Hello colleagues,
As you were hopefully already aware, the NUT national conference took place over the Easter weekend. Those of us who made up the delegation from City of Derby thought that it would be a good idea to share our experiences of conference with you. [Edit: President Nicola Scope's blog about making speeches to conference is now up!] Partly this is to share the experience of conference itself; partly it is about keeping you, our members, informed about the decisions your delegates have helped to make, and which shape the direction of your union, and hopefully it will also encourage you to think about taking part yourself in future conferences!
I thought I'd give you a brief bit of information about myself. My name is Kieran Picken, I am the Assistant Division Secretary for the City of Derby. This means that I help the Division Secretary to organise union activities, try to build up the number of teachers taking an active part in their union and take on casework to help members who are experiencing problems in school. However, I spend most of my time teaching at a secondary school in the city. This is my second year in the post and also my second time as a conference delegate.
Nationally, three quarters of the union is composed of women, so it was good to be part of a delegation that reflects that!
I thought a good way to introduce conference would be by taking a look at the President's address. This is the first speech of conference. Our Presidency is a post held for one year, and a key duty of the post is to chair conference. The President's address usually reflects on the year that the union has had and prospects for the future.
Philipa Harvey, a serving primary school teacher, is our President this year, and her address covered a lot of ground. What I have done here is try to summarise some of her main topics to give you a flavour of the range of things about which conference discusses and decides over its 5 days. [1]
Philipa started with the issue of baseline testing, and echoed the views of the profession at large and educational research in general that these are unnecessary and damaging tests that will provide no useful information about the child, make children feel inadequate and whose real purpose is to penalise teachers. This would later prove to be very much in keeping with the mood of conference!
The President went on to cover some of the systemic problems currently affecting schools - the way that LA planning has been removed so that academies and free schools are opening in areas with no shortage of placements and areas which desperately need new schools are not being served. The evidence which shows that academies perform no better than LA funded schools, but cost much more for the public. The successes of collaborative (and cost-effective) efforts to improve school performance through the London Challenge, compared to the costly and ineffective regime of academisation, privatisation, Ofsted and competition. The unmanageable increase in workload and attacks on our pay and conditions which show that the government has no respect for the profession.
The speech also covered areas not directly to do with schools, but which have a massive impact on our students' lives and their education - the huge rise in child poverty - over 600,000 children plunged into poverty last year alone, bringing it to a total of 3.5 million children living below the poverty line this year. The racist anti-immigration campaigns that dominate politics and the need to refute anti-immigration myths and lies.
There was also mention of the need to work with other teaching unions from around the world, and show solidarity when teachers and teachers' organisations are attacked. The example of the ways that governments like Syriza in Greece are trying to support public sector workers such as cleaners under difficult circumstances, working with Palestinian teaching unions, the charity Edukid which helps students in the developing world to get an education, and the terrible university massacre in Kenya.
Finally, the speech also talked about our successes - the departure of Gove just days after our 10th July strike. The Stand Up For Education Manifesto and Vote for Education petition (sign it here!), and the need for whoever is in government after the general election to have a more positive relationship with the profession.
All of these topics would be discussed and voted on over the next few days by delegates to conference. There were many fantastic speeches from teachers across England and Wales, although my personal favourite came from Seema McArdle, who received a standing ovation for her fiery and extremely well-articulated speech - her first to conference! (I was too busy listening to get my camera out, but some kind soul uploaded it to the web, so here it is).
Conference is an exciting event and a fantastic experience for any teacher who wants to take part in determining the future of the profession. But after a long day of debates, votes and fringe meetings, it was good to experience some of the cultural offerings that Harrogate provides too...
This has been a brief introduction to the business of conference. My colleagues will be putting forward their own views and experiences, but if you want to get an idea of some of the debates, issues and speeches, check out the hashtag #NUT15 on Twitter!
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[1] A brief point about union democracy here. The union is a democratic organisation, and the decisions made by conference are the binding decisions of the representatives of the union membership. The executive, who you can see behind Philipa in the picture, are officers whose duty is to carry out the will of conference. So if you have a view on the direction that the union should be going in, have your say by being a delegate next year!
As you were hopefully already aware, the NUT national conference took place over the Easter weekend. Those of us who made up the delegation from City of Derby thought that it would be a good idea to share our experiences of conference with you. [Edit: President Nicola Scope's blog about making speeches to conference is now up!] Partly this is to share the experience of conference itself; partly it is about keeping you, our members, informed about the decisions your delegates have helped to make, and which shape the direction of your union, and hopefully it will also encourage you to think about taking part yourself in future conferences!
I thought I'd give you a brief bit of information about myself. My name is Kieran Picken, I am the Assistant Division Secretary for the City of Derby. This means that I help the Division Secretary to organise union activities, try to build up the number of teachers taking an active part in their union and take on casework to help members who are experiencing problems in school. However, I spend most of my time teaching at a secondary school in the city. This is my second year in the post and also my second time as a conference delegate.
Nationally, three quarters of the union is composed of women, so it was good to be part of a delegation that reflects that!
 |
| From left: Nicola Scope, Linda Cheale, me, Nasrat Nisa (observer) and Sue Arguile |
 |
| Incoming President, Philipa Harvey, addresses conference |
Philipa started with the issue of baseline testing, and echoed the views of the profession at large and educational research in general that these are unnecessary and damaging tests that will provide no useful information about the child, make children feel inadequate and whose real purpose is to penalise teachers. This would later prove to be very much in keeping with the mood of conference!
The President went on to cover some of the systemic problems currently affecting schools - the way that LA planning has been removed so that academies and free schools are opening in areas with no shortage of placements and areas which desperately need new schools are not being served. The evidence which shows that academies perform no better than LA funded schools, but cost much more for the public. The successes of collaborative (and cost-effective) efforts to improve school performance through the London Challenge, compared to the costly and ineffective regime of academisation, privatisation, Ofsted and competition. The unmanageable increase in workload and attacks on our pay and conditions which show that the government has no respect for the profession.
The speech also covered areas not directly to do with schools, but which have a massive impact on our students' lives and their education - the huge rise in child poverty - over 600,000 children plunged into poverty last year alone, bringing it to a total of 3.5 million children living below the poverty line this year. The racist anti-immigration campaigns that dominate politics and the need to refute anti-immigration myths and lies.
There was also mention of the need to work with other teaching unions from around the world, and show solidarity when teachers and teachers' organisations are attacked. The example of the ways that governments like Syriza in Greece are trying to support public sector workers such as cleaners under difficult circumstances, working with Palestinian teaching unions, the charity Edukid which helps students in the developing world to get an education, and the terrible university massacre in Kenya.
Finally, the speech also talked about our successes - the departure of Gove just days after our 10th July strike. The Stand Up For Education Manifesto and Vote for Education petition (sign it here!), and the need for whoever is in government after the general election to have a more positive relationship with the profession.
All of these topics would be discussed and voted on over the next few days by delegates to conference. There were many fantastic speeches from teachers across England and Wales, although my personal favourite came from Seema McArdle, who received a standing ovation for her fiery and extremely well-articulated speech - her first to conference! (I was too busy listening to get my camera out, but some kind soul uploaded it to the web, so here it is).
Conference is an exciting event and a fantastic experience for any teacher who wants to take part in determining the future of the profession. But after a long day of debates, votes and fringe meetings, it was good to experience some of the cultural offerings that Harrogate provides too...
This has been a brief introduction to the business of conference. My colleagues will be putting forward their own views and experiences, but if you want to get an idea of some of the debates, issues and speeches, check out the hashtag #NUT15 on Twitter!
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[1] A brief point about union democracy here. The union is a democratic organisation, and the decisions made by conference are the binding decisions of the representatives of the union membership. The executive, who you can see behind Philipa in the picture, are officers whose duty is to carry out the will of conference. So if you have a view on the direction that the union should be going in, have your say by being a delegate next year!
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