ATL

ATL Conference 2009

Wednesday 8 April - afternoon session

Fifth session of the Conference - 4pm-5.30pm

 
During this session there was an address by Kathleen Tattersall OBE, Chair of Ofqual.

RESOLUTIONS

54 School inspections - carried
55 Tests and benchmark culture - carried in all parts
55 Amendment to resolution 55 - tests and benchmark culture - lost
56 Curriculum three-11 - carried in all parts
57 Growing demands on members working in the Early Years Foundation Stage - not taken
58 Continuing professional development and new professionalism - not taken
59 Post-14 education - carried
60 FE Lecturers teaching 14-16-year-olds - carried
61 Fixed Spring break - not taken

54 School inspections - carried

CHESHIRE BRANCH

THAT Conference recognises how OfSTED inspections may find weaknesses in leadership together with satisfactory or better teaching and learning. Conference believes that any consequences of such findings should be targeted at the weaknesses.

Conference requests the Executive Committee to work to ensure that in such circumstances the senior leadership should bear the brunt of any interventions.

Proposer: Ian Bonner, Unattached member
Seconder: Bruce Murdin, Halton School, Cheshire

55 Tests and benchmark culture - carried in all parts

COMPOSITE from resolutions submitted by Bradford, Coventry, Hertfordshire, and Inner London branches and the Executive Committee

THAT Conference congratulates the Government for listening to teachers and removing key stage 3 tests and congratulates ATL on its consistent and forthright opposition to these tests which has brought this about. However, Conference deplores the decision by most secondary schools to impose the tests on pupils and staff in 2009 and the continued benchmark culture, which reduces a child to a statistic and is in direct conflict with the tenets of ECM.

Conference believes that education should get back to basics and recognises that any reductions in members' workload brought about by the introduction of PPA time are increasingly being eroded by the demands for more data analysis, detailed lesson planning and assessment with their associated bureaucracy. Conference endorses the advice of the Executive Committee on appropriate assessment policy in secondary schools and urges the Executive Committee to:

(i) intensify the campaign to abolish key stage 2 tests and league tables and fight for the right of every child to achieve their own success at their natural rate of learning and never to be subject to individual targeting or categorised as failures;

(ii) campaign for the return of enjoyment in teaching and learning;

(iii) address these issues as a matter of urgency within the Social Partnership and by working, as far as possible, with the other education unions.

Proposer: Jean Roberts, Old Oak Primary School, London
Seconder: Alison Sheratt, Riddlesden St Mary's CE Primary School and Nursery, Bradford

55 Amendment to resolution 55 - tests and benchmark culture - lost

Individual members

To be inserted after line 6:

Conference therefore requests the Executive Committee to authorise industrial action ballots in schools where members decline the excessive workload involved in non-statutory key stage 3 tests.

Proposer: Proposer: Kim Knappett, Inner London
Seconder: Seconder: Abdul Choudhury, Inner London

56 Curriculum three-11 - carried in all parts

COMPOSITE from resolutions submitted by Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, Leedsand Wigan branches and individual members

THAT Conference recognises that the focus of the current curriculum three-11, and the associated assessment agenda, do not meet the needs of a significant minority of learners in the EYFS or key stages 1 and 2. In particular, they force our youngest and most vulnerable children to be tested against developmentally inappropriate targets, causing them to be labeled as failures before they have commenced statutory education.

Conference also recognises that the introduction of a minimum four hours of PE per week in primary schools creates a 'curriculum squeeze'.

Conference further believes that homework in the primary school is a waste of children's and teachers' time, which could be spent much more profitably on effective learning both in and out of the classroom.

Conference welcomes Jim Rose's independent review of the curriculum in England and in particular the first core aspect of the review, 'creating a broad and balanced inclusive curriculum that has the flexibility to meet the strengths and needs of every pupil.'

Conference urges the Executive Committee to lobby the Government to:

(i) designate the Foundation Stage and key stage 1 as a time for active learning and development through play;

(ii) investigate the effects of curriculum squeezing;

(iii) abolish formal homework for all children in primary schools. 

Proposer: Angela Forkin, Wigan Sure Start, Wigan
Seconder: Cecily Hanlon, Unattached member

57 Growing demands on members working in the Early Years Foundation Stage - not taken

HERTFORDSHIRE BRANCH

THAT Conference, recognising that the demands of delivering the expectations of the new EYFS curriculum have created both workload challenges and implications for staffing levels, urges the Executive
Committee to investigate the challenges faced by members working in this key stage and to raise issues that are highlighted to the DCSF and other appropriate bodies such as RIG and WAMG.

Proposer: Phillipa Kearns, Essendon Primary School, Hertfordshire
Seconder: Karen Clout, St John's Infant and Nursery School, Radlett

58 Continuing professional development and new professionalism - not taken

COMPOSITE from resolutions submitted by Kent and Medway and Stoke-on-Trent branches

THAT Conference believes ATL policy on CPD should be widened to include:

(i) an acceptance that staff would be more motivated to actively engage in developing professionally when in-service training takes place in appropriately stimulating environments;

(ii) encouraging the Government to follow the example of many other countries by providing a sabbatical year after substantial years of service.

Conference asks the Executive Committee to press the Government to accept these principles.

Proposer: Peter Lane, Eturia Industrial Museum, Stoke-on-Trent
Seconder: John Paul, Barming Primary School, Kent

59 Post-14 education - carried

COMPOSITE

From resolutions submitted by Bradford and Wiltshire branches.

THAT Conference believes that the structure of the education system and the curriculum taught post-14 is not fit for purpose and is failing not just a great number of young people but the Country as well. Conference is therefore:

(i) alarmed that the numbers of NEETS is continuing to rise when the demand for unskilled labour is set to fall rapidly in the next 10 years;

(ii) worried by the lack of relevant vocational education that is delivered when compared with neighbouring countries and major competitors in the world economy;

(iii) not convinced that Vocational Diplomas are the answer for many young people seeking employment;

(iv) seeking an expansion of the Apprenticeship scheme that allows pupils to follow that route from the age of 14 with a nationally recognised route of qualifications from level one to level five;

(v) seeking an expansion of local FE and HE sites so that education is taken to the people rather than people learning at a distance or having to travel great distances.

Conference strongly urges the Executive Committee to lobby the Government:

(a) for the re-introduction of technical schools specialising in vocational education as an optional choice for young people rather than the continued expansion of standalone academies that are outside the parameters of the LA;

(b) to reconsider its decision to raise the age at which young people can leave compulsory education or training to age-18;

(c) to hold an enquiry into the educational needs of the nation in the next
30 years. 

Proposer: Stuart Herdson, Unattached member
Seconder: Philip Whalley, Hardenhuish School, Wiltshire

60 FE Lecturers teaching 14-16-year-olds - carried

INDIVIDUAL MEMBER

THAT Conference recognises that over the past few years, FE Colleges have experienced a growth in the provision of vocational courses for 14-16 year-olds. This growth has lead to increased challenges for lecturing staff, many of whom have had no specific training for this new role.

Conference therefore asks the Executive Committee to work with the AoC and appropriate agencies to devise a programme of staff development and training which should be compulsory for all lecturers before they start teaching 14-16 year-old students. They should also identify and support ATL candidates for membership of the IfL on an on-going basis in order to lobby to make such a programme mandatory in all FE Colleges. Such a programme should include as a basic requirement:

(i) behaviour management training for dealing with 14-16 year-old students;

(ii) opportunities for experience in a secondary school setting;

(iii) relevant information, advice and guidance training;

(iv) planned provision for student welfare and emotional support;

(v) planned update provision for training on new policies and procedures as they arise. 

Proposer: Stephen Sidgwick, Carlisle College, Carlisle
Seconder: Ian Edney, Basingstoke College of Technology, Basingstoke

61 Fixed Spring break - not taken

ESSEX, SOUTHEND AND THURROCK BRANCH

THAT Conference urges the Executive Committee to survey the membership over its views on a fixed Spring break. 

Proposer: Mike Everett, The Honywood Community Science School, Essex
Seconder: Jeff Fair, Brentwood County High School, Essex