The pay cycle for next academic year has started already. The government is proposing a 2.8% pay increase. It is unfunded meaning school will have to pay for it out it out of their existing budgets.

Inflation is predicted to be 2.6% next year. But the figures a year out need to be taken with a pinched of salt.

Where will the schools get some money? Assuming you local school isn’t sitting on a secret pile of gold (they aren’t) and aren’t willing to cut leadership pay (ha ha ha) then most schools have two options.

They can cut support staff, or they can try and force out experienced teachers and replace them with new, cheaper teachers. They might struggle to do much of the latter, as there is a teacher shortage. Most schools will do a bit of both.

This will hurt students education and hurt the country.

NEU will stand up for its members, including support staff, as they are the beating heart of education. We will represent members who are threatened with lay offs, and those who are dragged in front of trumped up charges used by schools to force staff out.

NEU will also take collective action. If we have to we will go on strike, but before that 1000s of hours will be put into drawing up alternatives, working with the pay board, and pushing for education to be put on a sustainable footing.

We need to start organising now, ready to fight for students and teachers across the uk. We need to be ready to take sustained strike action, if we are forced to protect universal free education.

If you want to be involved in helping planning the campaign, making resources, lobbying etc, then please get in touch at the email below. You can make as big or small a time commitment as you want. Even five minutes a term can make a real different.

Oh, and support staff members in NEU. NEU will fight for you, with all its strength. No one understands more than teachers how amazing you are and how little you are rewarded.

If you’re not in a union, I will leave you with the words my dad gave me on the first day I started working. “Join a union or your washing up for the rest of the month”