Richard

Happy National Teaching Assistants' Day! To every TA running interventions, supporting pupils with SEND and keeping the day on track: thank you. Classrooms thrive on you. Join the union for school support staff: gmb.org.uk/join #NationalTeachingAssistantsDay #MembersFirst

This week school support staff on Term-Time Only contracts effectively stop getting paid. So they're wearing black to mark it. They keep our schools running all year, the same as teachers. But TTO contracts leave them unpaid for weeks while the rent, the energy and the council tax keep coming. From classrooms to staffrooms, support staff are standing together and saying it loud: Say No to TTO. School support staff: join GMB Union and fight for fair pay 👉 gmb.org.uk/join-gmb #SayNoToTTO

Saved On, Passed Over: The Quiet Injustice in This Year's School Pay Deal There are no press conferences for decisions like this one. No ministerial announcement. No headline. Just a line in a letter, telling schools they can keep a saving. That saving was made on school support staff. The cost of their pensions has fallen. Their pensions are safe. But the money freed up is real, and it came from the people who are already paid least in our schools. Ministers had a choice. They chose to let that money go elsewhere. Every school worker deserves a fair pay rise, and nobody begrudges colleagues theirs. But it cannot be right that the lowest paid people in our schools are once again left with nothing, while savings made on them are spent elsewhere. Many support staff are on Term-Time Only contracts and go weeks every year without pay. Many are working second jobs. Many are wondering how much longer they can afford to stay in a job they love. They deserved better than this, and we are deeply disappointed that Ministers did not choose to give it to them. The NEU has made a point of reaching out to support staff and asking for their trust. Trust is earned when it matters. This settlement was welcomed as "a significant step", but for who? Certainly not support staff! Solidarity cannot stop at the staffroom door. GMB Union represents over 100,000 school support staff, and we will keep making their case to the Government, loudly and without apology. Support staff are not an afterthought. They are the backbone of every school in this country. If you work in a school and feel forgotten, join the union that will always stand with you. 👉 gmb.org.uk/join-gmb #StrongerTogether

Nigel Farage used a boat landing in Clacton to shout "invasion" and name check HM Coastguard for a headline. He forgot something. The Coastguard Rescue Officers on that coast are his own constituents and GMB members. Some were on that callout. Their pay is being scrapped in September, they have written to him, and he has offered nothing. A concerned member at Clacton station puts it best: "It doesn't matter to us who is in distress. We are always on call to help those in trouble." That is public service. Not points scored off desperate people at sea, but a hand held out to anyone in trouble, no questions asked. Farage will use the Coastguard Rescue Officers for a headline. He just will not fight for them. #BackOurCROs