There is a North Somerset secondary school which teaches science with no qualified teacher, a hustings meeting at Nailsea heard on Wednesday evening.

The public meeting entitled Education: Success For All Children was called to discuss the performance of the coalition government in the run up to the general election on Thursday, May 7.

Portishead resident and retired physics teacher Terry Lester chaired the meeting organised by North Somerset Labour Party to look at ways ‘to give all children an excellent education and teachers the respect they deserve’.

The invited speakers were National Union of Teachers south west representative and Clevedon Community School chemistry teacher Anne Lemon, North Somerset NUT secretary Jon Reddiford who is head of Nailsea School sixth form and the Labour Party North Somerset constituency candidate doctor Greg Chambers.

Ms Lemon talked about the Global Education Reform Movement (GERM) which is dedicated to seeking private ownership of the education system and backed by a number of multinational corporations including Apple, Boeing, Excel, Microsoft and Pearson PLC the owners of the Financial Times.

One step further than faith schools and academies they will operate just to make a profit, she said.

Changes in the profession have included moving the retirement age to 69-70 years, allowing unqualified teachers in the classroom and to plan lessons, and the removal of pay scales which has seen the salaries of teachers drop by 16 per cent in real terms.

As a science teacher she worried about growing older and trying to keep up with 30 Year 7 students all conducting experiments involving lit Bunsen burners in a school lab.

Ms Lemon said some schools are effectively ‘abandoning’ less able children with little hope of passing academic exams in a system where teachers pay is linked to exam results in a ‘target driven culture’.

With an average 64 hour working week it is no wonder 40 per cent of newly qualified teachers are walking away from the profession in their first year, she said.

With the fear of more  ‘severe’ cuts in the pipeline the latest ‘innovations’ include buying ‘ready prepared lessons off the shelf’ and national tests for four-year-olds to be used to determine what grades they will achieve at GCSEs!

Ms Lemon said: “Labelled at four-years-old, absolutely atrocious – I don’t think this is progress.

“In Finland children play until they are six and then they learn to read very quickly.”

Mr Reddiford told that half of all secondary schools in North Somerset are going through redundancy consultations which is five of the 10 in the district.

He said: “We are already on the edge of a funding crisis and unless something is done it is simply going to get worse.

“One of the Weston-super-Mare secondary schools has a science department without one qualified science teacher.”

In September there will be major curriculum reforms when exams will be graded by numbers and not A-Cs but teachers still haven’t got notification of all the changes.

Dr Chambers said: “The Labour Party is committed to maintaining the education budget and only allowing qualified teachers to teach.

“We also plan to introduce a technical baccalaureate and reduce university fees to £6,000.”

Nailsea benefitted under the Building Schools for the Future (BSF) government investment programme with its new £32 million building.

Nailsea School is a fantastic place to work and it doesn’t have the maintenance and energy costs that others have to factor into their budgets, said Mr Reddiford.

He added: “I have been to other secondary schools in North Somerset where I have not only seen peeling paint but huge gaps between walls and windows.

“There is no doubt that a better learning environment is going to help students learn and stop vandalism and graffiti.”

The meeting concluded with calls for the end of ‘charitable’ status for private schools and the reintroduction of schools coming under local authority control.

The panel pictured below is from left Jon Reddiford, Greg Chambers, Anne Lemon and Terri Lester.