Tuesday 31 May / 7.30 p.m. / NCI Sports and Social Club, 1 Holland Street, Cambridge CB4 3DL

This meeting, sponsored by the Cambridgeshire National Union of Teachers association, is a chance for us to question the Cambridge parliamentary candidates on all matters related to school education, including the crucial one of funding. The Institute for Fiscal Studies recently calculated that the governing Conservative Party's plans imply a cut of 3 per cent in real terms by 2021/22, rising to 7 per cent if the last two years' austerity cuts are included (see for example the report of the Daily Telegraph for 26 May).

Tuesday 9 May / 7.30 p.m. / NCI Sports and Social Club, 1 Holland Street, Cambridge CB4 3DL

If the Conservative government pursues its current plans for school funding, ninety-nine per cent will see a funding cut per pupil by 2020, based on the calculations made for the schoolcuts website from data published by the Department for Education and the National Audit Office. Primary schools will see an average cut of £103,754 (£403 per pupil); secondary schools, an average cut of £470,433 (£554 per pupil). These austerity cuts will damage children's education by forcing schools to offer fewer teachers and support staff, larger class sizes, and a narrower curriculum.

Tuesday 5 July / 11 a.m. / Donkey Common (on the corner of Gonville Place and Mill Road), Cambridge CB1

Two of our education unions will strike tomorrow in Cambridge. Members of the Cambridgeshire National Union of Teachers are striking over the effect on pay and conditions of the government's reforms in children's education; members of the Anglia Ruskin University and College Union are striking over falling real pay, a persistent gender pay gap, and the increasing use of casual contracts in higher education.

Wednesday 23 March / 5 p.m. / Shire Hall, Castle Street, Cambridge CB3 0AP

The Cambridgeshire National Union of Teachers (NUT) association has called a protest, Hands Off Our Schools, against the government's new policy that all schools in England must become academies. Cambridgeshire NUT points out that there's no evidence academy schools perform better than those under local authority control. It argues that 'the extension of academies has more to do with the desire of the government to make schools into businesses than with improving education.'

Saturday 21 November / 12 midday / Market Square, Cambridge CB2

In July the chancellor George Osborne announced a 'new settlement' for permanent austerity, resting on an increase in the minimum wage alongside massive cuts to tax credits. Four months later that settlement is crumbling, in widening alarm that (according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies) three million low-paid families will lose an average of £1,000 a year: the alarm extends to Conservatives like Heidi Allen, the new MP for South Cambridgeshire, who used her maiden speech to criticize the cuts to tax credits, and to the House of Lords, which last month defied the Conservative majority in the Commons with a remarkable vote to delay and review the cuts.

Wednesday 10 June / 7.30 p.m. / The Fields Children's Centre, Galfrid Road, Cambridge CB5 8ND

Nurseries and reception classes are fighting to keep themselves a protected space for learning in a child-led way, where our practice is free from the pressure to score children.

Following last month's picnic and information session as part of the Primary Charter's Four, Too Young to Test campaign, David Whitebread (Too Much Too Soon campaign), Sara Tomlinson (Primary Charter), and Rosie Dutton (Summer Born) will speak at a seminar supported by our friends in the Cambridgeshire NUT. They'll explain why the baseline tests the government is introducing for four-year olds are 'damaging to our children, our teachers, and our schools', and introduce the national campaign to stop them.

This is a free event but we're asked to book a seat, either on the Cambridgeshire NUT website or by phone on 07921 724270. Tea and coffee will be served from 7 p.m.

Wednesday 11 March / 6.45 p.m. / Lab 002, Anglia Ruskin University, East Road, Cambridge CB1 1PT

As part of the parallel education manifesto campaigns by the National Union of Teachers and the University and College Union, the two unions are holding an Education Question Time in Cambridge, with the teachers and educationalists Tony Booth (University of Cambridge), Julia Flutter (Cambridge Primary Review Trust), Philipa Harvey (NUT), Andrew McGettigan (Central St Martins and City Lit), and Wendy Scott (consultant). Their expertise will be on hand as we work out, what education system do we have? And what education system do we want?

We're asked to register to attend this free event.