Topic: | Re:Bijou School set for White City location....... | |
Posted by: | Andy Magee | |
Date/Time: | 25/01/11 13:31:00 |
Regardless of who chose the headline you are displaying it on the WLFS website. My understanding of the Academies bill is that it only provides safeguards for teachers for 12 months. After that their pay and conditions can be significantly altered. It appears to me that the union quite correctly tried to prevent their members being left in a position where they were required to work longer for less money. It looks to me as if the threatening behaviour involved the teachers employed by the school registering their opposition with the governors and threatening to invoke their right to strike if their pay and conditions were worsened. You chose not to report this in your article. £50 million was taken from the Harnessing Technology grant to pay for the capital costs of Free Schools, including the WLFS. The LBHF's share of the £50m Harnessing Technology grant would not have been lost if there were no free schools. Therefore, the WLFS can absolutely be accused of diverting money from LBHF's schools. I understand if you feel this is an appropriate use of resources but I don’t understand how you can say it has not happened. I also disagree with the assumption that the most cost effective solution is necessarily the best. Potacabins in the playground are cost effective. I also don’t know on what basis your proposal is cost effective. Surely, expanding the existing schools (as proposed in the BSF Outline Business Case) would have been a more cost effective solution. I think it is absolutely legitimate for teaching unions to oppose any scheme which will significantly worsen the pay and conditions of their members and, depending on which piece of research you choose to believe, may worsen the teaching and learning of children. You on the other hand are being paid by a right wing paper to write articles making slanted, personal comments about people who have done far more for the public good than you have. I think you are slipping off your moral high ground. P.S. Will you be teaching Niemoller as part of your liberal arts curriculum? |