All members are cordially invited to

Islington National Education Union (NUT Section)

 General Meeting

Tuesday 26th June 2018

Comedor Restaurant

Upper Street   N1 1RG 

          5.00pm till 6.30pm

(food will be provided and child care costs will be reimbursed to members on production of a receipt)

Guest Speaker

Dave Rosenberg (www.eastendwalks.com)

Antisemitism, Palestine, The Labour Party: What’s it all about?

Agenda:

1.                 Minutes of General Meeting 8^th May 2018 and Matters Arising

2.                 Nominations for National Executive:  District  Members (we can nominate 3); Equality Seat Members (Black members, Disabled members, LGBT members) ; Sector Seat Members (Independent schools, Post 16 establishments, Support Staff 

3.                 Election of local Officers

4.                 Motions submitted by members (See below) 

5.                 School Reports

6.                 Any Other Business

Motions Submitted

A)  Pay

Islington NEU (NUT section) notes:

1.      The motion on Greater London Pay passed at the National Conference which instructs the executive of the NUT section of the NEU to “Carry out research on costs In London and Fringe areas in order to submit a claim on Inner London, Outer London and Fringe allowances which reflects living costs as part of our national pay claim, in addition to the NEU call for a 5% rise for all teachers.”

2.      The motion also calls on the NUT to seek to work with other unions in raising this demand and demands on the government to control housing costs.

3.      That the formula for London weighting should be set, as it was before 1984, by a Pay Advisory board for London, which researches the differential between living costs in London and elsewhere and sets London weighting on that basis.

4.      That in the period 2010-2017 teachers pay rose by 6.1% whilst London house prices rose on average by 71%.

5.      That the differential between house prices in London and elsewhere in England has risen from around 30% in the 1970s to over 140% today (around 130% for rents).

This association believes:

1.      That one of the guiding principles of our London weighting claim should be that we need a demand for a minimum flat rate that would be applicable to all workers in London, and that we should seek to work with other unions on that basis.

2.      That the recommendation of Donald Hirsch for Trust for London for a minimum of “over £6000” for all London workers in 2016 should be updated and applied.

3.      That negotiation’s on London weighting should include demands to bring down house prices through rent controls and an extension of council house building.

4.      That the NEU should work towards a single London rate and an end to the wide divide between Inner London and Outer London pay that no longer reflects the realities of the London market.

5.      That if the national pay claim is settled without an acceptable increase in London weighting we should be prepared to move as quickly as possible towards London-wide industrial action on the lines of action taken previously in 2002.

This Association resolves:

1.      To send this motion to our exec members and the General Secretary.

2.      To support housing campaigns in the local area and support demands for local housing plans and a London Plan which supports genuinely affordable housing.

3.      To support any school where pressures on living costs have led staff to ballot for action on increasing pay at school level.

B)  30 Years since Section 28

Islington NEU (NUT Section) notes:

This association resolves to:

C) Impact of Heathrow expansion on children's health and learning

Islington NEU (NUT Section) notes that:

·         high levels of noise affects children's learning and health

·         aircraft noise affects children’s performance in school and children attending noise exposed schools usually live in noise exposed homes.  

·         aircraft noise exposure outside school hours, especially in the early morning or late at night, will also impact on children’s learning and school performance. 

·         Tasks which involve central processing and language comprehension, such as reading, attention and problem solving and memory, are most affected by exposure to aircraft noise. 

·         Language based tasks are more affected by noise exposure than non-language-based tasks and studies of English tests shows that aircraft noise exposure affects performance.

·         Noise level is also significantly related to mathematical performance. As noise increases performance drops.

·         High levels of aircraft noise will impact on everyday activities such as homework, schoolwork and playing.

·         High noise exposed children have been found to have higher rates of hyperactivity than those exposed to low noise.

·         A South African study found that 68.7% of people residing near the airport presented with hearing loss, compared to 6.5% of those living further away. 

·         Investigation of the influence of high-frequency aircraft noise on the function of the auditory system in school age children confirmed damage to the peripheral cochlear mechanism in the group living close to the airport.

·         Long term aircraft noise exposure has been significantly associated with chronic noise stress, which is significantly associated with hypertension.

·         Since aircraft noise can cause stress in people we would expect to find higher usages of medicines and drugs to alleviate stress and help sleep in aircraft noise exposed neighbourhoods. This has been found to be the case for physician visits for hypertension, psychological and psychosomatic problems and cardiovascular disease and for the prescriptions of medicine drugs.

·         Night-time exposure to aircraft noise is also significantly associated with impairment of recognition memory.

·         An additional 24 schools will suffer from aircraft noise above the maximum levels recommended by the World Health Organisation if a third runway is built. 

·         The national average school size is 220 pupils per primary school and 950 pupils per secondary school, so this would result in somewhere between 5,280 to 22,800 extra children at risk of decreased educational attainment. 

·         Current Government policy expects airport operators to other acoustic insulation to noise sensitive buildings, such as schools and hospitals, exposed to levels of noise of 63 dBA Leq or more, but this is significantly above the onset threshold for impairing memory and learning in children indicated by the RANCH study of 50 dBA Leq. 

·         In 2015 Heathrow Airport finished providing insulation for 42 community buildings (including schools and nursing homes) that were within the 63 dBA Leq noise contour in 2002, at a cost of £4.8 million. Over 460 schools are exposed to aircraft noise from Heathrow Airport above 54 dBA Leq and the vast majority have not received any form of insulation from the airport. 

·         Heathrow expansion would lead to more schools being over own than would be affected without expansion, with an additional 24 schools being newly overflown by a significant number of planes, with a maximum noise level above 70 dBA. 

For all these reasons, and because expansion of airports will make it impossible to sustain essential targets to reduce climate change, we call on 

·  the National Union to oppose Heathrow expansion and issue a statement on the lines of the points above

·  our local MPs to do likewise.

Copies of this resolution will be sent to our London Executive members, our local MPs and letters sent to the local papers.

If any member wishes to propose any emergency motions or propose any amendments  to the motions already submitted can they please bring sufficient printed copies (at least 25) to the meeting