Saturday is, as anyone who has been to conference will testify, a full-on day. Conference debates motions all day, and there are lunch and evening fringes and events too!
We were able to do quite a bit of Tweeting and Facebooking so we updated as we went. We heard motions on pay, which committed us to a campaign for a pay rise up to and including a ballot for national strike action over the coming year. This will be welcome news to many teachers across the country, as our cumulative lost pay over the last 8 years amounts to between 15 and 20%. Teachers at the top of their pay scale have effectively seen their pay cut year after year, which has contributed to the exodus of teachers from our profession and undoubtedly had an effect on the low recruitment levels.
Saturday was also when our delegation had its first and second Great Missed Speeches. Motion 12 on school funding was passed with an amendment about the risks for fire and asbestos among other health and safety concerns when funding is cut. Our own Steph King, who received a standing ovation for her speech on asbestos last year, was just about to give her speech on this amendment when conference closed debate. Our second Great Missed Speech was Robert Dewick, our new LGBT+ Officer, whose speech on CEO pay in academies will not be heard as time ran out on this session. Nevertheless, it has given rise to a fab idea - delegates who want to will be posting their Great Missed Speeches on this blog! Speaking at conference is always a bit daunting - you have to put together 4 minutes to make a contribution to a debate in front of thousands of people, and the feeling when you don't get called can be gutting - so at least these speeches can live on through our Division blog!
Other important motions heard today included Motion 20 on young people's mental health. We have seen a rise in young people with mental health problems, exacerbated by our high-stakes testing and data-driven culture, at the same time that mental health service provision has been cut and cut again. Conference resolved to lobby for increased funding for all mental health services, particularly CAMHS, to fully fund the proposed 'mental health first aider' posts and to condemn 'zero tolerance' behaviour policies that make the mental health situation worse.
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Sally Kincaid, Wakefield, with her Red Folder of Shame speaking about MATs
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A hugely important motion, and one that will have much resonance in Derby, was over academisation. Conference speakers highlighted the chaos that occurs when Multi-Academy Trusts (MATs) are badly run, as we have seen in Wakefield with WCAT and now Carillion; the lack of democratic accountability in the MAT system that leads to these failures; the difficulty that local authorities have with ensuring places for all students now that many schools are outside the control of local authorities (and the rise in exclusion or home-schooling of students likely to affect a school's results, particularly SEND students, that is endemic in parts of the MAT system); that all schools, whatever their status, be required to accept national terms and conditions for teachers - ending the scandal that teachers in the same city may have wildly different pay, terms and conditions for doing the same jobs; and crucially that local authorities be granted the power to take schools back into their system!
Finally on motions, Motion 21 responded to the Labour Party's call for the creation of a National Education Service (NES) that would have parallels with the NHS. At the moment the debate about exactly what a NES could look like is wide open, so it was vitally important that Conference took the lead in proposing Motion 21, which commits us to consulting with members, other education unions and experts to develop and promote a vision for the NES. Colleagues interested in the broad outlines of what is proposed in the motion can read the full text here (pages 31-33). For avoidance of confusion, amendment 1 provoked some passionate debate, but ultimately was not passed and the motion was passed unamended.
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| Blair Peach winner Lorraine Hunte |
Saturday is also the day when some important awards recognising the contributions of members are given out. The Blair Peach Award, named after an NUT activist murdered by police at an anti-racist demonstration against the National Front in 1979, is given to members who make a contribution to equality and diversity. This year's winner, Lorraine Hunte, gave a brilliant speech about her work.
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| Rep of the Year Kate Taylor |
Rep of the Year Kate Taylor told of how she helped to stop a group of six schools in her Association convert to academies. A brilliant example of what can be done!
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| Officer of the Year Paul Welch |
Officer of the Year Paul Welch told Conference about the campaign he had helped organise that stopped a 'no-frills' private school opening in Durham. Great work!
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| Keep Early Years Unique campaigner Elaine Bennett |
Conference also heard from guest Elaine Bennett, who is a leading member of the Keep Early Years Unique campaign that is spearheading the campaign against the government's attempts to reintroduce the disastrous and educationally damaging Baseline assessments. A great campaigner.
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| Panel for the pedagogy fringe (L-R): Luke Abbott (Mantle of the Expert); Jess Edwards (Executive); Megan Quinn (Camden, chairing); Amanda Martin (Vice-President); Rebecca Parkin (school student); Alan Gibbons (author and education campaigner) |
The evening's fringe meeting on pedagogy was absolutely brilliant. We had heard during conference sessions of the importance of proper pedagogical training for teachers, which shockingly is becoming less common as teacher training routes now increasingly do not include any formal university component. This is crucial, as without pedagogical training teachers have no knowledge of the huge body of evidence-led research that helps us to understand how children learn. So it a fringe meeting on this was urgently needed. Author Alan Gibbons gave a stonking speech, and Luke Abbott's introduction to the technique of 'mantle of the expert' was inspiring. There was an excellent panel, and a really lively discussion.
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