Mary Bousted
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Articles by Mary Bousted
Growing our unions to transform our profession
In the lead-up to Education International’s 10th World Congress, we invited members of the Executive Board to share their thoughts about the theme of the Congress: “Growing our unions, elevating our professions, defending democracy”.
Union accepts pay rise for teachers in England and calls off strikes
It comes after teacher members of the NEU staged eight days of strike action in state schools in England since February in a pay dispute. Four education unions had been considering further walkouts in the autumn term, but their general secretaries recommended members accept the 6.5% pay rise for teachers in England offered earlier this month.
Students and parents to face disruption as teachers in England go on strike over pay
Picket lines will be mounted outside schools and sixth-form colleges across England, and striking teachers will march in Westminster in London before taking part in a rally in Parliament Square on Wednesday afternoon. It is the seventh-day individual schools in England have faced walkouts by NEU teacher members this year. Education union leaders have warned that further strike action in the autumn term is likely if the ongoing pay dispute remains unresolved.
Pupils in families using food banks during pandemic ‘received lower GCSE grades’
Rates of psychological distress were substantially higher in households who started using food banks in the pandemic (63% among parents and 53% among pupils), compared with 33% and 41% for those not using food banks, according to the Cosmo (Covid Social Mobility and Opportunities) study.
Just plain silly: Ministerial claims vs the reality in schools
Ministerial claims that all is well in our schools look plain silly, says Dr Mary Bousted, when compared with the reality of crumbling buildings, a shortage of teachers, funding shortfalls and much more I am genuinely at a loss over the government’s education policy. Increasingly I am of the view that Rishi Sunak, Gillian Keegan and Nick Gibb exist in an alternative universe where wishing makes it so.
No ‘reason to doubt’ school inspection after death of headteacher – Ofsted chief
Pressure has been mounting on the schools watchdog in England following the incident, but its chief inspector has defended the system used to give rankings. Ms Spielman told the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg On Sunday programme: “I think the findings were secure and I think the inspection team worked with the professionalism and sensitivity that I would expect from our inspectors. “From what I’ve seen, I don’t have any reason to doubt the inspection. “Inspection is a sensitive process.
Ofsted: We cannot carry on like this
The recent annual conference of the National Education Union (NEU) has given me pause to reflect on my two decades as a general secretary, first of the ATL (Association of Teachers and Lecturers) and now the NEU. I will soon be stepping down, as will my good friend and colleague Kevin Courtney, at the end of August.
Keegan ‘living in fantasy land’ over challenges facing schools – union boss
During a speech to the union’s annual conference, Dr Bousted said many schools are “running on skeleton staff” and support staff are leaving because they “earn more stacking shelves in a supermarket”. Addressing NEU members in Harrogate, she said: “Gillian Keegan is airily unconcerned about all of this.
Teachers ‘should support drag queen story time to boost inclusivity in schools’
A motion passed at the conference said initiatives, like drag queen story time, and inviting LGBT+ authors into schools can “help challenge the heteronormative culture and curriculum” in education. It comes after a far-right protest was held outside Tate Britain in February, where a drag queen storytelling event was being held for children. The motion called on the union’s executive to publicly support initiatives like drag queen story time, “to develop a more inclusive atmosphere in schools”.
School leaders should refuse to work as Ofsted inspectors, says union
An urgent motion on Ofsted’s impact on school staff’s mental health was tabled at the conference after the death of headteacher Ruth Perry. Ms Perry, who was head at Caversham Primary School in Reading, killed herself in January while waiting for an Ofsted report which downgraded her school to the lowest possible rating, her family said.
Schools face more strikes this spring as teaching union members reject pay offer
The NEU, which had urged its members to reject the “insulting” offer, plans to hold two further days of teacher strikes on April 27 and May 2. The result of the ballot was announced at the start of the NEU’s annual conference in Harrogate, North Yorkshire, on Monday morning. After a period of intensive talks with unions, the Government offered teachers a £1,000 one-off payment for the current school year (2022/23) and an average 4.5% pay rise for staff next year (2023/24).
Union head welcomes ‘detailed negotiations’ over teachers’ pay after fresh talks
The NASUWT and headteachers’ union NAHT have held separate talks with Ms Keegan on Monday, with the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) doing the same on Tuesday. Dr Roach said: “Today’s meeting with the Secretary of State has given us the assurances we have been seeking. There is nothing that should now stand in the way of detailed negotiations and getting a deal onto the table.
Teachers strikes: Poll finds majority of parents back industrial action
A new opinion poll has found that a substantial majority of parents support teachers taking strike action. According to a poll from Ipsos, 60% of parents or guardians support strikes from the National Education Union (NEU). A plurality of the wider public also support the strikes. 48% of the general public say they support teachers taking strike action. Members of the NEU in some regions of England are on strike today in their ongoing dispute over pay.
Teacher strikes could be paused if ‘substantive progress’ made in pay dispute
It comes after Education Secretary Gillian Keegan wrote to teaching unions inviting them to “formal talks on pay, conditions and reform” on the condition that next week’s strike action in England and Wales is cancelled. Downing Street said the offer of talks with the NEU would be put in jeopardy if planned walkouts by teachers were not called off.
Extraordinary and unprecedented: Crisis in education
Dilapidated school buildings, excessive workloads, and inadequate pay – this, says Dr Mary Bousted, is how we as a society treat our teaching and school staff in 2023. And it's now so bad that even Ofsted is passing comment... The educational crisis caused by the chronic teacher shortage was the main topic of Ofsted chief inspector Amanda Spielman’s latest annual report. To use a cliché, I have never read anything like it.
On a road to nowhere
Secretaries of state for education come and go – and increasingly rapidly over the course of the past 12 months, which has seen three arrive and depart. One, Michelle Donelan, lasted two days. Now we have our fourth – Kit Malthouse – who recently spoke to the Conservative Party faithful at their annual conference in Birmingham about his priorities in office. I was at the conference and hoped to hear a change of tone from Mr Malthouse compared to that of his predecessors. I was disappointed.
Want to level up? Then tackle child poverty
The regional inequalities in GCSE and A level results match up with the regional levels of child poverty. This is no coincidence, says Dr Mary Bousted As I write this article, it is GCSE results day. Along with the usual congratulations and photographs and television clips of young people celebrating their results, a Labour party analysis of regional inequalities in A level and GCSE pass rates is hitting the headlines.
Why is it so difficult for teachers to remain in the profession?
The work of teachers is subject to routine surveillance that has become intensive, excessive and intrusive, robbing them of autonomy and driving the retention crisis, says Dr Mary Bousted, author of Support not Surveillance Today I have one burning question: Why is it so difficult for teachers to remain in the profession? The numbers jumping ship are alarming. Within five years of qualification, more than 31% have left teaching. Within 10 years that figure rises to more than 40% (DfE, 2022).
Farewell then, the school-led system?
The Schools Bill currently passing through Parliament will be the beginning of the end of any real sense of autonomy for our schools, says Dr Mary Bousted The Schools Bill currently having its first reading in the House of Lords makes, in parts, for surprising reading. Some of its proposed measures have been well trailed – for example the government’s drive to have all schools in “families of trusts”.
Book review: Support not surveillance by Mary Bousted
CEO, Dartmoor Multi Academy Trust 1 May 2022, 5:00 Book Readers may disagree, but they will still have to argue with the evidence Review: Support not surveillance by Mary Bousted By Dr Mary Bousted
Nothing is normal in schools now
Written by: Dr Mary Bousted | Published: 28 March 2022 Past mistakes continue to be repeated by ministers even though we are more than two years into a pandemic that is still causing chaos, anxiety and huge workload pressures in schools, says Dr Mary Bousted The government appears to be in denial about the impact that Covid is continuing to have in schools. Pupil absence is rising as the Omicron variant rips through the pupil population.
When will our exam factory culture end?
Too many young people are being failed by an examination and qualifications system that is outdated and punitive. Our exam factory culture must end, says Dr Mary Bousted Because the world is changing, it is time we thought about change in education too. Nowhere is this needed more than in secondary education, where over the last 10 years governments have taken a qualifications system that was already out-of-date and made it more backward-looking still.
No evidence that ‘brutal’ Ofsted regime works
If Ofsted cannot show that it achieves its core purpose, what hope does the profession suffering under its tyrannical yoke have? Ofsted is still driving pointless workload and operating with no evidence that its judgements are reliable, says Dr Mary Bousted I wonder if Ofsted inspectors think of themselves as troops going into battle as they turn up at schools ready to inflict their inspections on an exhausted and stressed teaching profession?
What price experience? A flawed approach to teacher pay
Experienced teachers are poorly paid compared to other graduate professions yet have skills which are highly valued by many industries. This is a recipe for disaster, says Dr Mary Bousted A recent research paper from the Institute for Fiscal Studies, entitled The long, long squeeze on teacher pay, gives a compelling account of how teachers’ pay has declined in real terms over the past 15 years (Cribb & Sibieta, 2021).
GCSE reform - looking forward to a rosy past
I remember well the introduction of GCSEs in the mid-1980s. I was a Head of English in a comprehensive school of one thousand pupils in Harrow. I was a strong supporter of the new qualification which would end the awful divide of pupils into those taking ‘O’ levels and the others taking ‘CSE’s. I was delighted that one qualification would mean that I no longer was compelled to make decisions that would hugely affect children’s life chances at the very young age of 14.
The wellbeing charter can't be used to paper over the cracks
The DfE’s new initiative is welcome, writes Mary Bousted, but this charter can’t be used to paper over the cracks of a broken accountability system The DfE and Ofsted recently launched a staff wellbeing charter to “protect, promote and enhance” staff wellbeing.
This is a cruel way to treat young people
Child poverty levels have risen, yet again, and now stand at 4.3 million. The impact of this is severe, far-ranging and cruel, says Dr Mary Bousted The pandemic has made children and young people’s mental health worse. Since the arrival of Covid–19 the prevalence of mental disorders in the young has risen to one child in six according to NHS figures – an alarming rate of mental ill-health.
Learning styles: What teaching fads will the DfE resurrect next?
Many school and union leaders have claimed, with noises of exasperation, that the Department for Education never seems to learn anything about what goes on in schools. But maybe they are to blame. Following the DfE’s recent startling resurrection of the widely debunked “learning styles” theory in its newsletter to prospective new teachers, those outspoken critics of the DfE need to ask a few questions of themselves.
How Covid has exposed flaws in our schools' curriculum
There are clear signs of a change in the weather – not just that spring is coming at last, and perhaps the prospect of a route out of lockdown, but a change also in the conversations we are now beginning to have about our education system. This conversation is born out of the experience that parents have had homeschooling their children. If education was, as in Jim Callaghan’s famous 1976 speech on education, “a secret garden”, it is no longer.
International Women’s Day: Are female teachers invisible?
On International Women’s Day, we face a full return to school after a pandemic year of constant crises, when the pressure has been intense and the danger of rising infection omnipresent, even in lockdown. Perhaps Professor Jonathan Van-Tam, the deputy chief medical officer, meant to be reassuring to all teachers when he stated that the Covid death rates for male teachers were 18.4 deaths per 100,000, compared with more than 100 deaths per 100,000 for men in the highest-risk groups.
A ‘big bang’ school reopening makes no sense
The prime minister’s decision for a ‘big bang’ full reopening on 8 March makes no sense, writes Mary Bousted Throughout this awful pandemic, the National Education Union has followed the science and been proved right time after time. We tracked the spread of Covid in schools and colleges and the disruption it was causing to pupils’ education from September to December, when far too many were isolating at home rather than learning in school.
Exams 2021: Whistling in the dark, once again
Written by: Dr Mary Bousted | Published: 25 January 2021 As Ofqual consults over how this summer’s examinations are to be graded, Dr Mary Bousted is saddened yet not surprised that teachers will once again be left to pick up the pieces from a lack of government planning “A lesson learned” is something that Gavin Williamson appears to be incapable of doing – which is ironic given his position as secretary of state for education.
Ministers' response to Covid goes from shameful to shameless
This government has some nerve telling teachers to keep calm and carry on, writes Mary Bousted “Tell your members to hold their nerve,” a government minister said to me last week. He understood, he added, how tired teachers are and how challenging and stressful it currently is working in schools and colleges. But the school must go on, he insisted. Circuit breakers, rotas and extended holidays were not an option.
Coronavirus: 'Teachers feel like they have been abandoned'
“Beleaguered” is the term that comes to mind when I think of staff in schools and colleges. I get the sense that the profession feels abandoned. Cut adrift by ministers who have said very little to them about the essential and important work they are doing in the most difficult circumstances. The significant and time-consuming challenges of running a Covid-secure school remain largely unacknowledged by this government.
Examinations: The DfE is increasingly out of touch
Gavin Williamson is completely out of touch if he thinks that exams can continue as normal next year, says Dr Mary Bousted, even with a three-week delay of now vanishing relevance It was always going to be tough running schools and colleges during a pandemic. No-one had the route map and strategies that would have to be implemented at short notice, requiring a great deal of work and commitment to get it right.
How Gavin Williamson is courting another exams disaster
The government’s response to the Covid pandemic has been marked by delay at every point. Education is, unfortunately, no exception to this very bad rule. The announcements on changes to exams by Scotland’s education minister, John Swinney, shows that the Scottish government has learned from the mistakes that were the hallmark of this year’s examination fiasco, accepted responsibility and understood that Covid may well have an impact on next year’s exams.
Flawed assumptions plague our exams system
The ‘mutant algorithm’ made a series of flawed assumptions about students’ exam results. But our exam system has always had at its heart several flawed assumptions, says Dr Mary Bousted Schools and education have not, until now, been issues which routinely top the media agenda. Until now. This summer’s A level grading has changed all that. It is a cut-through issue rivalled only by Dominic Cummings’ drive to Barnard Castle to check his eyesight. On one thing, all can agree. It must never happen again.
A level results: Schools and students need reform, not apologies
For all the apologies, Mary Bousted says there is little sign government is willing or able to learn the lessons of how it got into this mess, with likely repercussions for next year’s final-year students Today should have been a day of celebration for students as they received their A level grades. It doesn’t feel like that.
Crisis management: listen and learn from school leaders
Announcements to please narrow audiences while washing your hands of the tough choices creates division, says Mary Bousted School leadership is difficult even in normal times. And these are not normal times. Covid-19 has cut through normal like a knife through butter and left the old certainties of school life flapping in its wake. School leaders have grappled with government bureaucracy as they’ve tried to keep children on free school meals fed.
Schools reopening: The attainment gap was yawning long before coronavirus
It’s an ill wind that blows no good. A wise saying which stands up even in the time of the coronavirus. Because what Covid-19 has brought out of the shadows is the attainment gap between disadvantaged children and their peers. Much concern has, rightly, been expressed that the partial closure of schools will widen the attainment gap.
The months ahead: What must education look like?
As the coronavirus lockdown continues, some very real questions about what education must look like in the months to come need addressing, says Dr Mary Bousted These are extraordinary times. The Covid-19 crisis has upended all our certainties about schools and education. Students have been at home for weeks. Some have parents who can support them in their learning, with access to the internet and to online resources. Their homes will be well supplied with books and reading material.
There is only one clear path to reopening schools
Letting our hopes of returning to school get the better of our reasoning about doing it safely only risks putting back the date we can reopen, writes Mary Bousted There has been too much loose talk lately. Yesterday, one MAT CEO wrote in these pages that schools should lead the way out of lockdown and return in mid-May. But that bold statement was heavily caveated. There should be community testing and antibody testing for teachers, the author said.
Summer 2020 grades for GCSE, AS and A level
Details by Dr Mary Bousted Published: 03 April 2020 Hits: 344 Please Rate You are using adblocker please support us by whitelisting www.fenews.co.uk Summer 2020 grades for GCSE, AS and A level Commenting on the further information regarding summer 2020 grades for GCSE, AS and A level, as published today (3 Apr) by Ofqual, Dr Mary Bousted, Joint General Secretary of the National Education Union, said: “In awarding grades in GCSEs and A-Levels this year, we are pleased that the Department for...
Summer 2020 grades for GCSE, AS and A level
Details by Dr Mary Bousted Published: 03 April 2020 Hits: 19 Please Rate You are using adblocker please support us by whitelisting www.fenews.co.uk Summer 2020 grades for GCSE, AS and A level Commenting on the further information regarding summer 2020 grades for GCSE, AS and A level, as published today (3 Apr) by Ofqual, Dr Mary Bousted, Joint General Secretary of the National Education Union, said: “In awarding grades in GCSEs and A-Levels this year, we are pleased that the Department for...
Support for self-employed workers during the Covid-19 outbreak: Action for Supply Teachers
Details by Dr Mary Bousted Published: 26 March 2020 Hits: 699 Please Rate You are using adblocker please support us by whitelisting www.fenews.co.uk #COVID19 Action for Supply Teachers Commenting ahead of the Chancellor’s briefing on support for self-employed workers during the Covid-19 outbreak, Dr Mary Bousted, Joint General Secretary of the National Education Union, said: “In these unsettling times it is imperative that the Government gives support to those who need it.
'Everyone must calm down and focus on what is possible'
We are all having to get used to new ways of working in the time of the coronavirus. Schools are closed for the vast majority of pupils. Those who are still attending school are not being taught by their usual teacher, not learning with their normal classmates. They are not following anything like their previous timetable. Nor are they grouped in their normal classes. Schools are adapting to the new circumstances we are in and organising their provision in different ways.
Support for self-employed workers during the Covid-19 outbreak: Action for Supply Teachers
Details by Dr Mary Bousted Published: 26 March 2020 Hits: 44 Please Rate You are using adblocker please support us by whitelisting www.fenews.co.uk #COVID19 Action for Supply Teachers Commenting ahead of the Chancellor’s briefing on support for self-employed workers during the Covid-19 outbreak, Dr Mary Bousted, Joint General Secretary of the National Education Union, said: “In these unsettling times it is imperative that the Government gives support to those who need it.
NEU members need clarity on the impacts of school closures
The NEU’s priority is to get clarity for teachers and school leaders. But one thing’s for certain: There’s no going back, writes Mary Bousted These are extraordinary times. Schools across the UK are closing on Friday. We do not know when they will open again. We do not know how the restricted opening of schools for vulnerable children and key workers’ children will operate. GCSE, AS and A levels have been cancelled.
It’s time to #PauseOfsted
Ofsted is unable to operate its new framework competently. Change is needed, which is why the #PauseOfsted campaign is timely and welcome, says Dr Mary Bousted It is now abundantly clear that the new Ofsted Education Inspection Framework (EIF) is in trouble. Launched with such fanfare in September, the EIF has failed to be fairer to schools in deprived areas, who are still, despite Ofsted’s assurances that things would change, disproportionately likely to be given negative Ofsted judgements.
Pensions: why private school staff are right to strike
Recently, NEU teaching union members at the independent Burgess Hill School for Girls in Sussex were ready to take industrial action in defence of their pensions. On the eve of the strike, the action was suspended, thanks to a potential breakthrough in discussions with governors. When teachers feel that they have no alternative but to withdraw their labour, it is a last resort. When staff working in the independent sector do so, you really know that something is up.
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