By: Bezz
Day two underway. Bit wet today but buzzing in the hall.
Lots of blue t- shirts supporting refugees.
By: Kieran
Equalities Conferences Section. Mandy Hudson speaking on amendment 1 to the disabled conference motion
Jennie Jones speaking now. She led a brilliant fringe at a conference a few years ago that was really eye opening about the amount of ridiculous data collection primary teachers faced and how much worse Baseline was going to make it.
It's safe to say that the new way of doing digital voting when hand votes are close hasn't gone smoothly! Here's Bezz with an observer's-eye view!
By: Bezz
Here we go. Digi-vote
Conference trying to get online
Bring back the didgeridoo! [Reference to the old system of having dedicated handsets for electronic voting, Kieran]
By: Kieran
Launch of the NEU Anti Racism Charter - really good tool for our schools!
Discussion on SEND has brought up the fact that we don't routinely have BSL interpretation at our meetings. I have added a question on this to the RSVP form for the AGM on 29 April. Please fill in your RSVP here:
https://forms.gle/KMMCjGvuakPVrwuKA
By: Bezz
A speech from the shadow education secretary was interrupted by protest and then a mass walkout after she seemed to suggest continued support for Ofsted. Loud protests outside the hall. The execution of our democratic right to protest. Labour are out of touch with those who would normally support them.
By: Kieran
Urgent Motion 2 on Ukraine was extremely tense. There was a lot of strong feeling on both sides. Ultimately the motion fell, but not before some serious debate about being anti war in the face of invasion of a sovereign state by a hostile power in the context of inter imperial rivalries between Russia and China and the NATO powers led by the US.
By: Bezz
Excellent stuff supporting support staff. Where would we be without our technicians, librarians (ook!) and caretaking staff? We need to have all staff in education settings in the union.
By: Kieran
Great to have the whole hall in blue t-shirts, sending the message ALL refugees are welcome!
... and it wouldn't be Conference without at least one
Bookmarks purchase!
By: Bezz
Well, what a day off drama. Heckling, arguments and walkouts.
There were a couple of protests on day one, but nothing like today.
The disagreements over the Ukraine motion carried strong sentiments from all sides. We should have left with something offering our support though.
But the derision aimed at the shadow education secretary were justified. The mass walkout and loud protest were spot on. Democratic power at its best.
But the highlight for me was the support staff motion and the speakers for it. As a union we need to be more supportive and vocal for those people who are vital to our work. We need them all in our union and we need to campaign for their rights and their pay.
Bring on tomorrow.
By: Fiona
From Tuesday that impressed upon me the most….
Just how important it is to vote. And your one vote means an awful
lot. As a PSHE/ Citizenship teacher, students often challenge me with
"will my one vote make much of a difference, Miss?" …
absolutely it does!
I naively thought it was one vote at Conference for one
person attending. It isn't. And it was clearly shown today and now I understand
the true gravitas of it. My one vote is representative of 'x' number of Derby
City NEU members. There are 4 voting delegates from Derby City NEU. We are
entitled to have 7. As individuals at Conference we don't all think the same
(although we often do). Sometimes I seek the guidance of our experienced
Secretary but the responsibility to vote one way or another is to be borne
alone. Tuesday's Conference business saw some dramatic moments. And yes, the
one vote really, really matters…. See Kieran's screen shot as illustration… and
that one image captured wasn't the only close call of the day, there were even
closer ones.
The Ukraine emergency motion was very tense and emotional. Speakers speaking from the heart. It was a privilege to witness and be part of the trials of Democracy in action…. the
very ordinary process that I often take for granted and Ukrainian citizens will be yearning to return to. Our NEU status couldn't be clarified yesterday and the motion was lost. I wonder how you'd have cast your vote had you been able to come? Would it have made a difference?
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