Women with symptoms are being penalised, National Education Union’s annual conference told

The UK’s biggest teaching union is to lobby for menopause training to be made mandatory for all school leaders, saying women with symptoms are being penalised for sickness absence and disciplined on competency grounds.

Older staff were at greatest risk of “capability procedures”, delegates at the National Education Union’s (NEU) annual conference in Bournemouth were told, while others are being forced out of their jobs, affecting not only their income but their pensions.

Union poll on school buildings also highlights sewage and wastewater leaks, overheating, severe cold, pests and mould

A survey by the UK’s biggest education union on the state of school buildings in England and Wales has found two in five teachers reporting signs of vermin or pests and more than a quarter complaining of sewage or wastewater leaks.

Of the 8,000 members of the National Education Union who responded to the online poll, two-thirds (68%) said they worked in buildings that leaked, with one in 10 describing the problem as “severe”.

Prof Julia Waters gives emotional speech at NEU conference and shares video of her late sister addressing pupils

The sister of Ruth Perry, the headteacher who killed herself after an Ofsted inspection, has appealed to any teachers or school leaders considering suicide to think again, describing it as “a terrible, wrong-headed option”.

In an emotional address to delegates attending the annual conference of the National Education Union in Bournemouth on Friday, Prof Julia Waters appealed directly to teachers and headteachers who may be struggling, urging them to seek help.

In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123, or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie . Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org .

People want good lives for themselves, but the UK has taken so much from the Caribbean. Better to help the islands thrive

• Gus John is an academic and an equality and human rights campaigner

Does it matter if we in England are recruiting teachers so heavily in Jamaica that classrooms there don’t have enough of them? Ask those who run school systems in the Caribbean that desperately need their brightest and best. People will always want to be mobile. The issues are in what numbers, and why and how.

When I became director of education in Hackney in 1989, the first Black person to hold such a post, there was a massive shortage of primary school teachers and secondary maths and science teachers across the country. I recruited 55 teachers in Trinidad to come to work in Hackney; 50 in primary schools and five in secondary schools. They had all been made redundant by their government on the order of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) as part of a structural adjustment programme. I insisted on three things. One, that they would come to England as family units unless they were single. Two, that Hackney would be responsible for finding them accommodation and school and college places for their children and would help to find employment for their spouses who were not teachers; and three, that they would all be supported to gain qualified teacher status and graduate and postgraduate qualifications.

Prof Gus John is an academic and an equality and human rights campaigner

Daniel Kebede accuses government of failing to tackle issue of sexism and its spread online among children

The leader of the UK’s largest education union has called for an independent inquiry into the rise of sexism and misogyny among boys and young men , saying it should not be left to parents and schools to police.

Daniel Kebede, the general secretary of the National Education Union (NEU), said it was “a huge issue” in schools and expressed particular concern about the ease with which pupils are accessing aggressive hardcore pornography on their phones .

NEU members at conference vote in favour of motion criticised by Gillian Keegan as inappropriate

Teachers at the National Education Union conference have voted in favour of a motion calling for solidarity with Palestine and criticising the Israeli government as racist, and declared they would “take no lectures” from the education secretary.

Gillian Keegan said the motion was “wholly inappropriate” and would cause significant hurt to members of the Jewish community and thousands of Jewish children and parents in British schools.

Long waiting lists and insufficient resources part of system that is ‘failing’ children, according to NEU members in England and Wales

One in three teachers say they have no behaviour support team for pupils with special educational needs and disabilities (Send), while one in four have no educational psychologist or speech and language therapist to help them, according to a union survey.

The online poll, which attracted responses from 8,000 members of the National Education Union (NEU), indicated that seven in eight teachers feel resources are insufficient to meet growing demand, with three-quarters calling for more learning support assistants in classrooms.

Daniel Kebede warns of ‘growing frustration’ within profession as UK heads towards a general election

Teachers in England and Wales could strike again as early as September, according to the head of the UK’s largest education union, who warned of “growing frustration” within the profession as the country heads towards a general election.

Daniel Kebede, the general secretary of the National Education Union, said further strikes were still on the table after nearly 150,000 teachers voted for industrial action in an indicative ballot, the results of which were published last week.

As union surveys show an uptick in violence from pupils, we want to hear from teachers in the UK about the situation in their school

Teachers across the UK have been reporting a rise in challenging behaviour and violence from pupils in recent years.

Nearly one in five teachers in England reported being hit by a student this year, according to a BBC survey , while a NASUWT survey showed nearly four in ten Scottish teachers reported experiencing violence or physical abuse in the previous 12 months, with similar levels in Wales and Northern Ireland .