The Skills Academy provides a life-changing educational experience for young people in the Tees Valley who cannot thrive in mainstream education. For these learners, the Academy offers a safe, supportive environment with smaller class sizes and specialist staff who understand their needs. ETC’s proposal to close the site would: • Leave vulnerable students without appropriate education and support • Cut the number of specialist teaching roles from eight to just two • Place all eight current staff at risk of redundancy This is not just about jobs – it is about protecting the futures of young people who rely on the Skills Academy. The planned cuts will remove a vital pathway for learners who may otherwise disengage from education entirely. There has been a lack of transparency throughout this process. We are calling on ETC to listen to staff, students, and the wider community and urgently rethink this damaging decision. We must stand together to protect the Skills Academy, safeguard jobs, and ensure vulnerable young people in our region continue to have access to the specialist education they deserve.

Square Chapel has a strong history of supporting community events and professional performances and is a popular venue in the local community.  Square Chapel was a popular arts centre with good community outreach prior to becoming insolvent during the covid pandemic. In September 2020, the venue was reopened when it was taken over by Wigan based Arts at the Mill. Square Chapel CIC was subsequently established.  In early February 2025, Square Chapel CIC announced the arts centre was closing and all future events were cancelled. Five months later, this valuable community asset remains closed and not serving the people of Halifax. Arts Council England (ACE) has now withdrawn its funding from Square Chapel. It has recently been announced that the Square Chapel building will be rented out to provide dressing rooms during the Piece Hall concert season. Square Chapel should provide good art, good work and be an artistic hub for the community. Halifax MP Kate Dearden has written to ACE supporting the reopening of Square Chapel and calling for the Halifax community to be involved in discussions about the future of the centre. We need this popular arts centre back! We need answers and we need the building to be back open and operating for the people of Halifax. Equity, TUC Yorkshire & Humber Creative and Leisure Industries Committee and Calderdale Trades Union Council are jointly calling for the public to have their say on the future of Square Chapel Arts Centre. Make your voice heard by joining the petition to Save Square Chapel for the people.

As the school have not seemed to grasp the seriousness of the situation, we are asking for support from the community whose children attend St Luke's and the schools around the Isle of Dogs to make the school listen to our concerns! We want to make sure the staff that look after your children can come to work safely, and have the necessary resources to care for your children during the school day. We look after your children, who looks out for us?  Please sign this petition to support striking St Luke's staff, so we can safely get back to work in supporting your children, to make sure they get a safe and decent education! Please also show your support by attending the demonstrations outside the school on Tuesday 20th, Weds 21st, and Thursday 22nd May from 7:30-10am!

The University of Brighton Academies Trust operates 14 schools in East and West Sussex teaching 1000s of children and employing 100s of staff.  In the summer, National Education Union members took industrial action over workload and job losses following revelations that the Trust was taking millions on pounds from school budgets to fund central trust services including excessive executive pay.  This autumn, the department for education decided that the trust would be wound down and all it's schools 're-brokered' to new academy trusts.  The NEU is calling on the Dept of Education to: • Return all schools to local council control  • Consult on the future proprietors of the schools with unions, staff and parents • Ensure that national union negotiated pay and conditions and union recognition is maintained for teachers and support staff

Schools do not have the resources to offer these kinds of experiences themselves. Primary school children in particular are being left behind. In spite of the National Theatre’s cuts being branded as a “sad loss”, “unfair”, a “slap in the face”, and “depressing” by union and sector leaders, the organisation has so far refused to listen. The National Theatre has stated that increased costs and cuts to Arts Council England funding are among the reasons for these decisions. And yet its total annual income recently increased from £89 million to £121.4 million, while the primary school touring represented a tiny fraction of the organisation’s expenditure. The National Theatre already receives more Arts Council England funding than any other theatre organisation. This is not simply an issue of needing a more transformative and equitable approach to public arts funding. It is a question of priorities and responsibility for one of our largest theatre organisations.  Austerity is a choice.

Sheffield Hallam University has deferred workers' pay increase for 11 months and will NOT backdate pay. This decision will cost many University workers over £1,000. In effect, the University Executive Board (UEB) is pinching from the pockets of the workers to pay for their financial mismanagement. We call this wage theft. Sign our petition to support workers at Sheffield Hallam University and send a clear message to the University Executive Board to pay workers what they are owed and to include trade union voices in setting the University’s budgets. Trade Unions have suggested alternatives to the financial difficulties faced by the University, but these have been dismissed by UEB, who are more determined to push on with vanity projects like their proposed “London Campus”, which is estimated to cost millions. Earlier this year, we submitted statements of “no confidence” in UEB over their mishandling of University finances and their ramshackle restructure of the service. Now all the trade unions are demanding that the University implement and backdate the national pay award and sit down with them to agree a budget in the long-term interests of the workers, the University and the Sheffield community.  Sign our petition if you agree with us and show solidarity with workers at Sheffield Hallam. While the Vice Chancellor sits on circa £250,000+ per annum, workers are having their pockets pinched. GMB, UCU and UNISON have formally registered their dispute with the University. Workers should not be asked to pay the price for senior managers' financial mismanagement. Agree with us? Sign our petition.

These cuts will go right through the heart of Corringham & Stanford Le Hope. The schools have been an integral part of these towns for years. These cuts will damage the education children in Thurrock will be able to receive by overloading teachers and cutting the job roles that provide the pastoral support that teenagers especially need! Not to mention the inadequate provision for children with SEND. We are saying no to the cuts, and that our children deserve better! Support our staff by signing this petition and joining us at this time of the Gable Hall & Hassenbrook crisis! SOS! If you are a support staff member in Thurrock, join GMB union today at www.GMB.org.uk/join-GMB

Our research has found performing arts students are struggling to pay audition fees and course costs, pushing working-class students out of the industry. Two-thirds of students receiving maintenance loans say they do not cover their living costs, with three-quarters having to work alongside intense training schedules and 15% going into debt. 96% have been told to spend their own money on expenses such as headshots, costumes, and events as a requirement of their course. While 94% of us had to audition to gain a place on a course, 57% had to pay audition fees to do so. Audition fees and hidden costs put two-thirds of working-class students off from applying for training, with many students spending hundreds of pounds, and some thousands, on auditions and applications. We also know the solutions: 71% say that removing audition fees would be the most effective way to break down barriers to the performing arts.

Ron Todd House stands as a symbol of the relentless fight for workers' rights, social justice, and the power of collective action. This building has served as a beacon for those dedicated to championing the rights of the working class. But now, Ron Todd House is at risk. Without urgent funds, we could lose this vital piece of our social history—an irreplaceable reminder of the sacrifices and victories that shaped the labour and trade union movement in the UK. Losing this house would mean erasing a part of our history—a place where important decisions are made, and where the voices of workers fighting for equality and for the prevention of poverty are amplified.

Thie last government has shown not one shred of care or concern for the teaching profession and presided over 14 years of neglect and decline. We know the scale of the challenge the new government faces. We’re not asking for quick fixes. Our members want lasting solutions that will repair our broken schools and colleges. We want to work with the Government to secure good industrial relations through dialogue and consensus building, including: • social partnership with workforce trades unions and employers and strengthen collective bargaining rights; • restoring confidence in the independent teachers’ pay review process; • requiring all school and college employers to recognise trade unions for the purpose of collective bargaining. 

School days were the best days of your life but for these kids it has been stop, start and then move school. They need and education they deserve. They need to enjoy school and be around there peers. This can only be possible if mobile building are on site allowing them to be in their own school grounds The Department for Education must foot the bill for the repairs. Council receives approx £3million for school budgets, to rebuild a school like Churchill Community College will cost approx £25million plus another 3 schools in the borough also need repairing. This will almost inevitably impact on our children in the future as Council and school budgets are all at breaking point.

🢜 Ensure an equal, non-selective environment with a focus on the whole child, an approach that doesn't achieve academic excellence or good behaviour by excluding children or making them scared to be in school 🢜 Give a say to those that it will impact most - the staff, the families, the local community 🢜 Stop the privatisation of our children's education HOW ELSE CAN YOU HELP?  Write to your local councillors: https://bit.ly/BrentCounc Write to Barry Gardiner MP: [email protected] Follow us: https://twitter.com/savebyroncourt Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/savebyroncourt Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/savebyroncourt Donate to our Campaign fundraising page: https://gofund.me/c696a920