NUT Young Teachers' Conference

The NUT's Young Members Conference is always a highlight of the year, and I'm thrilled that I still qualify to attend this event (the NUT defined its young members as being up to the age of 35)

This is the fifth annual event, and already the conference is in danger of outgrowing the union's training centre at Stoke Rochford Hall. The event is a mixture of guest speakers, workshops and networking events for young teachers.

The event opened, as has become traditional, with the quiz evening, hosted this year by Kari Anson and Doug Morgan, both members of the Young Teachers' Advisory Committee (which I have been elected to this year, to represent the executive.

The conference proper was opened on the Saturday morning by National President Gill Goodswen, and this was followed by a discussion on Alternative Visions of Education, led by John Bangs, the Assistant Secretary for Education at the NUT, and the inspiring children's author Alan Gibbons. Alan was a great supporter during the SATS boycott campaign, and is a passionate campaigner for children and reading- "the book, the whole book and nothing but the book !" If you haven't come across Alan's Campaign for the Book- a campaign now endorsed by the NUT National Conference, take a look here. Participants than took part in Task Groups to discuss and formulate ideas for what our vision of education should be.

The afternoon saw the first of two sets of workshops, opted for by individual delegates. The programme of workshops available included:

• Assessment after the SATS
• Becoming a School rep
• Building your Association, and making meetings more relevant and interesting
• Love Music, Hate Racism
• Management Bullying: A Collective Issue
• Performance Management
• Promoting LGBT Equality in Schools
• Teaching about Conflict
• Climate Solidarity Campaign
• Money Matters for Teachers

Later in the afternoon, the Deputy General Secretary of the NUT, Kevin Courtney gave a stirring (as always) presentation about union campaigns after the general election.

Saturday night was devoted to partying. It is a young teachers conference, after all...

Sunday saw elections to three key areas- the Young Teachers Conference Steering Group, which will develop the programme for next year's event, and our delegation to the TUC Young Members Conference (under 27 only, would you believe ?) and our nominee to the TUC's Young Members Forum.

TUC Disability Conference

I was pleased to be asked to represent the Executive on the union's delegation to the TUC Disability Conference, held at Congress House in London. I was joined by the National President Gill Goodswen, three other members of the executive, and delegates from the NUT's Disability Working Party.

The conference debated a range of motions around disability policy including:

• Supporting Workers with Mental Health Conditions
• Accessible Public Transport for All
• A Workplace Agenda for Disabled Workers
• Disability Hate Crime
• Jury Service
• Paralympic Games 2012

There were moving speeches on many of the motions, not least those that sought to strengthen the protection for victims of hate crime- the motion from the University and College Union mentioned the harrowing case of Fiona Pilkington and Francesca Hardwick- in particularly how the media and government appeared to be treating these serious hate crimes as "anti-social behaviour".

The National Union of Journalists brought a motion that expressed disgust at recent coverage in the media of mental health issues, and noted that some sections of the media openly perpetrate stigma and discrimination against people with mental health conditions. A related motion by the Public and Commercial Services Union highlighted the sweeping and discriminatory ban on jury service for any person who "suffers or has suffered from a mental illness"

The NUT's own motion on Dignity and Respect for Disabled People noted that the Equality and Human Rights Commission is conducting a formal inquiry into disability-related harassment, but expressed that the Union is appalled that the trigger for the inquiry has been the lack of action taken by public authorities to eliminate the harassment of disabled people.

Our motion instructed the TUC Disability Committee to:-

• prepare evidence to present to the EHRC inquiry
• to organise a fringe meeting at the TUC Congress about the negative portrayal of disabled people and the urgent need for campaigning to eliminate such harassment at work and in society; and
• support all affiliated unions in campaigning for prevention of this harassment and to support a "zero tolerance" approach.

The conference was addressed by a number of guest speakers. Richard Reiser of the NUT spoke about his work on the European Disability Forum, and there was an inspiring presentation from a Colombian trade unionist, who spoke about the intimidation and murder of many activists in his country, simply for being trade unionists.

The conference also elected members to serve for the year on the TUC National Disability Committee, and Mandy Hudson, an NUT activist from the Ealing Association, to serve again on the committee.

Executive Report: May 2010

The full executive met on 13th May

General Secretary, Christine Blower reported that, as a result of the General Election coalition deal, the Conservative Michael Gove is now Secretary of State for Education (the department will revert to the Education title, from DCSF, although will retain responsibilities for wider Childrens’ Services. Michael Gove spoke to the NUT Executive in the run-up to the election, and we are quietly optimistic that channels of communication will improve.

We know that public sector pay will be high on the agenda of the new government, and we need to continue to work closely with other public sector trade unions. The TUC Public Sector Liaison Group will meet on June 8th. The TUC has produced a comprehensive “myth-busting” document about public sector pensions, and this is available online here.

In the past, several Liberal Democrat MPs had been useful allies in getting amendments and questions around education legislation. With the Lib Dems in Government, we need to rebuild bridges with Labour MPs in this area.

Plans are underway for our special conference on the future of education; this will have the theme of defending comprehensive education and opposing privatisation. We will work with groups such as the Anti Academies Alliance, Socialist Education Association, Comprehensive Future, and CASE.

Christine commended the work dome by the NUT in the anti-BNP campaigns, and celebrated the fact that the BNP had lost all of its councillors in the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham, where they had been the main opposition party. She congratulated the Division Secretary, Dominic Byrne, and the work we had done- especially the survey of Barking and Dagenham teachers about the impact of a potential BNP-controlled council running schools. Christine reminded us we need to continue and build upon our work with organisations such as Unite Against Fascism, Hope not Hate and Love Music Hate Racism- and not just at election time !

Christine noted the success of the TUC Black Workers Conference, and congratulated Roger King on his re-election to the TUC Committee.

Christine commended the hard work done by NUT Divisions with the joint SATS Boycott with the NAHT. Although there was a variation from area to area over the numbers of schools participating, it is clear that the turnout was high enough to render any league tables as meaningless. It is important that we publicise and celebrate the activities carried out in many boycotting schools who undertook special creative teaching and learning activities instead of the damaging SATS. She gave a special mention to the Lambeth NUT picnic, which she and children’s author Alan Gibbons had attended, and got widespread media coverage.

Christine drew attention to the TUC campaign to boycott goods from the illegal Israeli settlements, and a range of materials is now available.

Christine highlighted the dreadful execution of Kurdish teacher trade union leader Farzad Kamangar in Iran, (after a sham trial which lasted less than five minutes) despite widespread international condemnation, and pointed out that many Kurdish trade unionists remain in prison in Iran for trade union activity. Divisions and members are urged to write to the Iranian authorities, and there is a model letter available for this purpose. More information is carried on the website of Education International here.

Finally, Christine mentioned the football World Cup, and the opportunity to use this as a teaching and campaigning resource. She commended the NUT resource Football and Freedom produced jointly with Action for Southern Africa, and the Global Campaign for Education’s 1 GOAL campaign to meet the Millennium Development Goal of universal Primary education.

The new executive elected a numer of new officers and members to committees, and these are detailed in the article below.

Changes on the Executive

The new executive welcomes a number of new faces: Martin Powell-Davies, Heather Mackenzie, Ian Leaver, Ann Lemon, Beth Davies, Nick Wigmore and Robin Head. Ann Swift returns for the North Yorkshire seat, which she previously held during Judy Moorhouse's time as a National officer.

Ian Grayson is the new Chair of the Resource Management Committee.
Hazel Danson is re-elected as Chair of Education, Equalities and Professional Development.
Roger King is re-elected as Chair of the Organising and Membership Committee
Helen Andrews is re-elected as Chair of the Salaries, Superannuation and Conditions of Service Committee.
Jerry Glazier is re-elected as Chair of the Strategy and Finance Committee.

The new Officers took up their posts at Conference- Gill Goodswen moves into the chair as National President, Nina Franklin and Marilyn Harrop are Vice-Presdients, and Ian Murch was re-elected as National Treasurer.

I was re-elected to serve on the LGBT Working Party, and also the Disability Working Party. I will also be a member of the Young Teachers Advisory Committee, and an NUT nominee to the Council for Global Citizenship.