Francesca Manning: Teacher and NEU Activist

Francesca Manning has been a primary school teacher for four years. She is a union rep for the National Education Union, and is active with her local NEU committee in South London. 

As the death toll from Covid-19 continues to rise, parents and teachers are grappling with the UK government’s target to re-open schools to children beyond those of key workers by 1st June.

We discussed how damaging it could be to children to re-open schools too quickly, what union organising has been like under the global Coronavirus pandemic, and how we could reimagine education to better include all children in the new normal of the future.

Follow Francesca Manning on Twitter @EducatingFran and Instagram @rebel_womann. Follow the National Education Union on Twitter @NEUnion and Instagram @nationaleducationunion.

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Produced and recorded by Rena Niamh Smith
Theme music by Benjamin Tassie
Artwork by Fleur Beck
Sound engineering by Gibran Farrah
Consultation by Ben Weaver-Hincks
Original illustrations and social media editing by Charlotte Rose Watts
Special thanks to Chloe Vasseghi