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Newsletter Autumn |
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Editorial
As we start a new school year there are several significant issues for teachers. Workload continues to cause concern – see the personal report from Steve Smith on page 11 and Tony Mulgrew’s report from JCC on page 12. Fair pay is also in the headlines and Kendra Deacon reports from the National Executive about the campaign on page 15. The opening of the first Academy in Norfolk also raises many questions. These issues cannot be resolved by individuals working alone and the benefit of belonging to a union which acts vigorously on behalf of all teachers is obvious.
The strength of our organisation locally can be seen from the number of people active throughout the county and the range of events which are taking place this autumn. Brief details of these are on page 18 but you can find full details of all future meetings for all our associations on the Norfolk website. Just visit www.norfolknut.org.uk .
Linda Brown
The views expressed in this Newsletter are the views of the contributors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the NUT, whether locally or nationally.
Division Contacts
As you will be aware, Kendra Deacon and Mike Smith
are sharing the role of Division Secretary. Tony
Mulgrew is still assisting them but first contact
should be with Kendra or Mike.
If you need to contact the Division for information, advice or support, please note that Kendra is available on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, while Mike is available on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. If you do need to contact either of them at other times then please leave a message and they will get back to you.
Kendra Deacon: kendradeacon@yahoo.co.uk 01362 698160
Mike Smith: norfolknut@btinternet.com 01953 719960
Our Future Teachers
This year the UEA will be training around 300 young (and not so young!) people to become future teachers. The primary PGCE students registered on Monday, 8th September and the Secondary students on Monday, 15th September. As usual we were there to offer them free membership of the Union.
This year, as well as the usual diaries and publications, each student was given a copy of ‘The Interactive Guide to Behaviour Management.’ We hope this guide, which is packed full of hints, tips and key strategies for managing classroom behaviour, will help them with what can be a very difficult and stressful year.
If your school hosts any of these students, or trainees on any of the programmes such as Graduate Training (GTP) or School Centred Initial Teacher Training (SCITT), please make them welcome and give them the benefit of your experience. If they have any problems do refer them to Mike or Kendra.
Health and Safety
The Children’s Services Health and Safety Committee meets 3 times a year and at all of the meetings I have been to workload, stress and wellbeing are the most talked-about items. Please see Tony’s JCC report for some useful publications. Don’t forget about the Norfolk Support Line – 0800 169 7676 and Teachers’ Support Network – 08000 562 561 www.teachersupport.info .
This year’s NUT annual conference voted to support action on workload and class sizes as well as pay. The Good for Children, Good for Teachers campaign is running alongside the pay campaign and there is a wealth of information to be found at www.teachers.org.uk . Click on the ‘workload’ box on the right-hand side on the home page. Please get in touch if your directed time is more than the 1265 hours or if you are not receiving 10% of your teaching timetable as PPA. NQTs, make sure you are getting your further 10% NQ time. Establishing a work / life balance for well being is an essential part of retaining teachers and we are here to help make that happen. If you feel that you and other members in your school have an excessive workload then please get in touch with myself or Mike Smith. Kendra Deacon
Academies - the future? by Mike Smith
In March of this year the following report was presented by the Deputy Director of Norfolk Children Services to the Children Services Review Panel:
“This report sets out proposals for the Local Authority to revise its strategic approach to developing Academies as part of the strategic approach to school improvement. It proposes a group of Academies sponsored by consortia of schools, Colleges, the private sector and the Local Authority”.
In 2007 – 2008 the government has set a target of no school achieving below 30% 5 A*-C including English and mathematics. The DCSF has claimed that:
“Nationally there are over 600 schools whose performance is below that threshold and within this number Ministers are clear that future Academy projects should focus on those schools with the most entrenched history of low achievement and at greatest risk of failing to get above the 30% threshold by 2012, in line with the Prime Minister's recent pledge”.
In 2007/2008 seven Norfolk schools fell within the 600. Heartsease High has already converted to an academy. The others are: Park High - King’s Lynn
Blyth Jex High - Norwich
Earlham High - Norwich
Costessey High - Norwich
Oriel High School - Gt Yarmouth
Alderman Peel - Wells.
The governors at Rosemary Musker High and Charles Burrell High in Thetford have asked the LA to consider them for conversion to academies.
In order to access funding through the government’s Building Schools for the Future, the DCSF has made it clear that all authorities will be expected to demonstrate that they have seriously considered the extent to which the academies programme can complement its plans for Building Schools for the Future. It would appear that if Norfolk wants the funding then it must move towards converting at least those seven highlighted schools to academies.
Background
Academies are state schools that are controlled by private sponsors who own the land and premises, through a trust. New buildings, running costs and start-up are funded directly by the government. They operate outside the local authority system, with greater freedom over the curriculum than local authority schools. There is no obligation for them to operate national pay and conditions agreements.
The government claims that academies are to raise standards in socially-deprived areas by replacing existing poorly-performing schools. (Many of the schools which are being replaced are actually doing quite well and improving, in terms of GCSE results and Ofsted inspections.)
They rely upon sponsors who are prepared to commit large sums of money to the project. Tony Blair said: “…an external sponsor brings not only a financial endowment but also vision, commitment, and a record of success from outside the state school system”.
Who would want to be a sponsor?
They have in the past fallen mainly within two groups, as we have seen at Heartsease. The religious sponsors, who wish to promote their faith, and business sponsors, whose motivation may be more varied – for example: self-promotion, to gain influence with government, shape the future work force and even social responsibility and philanthropy.
We are now seeing proposals where other schools, further education establishments and local authorities combine to become sponsors. (LAs cannot be the principal sponsor.) This appears to be the model favoured by Norfolk with City College, Easton College, The Norwich School, Gresham’s School and the NELM Development Trust expressing an interest.
How much does a sponsor have to pay?
They should pay £2 million, but they often pay less, or even nothing. The National Audit Office report, ‘The Academies Programme’, published in February, 2007, looked at the 27 academies opened by September, 2005 and found that a year later only 11 had received the £2 million. Nine had received payments of less than £1 million. Some sponsors had agreed to pay by instalments but in four cases the payments were behind schedule.
Governance and staffing
The sponsors control an academy’s governing body. This means they appoint the majority of the governors, appoint staff and can dictate their own pay and conditions. They can decide admissions – they have to abide by an admissions code, but not necessarily the local authority’s policy. Within a broad framework they can impose their own curriculum.
Control of the governing body is brought about by the changes in the allocation of places. Community, foundation and voluntary controlled schools must have at least 1/3 elected parents, 2 staff (the head plus 1 elected member of staff), 1/5 (1/10 in foundation and voluntary controlled) appointed community governors and at least 2 foundation governors in foundation and voluntary controlled schools. There is no prescribed number of governors on an academy’s governing body. The sponsor is able to appoint the majority of governors. There must be one elected parent governor. They may have a staff governor who can be elected or appointed. There will be a local authority governor.
What will you be told to teach?}
We have all heard the horror stories about the teaching of intelligent design, creationism and the denial of evolution. Whatever the beliefs of the sponsor, those beliefs can be imposed on the curriculum.
What about pay and conditions?
In community, foundation and voluntary controlled schools we are covered by the school teachers’ pay and conditions of service document. If employment problems arise the trades unions can discuss them with the human resources department of the local authority. In Norfolk, although we don’t always see eye to eye, the relationship between the teachers’ representatives and the children’s services’ human resources department are productive and usually ensure a fair and acceptable resolution of employment issues.
Academies may well have their own HR consultants and we will need to have separate negotiations with each of the schools. What are the chances of their having experience in schools and the employment of teachers? For example, why would the HR departments of a car sales firm have any experience in schools? Pay will be open to local negotiations within each academy.
Will we need to negotiate the pay of each member individually? Of course, there is no requirement for the academies to recognise any trade unions and in this case we will have no right or facilities to negotiate on the behalf of members individually or collectively if they are employed by those schools.
Will we see state schools sponsored by the local public school? If the local authority wants to be sponsors why don’t they want to continue to maintain the schools? Is it an opportunity to avoid direct responsibility for “problem” schools or is it simply a matter of money?
As teachers and trade unionists how should we react to these proposals?
I believe as educationalists and trade unionists we should oppose academies at every opportunity. In Norfolk we should continue to campaign for local education to remain in the hands of democratically elected local people. However, Norfolk’s plans for future academies seem to include the local authority as a sponsor. If so this could lead to common policies, e.g. employment according to the national School Teacher’s Pay and Conditions Document, following the National Curriculum, the current local authority HR department advising the schools and the recognition of the trade unions.
If the choice is between this model and the old model adopted at Heartsease, then should we adopt the role of critical friends rather than oppose without question? Is it the lesser of two evils? Will the choice be ours?
With thanks to the Anti-Academies Alliance. Mike Smith
Young Teachers' Christmas Social
Thursday, 11th December
Orgasmic
6 Queen Street, Norwich
Drop in for a FREE drink
From 6pm until 9pm
Max Morris - Obituary
President of the NUT in 1973, Max Morris died on 27th August, 2008, a few days after his 95th birthday.
Born of impoverished Jewish parents, Max was brought up in the Gorbals area of Glasgow. He attended the highly regarded Hutcheson’s Boys’ Grammar School until age 16, going on to complete his sixth form studies at Kilburn Grammar school after the family moved to London. In London he was awarded a scholarship to University College where he gained a First in History. In 1936 he commenced teaching at Willesdon Secondary School for Engineering and joined the NUT.
He saw war service in Europe and India, attaining the rank of Captain in the RASC. On demobilisation he became a senior lecturer at an emergency teacher training college before returning to the classroom, eventually being appointed head of the large Willesdon Comprehensive High School.
At times a controversial figure, Max was for several years a prominent member of the Communist Party Executive Committee. It was this association which, during the Cold War Years, frustrated his early attempts to get elected to the Executive of the NUT. Yet he had been openly critical of the Soviet Union’s invasion of Hungary, his disillusionment subsequently deepening at the fate of Czechoslovakia. However, it was probably the persistent anti-semitism in Russia which brought about the final break, after which he joined the Labour Party.
Max was a politically formidable opponent. He was widely read and his speeches were carefully constructed and faultlessly delivered. At the time he had no equal as a platform speaker at NUT conferences, where he would readily demolish the arguments of ultra-left factions. From 1976 to 1979 he chaired the Union’s Action Committee at a time when we undertook a series of successful sanctions, including refusal to supervise school meals, in support of a pay claim. After retirement Max became a Trustee of the Union and he was regularly seen at annual conferences, including at Manchester earlier this year. He is survived by his second wife, Margaret, a former history lecturer.
Ray Russell
Calling Young Teachers!
Young Teachers’ Conference
Stoke Rochford – Have you been there? It is an amazing place with a great history. This 18th century stately home that the NUT owns and uses for training was the setting for the Young Teachers’ Conference in June, 2008. The theme this year was, ‘Work to live, not live to work’, as teachers we need to find a way of giving ourselves a better work / life balance.
It was a great opportunity to share experiences and socialise with young teachers (that’s under 36 years old, if you are wondering) from all over England.
Issues about the pay campaign were discussed passionately and how we need to continue the battle for fair pay – more information and advice will be in schools shortly.
There were guest speakers such as Sue Palmer, a well-known writer and consultant on the education of young children, dealing with how society is harming children’s lives. Her book ‘Toxic Childhood’ is well worth a read.
Amongst others, John Illingworth gave a moving talk about how stress caused him to have a nervous breakdown which prevented him from returning to the teaching profession. He used an interesting analogy to describe stress: he said, ‘It’s like a bucket that is very slowly filling, but the contents never go away because it cannot be emptied. At some point it will overflow and the damage can take many years to overcome’.
If you feel this is something you would like to have attended, there is always next year! For more information log on to www.wsta.org.uk/crazyaboutwork.pdf . Tina Humber
Introducing Chrissie Smith
South Norfolk & Breckland Association new Association Secretary
Hi, I hope you’ve settled into the new academic year and are keeping up that healthy work / life balance – 1/3 family and fun, 1/3 sleep and 1/3 work.
Before I introduce myself properly I’d like to propose a big thank you to Pete Eldridge who has admirably filled the role of Association Secretary for so many years. Thanks, Pete.
I have been an active member of Breckland and then South Norfolk and Breckland NUT since joining Old Buckenham High School in 1980. I have been President of the Association and have attended several conferences over the past 15 years. I come from a large Norfolk family whose roots are firmly in the soil of East Anglia. I am married with 2.4 children and enjoy folk singing, amongst other hobbies.
I look forward to meeting many of you face to face at our regular meetings, usually held in the Feathers PH in Wymondham, where there is a warm welcome and food on tap if you haven’t had time for tea!
We kick off the year with our Welcome meeting for NQTs and reps at the Belle Vue PH in Norwich on Thursday, 16th October, where we hope to encourage more of our younger members to take an active part in the Union – even if it’s just attending occasional meetings or supporting their reps in school.
If you have any problems with anything work-related, please don’t hesitate to contact me. Many ‘minor problems’ can be dealt with swiftly to avoid a confrontation or unwanted stress building up later.
I also have the added advantage of being married to the Divisional Secretary, Mike, so if you have cause to phone 01953 719960 you are almost guaranteed to get a listening ear.
Enjoy the rest of the term and the lead up to Christmas.
Pay and Workload - a personal story
As we start another school year, my workload, as far as I can see, will be higher than ever. New initiatives such as the new primary strategy and APP will add to the workload, I’m sure. Since 2003, the workload agreement was meant to produce a year on year reduction in our workload. This has not happened.
I work a total, on average throughout the year, of about 52 hours per week. Several colleagues in my school work as much as 60+ hours per week on average. This is totally unacceptable. Where is the work / life balance? And this is with PPA, subject time, etc.
I calculated for myself, working at 52 hours per week, on UPS 3, that my pay after tax etc, is £8.33 per hour. For an NQT it would be £5.15 per hour! This is for a fully qualified professional doing a vital job for our children after four years’ hard work at university – DISGRACEFUL! Is it any wonder that teachers feel angry, disillusioned, demotivated and undervalued?
This is what the strike action is about. Real inflation is running at about 8.5%, according to a recent Dispatches programme on Channel 4. Our pay rise is 2.45%. You don’t need a maths degree or government waffle to tell you how much we are losing out and how much we are feeling the squeeze of rising prices – mortgages, food, gas, petrol, insurances, etc. This particularly affects NQTs struggling to make ends meet on a pitiful wage.
Work out your own workload per week and you’ll be surprised – or horrified! The Union, in the near future, is going to organise some schools to do a workload audit for members. Watch this space!” In the meantime, come down and attend meetings at your local association to discuss these and other matters of interest or concern that affect you.
We are all very friendly. helpful and welcoming and we provide free food and drink! See you there.
Steve Smith
Tony Mulgrew reports from the Teachers' Panel of the JCC 16th September, 2008
We had 3 visitors:
1) Bob Hedley, Children’s Services HR.
Bob introduced 4 new HR staff. HR is now up to strength. One HR consultant has a project to support ‘schools in challenging situations’.
We alerted Bob to the DCSF document ‘Common Mental Health Problems: Supporting Staff by Taking Positive Action’. We suggested the authority make it available to all schools, along with guidance to help heads recognise signs of impending problems.
This document reminds us that ‘employers have a duty of care under the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 to ensure the health, safety and welfare of their employees so far as it is reasonably practicable.’ It also deals with the ‘common perception that the Disability Discrimination Act refers only to physical disability. But the Act also provides for mental health conditions that prevent at person from carrying out their normal work.’ You can download this publication or order copies online at: www.teachernet.gov.ukpublications .
I have already given HR staff copies of ‘Preventing Work-Related Mental Health Conditions by Tackling Stress – Guidance for Head Teachers’ which has been produced by the NUT, Unison, GMB and Unite. It is an extremely useful document and can be found at www.teachers.org.uk . Click on Health and Safety and the document is in Section Two – Briefings by Subject.
We discussed bullying from parents and workload especially in small schools. We responded to his MI sheet on changes to STPCD with regard to payments for part-time teachers. It is not possible to believe that the other teacher unions have agreed to this. NUT guidance is available on the National and the Norfolk Websites. Supply teacher holiday pay will be shown separately.
CRB checks Supply teachers have now to pay for their CRB checks. JCC has a collective view that this is unreasonable. Our view is also that teachers moving from one school to another in Norfolk should not require a new CRB check. Norfolk is being advised that such checks are required.
The updating of the Staff Handbook is long overdue. Other urgent reviews are Safeguarding Children and Acceptable Use policy.
2) Paul Fisher, Finance
Some officers had been working on an Acceptable Use policy (dealing with the use of technology, including computers and mobile phones) and wanted to send it out to schools before the summer break. We objected then, as we had been asking for it for 2 years and should have been involved in writing it. A meeting has been arranged for 7th October, to examine the protocols which have implications for teachers conditions.
Finance. 3 year budgets have already been released. They will be reviewed. There will be consultations on the distribution formulae, early years, pupil specific SEN funding and 14-19 funding.
Paul was alerted to the workload on schools due to more paperwork being sent to them. Office staff cannot cope and the head has then to deal with it.
3) Fred Corbett
We discussed schools in categories.
DCSF has a National Challenge list of high schools which achieve < 30% A - Cs. Norfolk is currently agreeing this list with DCSF. Schools go in for 3 years. There will probably be such a list of primaries – those achieving < 50% at level 4 in both Eng and Maths. There are currently about five in Norfolk.
We discussed how the unions and the authority can work together to share information on schools causing concern.
Exit interviews. We believe that schools / HR should hold exit interviews if there is a high turnover of staff. We suggested Norfolk look at what happens elsewhere, e.g. in Herts.
Term Dates. There are new proposals for specifying the dates schools will be open, with transport to be provided. There will be consultation with schools and other interested parties. It is up to schools to decide on the ‘Up to 5 inset days’ but they CANNOT use term days. They can use twilights but the head needs to be sympathetic to the staff’s other family commitments.
Small schools. There are still a few to be re-organised. We need to have a LA view on small schools and on the maximum size of larger schools.
Kendra Deacon reports from the National Executive
I hope that the summer holiday was enjoyable and rejuvenating - although somewhat of a distant memory now! I moved house so that certainly wasn’t relaxing but am now very happy to be living in Norfolk as well as working here.
The main focus of the last few full executive meetings has been to discuss and agree how to take the Fair Pay for Teachers campaign forward. The link between pay and workload has been highlighted with the Good for Children, Good for Teachers Campaign. Please do go to the national website to get all the latest information and resources – www.teachers.org.uk .
The next step in the pay campaign is going to be a ballot for discontinuous, un-sustained action as voted for unanimously by the Executive on 5th September after extensive surveys and information gathering across the country. Our last ballot only sanctioned a one-day strike. That meant that the Union wasn’t able to call any further action – for example alongside UNISON in July - until we had balloted NUT members again.
This ballot opening on 6th October and closing on 3rd November will be for ‘discontinuous’ action so that the Union can plan a series of days of action without having to go through a full legal ballot each time. This could include both national and regional strike action and there will be careful discussion at each stage of the process as to what action to take next and when.
The big question many of you will have will be’Ccan I afford to strike?’ But I think we are at the stage where now we need to ask can we afford not to? Strike action is a last resort but the NUT will not stand by as teachers’ living standards worsen and recruitment to the profession wanes.
We will lose pay when we strike, but the pay we have lost out on and will continue to lose out on is far greater. For example, a classroom teacher on M1 is now earning £20,627 with the 2.45% rise this year. Had this rise been in line with inflation the pay point would be worth £21,815 – a difference of £1,188! M6 current value is £30,148 but the value would be £1,735 more at £31,883 if it had increased in line with inflation. Surely this is a double loss as we are not getting that in line with inflation pay rise and inflation keeps increasing? In the last year the price of bread has risen by 20%, milk by 19.4%, gas and electricity by over 12% and the year on year increase on petrol amounts to over 26%.
So that’s how it stands for us as teachers, but we must also see how this does, and will, affect the children we care about. Because of the gap in salary with comparable graduate professions, recruitment and retention becomes an issue. Applications for 2008 primary and secondary teacher training are down. If there are not enough fully qualified teachers for our children to receive the best education then the implications of the pay issue (linked with workload) are far-reaching. All children should have a right to qualified teacher 100% of the time – this can only happen if there are enough teachers. If being a teacher means a huge workload with an effective year on year pay cut people are not going to be attracted to the profession or even able to survive in it. Young teachers are facing student loan repayments on top of their rent (probably not a mortgage!) and bills. Passion for educating and wanting the best for the next generation will not pay these off.
Please, please vote YES in the ballot so we can continue to make a stand and get the government to respond to the pressure we can apply. Teachers’ pay hasn’t caused surging oil prices and we haven’t been leading banks into crisis! We are the victims and not the cause.
Everyone deserves fair pay. As a teaching union we can campaign for teachers but that doesn’t mean we don’t want other professions and services to receive the same in line with inflation rise.
If you have any questions or would like to arrange a meeting for yourself and colleagues, then please get in touch with your local association or myself or Mike, the joint division secretaries. Keep up-to-date with the latest by looking at www.teachers.org.uk; and we hope to add information also on the local site www.norfolknut.org.uk.
(With thanks to Lewisham NUT and HQ for putting together comprehensive and concise information.)
Kendra Deacon - kendradeacon@yahoo.co.uk - 01362 698160
Part time teachers' pay and working time
The School Teachers’ Pay and Conditions Document (STPCD) 2008 includes revised statutory provisions on part-time teachers’ pay and working time obligations, effective from 1st September, 2008.
This may well affect your pay if you are employed on a part-time basis. Briefly, the changes involve calculating your hours as a percentage of the “school’s timetabled teaching week” (STTW).
This is made up of all session hours timetabled for teaching during the week, excluding registration periods, assemblies, mid-session breaks and lunch breaks. It will include all actual class contact hours. It should also include the entitlement to PPA time, either at the minimum statutory level of 10% of teaching time or any higher level of non-contact time provided under school policy. It should also include any “leadership and management time”. Where teachers teach pupils during school sessions but at times which are not lesson times for all pupils (eg teaching pupils who do not attend assemblies during the assembly periods) the NUT advises that this time should be added both to the STTW and the teacher’s own teaching hours.
For the 2008 school year, therefore, all existing part-time teachers should discuss and agree a statement of their working time obligations with the headteacher, which should then be used to determine the pay fraction for the teacher for this year. Such a statement should then be agreed in advance of the start of each subsequent school year.
Further details are available on the NUT website at http://www.teachers.org.uk/story.php?id=4461 or if you email me at norfolknut@btinternet.com I will forward the article.
Mike Smith
Tribute to Steve Sinnott
On Saturday, 21st June a tribute was held for Steve Sinnott at the Queen Elizabeth II Centre in London. Friends, family and colleagues from the UK and across the world gathered together to celebrate his life. Kendra Deacon, Letitia Willins and Mary Cook from Norfolk went along to represent the County. It was a fitting tribute and he will be greatly missed.
The Sixteenth Annual Pensioners' Parliament
In terms of organisation, content and balance, this year’s Pensioners’ Parliament surpassed all previous events. Following the traditional march from Blackpool’s North Pier to the Winter Gardens complex, the opening Tuesday afternoon session in the Empress Ballroom, attended by almost 2,500 representatives from throughout Britain and Northern Ireland, was devoted to a celebration of the centenary of the State Retirement Pension, interspersed with powerful speeches in support of a better deal for the elderly by Neil Duncan-Jordan, NPC National Officer, Frances O’Grady, Deputy General Secretary of the TUC, Danny Alexander, Lib Dem pensions’ spokesperson, Kate Hoey, MP and Joe Harris, NPC General Secretary. Supported by any amount of factual evidence, they drew attention to the pensioners’ plight arising from the spiralling cost of living and the ever decreasing purchasing power of the state pension as a consequence of the removal of the link with average earnings.
The six Wednesday sessions held at different venues within the Winter Gardens, three each in the morning and afternoon, were devoted to different areas of concern relating to health and social care. Highly informative, they were centred around long–term residential care, carers, Primary Care, social and community care, hospital care and mental health care.
For the first part of Thursday morning, representatives were provided with a choice of four campaigning sessions devoted to council tax, age discrimination, public transport and post offices. There was a final plenary session in the ballroom addressed by Professor Alan Walker, NPC patron of Sheffield University. His speech was packed with a great deal of useful information, as he called for a new approach to old age based on human rights, dignity and respect, adding that such policy must include the right to a universal state pension which is set above the official poverty line, up-dated regularly in line with average earnings, paid on the same basis for men and women and without the means test.
We departed to the strains of “Keep Right on to the End of the Road”, which representatives know as the Jack Jones anthem.
Ray Russell
Local Association events from around the County
West Norfolk and Downham & District Association
From 7th – 23rd October a series of drop-in, after-school sessions at High Schools. Contact Kendra (see back page).
18th Nov 4:30pm The Crown, Downham Market
Norwich and District
9th Oct NQ function, Thai on the River
2nd Dec 4.30pm General Meeting, Drayton Junior School
13th Jan 4.30pm AGM, Drayton Junior School
South Norfolk and Breckland
16th Oct NQT function, 6pm, Belle Vue, Norwich
6th Nov 7.00 for 7.30pm The Feathers, Wymondham
15th Jan 09 7.00 for 7.30pm The Feathers, Wymondham
Broadland
3rd Oct Star Hotel, Hall Quay, Great Yarmouth
11th Nov 8pm The Ship Inn, Tan Lane, Caister-on-Sea
10th Jan 09 8pm AGM The Ship Inn, Caister-on-Sea
Dereham and Fakenham Association
8th Oct 7.00pm Bowling in Dereham
20th Nov 7.30pm Burchett House, N Tuddenham
West Norfolk Retired Teachers’ Club
Meetings are usually held at the West Norfolk PDC at 10.00am. Contact Mary Cook, 01553 829030, vmcook2000@yahoo.com
or Phyllis Marais 01366 382993, phyllis@oakfield7.freeserve.co.uk
21st Oct Brian Ogden, Are you Sitting Comfortably?
18th Nov AGM including raffle
9th Dec Christmas Lunch
20th Jan 09 Sir Richard Parson on the Diplomatic Service
Norwich Retired Teachers’ Association
Meetings on Wednesdays at 10.00am at the Christchurch Centre, Magdalen Road, Norwich. Details - Beryl Watkins, 01603 456617.
12th Nov Hazel Hendrson “El Dorado”
10th Dec Christmas Lunch
Classroom Quips
2008 Undergraduate Exam Howlers
The following are said to have been included among entries for the Time Higher Education Supplement “exam howlers” competition.
An economics student attributed the downfall of Northern Rock to “laxative enforcement policies”.
“The Handmaid’s Tale”, a book by Margaret Atwood, was described as showing “how patriarchy treats women as escape goats.”
Another gem: “Tackling climate change will require an unpresidented response.”
And again, “Control of infectious diseases is very important in case an academic breaks out.”
Outlining the importance of the railways in 19tyh century Britain, one student wrote, “The railways were invented to bring the Irish from Dublin to Liverpool where they were promptly arrested for being vagrants.”
Another wrote, “The railways were invented to take the weight off the motorways.”
Ray Russell
An appeal to all reps and school contacts
The most efficient means we have to contact members in schools is by email. Unfortunately, email addresses seem to go out of use very rapidly. If you are a rep or would be willing to act as a point of contact in a school where there is no official rep please could you spend a few moments emailing me your name, school and position, i.e. rep or contact. This will make life so much easier for us! Thank you.
Mike Smith: Email: norfolknut@btinternet.com
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