Sats boycott

What gives teachers the right to boycott next year's national Sats tests in primary schools?

Any teachers taking part in a boycott should be sacked!

If they are truly worried about damaging a child's education, they should boycott Comprehensives and support the 11+!

Fred, keep your pension?

Should the trades unions fear Government attempts to retrospectively claw back Sir Fred Goodwin's pension?

It will set a dangerous precedent for when Government is unable or unwilling to fund the ever burgeoning public sector pensions bill in a couple of decades!

Golden blackboards?

Is it better to offer £10,000 bonuses for teachers working in the most "disadvantaged" schools or sack teachers who are not up to the job!?!

Sir Cyril Taylor said there were about 17,000 "poor" teachers in England.

Yet more council strikes!

"Everything from local government will stop. We are talking about bins, schools, council offices, environmental health inspectors, [council spies, council tax collection, rubbish gestapo !?!] - all those important services that local communities rely on." - Heather Wakefield, Unison's head of local government.

When will public sector workers join their overpaid brethren in the private sector and share in these boardroom pay "bonanzas"!?!

PS If they are so worried about affecting the most vulnerable members of society, why do public sector workers have so many days off work!?!

Return of Mental Arithmetic!

Why will it take 10 years and £187m to train "specialists" to teach basic mathematics to schoolchildren!?!

"The aim is to counter the prevailing culture in which, Sir Peter says, the UK remains one of the few advanced nations where it is socially acceptable - even fashionable - to profess an inability to cope with mathematics."

"I did maths at school and for one year at university but I don't think I was ever very good at it - and some people would say it shows." - Gordon Brown, 24th April 2007.

Agency workers

"Agency workers will be given the same employment rights as permanent staff after 12 weeks under proposals agreed between the government and unions."

How many of the UK's 1.4m agency workers asked to be represented by the trades unions!?!

Will most agency workers now be forced to leave their placing during their eleventh working week!?!

What's the trades unions real motive for protecting workers rights!?!

Unions strike back!

If workers should not suffer when management make mistakes, should workers benefit when management do well!?!

"The workforce did not contribute to the situation which the bank now finds itself in and should not be expected to pay the ultimate price by being forced out of their jobs." - Graham Goddard, deputy general secretary at Unite on Northern Rock.

"This is a very profitable plant. It's made, we reckon, about a billion pounds over the last 10 years. Why is he attacking the workers?" - Labour MP Michael Connarty on Ineos

Teacher's Pest?

Why should all teachers expect a 2.45% pay increase?

The best teachers should be able to look forward to higher pay increases and the worst teachers should expect nothing. I suspect the National Union of Teachers opposes performance related pay...

Doing your homework!

White working class 'left behind'
"Children's ability to succeed was also defined by their own academic hopes, how much homework they did and their attitude to school, the report added."

Teachers call for ban on homework
"Teachers want homework to be abolished for primary school age children."

Dig for victory!

Did the 'Bevin boys' do the country "a great service" when striking for better pay in 1944 rather than waiting for Hitler's defeat!?!

"By their steadfastness, courage and unity, they had redressed the injustice of 1921, and re-established a guaranteed minimum wage. " - National Union of Minerworkers.

"it still makes us proud to remember everything you did" - Gordon Brown, PM.

Association of Teachers and Lecturers

Should the Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL) be calling for a reduction in immigration levels rather than for increased funding to "to cope with the numbers" of children arriving from abroad with little or no English!?!

When "the vast majority of newly arrived families [are] placed in deprived areas with empty houses - and with spare capacity in the schools", who represents the locals competing for good quality public services!?!

Educating white working class boys.

What's more important, playing politics with white working class boys or educating them?

"One delegate [at the Association of Teachers and Lecturers] said liberal-minded people had stopped highlighting white boys' problems [of underchievement] for fear of lending weight to the arguments of right wing politicians."

Childcareless?

Will any of the care agencies that failed to protect Jessica Randall suggest the general public would be better served if they closed down as fewer agencies would improve standards and communications!?!

"We, along with our partners, acknowledge all of the mistakes which were made and we have already taken action to address the key findings of this report to ensure that our services for children are improved as proposed." - Paul Burnett, director for children and young people at Northamptonshire County Council

Public sector pay regression?

How many private sector workers knows their pay rises for the next three years!?!

As the economy sours, many private sector workers will get no pay rise at all!

"Mr Darling is expected to argue that the new longer-term agreement will guarantee earnings growth for 5.5 million workers [in time for the next election!?!]"

Provocative!

When will the Government follow Richard Branson's lead and tell public sector workers threatening to strike over pay levels that they should get stuffed resign and get a job elsewhere if they want a pay rise!?!

I might even end my self-imposed ban on buying Virgin branded products!

Soar-away super-rich

Is Brendan Barber, the TUC General Secretary, attacking the "soar away super-rich" as they don't have to endure the public services his members 'offer' to the rest of the nation!?!

Department of no workers or pay?

If Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) staff are unhappy about their pay and conditions, they should resign and get a job elsewhere rather than go on strike.

No one forces them to work at the DWP thanks to Labour's record employment levels. Other employers are bound to recognise their good work ethic, low abseentism and ability to cope with change in an endless bureaucracy!

"29.07 million people were in work in April to June, one of the highest figures on record" - Source: DWP!

Time for a right-wing educational experiment?

Rather than close the Ridings School in Halifax, "the worst school in the Country", after ten years of failed Labour gimmicks such as "new buildings, experiments with "superheads", Ofsted "hit squads" and a stream of ministerial visits", wouldn't it be better if right-wing educationalists were given a chance to prove what works!?!

Predicatably, the National Union of Teachers would rather condemn another generation of pupils to a poor education rather than lose some of it's members!

All Chinese to me!

Why is a teacher being prosecuted by the General Teaching Council for exposing unruly behaviour in schools across the country?

How can British Universities compete with Chinese Universities when their undergraduates know so little?

PS Mind you, it may explain why many Chinese students are keen to study in the UK!

Grammar lessons

Will the mainstream political parties be explaining to parents of "Poorer children [who] benefit more from grammar schools" why they continue to oppose any expansion of Grammar schools?

If access could be widened then the case for keeping selective education would be greatly enhanced.

Meanwhile, social mobility continues to decline in the UK!