As the reorganisation process goes rolling on teachers arebecoming increasingly worried that the necessary new buildingswill not be provided on time. Unlike the LEA’s building programmethese worries are based on firm foundations.
There is a total of £170m available for the buildingprogramme - £26m for Grant Maintained schools, £20mfor the Voluntary Aided sector, £124m for LEA schools.
The LEA know this is not enough to the tune of £30 to £35m,roughly one fifth of the total. There will also be the annualburden to the education budget of the £3.5m interest onthe portion of the £124m which will be raised by borrowing.
Is Bradford’s plan to improve education going to run intothe lack of a brick wall?
The Authority has appointed a firm of building consultants,EC Harris, to help them organise the tender for the building work.The tender will be for a ‘Project Manager’ which willbe a large, national or possibly international building contractorwho will probably carry out most of the work themselves and willbe responsible for any sub-contracting.
The plan is to appoint the Project Manager by December/January.Meanwhile extra architects are working up the schemes so thatplanning permission can be sought beforehand for the majorityof schools. The LEA, with the advice of the consultant, stillhopes that the bulk of the building work in the new secondariescan be ready for September 2000 but is preparing contingency plansfor split sites if necessary.
Some smaller schemes will be carried out in-house. One primaryschool has already been completed this way.
The Authority says that a number of lessons have been learntfrom the problems at the beginning of this term, both about therelationship with outside contractors, as a result of the problemsover the temporary classrooms, and about the movement of furnitureand resources. They are planning to start much earlier with theidentification of resources this year and are preparing a guidefor schools to be ready soon.
Next summer will be a far bigger operation and Unions havebeen consulted on up to 5 closure days per school added to thepupils’ holiday.
There have been real problems for about 15 schools with temporaryclassrooms and one other closed for health and safety reasonsafter scheduled building repairs. Portakabin originally contracted to supply all 72 temporary classrooms, reducedthis to 20 in July, managed 9 on time and caused difficulties with 11.
This has been a very stressful start for these schools and particularlydifficult for the newly placed staff. We have negotiated thatthey will have the same set-up time after the installation oftheir classrooms as other teachers had. If there are any continuingdifficulties please let us know.
The buildings issue will be discussed at the Association Meetingon 21st Sept.
There are still 252 teachers with permanent contracts in closingschools who have not yet been placed for Sept 2000. It is vitalthat any jobs that come up in your school this year are firstmade available to this group, before being advertised to teachersfrom outside. This is firstly to be fair to those who happen tohave been caught in the wrong place by reorganisation. It is alsoto protect school budgets from the kind of top slice that willbe necessary if a large group of teachers are left unplaced.
Please bear this in mind throughout this school year and letus know if jobs are planned to be advertised rather than put intothe placement process.
So, probation for NQTs was a good idea after all. It has returnedthis year as the totally new ‘Induction’, which allnewly trained teachers will have to pass if they are to continueteaching.
In return for this they are entitled to a reduced teachingload so that they do 90% of normal average teaching time.
This amounts to a half day of non-contact in a primary schooland 10% off the normal teaching load in secondary. An InductionTutor should be appointed by the school to provide proper guidanceand support and to be involved in monitoring and assessment. A new teacher has the right to be accompanied by an NUT representativeat any review meetings.
We believe that where induction tutors are not in place theyshould be appointed on the basis of fair appointment procedures.They should all have sufficient non-contact time for the job andbe properly paid if this amounts to extra responsibility.
The consequences of failing to complete the Induction yearsatisfactorily are very serious. Any NQT member who feels thattheir induction is not going well, for whatever reason, or whois not receiving their entitlement of non-contact time, shouldcontact this office.
The induction year is not a reason for offering fixed-termcontracts to NQTs. Anyone in that position should contact us.
Are you employed on a temporary contract? If you are, and ifyou have been employed by Bradford continuously for two years,you are entitled to the employment rights of a permanent memberof staff.
If you are in this position, or if you are shortly to completetwo years continuous service, it is important that you let usknow.
This government initiative affects all Bradford Upper (andfuture Secondary) schools. Later this term posts will be advertisedin three areas:
The NUT is still negotiating with the LEA about the pay andconditions for these posts.
If your school advertises any of these posts before we letyou know that there has been agreement, contact us.
This is an important element of the Union's campaign againstthe Green Paper proposals. If you are experiencing any dificultiesat your school with applying the boycott, or if you are beingasked to do things which you believe to be covered by the boycott,please contact us.
It is the first General Meeting of the year, and includes a reception for new teachers.It will be held at
The Park HotelUnder Discussion will be:
See You There
Nomination forms will be in schools on Monday 4th October tobe returned by Monday 18th October.
If an election is required, ballot papers will be sent intoschools for Monday November 15th to be returned to the Presidentnot later than Monday 29th November. Details of the count willbe announced later.