Nicky Morgan's thread continued (MNers calling for Lucy Powell to do webchat)

[Mner]

Following on from Nicky Morgan MP's one sided "webchat" see here...

Active petitions against academisation are here:
petition.parliament.uk/petitions/124702
petition.parliament.uk/petitions/124747

Guardian article is here

You can write to your MP: www.writetothem.com/

Good luck to everyone at the demonstrations today. I can't attend

I think making schools compete with each other and treating schools like businesses are the root of most of the problems in our education system

Absolutely agree. Competition is not good for schools, we don't want a system where some schools do better and some do worse, we want all schools to do well and cooperation is what leads to that, not competition.

Looks to me that Nicky Morgan has gone into hiding and they fielded a different spokesman just to keep buying time.
Having if giving the same education to each and every child really does matter, what's the point of David Cameron attending Eton then?
I think this government is dead and slowly rotting away now.
Disgusting

Has Nicky Morgan responded to any of these comments?

A report in the Guardian regarding a speech on this subject just made by Jeremy Corbyn

www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/mar/25/jeremy-corbyn-tories-asset-stripping-education-nut-conference?CMP=twt_a-education_b-gdnedu

www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-35891011

BBC link to his speech at the NUT conference today. Glad he's speaking up about it!

Nicky Morgan is speaking at one of the other teaching union conferences tomorrow, wonder how well that will go down.

The most patronising boll*cks from Nicky Morgan in a Guardian interview:

Being a parent is not a skill school governors need

Being a privately educated 'not nice and very dim' Tory is not a skill Education Secretaries need.

On this point, NM is wrong:

"I’ve never met somebody, a parent, who has said: I’m not voting for your party in a local election because of the state of our schools. If people think that local elections are won or lost on local education matters, that isn’t happening.”

I've known an LA which was thrown into disarray at the last local elections due to the appalling way in which the Council handled Education matters.
Those who were elected in favour of the long standing Tory members - well meaning, inexperienced new Cllrs - have been ill equipped to deal with the demands of the last, and current, national administration. The area is in turmoil.

Morgan said councils’ new role will be “championing the rights of parents”

So the only voice parents get in the new system will be the local authorities who will have absolutely no control or influence over anything to do with schools. Apart from perhaps what pretty colours to do the admissions booklet in this year.

I can't believe NM believes all the twaddle she comes out with. It must be Gove behind all this.

No, it's DC behind the lot of them. I haven't liked Gove, Morgan, Hunt and a whole bunch of others, but while they (rightly) get a load of flack, Cameron seems to dodge it all.

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/mar/25/tories-blundered-academies-schools-george-osborne

A comment here made me laugh: "First opportunity dismantle Public Schools and make them illegal. If the Academy chains are good enough for us, they should be good enough for all."

So Nicky Morgan has time to write more patronising nonsense in the Guardian but not to respond to MNHQ's request for a few facts and figures to back up her post on here? That's seriously unimpressive.

According to the soaraway Sun, Nicky's next move is to 'blast' the nasuwt conference.

I'm hoping they walk out. Or better stand & give her their backs.

Anyone going?

That Nicky Morgan article in The Guardian yesterday was so patronising yet again, it makes me mad!

She said 'Parents had little interest in the precise details of school governance'. Apart from the 1000s of posts on the Mumsnet threads Nicky, which you have resoundingly ignored.
She also says 'Speaking as parent, I don't think parents think all the time about structures'. Sorry Nicky, your views as a parent are not valid, as you already made clear by your proposal to remove parent governors.
And lastly this little gem 'I know from conversations I've had with other mums, I'll ask 'Is your child's school an Academy or a local authority school?' - and they'll look at me blankly.' Well it's great to know the biggest shake-up in education in living memory has been informed by a few chats Nicky has had....

She seriously expects people to believe that parents don't know whether their child's school is an academy or not?
What is it about being a mother exactly that causes us to have the reasoning skills of plankton and why hasn't this metamorphosis happened to NC?

Sorry NM (perhaps she's right after all...)

She has been given a hostile reception with at least one teacher shouting 'rubbish'.

I thought that the NASUWT was traditionally more moderate than the NUT, and more inclined to be the favoured union of Secondary school teachers, so they might just know what they are talking about.

NM is making no friends with this comment: "Why aren't they (teaching unions) using the tools available to them to build up teachers, promote the profession and tell the story of what a rewarding job teaching really is"

The ignorance / arrogance is breath-taking...has she really not noticed the anger rumbling about the reforms she is forcing through? Reforms that many of us seem to think are damaging children's education???

She also commented that 'there is no reverse button on academies' and they would happen no matter what. So there. No doubt sticking her fingers in her ears and saying lalalalaaaa. Despite most teachers, many parents, education specialists, Ofsted and even some Tories saying that this is a very bad idea, poorly thought-through. Getting interesting isn't it?

I

She presumably doesn't read Mumsnet, or she would have seen no end of posts from serving teachers which say how they love teaching itself and working with the children but are sick of Govt interference, ticking boxes, bullying management etc. etc. etc.

So Nicky, according to your speech today it's the unions fault there is a recruitment crisis. The unions should also be talking up the benefits of academisation.

Definition of a union

'an organized association of workers in a trade, group of trades, or profession, formed to protect and further their rights and interests.'

It is you and your predecessor that have created this situation, do not point the finger of blame anywhere else.

do not point the finger of blame anywhere else.

But she will as long as she can. It's all Labour's fault, (never mind that they haven't been in Government for nearly six years), it's the Unions fault, it's the teachers fault, it's the parent's fault, it's the Local Authorities fault. She and Cameron/Osborne and chums are running out of people to blame.

I don't believe it! She is literally saying "either battle us for next four years of accept it" !! I am sick of Tory bastards.

JUSTINE & MNHQ

Any discussiin about Corbyn ?
Or do we wait for the next election ?

Well that speech was an interesting move.

Full text here if anyone wants it

I'm still not sure if that was brave or stupid. She does appear to be declaring war on teachers at the moment though. I'm wondering what else she has planned.

So what's to be done, if she and her chums have made it clear they don't want to know? If the NUT were to vote for strike action that would be twisted to her advantage.

The only thing I could think of would be how about all primary schools voting to avoid the SATS tests, because they have no educational merit, and instead have a curriculum enrichment time of music, drama, outdoor activities? All the things which Nicky and chums are having squeezed out of the curriculum and one which wouldn't mess working parents around.

The Tories have decided to have a blitzkrieg on the people of this country, and are hitting people so hard they are spinning, every week it’s a new assault, unrelated but just yesterday the guardian reported Conservative ministers are planning to repeal an array of official guidance on animal welfare standards, starting with a move to put the code on chicken-farming into the hands of the poultry industry. www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2016/mar/25/government-planning-to-repeal-animal-welfare-codes.

And while people are worrying about that, you can throw in all the other problems to keep people spinning, Forced academisation, and qualified teacher status (QTS) accreditation is to be scrapped and replaced with a new scheme which will see teachers formally approved only when they are considered ready by school leaders. www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/tory-school-reforms-force-teachers-7575972

And Teacher shortages and rising pupil numbers puts schools on edge of crisis www.theguardian.com/education/2015/aug/29/schools-trouble-rising-pupils-teacher-shortage-uk-crisis Add on to this, Local elections in May. Elections for Police and Crime Commissioners will be on Thursday the 5th of May. The EU referendum elections. London mayor elections. Devolution deal for East Anglia, George Osborne’s “devolution revolution” has become the latest Treasury policy to run into trouble in the face of Tory opposition, piling pressure on to the chancellor next.ft.com/content/3b859fec-f0f8-11e5-aff5-19b4e253664a

My sister is a teacher and has been for 5 years, she was offered work at three schools in London but simply cannot afford to live there and maintain a standard of living, so as she said to me last week I’m out of here babe, yep she is upping sticks and leaving the UK this summer for a better and more affordable teaching career far from this blighted land.

I have never voted Conservative as I am old enough to have lived through their governance many times, I know what they are about, and they have not, nor will ever have, the best interests of the ordinary folk of this country at the heart of their policies.

A boycott of the SATs testing has been done before and could probably be managed again, although it may be too late for this year.

They need to get all the unions working together really. Given that academy conversion would affect employment terms and conditions, a strike would be a possibility.