Class assistants nobble minister

A campaign for classroom assistants to be paid all year round rather than term time-only scored a public relations coup last Friday when members lobbied a conference at which education secretary Estelle Morris was speaking about plans to expand their role. Thirty representatives from Kirklees Unison were outside Huddersfield Town Hall at 8.30am for the start of the North of England Education Conference which Ms Morris was scheduled to address. They carried placards with messages such as 'Did you get paid over Christmas? We didn't' and 'Justice for term-time workers'.