Socialist Educational Association

Elections are just getting under way for a range of posts in Young Labour. The SEA has agreed to support

Lara McNeill, from Hastings and Kings College London, for the Young Labour place on the National Executive. There is more about Lara on her campaign website http://www.larafornec.co.uk and

Leigh Drennan, Councillor in Tameside and current Vice Chair, for Chair of You  Labour

The next national SEA meeting is on Saturday 13^th January in the Priory Rooms, 40 Bull Street, Birmingham, B4 6AF. As usual the business meetings are in the morning and the all members discussion meeting will be from 2.00 to 4.00 pm.

In the afternoon, a key item will be to consider our response to the party’s Democracy Review. The process is outlined at https://labour.org.uk/about/democracy-review-2017/ where there is a link to the full terms of reference. There is the opportunity for individual members to make their own submissions. SEA will be making its own response and will certainly stress the importance of raising the profile of societies such as ours in the party.

We’ll also be continuing our debates around the party’s proposals for a National Education Service and around our own policy agenda.

All SEA members are welcome to both the morning and afternoon meetings.

Labour’s policy making process is now starting up with the first meetings of the 8 Policy Commissions. The last cycle was cut short by the snap election – and who knows, this one might be too. But as things stand it’s an important opportunity to build on the last manifesto and the principles of the National Education Service that were introduced at Conference.

A summary of the policy process can be found at National Policy Forum 2018 and the 10 NES principles are at The NES charter. I would urge all SEA members and supporters to use this opportunity to have their say on how Labour policy should develop.

At the same time, the party’s Democracy Review is starting up. Details can be found at https://labour.org.uk/about/democracy-review-2017/

This will be a major topic at the next national SEA meeting which will be on 13th January at the Priory Rooms 40 Bull Street, Birmingham B4 6AF. The members meeting will start at 2.00 pm.

It’s really exciting to be able to record how many new SEA branches are starting up. In the last couple of weeks there have been inaugural meetings in Liverpool and Brighton and Hove, both with really good attendances. Tomorrow a south west London group will have its first meeting and the AGM of the Greater Manchester branch is set for 30th January.

We would like to encourage members in other areas to think about whether local groups could be formed. It’s a great way to raise the profile of education locally and to encourage councillors and MPs to make education a real campaigning issue.

The rules for branches are set out in the SEA constitution under “The SEA” tab at the top of this page and more information is available from secretary@socialisteducationalassociation.org. It just takes a couple of keen members to take the initiative and get something going.

UK Disability History Month takes place from November 22nd till December 22nd. 

This is the 8th year  in which this event has taken place. The theme this year is ”Disability and Art”. The introductory broadsheet can be downloaded from Disability-and-Visual-Art_UKDHM-Broadsheet-2017. On-line materials are available for UK Disability History Month November/December 2017 at http://www.ukdhm.org.

If anyone wants to come to the Launch in Parliament on November 22nd at 6pm please email susieburrows@live.co.uk  

The next SEA members’ meeting will be on Saturday 18^th November from 2.00 to 4.00 pm. It will be held in Room 153 of Birkbeck College, Malet Street, London WC1E 7HXLondon.

The SEA Executive will be meeting from 11.00 in the same room. All SEA members are welcome to both meetings.

At the members’ meeting we will be debating:

• Labour’s ideas for a National Education Service. At conference a ten point charter outlining the principles that will underpin the NES. But there is much to do to develop a concrete policy platform around these principles. The charter can be downloaded from The NES charter
• Local elections 2018 – next year there will be local elections for London and metropolitan boroughs and unitary authorities all of whom still have responsibility for education and children’s services. But there is a real risk that education is slipping off the radar of many local authorities – SEA needs to encourage Labour parties and groups to make sure education is still a significant part of their manifesto.

Jack Dromey MP, Birmingham City council, the NAHT and the NEU are hosting a school summit on Friday November 10^th 12:30-2pm with Angela Rayner MP. It is an opportunity for teachers and staff to share fears about what the school funding cuts the Tory Government are introducing will mean for them.

SEA members in the West Midlands are invited to attend. The invitation can be downloaded here: School cuts summit

This year’s Caroline Benn Memorial Lecture will be on Tuesday 7^th November in the House of Commons beginning at 6.00pm.

 It will be delivered by Dr Rebecca Allen, Director of Datalab. Her theme will be “Making teaching a job worth doing (again)”

 Datalab is a research organisation that uses large scale administrative and survey datasets to support policy makers and those working with schools. It has developed a formidable reputation for the quality of its analysis and for its willingness to challenge received wisdom and assumptions.

Rebecca Allen is a former school teacher and academic at UCL Institute of Education. She is an expert in school accountability, pupil admissions and teacher labour markets.

 In introducing the lecture, Dr Allen writes:

“Policy makers and the profession agree that we need to reduce teacher working hours, but doing something about it isn’t as easy as it first appears. This lecture will describe how government, the inspectorate, school leaders and the profession itself have, through seemingly unconnected decisions, created a toxic working environment for teachers. It will suggest a blueprint for how we make the job manageable again.”

This is a free event but it’s important that those wishing to attend register by emailing secretary@socialisteducationalassociation.org.

We anticipate there will be a high level of demand for this event, so please register your interest as soon as possible.