - determining which MATs are strong, directing moves of schools between them.

1. But these Regional Directors won't know their schools except than through data. And they will be central govt emissaries to the regions rather than in any sense local authorities.

2.

Covid cases in secondary schools in England are shooting up.

So is education disruption.
1/6 Covid cases in Scottish schools are heading down.

2/6

Phased or big bang - a thread

When we started a very slow, phased, return of schools from June last year the Covid infection rate was 1 person in every 1,000.
When we had a “big bang” return of schools in September last year the Covid Infection rate was 1 person in every 1400. On current trends, by March 8, the Covid infection rate is likely to be 1 person in every 300.
So 3 times higher than last June and 4.5 times higher than in September.
There are countervailing factors:

Opening in devolved nations

Wales
Children aged between three and seven - those in the foundation phase - are returning to school from Monday 22.
The next review will look at all primary pupils and some older students, returning to schools and colleges from 15 March. Northern Ireland
From 8th of March pre-school, nursery, and primary school pupils in year groups P1 to P3 will return to face-to-face learning.
On the 22nd March, secondary pupils who will be awarded qualifications this summer - year groups 12 to 14 - will return to school.

In one school the head was insisting that all staff travel every day in order to teach online lessons from empty classrooms.

This is clearly in breach of government guidance that you should work from home if you can.

1/3 They were of course very willing to be in teaching key worker/vulnerable groups as necessary.

But they quite rightly didn’t believe that they should be filling up public transport every day.

2/3

We placed this ad in the Daily Mirror and some regional press today.

We had booked it into the Daily Mail - but they made a political decision to turn it down.