This meeting will combine both the General and Committee Meetings. All members are welcome to stay for the Ctte meeting, which I am confident will still finish around 6pm. The Agenda was sent to all schools before Half Term. I have not yet received any Amendments to Conference as a result of that flyer, apart from those you can see if you scroll down to the bottom of this page.
Agenda for General Meeting
1. Sean Morris Junior Doctor at Ealing Hospital
2. Winning in our Schools: Improving our work-life balance, obtaining NUT compliant Pay & Appraisal policies
3. Amendments for Conference Motions
Agenda for Committee meeting is as stated in the flyer sent into all schools before Half Term.
Looking forward to meeting you,
Stefan Simms
Ealing NUT Divisional Secretary & National Executive Member for Outer London.
Motion 12 Teacher Shortage
Add at the end of first paragraph ‘and therefore damaging the education of our young people.’
Add new paragraph 2 and 3:
Conference notes that increasing numbers of teachers are leaving the profession citing excessive workload, and the lack of trust that underlies the constant surveillance and monitoring of teachers, and prevents them from exercising professional judgement.
Conference further notes that having access to genuinely affordable housing, whether to buy or rent, is increasingly difficult for many teachers, especially in the south east of England.
Add new paragraph 5:
Conference condemns existing and planned cuts in education spending, which are increasingly being used to hide the teacher shortage, while in fact restricting the curriculum, cutting support from the most vulnerable students and leading to an unsustainable workload for teachers and support staff.
After “Conference instructs the executive to:”
Under instructs the Executive, add
In point 1 delete ‘as the main two’ and replace with ‘as two of the main’
Add new action point 4:
Campaign with parents, students, teacher, headteacher and support staff trade unions, governors, local and national politicians and others to oppose cuts in education funding, and to develop a more humane and sustainable education system which allows all students to flourish.
Amendment to motion 15 on the Housing Crisis
Under Conference notes add
8. The excellent statement on housing in the “NUT London Manifesto – Standing Up for Education in London”.
9.The Housing and Planning Bill (Act) 2016, which will accelerate the decline of social housing, and in particular the “Pay to Stay” clause will mean that many teachers who live in social rented properties will be forced to pay market rents (applying wherever total household income is over £30,000 –or £40,000 in London).
a) after “offer the support of the union”, add “including housing campaigning activities in the NUT web-page (Campaigns/Parliament section).”
e) to affiliate to the Defend Council Housing Campaign and support campaigning activities against the Housing and Planning Bill (Act).
f) to give housing costs a high profile in campaign material for both national and London Weighting pay increases, reflecting the pressures faced by the growing numbers of teachers who rent privately.
g) To call on Councils to refuse to implement the “Pay to Stay” legislation.
h) To support and build for the People’s Assembly March for Health, Homes, Jobs and Education on 16th April.
Motion 18 Education Funding
Add new paragraph 7:
Conference further notes that proposals for so called ‘fair funding’ are anything but fair, and would, if implemented, devastate education in areas such as London that have made significant progress and enhanced students’ life chances in recent years as a result of increased funding, schools working together and hard work by teachers and support staff.
Add new paragraph before “Conference instructs the Executive:”
Conference recognises that a campaign to fight education cuts of any kind has the potential to be huge if it reaches beyond teacher and support staff trade unions to involve headteachers, parents, students, governors, local and national politicians and others, and engages with schools at a local level.
Add new action point 4 and renumber:
4. Encourage local Associations and Divisions to work with local schools and all those committed to defending education to build campaigns against cuts in educational funding.
Motion 32 Children are more than a score
After Conference notes: add new point 5
5. The unreliability of data based on limited data sets and the variables involved.
In Conference believes: add at the end of point iv)
“and are leading to a negative impact on the mental health of a significantly increasing number of children.”
In “Conference instructs the Executive to”: Add new point b) and re-letter.
b. continue the campaign to encourage schools to “opt out” of Baseline Assessment in 2016 and encourage school groups to submit the model motion to headteachers and governors.
add new point e.
e. Continue to publicise the findings and recommendations of the research from Exam Factories by encouraging and supporting local associations, Divisions and Regions to organise events with local community alliances.
Re-letter remaining points. Add new point h.
h. Develop links with opt out campaigns in the USA to inform our campaigning with parents and students.
Motion 39 Ofsted
Add new paragraph 3 before “Conference instructs the Executive to”
Conference further believes that comments by the Chief Inspector for Schools that Ofsted inspectors would have powers to mark down schools where the wearing of face veils ‘hindered learning’ were based on political prejudice and have no basis in educational research.
In point ii. after “Conference instructs the Executive to” delete “and” and replace with
“that is free from political interference and is based in research and evidence from schools”.