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School visits and follow up in the land of the Founding Fathers

Stewart

Boston in Lincolnshire wears its history lightly. Boston, not Plymouth, is where the founding fathers of the US left from on the Mayflower. By way of Holland, Plymouth was the last place in England they saw, not the place they originated from. I’m not sure why they don’t make more of it. I spent a week there with a team of organisers from NASUWT headquarters.

The team, including former graduates of the Organisers Academy, visited, or tried to visit, 41 schools. Many were welcoming, one offered us a school meal, but some were downright hostile and it is with those schools that follow up becomes extremely important.

We found a number of reps and school contacts, and found that compliance with accepted practices is woeful, particularly in small schools.

At one school we had a very friendly deputy head pop in to ensure that everything was alright. Once she was in, she wasn’t for leaving. In the end we had to have a polite word.

In some schools we had very aggressive senior managers denying that any of our members wanted to meet us, only to get phone calls from said members asking when we would be arriving.

The mapping element is so important, with local knowledge built in to the plan, and regular consultation with existing reps, caseworkers and Local Association officials. Invariably the schools which we had been advised to visit produced reps and contacts.

It was great to see so many of the new faces at a Local Association meeting last night. It just goes to show, there’s no substitute for a face to face meeting to get people active.

© Trades Union Congress 2007