Children who sang during Westminster terror attack win awards
The day of the Westminster terrorist attack in March was the longest day of headteacher Lisa Farley’s life. When news of the incident broke, she knew 57 year 6 pupils from her school, St John and St Francis church school in Bridgwater, Somerset, were visiting the House of Commons. Farley tried to reach her deputy, Alexis Piper, who was with them. “I couldn’t get through at first. It must have only taken a couple of minutes before I managed to speak to him, but it felt like a lifetime.”
Piper and the children were locked down in the main chamber of the Commons with four other members of staff and two parent helpers. “It was only by picking up what was happening on the security guards’ walkie talkies that we realised what was going on,” Piper says. Then the staff started getting news alerts on their phones. “All we told the children was that someone had been arrested and that we were being kept safe.” It was calm inside the chamber and the children were quite relaxed, he says. That’s when they spontaneously burst into song.
“Rather than sit around with nothing to do, the children started singing the songs they’d been rehearsing for our Easter service. The songs lifted people’s spirits and made everyone aware there were children there. MPs came over to talk to them,” he says.
The pupils eventually arrived back at school at 11pm. Next day, psychologists visited and counselling was also offered to staff. “We talked openly about what had happened,” says Farley. “The children were very concerned about the police officer who died and for his family. They wanted to record a thank you song to everyone who’d kept them safe, which they put on YouTube.”
They received a bravery award from the local constabulary and a letter from the prime minister. “Our pupils shone that day,” Farley says.
To honour the children, who left in the summer for secondary school, the school planted a cherry tree in the grounds and put up a plaque, dedicating it to them. “We told them it will blossom every year and that’s what we want them to do,” Farley says. DF
Vice-chancellor awaits apology from ‘McCarthyite’ Brexit MP
Professor David Green, the vice-chancellor of Worcester University, found himself in the eye of a media storm in October, when he denounced the government whip Chris Heaton-Harris in Education Guardian for sending a “McCarthyite” letter demanding names of academics teaching about Brexit. The story went viral, and No 10 was forced to distance itself from Heaton-Harris. Visits to the university’s website went through the roof, and some staff were worried about repercussions from Green’s very public stand.
Heaton-Harris, a Eurosceptic, had written to vice-chancellors at every UK university asking for a list of academics involved in European affairs “with particular reference to Brexit”, as well as a copy of their syllabus and online lectures. Many academics saw his investigation as an attack on their freedom, and it sparked outrage across the world.
Following the Guardian’s story, Green wrote back to the MP saying: “I look forward to receiving your letter of apology for sending me this sinister letter asking me to supply the names of professors. I will do no such thing.” He has not received a reply.
The vice-chancellor also wanted to reassure his staff. “We teach science and reason, not propaganda and dogma,” he wrote to them. “We should never, ever have our teaching or research prescribed by a government official or minister.”
What does he think of claims by Jo Johnson, the universities minister, that Heaton-Harris was simply doing research for a book? “That was dealt with well on Have I Got News For You,” he says. “They just laughed at that bit of make-believe.”
Green was concerned, though, when his university started receiving requests about its teaching about Brexit under the Freedom of Information Act, including one from a Tory councillor. “I felt some were trying to use the law to stop discussion and debate of important matters,” he explains. “I felt a real responsibility, partly because I had received a lot of messages thanking me for speaking up for freedom from people whose families had been subject to persecution.”
Although every vice-chancellor received Heaton-Harris’s letter, few were prepared to court the limelight and speak publicly, especially with VCs’ salaries making headlines. But Green is adamant he did the right thing. “Universities aren’t only about education and economic benefit, they are about public benefit, too. It is very important that vice-chancellors are prepared to speak up on the big issues of the day.” AF
Aspiring nurse’s training paid for by generous reader
When Emily Heron, a 22-year-old healthcare assistant, spoke to Education Guardian about how cuts to nursing degree bursaries had squashed her dream of becoming a nurse, she never imagined it would change her life. But an anonymous reader, touched by her story and angry with the government, contacted the Guardian offering to pay for her to go to university.
Since August those wishing to study nursing, midwifery and a host of other health-related professions have no longer been entitled to a government bursary to support their studies. Following this change, applications to study nursing in 2017-18 slumped by 23% compared with the previous year.
Heron had set her heart on becoming a nurse after leaving college to look after her terminally ill father, but after the government abolished bursaries she could no longer afford the training.
She learned, just after her father had died, that someone wanted to pay her £9,000 a year tuition fees. “To be honest it hasn’t quite sunk in yet. I am really grateful. Without his help I wouldn’t be going to university now,” she says.
The anonymous benefactor told her the reason he wanted to help was that he “didn’t want to feel this government had ruined another person’s dream”, she adds.
Heron’s father knew she wanted to be a nurse, and used to joke with staff at the hospital he attended not to make any mistakes while she was watching.
“I think my Dad would have been over the moon to hear I was going to university. He isn’t here to see it, but he’ll be sitting on my shoulder checking I am doing everything to the full.”
She is investigating courses at Northumbria, Teesside and Sunderland universities. She also hopes that more young people will fight for nursing bursaries to be reinstated. “You need get up and go to be a nurse, and you need passion. It worries me that we will have people who can afford to do it becoming nurses, rather than people who passionately want to.” AF
Homeless teacher recovering her self-esteem
Tara Diamond, an English teacher, is getting used to her new home on a council estate in Bath. “It’s taken a while for it to feel like home. But knowing my teenage son and daughter and I are not going to be thrown out at any moment by a landlord is a huge weight off my mind.”
It was a very different story a year ago, when the single mother found out her long-term landlord was selling up and she was going to be made homeless a week before Christmas. Her story, reported by Education Guardian in May in an article about homeless teachers, has a happy ending – thanks in part to the Education Support Partnership, a small charity that supports teachers in financial trouble. It awarded her £2,000 to help her put down a rental deposit, and then, at the eleventh hour before her eviction, the council offered her a permanent three-bed home.
“What I went through was very destructive to me as a professional and to my identity as a parent. My self-esteem took a battering, because a teacher shouldn’t be homeless, right?”
Diamond did not find it easy to speak out publicly. “I felt ashamed, but I wanted Guardian readers and the government to know the story was not made up and that teachers really are facing homelessness.” She says one of her year 7 pupils came up to her afterwards to say he’d been shown the interview by one of his friends. “He wanted to check I was all right now. Then he said: ‘I’m so sorry this happened to you, miss.’ I’ll never forget he said that.”
However, she says, “recovering from what happened to me is a slow process. I think about the next generation, growing up in homes without dignity and security, and I feel so much rage towards the government. What has happened to this country?”
Meanwhile, things are also looking up for Louisa Powell (not her real name), another homeless teacher who was interviewed for our report in May.
At the time, Powell was living in two cramped rooms in damp, unheated emergency accommodation with her two young children. After the article appeared, an anonymous Guardian reader gave her £100 to “help her a little” – a gift matched by a Guardian journalist. “Please pass on my thanks,” Powell wrote in reply. “This has literally brought a tear to my eye. I am so grateful. My children really need some new clothes so this has been such a blessing.”
In June, Powell organised the other tenants to provide evidence that convinced the council’s environmental health officer and its damp specialist to visit the property, and declare the building unsuitable to live in. They were then told that all the families would be re-housed by the council. “I was so relieved.”
She is now feeling settled in her new accommodation. “We’ve moved from that awful place and are finally looking forward to Christmas. It’s all been quite emotional.”
But the Education Support Partnership, a charity that supports struggling teachers reports that it is seeing a big increase in requests for help about housing as is focusing its Christmas appeal on that. DF
Maths teacher dragged off plane: a lawyer is on the case
Juhel Miah is still waiting for answers. “I’ve had no explanation, and no apology.” The Welsh maths teacher got kicked off a flight to New York while on a school trip in February. “I still have no idea why I was denied entry to the US. It feels like they have gotten away with it, and that’s wrong.”
He has sent more than 40 emails to the Foreign Office, his MP and the American embassy, trying to find out why he was escorted off the flight by security staff, in front of his colleagues and the class of children he was travelling with.
“The American embassy just didn’t care, despite all the media attention. At one point, they said it didn’t happen, that I hadn’t been denied entry.” His union, the National Education Union, has now asked a solicitor to help him get an explanation.
His MP, Carolyn Harris, took the trouble to check and reassure him that he is not on a “no-fly” list. “I had booked a holiday to Thailand over the summer and I was so worried about being hauled off the plane again. I sat there on the runway, petrified, hoping the plane would take off. It’s been very disturbing, emotionally.”
Miah is Muslim, and his full name is Mohammed Juhel Miah. “I couldn’t help questioning: what was different about me? Was it my race, my religion, my name or all three? It makes me sick to my stomach to think they’ve gotten away with it. Even worse that they could do it all again to someone else.”
He read comments on news stories suggesting he might be a terrorist. “Of course, a minority of people are going to think it. And it does hurt.”
In particular, he worries about what the parents of the children at his school, Llangatwg community school in Neath, might think as a result of the incident.
He has nothing but praise for the support given to him by colleagues and pupils. “The headteacher [Alan Rowlands] collected me from the airport in London at 3am and drove me back to Wales. The school also covered all my extra travelling expenses. Everyone at the school has been very supportive.”
The experience has changed him, though. “I always wanted to be a teacher, but this has made me realise that no matter how much you give to society, you can still encounter prejudice. I’m a lot more cynical now.” DF
Parents back headteacher’s anti-cuts stand
Mark Clutterbuck, of Coombe Hill junior school in Kingston upon Thames, was one of many headteachers who drew attention this year to the cuts having to be made in schools. In Clutterbuck’s case, he asked parents for a donation to fund school essentials.
“I believe education should be free. But right now, headteachers are near the brink of not having enough money to do the job. We are doing everything we can to make sure the cuts we are experiencing affect the children as little as possible, but that means making choices about whether or not to replace staff and technology, order less stationery, entice people to rent our facilities and do less maintenance on our buildings and grounds,” he says.
“Of course, staff get frustrated when they can’t get the things they need – it is frequently said schools have become one of the few workplaces where people steal stuff from home to bring to school. When their colleagues leave and are not replaced, jobs either don’t get done or eat into teachers’ spare time. All of this can affect morale.”
Asking for a suggested amount of £72 a year from parents allowed him to raise £12,000 for school equipment that needed to be replaced. “I don’t know which parents donated, or even how many parents donated. That is kept strictly confidential.” He was told a couple of parents donated nearly £1,000, and he felt it was only polite to acknowledge those gifts. “Parents were generally supportive. No one was made to feel uncomfortable if they didn’t donate.”
Some parents gave feedback that he had talked about money too much. “I totally understand that. From my perspective, I’ve just tried to explain why I was asking for a donation. I believe it’s important to be open about the situation schools are in and explain what it means for children. Other local schools have asked for significantly higher donations than ours.”
There was a big swing away from the Conservative party in his constituency during the election and the local Tory MP, James Berry, lost his seat to the Lib Dem Ed Davey. “I understand from local election canvassers who spoke to people on doorsteps that this issue really made people think. It was unheard of before for all the headteachers locally to come out and say the same thing.”
He knows some headteachers worry about speaking out about their dire lack of funds, for fear it will put parents off choosing the school, and result in fewer pupils and even less funding.
“It’s a vicious circle. The denigration of teachers and talk about failing schools just hinders progress.” He adds: “My worry is that no matter what we try to do to mitigate against the lack of funding, an entire generation is going to lose out.” DF
Nursery gets a reprieve … for now
At Homerton Nursery School in Cambridge, the sound of two- and three-year-olds playing happily is music to the ears of acting headteacher, Alex Pearson. The outstanding nursery school was among the hundreds of maintained nurseries threatened with closure this academic year, after the government announced plans to change the early years funding formula when it introduced 30 hours of so-called “free” childcare for working parents. This new formula reduced the average hourly funding rate offered to many maintained nurseries by 45%, according to research by the National Association of Head Teachers.
After Homerton and many other maintained nurseries ran a campaign to “save state-funded nursery schools” – attracting nearly 30,000 signatures for their parliamentary petition – the government recognised that maintained nurseries employ qualified teachers, who provide training for the whole early years sector, and bear costs that other childcare providers do not. It then agreed to provide supplementary funding of £55m a year to maintain nursery schools at current funding levels, but only until 2020.
“It was a great relief when we heard about the extra funding, but our parents and staff still face a lot of uncertainty,” says Pearson. “We still can’t plan more than six months ahead.”
She is worried about what will happen in 2020. “We are having to look at how we can make ourselves more sustainable by putting in bids for different streams of educational funding, which takes up a lot of time.” The nursery has also increased its class size from 22 to 24, to increase revenue. But none of this will be enough to cover her costs without supplementary government funding.
It makes her weary and sad. “We can’t support families the way we used to, especially with all the cuts to children’s centres. It is the disadvantaged and vulnerable children on low incomes who will lose out the most. Children today are not getting as good a deal as previous generations – and that undoubtedly means they will present in school with issues as they get older, which will be more costly in the future.” DF
