ATL

Welcome

Lesley Ward is the national president of ATL

I've been actively involved in ATL for many years leading up to becoming president last month and one thing that's always struck me is the sense of being part of a family. This was really brought home to me when my mother died earlier this year and I received no less than 78 cards of condolence from friends and colleagues at ATL. I was really touched by the kind and caring words of so many people.

I always enjoy catching up with my local colleagues at branch meetings and those from further afield at the annual Conference just before Easter. I get a real sense of community from seeing familiar faces and hearing about what they've been up to. I totally agree with Elaine Bernard in the article about how unions work, where she talks about organising members to create power. We don't just need lots of members to bring about change, we need members who are involved and active.

I've developed a habit over the years of managing to recruit new members into ATL from the unlikeliest of places, including on my holidays in Eastern Europe, where I recruited three new members. I know other colleagues have also extolled the virtues of ATL to education staff they have met as far afield as Cuba.

Closer to home, as Mary Bousted points out in her Agenda article, there are real problems for young people who can't get jobs, go into further or higher education or get more training - the so-called NEETs the press have been talking about a lot lately. She's absolutely right when she says that so many of them feel hopeless and rejected.

These kind of situations simply perpetuate the cycle of poverty and all the problems that accompany poverty. They make learning so much harder for the children and young people and make teaching harder for you - the teachers, lecturers and support staff, doing your best to give them some aspirations and hope for the future.