23rd March 2016, people will come together – in London, Manchester, Sheffield, Coventry, Birmingham and elsewhere – to campaign against the undemocratic decision to make all schools academies. We urge you to join any local action if you are able to do so.
Action can take many forms – attendance at these events, signing petitions to ensure this is debated fully in parliament, or tweeting your support for the campaign against academisation, this time using the hashtag #TellNickyNO.
https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/124702
Twitter is 10 years old this week, and is proving to be an important tool for sharing positive ideas as well as garnering expressions of dismay in the world of education.
In September 2014, @teacherROAR took to Twitter, encouraging people to use the hashtag #tellnicky – asking them to tweet some ideas for our relatively new Secretary of State for Education as to how she might improve education. This was at a time when an NUT survey said 96% of teachers thought bureaucracy and workload were having a significant and negative impact on their lives, with 90% having considered the possibility of leaving the profession.
https://3diassociates.wordpress.com/2014/10/01/tellnicky-what-our-teachers-want-for-education/
Over 18 months later, another twitterstorm was suggested by us and instigated by @teacherROAR with the hashtag #TellNickyNO – this time to complain about the Chancellor’s announcement that every school must become an academy.
Enough is enough.
No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. was one of the most common tweets.
Here’s a summary of some of the tweets that coincided with Nicky Morgan’s appearance on BBC Question Time last week, as well as shortly before and after. Apologies for those left out but there were thousands of tweets to trawl through – which goes to show the strength of feeling, and reinforces the need to act now.
Headliners
Some general comments
![TNN General [1]](https://3diassociates.files.wordpress.com/2016/03/tnn-general-1.jpg?w=640&h=360)
![TNN General [2]](https://3diassociates.files.wordpress.com/2016/03/tnn-general-2.jpg?w=640&h=360)
Many Tweeters were gravely concerned about the cost of academy conversion and who profits from land acquistion.
![TNN Education and Profit [1]](https://3diassociates.files.wordpress.com/2016/03/tnn-education-and-profit-1.jpg?w=640&h=360)
![education and Profit [2]](https://3diassociates.files.wordpress.com/2016/03/education-and-profit-2.jpg?w=640&h=360)
On the effects of policy on the people who ought to be at the heart of all educational decisions – children and young people.
A selection of comments on parent governors:
On standards and recruitment and retention of teachers:
Plenty of questions about and defence of local education authorities and its role.
Education should be in the hands of educators, not politicians.
Something that Nicky Morgan barely mentioned on BBC Question Time was the lack of qualifications for some people teaching in academies. Is the number of unqualified ‘teachers’ going to rise?
And what of a “broad and balanced” curriculum?
Teachers have had enough. Their wellbeing is important on so many levels.
Understandably, people feel intimidated and threatened by this onslaught on their schools and professionalism. Fight or flight? Sometimes it feels so personal retaliation is the instinctive response.
And finally, you have to laugh.
Well actually you don’t but some light relief is always welcome.
Together we can make a difference and instigate the changes that we all want to see for a better system of education in England.
Thank you all for participating, and particularly @teacherROAR for making it happen.
Let’s continue the campaign to stop this ridiculous and costly academy conversion.
3D Eye 