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THE 72ND EDITION FOR ALL PLYMOUTH TEACHERS OCTOBER 2007

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PAY Your pay “rise”

If you believe your salary
and that of your
co-workers is too high
this month is
Your pay is being eroded
and needs to be
cut—do nothing -1.9% by £37 a month
than a £ a day...
—more
month—

• Inflation now Government Warning:

4.1% TEACHING CAUSES SERIOUS
• Crude Oil up DAMAGE TO YOUR WEALTH
8.1% How much are you worth? Are you happy working harder for less pay? Is that fair?
The NUT nationally has been sending each of you information about how the
• Mortgage government is trying to impose a pay cut. The official inflation rate this month is
4.1% which is well above the 2.5% pay awarded in September. This means that
repossessions as prices rise you have actually been given a pay cut. Education ministers are
refusing to reconsider the pay award, even though they had originally promised to
up 30% do so.
INFORMATION
• PO workers Don’t chuck the union bumph straight in the bin before reading about what’s
happening to you. How far are you prepared to let your pay be eroded?
achieve a Historically, NUT members have fought hard to get teachers’ wages on a
professional footing. They had watched the same erosion of pay and stood up to
possible 6.7% be counted. We achieved a dramatic increase as a result.
Incidentally, we’re not the only ones taking wage cuts. Your colleagues in the
rise after taking GMB and UNISON are in the same boat. In fact, all public-service workers are
being affected. By working together we can make a bigger impact on the
strike action government...but what can I do?
• Petrol and ❑ Read the stuff that the NUT is sending you
❑ Discuss it with your colleagues in all the unions
diesel over £1 ❑ Tell your MP. The national NUT website will help you to do this
a litre ❑ Visit the national NUT website at www.teachers.org.uk — it’s buzzing with
ideas and teachers’ points of view, so why not join in?

Independent of Government and not affiliated to any political party

 Peanuts anybody? Images of
Tolpuddle 2007
A Few Facts.... Longcause Rep
Rob Barrett [r]
shoulders the
1. As teachers, our pay increases have been held down to, or SW Region
below, inflation in recent years. banner on the
2. We received a 2.5% rise from April 2004; 2.5% from April procession
2005; 0. 75% from September 2005; 2.5% from September
2006 and 2.5% from September 2007.
3. On top of this, anyone who is still in receipt of an MA has
not had a rise in the allowance since April 2003. AT THE END OF
4. Also, from January 2007, we are all paying an extra 0.4% NOVEMBER
towards our pensions, cutting our rise from September down
to effectively 2.1%. NUT
5. Annual inflation is currently running at 4.1%. Pay rates in MEMBERS WILL BE
the private sector are rising by more than 4% per annum.
6. Teachers begin their career earning 10% less than other ASKED TO BALLOT
graduates. After 5 years in the job, the gap has widened to FOR STRIKE
more than 20%. This is in an era when far more jobs have
graduate status. ACTION TO
Mr Brown, the then Chancellor said... PROTECT OUR PAY
"You will have seen our determination to address public
sector pay with this year's public sector settlements down to – ASK YOUR ATL AND
just 2.25%. We will maintain vigilance in the fight against NASUWT COLLEAGUES
inflation. We recognise that around the world what's
driving public sector inflation is rising public sector labour TO JOIN US!
costs. Public sector payments must now be founded on
meeting that 2 per cent inflation target."
DARLING BALLS & BROWN Steve Sinnott
Peanuts ‘til 2011?
No thank you Mr Balls! No thank you Mr Darling! said, “You can’t
No thank you Mr Brown! value public
It’s an old trick to try to get teachers and other public sector
workers to pay for public services by cutting their standard of
servants
living. It was tried to disastrous effect by Labour in the late if you cut
1970s. It does the government no credit to think about
repeating it.
their pay”
Our Conference was quite clear that we would
seek united action with other teachers’ Ed Balls finds
organisations and other public sector workers to out his pay rise
defeat these proposals.
will be the same
NASUWT, UNISON and PCS have already
expressed similar intentions to fight a public as teachers for
sector pay freeze. the next 3 years

“We need a union not in partnership with government but in partnership with teachers”
A special section on the NUT website allows members to give their experiences and views on the pay
situation. A Plymouth teacher sent this:
"I’m coming into my third year of teaching now and I love it to bits. I was given the responsibility of
Maths coordinator at the end of my first year. My school is in Intensive Support, which means I am
continuously under pressure. I work on average 60 hours a week. I don’t get paid extra for being maths
co-ordinator. It’s a lot of work for not a lot of money. I waste money every month on rent, and I really
want to buy a house! (No chance!) I do the job for the children, not the pay, but it would be nice to feel
that I’m not being mugged-off by the government. Teaching is where life begins; without teachers
there would be no doctors, lawyers, politicians, anything! Our wage should reflect our importance. Happy
teachers make for a good school environment and therefore happy children that want to learn! "
Tell us how your living costs and standards are being affected by below inflation pay rises. Contribute
to the debate and help the Union develop its case. Send your message by going to the special section of
the NUT website:
http://www.teachers.org.uk/SalaryCampaign/salarycamp.php#form
Please note that the comments selected for publishing will appear anonymously. Information gathered in
your details will be used for reference purposes only by the NUT. The union will only publish a selection
of comments supplied.

IL
NT R RECRUIT A Talk to your ATL, NASUWT,
U
D
DE EMB
E UNISON & GMB colleagues to
TE
N
EX H NO
V COLLEAGUE OR see if they feel their pay
30T A FRIEND TO should be cut
THE NUT
FREE 1GB USB
and have the MEMORY STICK
chance to win for every NQT
A CASE OF joining before
QUALITY WINE 30th November—just
or email your membership
£50 IN CASH number and school
address to get yours!
FULL DETAILS FROM
plymnut@teacher.clara.co.uk
 MINIBUS
UPDATE
Booster Seats in School Mini-buses ?
All passengers in a minibus (which is up to 2.54 tonnes
unladen weight) have been required to use seat belts
for some years. A child required to use a child seat or
booster in a car must do so in a minibus only if a
suitable one is available. A typical car child seat is
not suitable for a typical minibus seat—which is
narrower and less deep. A seat is not available if it is
not suitable. As a general rule, therefore, the children
will use the belts provided, which are typically adjust-
able. The operator is not required to provide suit-
able child seats. The new rules do not yet apply in
respect of children travelling in bigger coaches and
buses, but they will be the same eventually as they are
for minibuses. Passengers in all minibuses/buses/
coaches where seat belts are fitted must be notified that
seat belt wearing is required by law. For information
on that and further information on seat belt wearing on
buses and coaches see the DforT website.
A member asks: “Our HT is using the new professional
standards to put pressure on staff to do more. She has told
one teacher on UPS1 that the post-threshold standard P5:
‘Have a more developed knowledge and understanding WORKLOAD INCREASING...
of their subjects/curriculum areas and related pedagogy We now know that the so-called workload agreement has
including how learning progresses within them,’ means that failed to reduce our workload. Even with at least 10% PPA
he should be taking a leadership role in Geography.” time teachers are in many cases working for longer and teach-
Answer: Guidance is being prepared for members on the ing more. A few have seen a reduction measured only in
implications of the new STP&CD pay standards for those minutes. What has been the cost of all this? The 3-year 2%
wishing to apply to access the Upper Pay Scale. The NUT’s “pay deal”...time for some professional unity...
guidance to members will emphasise that HTs need not
reassess whether teachers on the main scale applying for
post-threshold assessment to access the upper pay scale have ASBESTOS—SHOULD WE
met the core standards. The NUT believes that it will be
sufficient for HTs to check whether the teacher’s annual BE CONCERNED?
performance reviews have shown that he or she has met the
core standards.
The post-threshold standard P5 "Have a more...how learning
See next month’s
progresses within them" is not very specific. This HT has
chosen to decide that means leading a subject; it could mean
edition
develop your geography skills. Depending on the amount of If your PM reviewer insists on crude % pupil performance say that it
leadership time you are given there is a limit to what you can could rebound on the school management via OfSTED if individual
do in your directed time without additional pay. One should pupil-specific progress grades were used for targets of particular
assume leadership time must be given if people are expected staff because overall pupil progress is judged by OfSTED as a
to co-ordinate a subject, and paid a TLR if the criteria fits. whole-school issue. It’s not in the new PM Regs anyway...
A member writes, “Do I Plymouth Division:
have to set work for my TA plymnut@teacher.clara.co.uk
to deliver when I have PPA 01503 240527
time?” Regional Office:
Answer: NO—it’s about south.west@nut.org,uk
workload reduction... 01392 258028