 MOTION FOR SCHOOL GROUPS ON BASELINE TESTING We want to start building up a list of schools where NEU members express their opposition to Baseline Testing and say that they do not want their school to take part in the 2019 pilot tests. Please discuss this motion in your school group and inform us if you have passed it This school group notes the government’s intention to replace KS1 SATs with a new Baseline test within the first few weeks of statutory schooling in Reception. We note the following: · that the sole purpose of Baseline is not to support children in Reception, but to provide data by which schools can be held accountable seven years later at KS2. · Baseline tests were abandoned in 2015 as they were found to be unworkable. This followed a campaign of ‘4 too young to test’ and ‘Better without Baseline’. · Comments from previous providers, especially Early Excellence, who provided the greater part of Baseline Assessment in 2015, which describe the current proposal as “ideological and inept”. We believe that the new plan to introduce a baseline, beginning with a voluntary pilot in 2019, is as wrong and flawed as it was in previous attempts. This time there is no attempt to use an observation-based model and it will be a test overseen by the teacher or support staff. We believe that this test will disrupt the settling-in process and place a workload burden on these teachers at the start of the year. We welcome the decision of the NUT Conference to launch a high-profile campaign against Baseline testing and to link this to campaign against SATs. We believe that if enough schools refuse to take part in the voluntary pilot in 2019 it will force the government to rethink its proposal. We therefore agree to: i) ask our headteacher and governors to refuse to take part in the Baseline pilot in 2019; ii) support and publicise the More Than A Score campaign. Please email us to let us know when your school group has passed the motion so we can add your school to the list.  Plan to convert Islington's Catholic schools into academy group dropped due to lack of interest  School Cuts Fewer teachers, more pupils: children are losers in school funding cuts New research by the School Cuts Coalition has found that the ratio of pupils to each classroom teacher has gone up in 58% of Islington’s secondary schools since 2014/15. This means less attention in school for our children and young people. While schools have been doing all they can to shield their pupils from the damage caused by the £2.8 billion real-terms cut from school budgets since 2015, the lack of investment in education is really biting. The latest research - drawn from figures produced by the government itself- shows that, in England, secondary school staff numbers have fallen by 15,000 between 2014/15 and 2016/17 despite them having 4500 more pupils to teach. Secondary schools in England have seen their staffing fall by an average of 5.5 posts since 2015. these cuts are falling heaviest on front line teaching, with each school losing an average of 2.4 classroom teachers and 1.6 teaching assistants as well as 1.5 support staff. The School Cuts coalition warns that the situation is likely to get even worse, as 17, 942 (nine out of ten) primary ans secondary schools in England and Wales are predicted to be hit by a real-terms cut in funding per pupil between 2015 and 2019 To see how funding cuts have affected your school visit schoolcuts.org.uk What do we want..... A qualified teacher for every child in every lesson Allow councils to open new schools where they are needed Consult the profession properly on changes to the curriculum and to examinations Don’t test the very youngest Fund schools and colleges properly Remove excessive workload and pointless bureaucracy End performance related pay for teachers Reverse unfair pension changes Ensure government/union talks are about policies rather than just their implementation Make sure we have enough teachers As never before, education policy is being driven by ideology not evidence. Every government announcement is laden with myths about schools, teachers and our education system. EduFacts - http://www.teachers.org.uk/edufacts - aims to challenge government and media rhetoric by presenting the facts about what's going on in our schools, our education system and in the teaching profession. 
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