Press Releases from NUT Conference

There were a number of useful Press releases issued by the NUT during the Annual Conference, and these can be accessed here:

General Election, Young Teachers, Defending education funding and public services, NUT response to Ed Balls’ speech today , Pensions, Independent Safeguarding Authority, Supply Teachers, International work of the NUT, The Future of 14 - 19 Qualifications, Challenging Homo & Transphobia in Schools & Colleges, Disabled Teachers, Discrimination and Harassment,
Early Years, Reading for Pleasure, Academy, Trust and “Free” Schools, Ofsted, Mick Brookes tells NUT conference SATs 'humiliate and demean', President's Address - Gill Goodswen, Licence to Practise, Teacher Mental Health - The Impact of Leadership and Mangement
Workload, Michael Rosen is awarded the Fred & Anne Jarvis Award at NUT conference,
Defend education in face of cuts UCU president-elect tells NUT conference

Conference Report: Tuesday 6th April

The last day of conference opened with the Equalities debate which considered the Union's response to the BNP, especially in the context of BNP members who work as teachers or serve as school governors.

There was a range of contributions, especially from delegates who had experienced these issues first hand. An amendment was discussed that would have called on the union to press for BNP members to be automatically barred from the teaching profession, on the grounds that BNP membership was incompatible with the duty of care to all students and the need to promote equality, diversity and community cohesion. There was an in-depth debate, with some delegates in favour and others feeling that such a rule could be open to abuse- especially as it did not deal with people who held exactly the same pernicious views but were not card-carrying (or could not be proved to be) members of the BNP. It was argued that any expression or promotion of racist or homophobic views would be a disciplinary offence in any situation. In the event, no vote was taken on this amendment.

The extended debate on this motion meant that there was no time for me to speak to second an addition amendment from Amersham, Chesham and District NUT, that would have ensured that the campaign against homophobia was included in the motion. (First speech of the day that I wrote but didn't make...)

The debate on Special Educational Needs highlighted the fact that many of the motions brought to Annual Conference did not consider the circumstances of members employed in special schools. The motion called on the executive to ensure that special schools are included in future implementation of policy relating to schools, and that, where appropriate, they are mentioned specifically in posters and guidance documents.

The final session of the Conference, as always, was handed over to "unfinished business" This is for those motions where debate was not completed in the allocated time slot. Motions are mopped up according to the priority they were given when the agenda was drawn up (all local associations were able to vote on which motions they wanted to see appear on the agenda.) This meant that:-

• The motion on the economic crisis was completed and passed
• The motion on Young Teachers was completed. An amendment to delete the (rather crass, I thought) comparison with the equality conferences, and also to support the "We Want to Stay" campaign in London on the cost of living, was defeated. There was then a card vote on the main Young Teachers motion: the motion was very narrowly lost. (Speech number 2 from Dave not taken...)
• The motion on exploring how Aspiring Teachers (those undertaking wor experience as teaching assistants etc. before embarking on a teacher training course) could be brought into something similar to student membership was explored, but with a considerable range of safeguards from the Executive amendment (we are not in the business of poaching members who should be joining and getting active in Unison, GMB or Unite as their recognised unions !) . This was passed- although I am not happy about the concept, and hope that the exploration shows it is not viable !

Keynote speech of the day came from General Secretary Christine Blower. Christine again paid tribute to the late Steve Sinnott, and noted how much he would have seen this Liverpool conference as a homecoming- he'd have called it "smashing" ! Christine spoke about professional unity, and welcomed the signing of the new partnership agreement with our brothers and sisters in UCU.

The SATS campaign continues apace, as we await the result of the ballot of our primary leadership colleagues and their counterparts in the NUT. Christine commended the ballot, as it was proposing "industrial action with no downside.... children will be taught, teachers will feel less stressed, children will not be reduced to a level..."

Only an hour or so before Christine spoke, Gordon Brown had gone to the Palace and sought a dissolution of Parliament. Christine urged us to get involved in the forthcoming election campaign by promoting our policy to candidates of all parties, and using the material which is now available, courtesy of the Political Fund, to campaign against the BNP and other fascist parties.

We closed conference after a warm vote of thanks was proposed to Gill Goodswen in the chair, and delegates set off- until next year in Harrogate, at least...

Following the close of conference, the new Executive met to elect the chairs and vice-chairs of the four Standing Committees- Organising and Membership; Education, Equalities and Professional Development; Salaries, Superannuation and Conditions; and Resource Management. Members were also elected to the Strategy and Finance Committee (kind of an executive committee of the executive, comprising the chairs and other nominated members) Nothing prestigious for me this year, which suits me fine- casework and other commitments keep my union time pretty busy !

Conference Report: Monday 5th April

A busy day of business at Conference opened with further motions on Employment Conditions and Rights. Conference reaffirmed its opposition to the Licence to Teach proposals, which, with the Parliamentary session ending shortly after Gordon Brown goes to the Palace tomorrow, looks unlikely to make it to the statute book. Conference re-endorsed the Union's policies for professional development as contained in the document A Good Local School for Every Child and Every Community, and called for a high profile campaign against the licensing proposals.

I was disappointed that the amendment from Lewes, Eastbourne and Wealden Association was not moved- organisers from the "factions" at conference moved a procedural motion to move to the main question (i.e. not discuss any further amendments) after only one amendment was taken. This means that Newell Fisher, vice-president of East Sussex Division was not able to speak to conference on the issue of Competency Procedures. A great pity.

A comprehensive motion on Supply Teachers was overwhelmingly passed, which re-affirmed the union's position that whole classes should only be taught by a qualified teacher, and called for supply teachers to be brought back into the employ of the local authority and away from the agencies, with full pension rights restored. Readers of Supply Lines should be pleased !

A motion on Teacher Workload and Stress was passed, which highlighted the unions campaigns against excessive workload and bureaucracy, and pressed for school Safety Reps to use their statutory rights in tacking this. A Motion on the new Independent Safeguardiung Authority highlighted the issue of so-called "soft information" on any allegation against a teacher being retained, regardless of whether that allegation is disproved, and indeed shown to be malicious.

After lunch, the Priority Motion from the Executive was debated and unanimously passed. In the context of the forthcoming general election, it committed us to fighting against cuts to the education budgets in a crisis that was not of our making, and strongly mandated the union to campaign against BNP members teaching and serving as governors. A delegate from Stoke-on-Trent told the chilling story of a proudly self-proclaimed racist who is now, as a BNP councillor, the chair of the Children and Young People's committee on his local council.

The afternoon session saw the only real arguments of the conference, in the debate on the Young Teachers motion. A motion calling on the Young Teachers' Conference to have the right to send a motion to annual conference saw a host of young delegates lining up in support, and to oppose the compromise offered from the Executive which would create a mechanism for the YTC to bring policy through the Executive. After a long debate, the first card vote of conference was taken, which saw the Executive amendment defeated. The main motion will now be debated in the unfinished business section tomorrow.

The session finished with a debate on the workings of Annual Conference, with a list of suggested changes to procedures to improve and update the workings of this event. Again, this went to a card vote, the result will be announced tomorrow.

The eagle-eyed among you may have been looking for a report of the speech to conference from civil service union PCS' general secretary, Mark Serwotka. Unfortunately (he confesses) I was having a coffee at the time and managed to miss it. No offence is intended to colleagues in PCS who are in desperate struggle to defend their redundancy pay rights against a background of looming public sector cuts. I am told that Mr Serwotka was inspiring as ever.

Last day tomorrow-nearly there !

Conference Report: Sunday 4th April

As it was Easter Sunday, and we'd all been well behaved, we had a half day from conference today.

The day started with the presentation of the Regional and National Membership Development Awards- known affectionately as NUMDA and RUMDA (and, from Wales, the WUMDA...)

The Early Years debate passed a motion that highlighted the impact of the changes of nursery hours from 12.5 to 15 hours. While we warmly welcome the increase in nursery hours, the motion noted with concern the "disorganised and unco-ordinated way in which the increase has been introduced, leaving Early Years Foundation Stage members with a disparate range of working conditions." The motion called on the union to campaign against increasing teachers contact hours, to survey members and design and promote models of best practice to implement the changes.

The session of conference devoted to the motions from the three Equality Conferences (Black members, LGBT members and Disabled members) passed a range of practical proposals that included monitoring discrimination and harassment, the removal of the medical "fitness to teach" regulations, and the importance of disability and LGBT awareness training. As Chair of the LGBT Working Party, I have the right to move the motion from that conference, however I, and the vice-chair Claire Jenkins were pleased to waive this to members of the working party Jeff Evans, Nick Jones and Annette Pryce. It was particularly pleasing to receive a motion from the Disabled Workers conference for the first time.

The International Debate is always an important part of the Union's conference, and this year debated a motion which reaffirmed its commitment to the Global Campaign for Education and the target of all countries implementing the Millennium Development Goals (please look at the work of the One Goal project that uses the World Cup to promote awareness of this campaign)

The motion called on the union to give support and publicity to the developing nations and their teachers who are working towards the goals, and urged local association to elect an officer to further their international work and to set aside a local budget for this purpose. We were also urged to support the work of the Steve Sinnott Foundation.

Conference closed with a tribute to those members who had passed away in the previous year, and had given national service to the NUT. We will also be marking the second anniversary of the death of our late, great General Secretary, Steve Sinnott, tomorrow.

A half-day maybe, but the conference fringe continued, and I was proud to chair the LGBT Teachers reception, which had a superb attendance, to the point where we have clearly outgrown the rooms they allocate us. We were pleased to be visited by the Deputy General Secretary, Kevin Courtney, and a number of ex-presidents.

Gill Goodswen spoke, and introduced the work of Jeff Evans and the Oldham Division in the Prevalence of Homophobia Survey for local associations- which has now been completed in a range of Local Authorities. We were then treated to a superb presentation from Homotopia, an arts and human rights group campaigning against homophobia with young LGBT people. They told us about Project Triangle, a teaching resource that was developed from a group of young LGBT people visiting Auschwitz and seeing first hand the horrors of fascism. Delegates were given a complementary copy of the teaching resource (RRP #95) to use in their schools. We also had a speaker from Love Music Hate Racisim, who spoke about the urgent need to support the project in the run up to the General Election, and the development of the Love Music Hate Homophobia project that will run alongside.

It gave me great pleasure to embarrass Ros McNeill, who is the Officer at HQ responsible for LGBT and other equalities work. Ros works incredibly hard to organise and co-ordinate the union's work in this area, and sadly (in one respect, but great in another...) she will be leaving us for a short while in the summer for the birth of her first baby, with her husband who just happens to be outgoing national president, Martin Reed. We wish her the very best, and want her back soon !

Conference Report: Saturday 3rd April

The conference opened with a superb Presidential Address from the new President Gill Goodswen. Gill spoke about her experience in the union, from student to head teacher. She had

"...witnessed successive government's attempts to micromanage and control education through the imposition of the National Cuirriculum, National Testing
and assessment, statutory target setting, league tables, OfSTED, Performance
Management, National Strategies, Performance Related Pay, and a variety of
privatisation in the form of GM schools, trusts and academies."

"Each one is someone's often uniformed idea of how our education system could, nay should, be improved. Frequently we have worked from the lowest common denominator, assuming that all are as bad as the worst examples. It insults the majority. It undermines our professional status. It is counterproductive and it is unfair."

Gill went on to tackle the over-scrutinty and punitive inspection regimes, workload, the effect of the TLR system and the growth of privatisation. But all was not doom and gloom-

"This speech may have come across as a speech akin to a Leonard Cohen song... I'm showing my age I know ! But I am not a pessimist. I have been a teacher for more than 30 years- it's still the best job in the world- and I know that the NUT will do everything itcan to ensure that we resist and challenge changes for the worst, as proposed by any Government"

"There is so much for the NUT to do to overcome the increasing inequality and restore the vocabulary of education to what it should be about- the powerful vehicle that can liberate, not the barren language based on unfairness and judgement."

The full text of Gill's speech has been printed up into a presentation booklet that will be available via your local secretary, or you can read the text at our national website (to uploaded soon) by clicking here.

Policy debate took place in the Employment and Conditions of Service Debate with motions on Workload, Teacher Mental Health and the GTC Code of Conduct. Conference agreed to back a vigourous campaign on workload, including the need for restrictions on real working hours, class sizes and the punitive inspection and management culture that "believes teaching is improved by making ever more demans on teachers in a more and more bullying way." Conference agreed to continue supporting members in particular schools who wish to take workload action, and to consider national campaigns, up to strike or non-strike based industrial action if there is no agreement reached with STRB and the government. (This will, of course, appear in your right-wing tabloid newspapers as "teachers to strike...": that isn't what it actually says...

Mick Brookes of the National Association of Head Teachers was the guest speaker who closed the morning session. Mick thanked us for the unique opportunity: it is the first time that an NAHT General Secretary has addressed NUT conference, and in May he was looking forward to Christine addressing their conference in turn.

Mick recalled meeting, alongside all of the teachers unions, the then schools minister Jacqui Smith, where the unions presented detailed proposals to reform assessment at Key Stages 2 and 3. They were sent packing by the Minister, who said that this was "not up for negotiation" Mick remembered a conversation after this meeting with John Bangs, the NUT Assistant Secretary for Education, saying to John "If they won't change the system, maybe we should change it for them." John, apparently replied: "What- the NAHT ?" "Yes- the NAHT !"

The NAHT surveyed over 10,000 parents. This found that:

• 85% wanted the SATS regime changed
• 90% trusted teacher assessment, and
• 75% did not think that league tables were a good measure of a school's performance.

He also mentioned the Alexander Report, which gave an opportunity to bring in a great new Primary curriculum: the report was instead rubbished by Government. Conservative think-tanks, the House of Commons Select Committee on Education, school governors' associations, all recognise that the SATS are not needed. Why not the Government ?

Mick concluded by referring to the ballot for a boycott. He noted that in both unions there were three types of leadership group member: Those who are geared up and ready to support the action; a small number who oppose the abolition of SATS as a principle; and many who are too scared to vote Yes. Mick suggested that, for this third group, that was the very reason to send the paper back and vote Yes: a chance for us to change the culture that is making school leaders feel this way.

Mick received a standing ovation from conference (unthinkable for an NAHT leader a few years ago) and was warmly thanked by Christine.

After lunch the education debate looked at Academies, and particularly the growth of other forms of privatisation such as Trust and the Tory "Free Schools" proposal. The conference overwhelmingly endorsed the campaigns.

A motion from Oldham committed the union to a Reading for Pleasure policy, which praised the work of libraries and the work with Authors to promote the love of reading in our children, and reading for pleasure as a core part of every child's educational entitlement. In a brilliant speech, involving giant rabbit ears, a huge book and getting the audience singing, Jane Walton from Wakefield asked why it is that a prison has to have a library by law, but a school does not. The motion mandated the Union to support the Campaign for the Book, set up by Alan Gibbons and supported by the Schools Library Association

Following the overwhelming endorsement of the motion, conference heard from award winning children's author Alan Gibbons- a leading voice in our anti-SATS campaign. Holding up a paperback, he asked:

"If I were to tear out a page from this book, and call it 'reading' you'd be
horrified. Some of you might faint, some of you might gasp, some of the
quick ones might rush up and tie me up in a straitjacket... but that's what
the SATS do."

Alan condemned the SATS regime of looking at excerpts from a book, and subjecting them to comprehension exercises and one word answers. We should let kids immerse themselves in books- the whole book and nothing but the book. We could invest the millions of pounds wasted on the SATS into libraries and librarians (a vital person- "What do you call a library without a librarian ? A room...")

Alan recalled debating on radio with former Chief Inspector of Schools Chris Woodhead ("a living simile") who argued that sustained silent reading was not appropriate in teaching children, to which Alan had pondered "how do you read, then Chris ?"

In wishing us well, Alan paraphrased Liverpool hero Bill Shankly, saying "Reading is not a matter of life and death... it's much more important than that."

Conference finished with the presentation and adoption of the Accounts and the report from the examiners of accounts.

Conference Report: Friday 2nd April

Friday is always a gentle introduction to Conference- an afternoon session to set up the business of conference, before we get down to policy debate in the coming days.

Gill Goodswen was installed as president for the 2010 conference, handing over from Martin Reed, The best wishes of Conference were formally given to Martin, in a speech from Judy Moorhouse- an ex president herself, in which she praised Martin's passion for education, his analytical mind, and his sartorial elegance ! She also congratulated Martin's wife Ros who is expecting a baby.

Guests of the Union were welcomed, and given a chance to speak. Alan Whitaker of the lecturers union UCU brought greetings from our sister union, and spoke of the shared challenges ahead. Alan highlighted as an example the experience of prison teachers, who have faced cuts, who have their service put out to competitive tender every 5 years, and who can be removed from their job with no notice at the absolute whim of a prison governor. He spoke of how the cuts in HE and FE budgets hit the students form the least well-off background hardest, especially in the community outreach programmes.

Irene Duncan-Adansa of the Ghanaian Teachers' Union GNAT, and African region president of Education International brought international solidarity, and highlighted how our shared experiences are much closer than we might have thought. her members also face the effects of the global crisis, with cuts in teachers salaries, increased class sizes and cuts to SEN facilities. In Ghana there is also an increase in the use of unqualified teachers and a problem with qualified teachers leaving the profession. Irene reminded us that there is a correlation between education budgets and pupil performance. Education is the way out of the crisis- and "solidarity is the key".

Wes Streeting, President of the National Union of Students praised the long established working relationship between NUS and the NUT. We have shared interests, and increasingly a shared membership, where we work in partnership to support those who are training to teach. Wes noted that in both further and higher education, we are suffering from the effects of an economic crisis which we did not create, and investing in education must be the number one priority for any government serious about getting us out of the crisis- at this time NUT and NUS must stand shoulder to shoulder. "It will be the educators and the educated that get us out of this crisis and ensure that it will not happen again."


John Bills, ex-NUT president and now Chair of the Teacher Support Network praised our long and established relationship. In the last year, TSN has made over #253,000 in grants, often to support teachers and retired teachers with "priority debt": rent, mortgage interest, council tax. The recession is hitting teachers hard, although the charity continues to do well. He welcomed the new Chief Executive of the TSN, Julian Stanley.

TSN celebrated ten years of its telephone helpline for teachers at a Parliamentary reception, where both Schools Minister Vernon Coaker and the chair of the Education Select Committee, Barry Sheerman gave fulsome praise to the work of TSN. The charity also won the Best Use of the Web award at the Charity Times Awards (beating the WWF) for a highly effective site, despite the modest budget !

John thanked the NUT Associations for their donations of more than #100,000, and the many NUT members who are individual subscribers: they help keep TSN serving the profession.


Graham Clayton, who recently retired as senior solicitor for the union, after more than 30 years service was awarded honorary life membership: he gave an amusing speech where he reflected on how proud he was to be an honorary member of the profession- he received a much deserved standing ovation from the conference.

Finally, the Fred and Anne Jarvis Award was given. This is for recognition of service to education and the campaigns of the union for those outside the teaching profession,
and was made to children's author and poet Michael Rosen, a long-standing campaigner for assessment reform, abolishing the SATS and fighting the far-Right.


Michal spoke of how he grew up as the son of teachers, and the NUT was "in his blood." He recalled how his mother had engaged in the fight for equal pay for women teachers (during the period when the NASUWT was formed to oppose that very concept !) He also spoke of his horror at the rise of the far-Right in his part of east London. The very same attacks are currently being made against the Bangladeshi community as against the Jewish community in the 1930's- of which his parents were members.

Michael wished us every success in the anti-SATS campaign, noting that the current regime was "anti-child, anti-teacher and anti-education.... Ed Balls claims that the SATS are part of the standards agenda, he knows that's lies."

In contrast, Michael welcomed the motion on Reading for Pleasure, which is being debated later in the conference.

The award was presented by former General Secretary, Fred Jarvis.

Conference Report: Thursday 1st April

The NUT's Annual Conference kicks off tomorrow afternoon at the BT Convention Centre in Liverpool. Martin Reed, the outgoing President will take the chair for the first session, before handing over to Gill Goodswen, a primary school headteacher, who will be President for 2010.

As always, expect the most dishonest, misrepresentative and distorted reporting from the tabloid press- fortunately, you can read only the truth on this site. This will be an energetic, thoughtful and education-focused conference, with a range of debates and discussions. The agenda will be:

FRIDAY: Formal business such as agreeing the standing orders, and the welcoming of guests to the conference, in a short session starting at 4.00pm. Most delegates will have travelled up to Liverpool during the day, and will be wanting to get settled in and orientated. This session will also receive reports from our partner organisations the Teacher Support Network, the Teachers' Building Society and Teachers Assurance. The Conference will also be asked to grant honorary Life Membership to Graham Clayton, who recently retired as our senior solicitor after many years of service.

SATURDAY: The session will open with Gill giving her Presidential Address. Debates will then be held on motions relating to Employment Conditions and Rights, and general Education policy. There will also be an address from Mick Brookes from the National Association of Head Teachers, and leading children's author Alan Gibbons. Both are likely to speak out on the campaign to end SATS and give teachers time to teach. In the afternoon, the conference will receive the Accounts of the union, and of our training centre Stoke Rochford Hall.

SUNDAY will have sessions to discuss Early Years and Primary education, Secondary Education and the motions from the Equality Conferences. The Regional and National Membership Development Awards will also be given.

MONDAY will start with a Question and Answer Session with the General Secretary, and then motions on Salaries and Superannuation, Strategy and Finance, Organising and Membership and Resource Management in the union.

TUESDAY will debate Equality issues and SEN, and will conclude with a speech from the General Secretary Christine Blower.

Along the way, there will also be receptions and fringe meetings during the conference, and a chance for delegates to network furiously ! There is always a super exhibition from many organisations working in educational publishing, resources and campaigning: most of us leave with bags of free resources for school !

I will, of course, be posting a report daily on this site- if it's not up till late, I'm probably in the bar arguing over the finer details of policy...