Schools & Academies in England, Member Update – 17th July 2020
Dear Member
We hope this finds you well and looking forward to the summer holidays after what has undoubtedly been a very difficult few months.
Thank you to all those who made contact in response to last weeks email update, as this is useful in helping us to have a broad understanding of issues being faced in schools and our members concerns.
With the Government making it mandatory for face coverings or masks to be worn in shops, as well as on public transport, GMB has written to the Education Secretary Gavin Williamson challenging him over the double standards in Government advice on the wearing of face masks.
New risk assessments must be completed for the Autumn term and schools cannot rely on the ones completed for the wider reopening of schools in June. Also, your individual role must be risk assessed. It is not acceptable for schools to just show you a generic whole school risk assessment. Your role, including your interactions, must be looked at along with your personal circumstances, and be risk assessed and control measures identified. If you have an existing medical condition which you believe may put you at greater risk from COVID-19, you can ask for Occupational Health to conduct a risk assessment. Please find attached to this email, an updated template letter you may wish to send if you need to request an Occupational Health risk assessment. If you have concerns about how your risk assessment has been completed, or if you have only seen the whole school generic risk assessment please speak to your Workplace Representative, local Branch or Regional Organiser. Alternatively, you can contact schoolsteamlondon@gmb.org.uk.
We had a fantastic response to our last survey, on how the wider reopening of schools in June had been for you, and we would be most grateful if you would kindly take a few minutes to complete our new survey on how your school is preparing for the full reopening in September and how you are feeling. To access the survey please click here
https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/Reopening_of_Schools_Survey_July_2020
We will be working throughout the summer, ensuring issues and concerns are addressed and we will continue to send you regular emails with any updates. The closing date of the survey is 12 Noon on Monday 27th July 2020. Thank you for your time with this.
Please remember to vote in the Local Government and Schools consultative pay ballot for 2020/21, if you have not yet done so, The closing date for the ballot is 30th July 2020 and you should have received an email or SMS message with your unique link to vote online. If you have not received a link to the online ballot, please contact us on the email address above.
If you know anyone who is not already in a Union and they would like to join they can do so at https://www.gmb.org.uk/join-gmb.
Wishing you a safe and relaxing summer break,
With kind regards,
Lisa Bangs, GMB London Region Organiser — Schools and Academies
Keith Williams, GMB London Region Senior Organiser
Email- schoolsteamlondon@gmb.org.uk
Follow us on Twitter @schoolsgmblon
You can download this bulletin HERE
