ACTIVIST
Nicola Nugent Political and Social CV
LGBTQ+
Attended every Pride at Manchester from 2003-2010
Attended London Pride for three years
Attended Brighton Pride twice
Attended Birmingham Pride once
Attended Colchester Pride once and have offered to assist and 2023
Member of LGBT+ ECC network
Disability
Attended UK Disability History Month three years (UKDHM)
Member of DEN (Disabled Network) ECC network
Anti-Racism
ECC ARRAD member
Helped co-ordinate an anti-racist event with NUT
NUT Hackney
Past member of NUT LGBT+ Network
Past member of NUT Disabled Network
Past member of NUT Women’s Network
School Union Representative for ST Dominic’s RC Primary School for two years
Attended training with NUT, attended school meetings, recruited and represented members, arranged ballots and strike action. Met with Governors and overturned a few Policies in favour of less workload.
Created the role of Eco-Cordinator and helped school to gain silver flag status
Co-Equal Opportunities Officer for two years with Richard Reiser (who wrote the Equalities Act)
Press and Publicity officer for a year
President for one year
Attended weekly meetings and took minutes
Started talks with Trans educational day
Wrote speeches
Wrote reports
Attended lobbies
Arranged Equalities Day and Anti-Sexism conference at the Round Chapel
Events
Attended conference four times, sang and spoke once to move a motion
Organised Anti-Sexism Conference
Hackney Green Party
Attended meetings
Attended conference in Harrogate
Attended socials
Leafleted
Sang at Social
Bromley Green Party
Attended meetings
Attended socials
Leafleted
Attended anti-fascist protest
Wrote reports
Took part in a pollution experiment
Leafleted and canvassed
Stood for local council and got 1000+ votes just after having my child
Community
Created disability friendly displays and social stories for MAZE (SEN Charity).
Helped over ten different people navigate their late/adult diagnosis for ADHD/ASC, by using Right to Choose.
Signposting parents to SEND resources and organisations on a regular basis.
Set up a WhatsApp walking group chat to encourage parents and children to walk from New Town to St John’s Green, during term time.
Volunteering for Mind by setting up a Mother’s Choir for post-natal mental health.
Approached the Museum of Power to make their signage more Disability friendly and with a view to create green energy display.
Approached Wimpole Road Surgery to make their signage more Disability friendly.
Attended Colchester Eco Festival and helped on the swap shop.
Approached ECC and asked if ACL could partake in the Eco Festival.
Run an Autism Awareness course online.
Personal Statement
Being involved in Education for seventeen years, clearly indicates that I believe in the power of the future. I have had the honour and privilege of helping hundreds of growing minds and have always done so with the application of equality, love, care and attention.
Kindness and understanding is both my personal and professional mantra. A lot can be said for this. Compassion, has sadly, not always been my experience though in the Education sector. In my time, I have witnessed, colleagues with Cancer having to gain help from the Unions about time off sick. Teachers and Pupils experiencing all types of discrimination and as an institution it has become a toxic, ticking time bomb for many who seek change!
The Environment has not always featured in the Curriculum. In my practise, I have placed an emphasis on environmental wonderment and highlighted our dependence upon it, as humans. When I worked in an inner city school in Hackney, in 2015, I sourced free Forest school for our most needy pupils.
Additionally, I teach black History, UKDHM, LGBTQ+ month, critical thinking, News, Politics and voting as a means of Democracy within lessons to ready learners for Citizenship of the world.
Children in schools should be given more responsibility for themselves and their school-akin to Japan, where students help grow food, prepare meals and clean up (life skills). Most EYFS Teachers would probably agree with me when I echo that formal schooling would be much more fruitful starting later on in a child’s life, like Finland. This slower start would help children find themselves and be happier in navigating relationships and in general. In my classes, Children helped me with biodiversity research for Science, this lead to both community and business links. Moreover an understanding that we a humans have a responsibility to nature and keep its ecosystem in balance.
Teaching has been one of the best and worst jobs simultaneously. I have seen teachers lose their will to live, management lose their humanity, and local authorities lose control of budgets and behaviour due to ferocious funding cuts over the years. Wages only go up if you take on much more responsibility, put your own well-being last and pay rises are certainly not in line with inflation. Women of a certain age are often bullied out of roles; this affords schools two much younger and less opinionated NQTS who are afraid to say ‘no’.
Equipment across the board is sub-standard and Teachers have been buying their own resources and stationery for the last ten years for their classes. Unions are still fighting to have asbestos removed from buildings. Behaviour of students can be both dangerous and disruptive. Mainly due decimated youth services, lip service to mental health, special educational needs and finally the family unit having to survive capitalism by potentially working three jobs on zero-hour contracts. Certain types of Management have learned how to make all behaviour the fault of the parents and or teacher, rather than buying in Counsellors, Play Therapists and Educational Psychologists.
I once taught supply in an Academy in South London and had to whistle blow to the NSPCC about the lack of Safeguarding on the playground! There simply were not enough staff!
Learning Support Assistants and Teaching Assistants are invaluable to schools, teachers, pupils, parents and the community in general. Yet, these roles have become a luxury in some schools. My Cousin is an extremely experienced and dedicated TA, yet she has to supplement her income with Universal Credit! This is unacceptable.
Lest we forget, formal education started as a means with which to control the masses. With Section 28, Gove, Army type Academies and teaching to the Pearson Test- very little has changed since the Industrial times.
Learning is empowerment and life changing. At the best institutions, it can be bought and or given on a silver platter to the select few. This is not right, fair, or free. It is white. It is middle class. It is mainly cis male.
Education must be transparently, fairly funded and ‘non-recognising unions’ Academies must be exposed for the matey money-making scams that they are.
The NHS is very dear to my humble and human heart. It runs purely on the good will of its staff. Thankfully, I gave birth to my child in the comfort of my own home, with limited intervention and help. I was fortunate and grateful.
I have only ever had the need to be hospitalised, in an emergency, once. I was, quite frankly, traumatised by the whole process! Because I am ASC/ADHD, I have written up a Health Passport should I ever need to go in again! This incident was pre-pandemic too.
We all know that NHS staff need a pay rise at very least and Health and Safety based breaks and holiday. Prioritising of emergency staff in queues, free food, parking and Counselling at work is not much to ask, either. it is no surprise to most people that money needs to be injected into every fibre of our beloved NHS, helping it to function in a much more trauma informed way.
Mental Health within the NHS requires complete and utter restoration. It is falling to Charities like Mind to pick up the slack and Caseloads per support worker can be up to 100 plus! This is critical, dangerous and unsustainable for the staff and clients.
Certainly, more support needs be given to late diagnosed neurodivergent adults, as they have been failed by all systems to be recognised and diagnosed earlier in life and getting the aid they need and deserve. This can lead to individual burnout and cost businesses more money.
Children and young people are having suicidal ideations and CAMHS/EUMS state that nothing can be done, until a young person actually hurts themselves for the Services to act!
A Parent recently told me their story. It was about a bright, fun, young boy of mixed parentage, who was went missing overnight. When this poor young person was found, he was highly intoxicated and incoherent.
Devastatingly, but not surprisingly, this parent stated that the Police were not very helpful. She was out of her mind, as he had never done anything like this before and the boy could have been killed!
On the boy’s return to school a week later, both the teachers AND police berated him about what happened. He was just fourteen! He was also a victim of a crime and also the sorry institution that is the Police. It transpired after some gentle and enquiring home investigation (by the mother) that this crime was it was in fact part of ‘grooming’ that had been taking place, online. Where is the multi-agency Safeguarding? Why is victim blaming commonplace? Why does this young person feel like he is treated ‘differently’ at this school?
Prison reform is another thing that needs looking at, deeply. Prisons should not be Privatised like in the United States. Unfortunately, due to MH cuts, many people are arrested and jailed due to SEN, or ND. If not that, they have MH issues, or money problems.
Parenting in Denmark can be used as a benchmark for us in the UK. Both Maternity and Paternity leave is given there for a substantial amount of time. This allows Parents and Children the opportunity to form strong attachments and their crime rate is much lower. Parenting is one of the most relentless and important ‘jobs’ in society. It needs to be given more time, cash, respect and training.
As a recent dog owner, it is my belief that people should hold a Licence in order to have an animal in general. Especially a dog. A home visit should take place first, where plans are discussed and a welfare check should be made a month later to see if all is well and working. When walking dogs, owners should keep dogs on a lead at all times, especially if they are traumatised, aggressive, or have no recall. The animal’s collar can be coded accordingly to avoid public menace/harm to others. ‘Safe’ dogs should say so on their licence and would have responsible access to large, play places, where they would be allowed to socialise off the lead.
Dog mess is a great concern to me. The general public should be given a way to name, shame and report offenders to a database. The offenders could then do pubic services, by picking up any dog mess in their local area. Dog mess leavers could also clean the carpets of the schools that the children walk on, after stepping in the mess. They should also attend education sessions, where they are made to realise that children can lose their sight from dog excrement getting in their eyes.
As a Green Party Member, I know the railways, energy companies and Post office should be re-nationalised holding them accountable.
Locally, I am keen to listen to the views of others in the constituency. As a keen bike rider, I would like to see more safe cycle paths and public pumps being created to lower emissions and improve people’s general health.
More should be made of the market stalls to encourage people to shop locally. As a mother, living near to three school areas that are quite treacherous with traffic. These places would be better off pedestrianised.
I do not have all the answers to the problems we face, but I do know that fair taxation of the top two percent would be an excellent start. I also feel that a mass march and or strike across the U.K would shake things up across all sectors, especially the NHS. Greens and beyond could re-enact Iceland’s Konnuirdagin in 1975 and finally demand equality across the spectrum of Genders.