Christina McAnea has today (Monday) been elected as the new general secretary of UNISON (@unisontheunion) – the first woman to head the UK’s largest union.

Pre-schools including nurseries must be closed except to educate the children of key workers and those who are vulnerable, says UNISON (@unisontheunion) today (Tuesday). The union is urging the government to reconsider its decision to keep early-years establishments open​, despite concerns over a new Covid strain. Early-years staff should also be made a priority for vaccination and mass testing says UNISON, and employees should not be expected to go into work until these safety measures are put in place. In addition, the union says protection must be extended to employees in schools open for the children of key workers and ​for vulnerable ​pupils and students.  This includes special schools where many children have health issues that make them vulnerable to infection, and schools ​with ​pupils outside mainstream education where pupil behaviour and social distancing is a challenge. UNISON head of education Jon Richards said:

Government must let schools go online to rescue Christmas, says @unisontheunion School support staff are urging ministers to let education leaders move all lessons online from next month, says UNISON. 

University support staff are calling for managers and ministers to step in to end the Covid campus chaos that's left them dealing with weeks of sometimes violent disruption, says UNISON (@unisontheunion) today (Tuesday).

The job retention scheme should be extended – or another wage support scheme put in its place – to support thousands of university staff, such as catering and security workers who face redundancy, education unions say today (Thursday).