Junior doctors protesting in Birmingham last weekend (Pic: Paul Stringer – Socialist Worker)

Yannis Gourtsoyannis of the BMA National Executive Junior Doctors Ctte will be attending our General Meeting to explain why British Medical Association (BMA) members are fighting Tory health secretary Jeremy Hunt’s plans to impose new contracts. They voted by 98 percent for strikes and 99 percent for action short of strikes, on a turnout of 76 percent. They will now strike for 24 hours on 1 December, providing only “emergency care”, followed by “full withdrawals of labour” on 8 and 16 December. Junior doctors are fighting new contracts that would rip apart their terms and conditions. Some face a deep pay cuts—and they warn that the plans would put patient safety at risk.

“A tired teacher does not make an excellent teacher” Mike Sheridan Ofsted London Regional Director said at our excellent reps training recently. He is absolutely right. Do come to our union meeting and be part of the campaign to reduce workload and stress in your school. This will be the main agenda item. Full Agenda below.

Looking forward to meeting you at the Ealing NUT Mtg Tues 24th 5pm Hanwell Community Centre, Westcott Crescent, Hanwell W7 1PD

Solidarity

Stefan Simms Ealing NUT

1. Winning in our Schools

2. Conference Motions. Conference is the supreme decision making body of the union, what is passed there becomes the NUT’s position and dicates what it will do. Ealing NUT Ctte are recommending the following motions to be submitted & debated at conference; Workload, London Housing, Baseline Assessment, Racism & Migrants, London Weighting & Climate Change. If you wish to put alternative motions to the GM please send them to me before the GM and asapp. Scroll to the bottom for conference motions wording.

3. National Executive Equality Seats LGBT & Black Teachers Ealing NUT Ctte are recommending Annette Pryce to be re-elected for the LGBT post. Ealing NUT Ctte has also agreed to organise hustings for the Black Teachers post. Invites have been sent out to those who have put themselves forward for consideration.

4. Apologies, Minutes & matters Arising

5. School Reports & Issues

6. Officers, Ctte members & delegates to various bodies are elected every year. If you are interested in getting more involved in some way please let us know.

7. Diary Dates

8. AOB

Conference Motions Wording Below

Housing crisis

Conference notes:
1. That there is a national housing crisis with house prices now averaging 6.5 times average annual wages.
2. That in many cities the ratio is far higher than this, and in London house prices are around 13 times the average wage.
3. That many young teachers have therefore been forced into private rented accommodation.
4. That rents have for many years been rising above the level of inflation, so that many of our members are unable to afford or even aspire to a family home.
5. That many young teachers will be spending as much as 50% of their disposable income on housing costs.
6. That the situation facing many of the children we teach is far more serious. For instance in London it is estimated that as many as 1 in 25 children now live in temporary accommodation, with many more facing overcrowding, poor living conditions and poverty as a result of the housing crisis.
7. That the policies of the current Government, including extending the right to buy and encouraging the sale of government land to private developers, have worsened the situation.

Conference believes:
1. That the emergence of campaigns around housing is a welcome and overdue development.
2. That there is a growing recognition in the trade union movement that this is something that impacts greatly our members and that we should be involved in.
3. That TUC policy which calls for more council housing, rent controls and greater landlord regulation deserves our active support.
4. That the crisis is caused by the withdrawal of government intervention and that a reliance on building private housing that most cannot afford will not improve the situation.
5. That in parts of the country the housing crisis is exacerbating an already serious situation with regard to teacher shortages.
6. That if the government does not take political action on rent controls, this must inevitably contribute to a drive by our union and others to push for industrial action on pay.
Conference instructs the executive:
1. To encourage local associations and divisions to work alongside housing campaigns in their area and to offer the support and resources of the union.
2. To work alongside and support campaigns such as Generation Rent, Defend Council Housing, the March for Homes and the People’s Assembly in their work around housing issues.
3. To publicise the impact of the crisis in housing on teacher supply, and hence on the quality of education
4. To support the work of the London Teachers’ Housing campaign and encourage similar developments in other parts of the country.
Racism and Migration
Conference notes:
1. That war poverty and political repression continue to push people across the world into leaving their homes and migrating often under difficult degrading and dangerous conditions that in many cases have led to their deaths.
2. That migrants continue to make a huge economic political and social contribution to this country and that many public services and businesses would face severe difficulties without their contribution.
3. The unhelpful distinction made by the mainstream media and politicians between refugees and economic migrants.
Conference condemns:
1. The wave of racist stereotyping that has characterised much media coverage of migrants as well as the response of some mainstream politicians including the Prime Minister to the their plight.
2. The campaigning of the Independence party against migrants and refugees.
3. The government’s inadequate response to the situation of migrants and its failure to offer a refuge to more than a minute fraction of those suffering.
Conference applauds:
1. The support given to collections aid convoys and other aid by many schools teachers and the general public following the horrific scenes in the Mediterranean central Europe and Calais.
2. The union’s support for these initiatives and the publication of relevant teaching materials and ideas on the NUT website.
3. The stance of some politicians such as the leader of the Labour Party in calling for an end to scapegoating and for welcoming refugees and migrants to this country.
Conference agrees to:
1. Continue to gather and collate teaching materials on migrants and refugees” and to publicise these to members.
2. Work with anti/racist organisations such as Stand up To Racism and Fascism, Unite against Fascism, Hope not Hate and others to defend migrants and refuges and to campaign for policies that welcome them to this country.
3. Encourage local associations and divisions to work with members to support local anti-racist groups and to support work within schools on these issues.

Workload Teacher Shortage & Funding
Conference believes:
1. That workload for teachers is intolerable and getting worse.
2. That the government’s Workload Challenge has done nothing to improve the situation.
3. That a series of factors are now coming together which will push teacher workload even higher as fewer teachers more students and less funding combine to create a perfect storm on workload. The key factors include:
• the growing teacher shortage – fuelled by the double whammy of record numbers of teaching leaving” driven out by excessive workload and stress” and lower numbers training to be teachers.
• Rising student numbers (by another 615,000 under 16 school students in the next five years)
• Reduced funding – as the government’s intention to protect the cash per student does not allow for inflation and amounts to a real terms cut of up to 10% in education funding over the coming years.
4. That all these factors will drive up class sizes reduce the numbers of support staff cut resources and will inevitable increase workload.
5 That this is an intolerable prospect when a majority of teachers are already saying they are thinking of quitting and over 60 percent of those cite workload as the key reason.
6 That the union should continue to give full support up to and including sustained strike action to schools which seek to win local improvements on workload – using for example the Ofsted letters of clarification on marking or the Annexe C of the government’s Workload Challenge report to press for improvements.
7 That such local successes vital as they are cannot turn back the tide on workload nor the worse that is yet to come.
8 That we should campaign vigorously using all means at our disposal to warn that unless the workload crisis is addressed education in Britain will face a crisis in the years ahead.
9 That more teachers, lower class sizes less contact time more time for collaborative planning should be the cornerstones of any serious drive to cut teacher workload – along with a change to the dismal league table Ofsted police misnamed accountability regime which currently blights teaching and learning in schools.
10 That this requires increased real terms funding for education.
Conference instructs the executive to:
a) Seek out allies to build such a national campaign on these themes – one which puts teachers and our workload as a core part of the fight for a decent education system for all
b) That we should seek to organise with unions and organisations if possible” a national demonstration around the crisis in education as soon as practical
c) Build a campaign to persuade members that national strike action will be necessary to bring about changes in the intolerable working conditions and lack of work-life balance created by current government policies.

1. That such a campaign should have as its key themes: No to racism – inside and outside the European Union; Yes to internationalism-solidarity across all borders; Defend public services- no t to privatisation; No to the European Union – Another Europe is Possible.
2. That under no circumstance should such a campaign have any truck with, joint work with or share any platforms with forces which espouse any form of racism – including Ukip.
3. That were such a progressive campaign to be built and were Cameron defeated in his referendum it would be a near fatal blow to his government and would bring nearer the day when it was swept from office.
Conference instructs the executive
To actively seek out potential allies in the trade union and progressive movements urgently to try to build such a movement.

Climate Change

The National Union of Teachers recognises the following
1. Keeping global warming to 1.5 degrees C or below is essential if human civilisation is to be sustained and there is to be a future for our children.
2. Doing so requires sharp cuts in CO2 and other greenhouse gas emissions on a very rapid timescale.
3. This requires 75-80% of known fossil fuel reserves to be left in the ground.
4. The technology exists to make a transition to a sustainable carbon neutral society with gains in living standards for the majority of humanity at an annual cost little greater than the current cost of annual fossil fuel subsidies, but this is incompatible with high levels of inequality and a society based on aspiration for luxurious lifestyles.
5. That growth will have to be primarily in those areas of the economy that enable this transition to take place.
6. The world’s wealthiest countries will have to make cuts in emissions of 8-10% a year (on top of those made by exporting manufacturing and related pollution to China and other countries).
7. Governments will have to put our economies on a war footing and take charge of necessary investment in sustainable energy, transport and urban planning because the private sector is not doing what is necessary.
8. This will not happen while the needs of our planet and our civilisation are held to ransom by the short-term profitability of the fossil fuel industries.
9. This has profound implications for the structure and content of our education system, both in terms of content and values.
Conference instructs the executive to call for:

1. A national plan for the most rapid possible transition to a carbon zero economy, including an immediate reversal of the current governments withdrawal of support from wind and solar energy.
2. The most rapid possible retrofitting of all school buildings to make them as carbon neutral as possible (as part of a concerted plan for all publically owned buildings).
3. An end to restrictions on solar panels by heritage considerations.
4. A re-examination of the curriculum to put sustainability and the values of a sustainable society at the heart of it.
5. An immediate abandonment on fracking domestically and an embargo on the import of any fracked gas or tar sand oil from any other country.
6. The most rapid possible transfer of fossil fuel subsidies to sustainable energy generation and the phase out of coal power without CCS by 2023.
7. The most rapid possible socialisation of power generation.

Conference further instructs the executive to:

1. Negotiate with DFE on a new curriculum and seek support from other education unions.
2. Convene a working party of all interested teachers to work with relevant campaigns, like FOE, Greenpeace, Campaign against Climate Change, to find all the aspects of the current curriculum that can be developed to draw out a sustainable content and to examine those areas or values that need to be challenged and changed and produce model alternatives; making 2016-17 the year of the Green Curriculum.
3. Work with these campaigns on developing termly themes that link educational content with active citizenship and encourage our members to push them in schools.
4. Encourage union bodies at all levels to support national and local demonstrations and campaigns against fracking and climate change, negotiate with local authorities to make our schools carbon neutral solar power stations and press governing bodies to adopt a green school plan of action.
5. Take this issue up with other unions through the TUC, our international counterparts bilaterally and through Education international, supporting initiatives like the German TUCs Marshal plan for Europe.
6. Affiliate to the campaign against climate change (constitution appended).

Motion – Greater London Pay

Conference notes that:

1. In May 2015 The Joseph Rowntree Foundation reported that social rents in London had risen by over a third since 2008, child care costs had risen by two thirds and public transport costs had risen by a quarter. In the same period average London earnings had only risen by 10%.
2. The cost of living in inner London and outer London is no longer reflected by the inner and outer London pay scales applied to teaching salaries;
3. In some cases the inner London pay scale is paid to boroughs where the cost of housing is cheaper and the location of the borough is further from the centre than other London boroughs that receive the Outer London Allowance on the Teachers Pay Scale.

Conference believes:

i. It is time that teachers working in London receive a pay award that reflects the real costs of Living in the third most expensive city in the world;
ii. The Inner and Outer London Teachers Pay Scales no longer reflect the reality of the housing and other expenses in London: it is both out of date and unfair;
iii. The current allowances trap teachers in inner London teaching jobs that may want to move to outer London schools but cannot afford to do this;
iv. There should be a single “Greater London Pay Scale” that covers the whole of London that should be no lower than the current inner London Allowance.

Conference instructs the Executive to:

a. Investigate what would be the best and fairest system of paying the “Greater London Pay Scale”, including the consideration of a “flat rate” payment that would apply the same additional payment to all teachers who work in London regardless of where they are on the National Pay scale.
b. Call on the government to commit to introducing a new “Greater London Pay Scale” for all teachers that work in London and take the necessary action to establish it as statute;
c. Encourage and resource school groups and associations to take action in line with Union policy;
d. Approach other teacher unions to commit to the principle and campaign;
e. Approach the Labour Party and other opposition parties to commit to the principle and campaign to do the maximum they can to establish the “Greater London Pay Scale” as statute;
f. Approach local authorities, the London Mayor, GLA members, London MPS to commit to and work alongside local associations to support the campaign.
g. Support members in schools across divisions/associations for ballots for action, up to and including strike action if the government is unwilling to listen and cooperate with this policy

CONFERENCE MOTION ON BASELINE TESTING

Conference notes the excellent campaign that NUT members and Early Years activists have taken part in over the last year, running picnics, events, stalls and on social media to make sure the public and especially parents know about our 4 Too Young To test campaign.
Conference further notes that teachers have complained that the new baseline requirements have led to increased workload, fitting the child to the assessment criteria and to a disruption of the vital settling-in period in first few weeks.
Conference believes that the number of schools signing up to the Early Excellence model shows that there is very little appetite to move to formal testing in the first two weeks of school, which is government’s preferred model.
However, Conference notes that Early Excellence are a private business that has profited from the government scheme and that their scheme leads to the same outcome as the other providers’ tests – i.e a measure only looking at school accountability and a move away from an EYFS profile with a rounded view of the child.
Conference notes that the government minster Nick Gibb has expressed unease about the number of schools taking up Early Excellence as the government do not trust a result that gives too much emphasis on teacher assessment.
Conference welcomes the election of Jeremy Corbyn as leader of the Labour party and the appointment of Lucy Powell as Shadow education spokesperson because they have a different emphasis on school accountability and the role of testing.
Conference instructs the Executive to:
1. Continue working with the broad alliance of other organisations opposed to Baseline testing as the best way of building parental opposition to the tests;

2. Encourage local associations to build on the campaigning that has been done to date and continue to raise the profile of our opposition to testing children at the age of 4;

3. Call on the government to end the Baseline tests and work with practitioners and Early Years experts to develop a model of assessment based on sound educational practice and the needs of the child rather than the accountability system;

4. Seek discussions with the Labour Party about the role of testing and accountability in schools and seek to persuade them to adopt a policy that includes the end of Baseline Testing, Phonics tests and SATs;

5. Use the results of the joint survey conducted by the union and ATL to engage members and inform the next stages of the campaign;
6. Keep under review all the options open to the Union as part of this campaign, including consideration of a ballot for a boycott of the tests in 2016 as agreed at Conference 2015;
7. Be prepared to ballot members for a boycott of Baseline Testing before the end of the summer term, if the results of surveys and other methods of ascertaining members’ views show sufficient support