As we start another academic year, the crisis in our schools deepens. The efficiency savings built into this year’s pay award are combining with inflation to further squeeze school budgets. In schools across the country, educators are once again being asked to do even more with even less. As we start the new school year, and as Reps gather in Manchester for our activist Conference, we need to start articulating a solution to multiple crises that we face in education. 

Last year, Red Pen launched with a call to not only fight for percentage increases in pay but to put demands on the government that could change the situation in our schools. We argued for: 

• a maximum class size of 20; 

• 20 per cent PPA time; 

• a fully-funded 20 per cent pay increase for all staff; 

• and a 20 per cent increase in per-pupil funding. 

The fours 20s are designed to meet the needs of educators in classrooms and to unite educators, parents and pupils in a discussion about how much we actually value education in this country. 

Pay 

Our pay campaigns over the last few years have been a positive. We’ve provided a model for how to beat thresholds; we’ve won extra money for education and we’ve almost managed to keep up with inflation (amongst teachers at least). But the simple fact of the matter is that prices continue to rise and educators still find it difficult to make ends meet. The situation is most acute in support staff, let down by the NJC unions in pay round after pay round, they have seen their pay fall behind everyone else. But simply arguing for one year percentage increases does nothing to stop the rot in education - it can only ever offer a small alleviation for current challenges. Instead, we need a set of demands that tackles the systemic failures of the system and that can make a difference in our classrooms.

Workload 

Workload is often cited as the number one issue facing educators. Sometimes this can boil over into strikes over specific issues or against rogue employers; often people look to silver bullets like AI to solve the crisis. Neither of these really work because, fundamentally, workload is driven by the nature of the job. The only way to ensure children get a quality education and that educators aren’t overworked is to make sure there are more of them per child. That is why the demand for 20% PPA and a maximum class size of 20 is so important. 

Delivering for our class 

No-one really does this job for the pay and perks - every educator we speak to has a sense of mission that drives their continued work in a broken system - they want to do the best for their communities. The demands of the four 20s speak to this. Smaller class sizes, more money for pupils and better prepared teachers will deliver a significantly better school experience for our children; particularly for working class children who rely on school to give them the tools to make a life. Uniting working class people in our communities around a push for a different education system is crucial if we are to succeed. 

What you can do 

• Discuss the four 20s in your school groups, Branches and Districts. 

• Let your Executive members know that we want a campaign for education that is specific and transformatory. 

• Start to win concessions where you can 

The new guidance on Sex and Relationships Education is an attack on LGBTQ+ youth. It is an act of overt cowardice by the Labour government, whose response to over a decade of education cuts is to back up attacks on queer people targeted by the right wing press. 

The RSE Guidance gives in to right wing myths by suggesting there is a debate about the existence of trans, non-binary, intersex, and gender non-confoming students. It also contradicts itself. At one point it instructs educators to teach that individuals' protected characteristics - including gender, sexuality, and gender reassignment - should be treated with dignity and respect. However later it says that the identities of trans, intersex, and non-binary students are up for “significant debate” . Like section 28 forty years ago this will cause untold damage to a generation of queer young people and will help reinforce anti-LGBTQ+ and misogynist sentiments in Britain. 

It is necessary for trade unionists to fight this reactionary turn by the government. The leadership of our union should condemn these moves in the harshest possible terms, making it clear that the NEU stands with LGBTQ+ workers and youth without equivocation. If our leaders fail to do this we should hold them to account and replace them with leaders that will stand up for all workers. Waiting for union bureaucrats to make the right decision is not enough. We must bring this fight to our branches and schools. Our branches and districts should issue similar condemnations of this guidance change and work with reps to understand how schools are implementing it. 

In our schools we as reps must talk to our colleagues and explain why this new guidance is so damaging and how it will negatively impact our LGBTQ+ colleagues and students. We should work with colleagues to articulate a positive vision of Relationships & Sex Education that challenges bigotry and prizes consent. We must fight bigotry and chauvinism wherever we find it. Failure to do so is a failure of solidarity and undermines our ability to fight for all our members. An injury to Trans people is an injury to all. Resist the attacks on Trans people. 

The response of working class people and educators across the country to the announcement of Your Party shows both the desire for a radical alternative and the determination to win a better world. 

We urge every educator and trade unionist to throw themselves into building the new party and rooting it in our communities. 

Inside the NEU, we must grasp this opportunity to create a left wing platform that breaks with the failures of the current NEU Left: it’s over reliance on personal, transactional relationships; it’s lack of any real membership; it’s focus on internal elections; and it’s orientation on the lay bureaucracy rather than the rank and file. 

We must make the new party group in the NEU open and democratic, focussed on the real challenges in our classroom and politically bold in its campaigning.