ATL

ATL Conference 2009

Tuesday 7 April - afternoon session

Third session of the Conference - 2pm-6pm

During this session there was an address by Mr Zigi Shipper, Holocaust survivor.

You can download Zigi Shipper's life story here, upon which his speech to Conference was based.

RESOLUTIONS

24 National pay and conditions for support staff - carried
25 Misuse of support staff - moved to next business
26 Residential staff in independent schools - carried
27 Student loans - carried
28 Counsellors - carried
29 The importance of knowledge - lost
30 Emotional intelligence and teaching styles - carried
31 Censorship of English literature - carried
32 Contemporary trade unionism - carried
33 Human resources services - carried
34 Teacher agencies - carried
35 Rewarding experience - carried
36 Teacher unemployment in Northern Ireland - carried in part
37 Single union recognition workplaces - carried
38 Contracts for teachers covering maternity leave - not taken
39 Paternity pay - not taken
40 SEN provision - not taken

24 National pay and conditions for support staff - carried

COMPOSITE from resolutions submitted by Cheshire and North Wales branches

THAT Conference, while welcoming the improvement in work-life balance that the Workload Agreement has, in principle, brought to teachers, deplores the ensuing exploitation experienced by support staff.

Conference requests that the Executive Committee lobbies for the forthcoming national pay and conditions structure to reward and develop the professionalism of support staff and ensure all who are involved in the direct day-to-day teaching of children are treated fairly.

Proposer: Marjorie Barnes, Flint High School, Flint
Seconder: Stuart Hart, Fallibroome High School, Cheshire

25 Misuse of support staff - moved to next business

COMPOSITE from resolutions submitted by Berkshire, Bradford, Derbyshire and Wolverhampton branches

THAT Conference is appalled at the misuse of, and the inferior terms and conditions applied to, support staff in schools. Conference also believes that support staff are in class to support and not to lead; Conference notes that support staff in education settings may commence work with no prior training or induction. The mismanagement of science lessons to key stage 3/4 in the absence of qualified teachers is widespread. In particular:

(i) most TAs and HLTAs are not qualified to present day degree level in a given specific subject;

(ii) no risk assessments are carried out for the delivery of practical lessons;

(iii) the 31 Teaching Standards as applied to aspiring HLTAs are not considered by school managers when requiring TAs/HLTAs to carry out science tasks in the classroom;

(iv) where support staff are fulfilling similar roles to care staff in social services settings they do not receive mandatory training prior to commencing work. Conference asks the Executive Committee to investigate the number of unqualified teachers practising in schools, and to lobby the Government and the TDA to ensure that:

(a) school managements who ignore guidelines on the use of support staff do so at their peril, so that only qualified teachers are teaching our children;

(b) support staff receive an appropriate induction process;

(c) TAs/HLTAs should teach the sciences only upon completion of a subject specific qualification.

Proposer: Brenda Walters, Wednesfield High School, Wolverhampton
Seconder: Martyne Ellard, Park House School, Berkshire

26 Residential staff in independent schools - carried

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE

THAT Conference, recognising that many independent schools continue to take advantage of the dedication of their resident support staff by requiring them to work unacceptably long hours well in excess of the Working Time Directive for less than the National Minimum Wage, calls on the Executive Committee to campaign vigorously to ensure that support staff members have a reasonable work-life balance and fair rates of pay. 

Proposer: Geoff Pye, Executive Committee
Seconder: Peter Walker, Executive Committee

27 Student loans - carried

WIGAN BRANCH

THAT Conference deplores the burden of lifetime debt that today's students face as a result of the high cost of tuition fees and student loans with interest rates linked to the retail price index. Conference requests that the Executive Committee lobbies the Government to abolish the interest charged on student loans and, furthermore, that it follows the example of the Scottish Parliament by abolishing tuition fees altogether.

Proposer: Janet Walch, Wigan Education Support Service, Wigan
Seconder: Andrea Gaskell, Lowton St Mary's CE Primary School, Wigan

28 Counsellors - carried

BERKSHIRE BRANCH

THAT Conference, whilst welcoming the Government's recognition that one in 10 pupils in our schools will have a mental health problem at some point during their education and its promise to address this, requests that the Executive Committee urgently considers ways of ensuring that only correctly trained and supported counsellors are offered to treat our children.

Proposer: Maureen Meacher, Berkshire
Seconder: Sue Gibbs, Holt School, Berkshire

29 The importance of knowledge - lost

WILTSHIRE BRANCH

THAT Conference supports the notion that pupils and students who have been taught coherent knowledge are likely to become more highly skilled than those who have just been taught skills.

Proposer: John Hawkins, Unattached member
Seconder: Phil Whalley, Hardenhuish School, Wiltshire

30 Emotional intelligence and teaching styles - carried

HERTFORDSHIRE BRANCH

THAT Conference urges the Executive Committee to investigate:

(i) the growing expectation for teachers to modify their teaching styles to accommodate the demands of SEAL and emotional intelligence;

(ii) the expected potential for raising standards of children's education through SEAL;

(iii) the challenges that the SEAL initiative may pose for members;

(iv) whether it is appropriate to produce a publication on SEAL.

Proposer: Aneurin Hathway, Heathcote School, Hertfordshire
Seconder: Joyce Field, Prae Wood Primary School, Hertfordshire

31 Censorship of English literature - carried

BERKSHIRE BRANCH

THAT Conference recognises that censorship of English literature is a current problem for teachers in our schools and urges the Executive Committee to raise the issue with the Secretary of State for Education.

Proposer: Teresa Dawes Park House School, Berkshire
Seconder: Carly Prout, Student member

32 Contemporary trade unionism - carried

CAMBRIDGESHIRE AND PETERBOROUGH BRANCH

THAT Conference calls upon the Executive Committee to campaign for the inclusion of contemporary trade unionism within all the relevant curriculum areas.

Proposer: Niamh Sweeney, Cambridge Regional College, Cambridge
Seconder: Barry Williams, Cambridgeshire

33 Human resources services - carried

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE

THAT Conference:

(i) registers the concern in change of relationships between schools and their human resource advisors, with local authority and private sector providers avoiding giving advice which may be detrimental to their service level agreements

(ii) further recognises that there are qualified and experienced human resources advisors who require our support to ensure policies and procedures are effectively implemented

(iii) asks that the Executive Committee undertakes an investigation into the role of such providers of personnel advice; and

(iv) requests that such an investigation should include an examination of whether the personnel advice is provided to its management in an objective and unbiased basis.

Proposer: David Ambler, Executive Committee
Seconder: Peter Walker, Executive Committee

34 Teacher agencies - carried

MID AND SOUTH GLAMORGAN BRANCHES

THAT Conference views with concern the growing role of teacher agencies
in teacher supply, and:

(i) asserts the right of qualified teachers and lecturers to secure posts without reference to an intermediary and to draw the relevant salary in full;

(ii) condemns outright the operation of a closed shop, formally or de facto, between teacher agencies and LAs or individual institutions;

(iii) requests that the Executive Committee lobbies for legislation designed to ensure that:

(a) teachers who choose to offer themselves for employment on casual supply via a teacher agency do so on a purely voluntary basis; and
(b) supply teachers, employed on a non casual basis, are paid the full salary to which they are entitled by virtue of their qualifications and experience with an agreed scale of agency fees met by the employer.

Proposer: Gwyn Moses, Unattached member
Seconder: Ken Farrar, Unattached member

35 Rewarding experience - carried

INNER LONDON BRANCH

THAT Conference asserts that experience should be valued and rewarded. Conference notes with concern the perceived trend in appointments to post of responsibility of relatively inexperienced staff, consequently limiting the opportunities for career development of more experienced colleagues. Conference calls upon the Executive Committee to investigate this issue.

Proposer: Jovan Trkulja, Unattached member
Seconder: Kim Knappett, Forest Hill School, London

36 Teacher unemployment in Northern Ireland - carried in part

NORTHERN IRELAND BRANCH

THAT Conference notes with great concern the numbers of NQTs in Northern Ireland who leave ITT without securing employment. Conference calls on the Executive Committee to lobby the Northern Ireland Executive and Assembly, and the Department of Education for Northern Ireland to:

(i) make prudent adjustments to intake numbers to ITT - this item was carried

(ii) create opportunities for NQTs to secure employment - this item was carried

(iii) cease the practice of re-employing teachers who have taken early voluntary retirement at the expense of those trying to enter the profession - this item was lost

Proposer: Angelina McKenna, St Mary's University College, Belfast
Seconder: Ashley Dickey, Unattached member

37 Single union recognition workplaces - carried

LEEDS BRANCH

THAT Conference deplores the current legislation which enables a single union to monopolise the representation of workers with management, and therefore requests the Executive Committee to lobby the Government to amend the relevant sections of the Employment Relations Act 1999 that permit this practice.

Proposer: Alvin Wood, Leeds College of Technology, Leeds
Seconder: Richard Martin, Unattached member

38 Contracts for teachers covering maternity leave - not taken

HUMBERSIDE BRANCH

THAT Conference believes that teachers covering for maternity leave should have a contract of employment and should not be treated as supply teachers. 

Proposer: Mary Grady, Unattached member
Seconder: Colin Cranmer, East Riding Schools Music Service, Humberside

39 Paternity pay - not taken

WEST SUSSEX BRANCH

THAT Conference requests that the Executive Committee lobbies for a national agreement on paternity pay for all staff in schools, with a minimum of five days leave on full pay plus the option of a further five days on statutory paternity pay.

Proposer: John Apsey, Hazelwick School, West Sussex
Seconder: Malcolm Hawke, Arundel CE Primary School, Arundel

40 SEN provision - not taken

WIRRAL BRANCH

THAT Conference notes with concern the discontinuation of the regional partnerships and the alignment of SEN/LDD support under the national strategy and believes that provision and support for the more than 1.5m children with SEN deserve acknowledgement through a structure designed to meet all their needs, including low incidence ones. Conference seeks a full review of SEN provision.

Proposer: John Williamson, Wirral Inclusion Officer, Wirral
Seconder: Jake Heslop, Wirral Home Education Service, Wirral