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meals stri PLACARDS proclaiming that school meals, schools, hospitals go while Cruise, Trident and Defence grow, highlighted Tory priorities during a one-day strike of school meals workers last week in the London Borough of Merton.

Merton Council is taking a leaf from its Tory neighbour, Wandsworth, and is planning massive and ruthless spending The council plans to axe school meals, and cut back on maintenance of school buildings; to privatise school cleaning and shut a children's home and luncheon clubs.

If they succeed in these plans then more cuts will follow.

The first service to come up for the Tory chop is the school meals service. The Education budget is to be cut by £1.2 million. Already "rationalised" to the bone, services Because the Tory Council is planning to close down all the school meals. The kids will get no hot meals. Only a handful of kids, whose parents are on supplementary benefit, will get anything - and they will only get a sandwich, not What is the system for kids getting school meals now and Well, all the kids now go in and have their meals. But, "I didn't think it was worth it being in a union. But now I'm under the new system kids on supplementary benefit will be singled out. The other kids will go on at them 'you are poor'.

was worth it, being in a union. But now this has come about I went to a meeting last night - it will do away with 300 The teachers have said they support us. None of the jobs, nearly all the workers are women. I doubt whether we teachers will do our jobs tomorrow. One headmaster has would get jobs anywhere else. It will be very bad. There The headmistress at my school has had a letter from the They have been cutting and cutting the school meals Education Chief to say she must report the names of everyservice. They've already cut kitchen staff and mid-day super- one who doesn't go into work. Maybe he wants to give us visors - the hours have been cut by half. Where there were four workers they've cut to three. If you worked two hours it What reason are they giving for these cuts?

Money - they're going to do all this - cut 300 jobs, stop hot dinners to kids for a meagre saving of £7,500 a year. There is I don't really know. There are leaflets and meetings. I'm a march and lobby of the council next week. I'm doing not in a union. I work for 1½ hours a day. I didn't think it placards for that. They are cutting everything. It's terrible. cuts for the coming financial year. and jobs must now go, say the Tories.

But the workers are fighting back. organised and on the eve of the action I a school meals worker.

Why are you on strike tomorrow?

a hot meal. Oh, and an apple!

what will the proposed change mean?

It will be hard for them.

What will be the effect on jobs?

aren't many jobs around here.

is now one hour.

How was the strike organised?

of the

! and now, for our male viewers. A one-day strike was talked to Bette Head, Sove joining tomorrow...

I'm joining tomorrow!

signed a letter supporting us.

double time for staying out!

Reynolds reports.

OVER 200 women teachers and parents, mainly from Haringey, attended the by noW famous conference 'She's Bright for a Girl' which took place in November at the Haringey Teachers' Centre. The conference was organised by the Haringey Women in Education Group.

Opened by Gaby Weiner on 'the hidden curriculum' - how schools unwittingly prepare giris to be secondclass citizens by all kinds of signals and practices which occur no matter what the subject being taught, and occur from the 'earliest years - the conference went on to examine in depth six areas of school life.

A workshop on primary reading schemes investi gated with the aid of slides the ways in which the stereotypes of girls and women (restricted to the home) and boys and men (natural inhabitants of the big world outside) are put were discussed.

vroups looking al tne Naia-a. 1. .1.: LL -reasons why maths and science, though of increasing educational importjects, remain boys' subbeyond all rhyme or reason, heard grim evidence in the form of figures for exam entries and results.

The situation was felt to ha ann that would De one inal woud take years to remedy, but the group made a start by study ig pioneering atrialurina mininanium projects which had already shown some success.

'Invisible Women was the theme of the history workshop. Only the odd 'famous woman' ever makes it to the pages of history books - let alone school textbooks; the contribution to history of half the human race is missing. Yet this glaring bias has only recently been documented -and 'women's history' begun to be unearthed.

The focus of the Women in Literature workshop was tical examples were dișcussea.

Scope

A well-attended 'women only' workshop on sexual harassment In schools allowed women to discuss shared experiences of daily hazard many working women and many girls at school face, but which is hardly ever acknowledged as a specific problem to be brought into the open and tackied.

The scope of the conference was taken outside the classroom context by two sessions, one on Women and Employment, lea Dy NALGO members fron Haringey and Southwark, and one on Media Images of Women and strategies for changing them. Originally intended as a menonly workshop, if requested, this session, wellresourced with • video material, ended up as a mixed workshop and proved extremely useful.

YVONNE REYNOLDS