Do you know a star in your local school? Help UNISON, and schools, celebrate our school support staff on 25 November. Anyone can get involved in helping to organise a Stars in Our Schools event.
Last year, hundreds of schools across the country organised events to celebrate a contribution that often goes unseen or unrecognised.
UNISON has 250,000 members in schools and Stars in Our Schools aims to counter that invisibility.
And anyone can get involved: whether you are a parent, or grandparent, a school governor, UNISON activist or a member of school support staff – you can help celebrate the forgotten ‘stars’ in our schools.
Every school can take part: over the past few years, primaries, secondaries, special schools, academies, maintained and faith schools have all been involved.
UNISON organises this nationwide celebration of the hard work by dedicated staff tucked away behind the scenes of our schools – from cleaners to catering staff, teaching and classroom assistants to technicians, admin workers to maintenance staff and many more.
Although Stars in Our Schools Day is on 25 November – you can organise events at any time in the month that fits with school plans.
UNISON has sent a letter and email to every headteacher in the country asking them to organise an event.
You can follow this up with a chat with your headteacher or can write them a customised letter – there’s a template on the dedicated starsinourschools.uk website.
This is also home to a mass of information and resources to help you arrange a Stars in Our Schools event, including a downloadable guide to celebrating school support staff.
UNISON is running a competition for those school support staff colleagues who go the extra mile. Make your nominations online at starsinourschools.uk/nominate-a-star/.
UNISON will be selecting one winning nomination from each region and both the winner and the person who nominated them will receive a prize.
Remember to send in your stars plans and photos of the day. See @UNISONinschools on Twitter, with the hashtag #StarsInOurSchools. On Facebook, see UNISONinSchools.