by a Haringey NEU member
There has been overwhelming support for strike action over Haringey Labour council’s proposals to increase class sizes and change terms and conditions in the five local authority-run secondary schools.
In four schools — Fortismere, Gladesmore, Highgate Wood and Hornsey School for Girls — there were massive votes for action, up to 97%! Park View School narrowly missed the Tory 50% turnout threshold (scandalously maintained by Starmer’s Labour government), with a 49% turnout. NEU members there will be re-balloted.
Photo: Paula Mitchell
An agreement has been in place since 1988 that class sizes are limited to 27 students and that teachers have 20% of their timetable protected for planning, preparation and assessment (PPA). These measures have played a huge part in the improvement of student outcomes in the borough over the last 35 years. The current plans to break this longstanding agreement will undoubtedly have a negative impact.
But Labour-controlled Haringey claims it has no choice but to pass on the Tories’ changes to the school funding formula, that moved funding per student away from inner-city areas like Haringey in favour of largely Tory-controlled areas. Headteachers, facing budget deficits, are in turn saying that they are simply following through on the council’s proposals.
This is a testing ground for other secondary schools in the borough.
Staff and students should not be suffering due to underfunding of education. Instead, headteachers, unions, school communities and Labour councillors should be joining forces to campaign for this Labour government to reverse Tory policies and fund decent education for all.
Haringey council facing ‘bankruptcy’
The Labour leader of the council said: “In recent years, the reality has been that we have less money to serve more people who require more services which have become more expensive to provide.” The council has declared a ‘funding emergency’ and has applied for a £37 million government grant to stay afloat.
But in all the 14 years of Tory austerity, the Labour council never once challenged the cuts with any serious strategy. Time and again, they passed cuts on to services and communities.
Haringey council building workers, members of Unite, took strike action at the end of last year. The fight for better pay for council building workers is the same fight as that of education staff.
Here is an opportunity for Unite and the NEU to join forces, to build a mass campaign involving parents, unions and communities, to fight for the funding we need for all our services from Starmer’s Labour government!