ATL

Welcome

Andy Ballard is national president of ATL

I had the great fortune to grow up in a stable nuclear family, which provided me with support and encouragement throughout my time in school. However, at the time, like any young person, I doubted the benefit sometimes!

As a tutor and teacher, the poor outcomes for children looked after by the state and the disruption to educational progress in the aftermath of family breakdown was a constant source of worry to me. For this reason I have been seeking to work with charities supporting vulnerable children and will be delighted to attend the launch of National Family Week during the half-term holiday at the end of May. Details of this scheme are to be found at www.nationalfamilyweek.co.uk and ATL will be doing what it can to support it.

By now we should be used to government initiatives, but they can still surprise us, and the new ideas about school report cards have challenged even those who have experienced the full range of DCSF schemes over many years. I hope we have a full post bag of your views on this matter and, who knows, maybe there will be opinions expressed at ATL's Conference, where the Secretary of State, Ed Balls, will be a keynote speaker.

Lots of members have told ATL about their concerns with the process of CRB checks. There is an important feature about how children and others will be protected by new vetting procedures which come in to force this year.

Finally, Olympian Gail Emms explains how sport can be a really positive source of encouragement for some young people and how it can help to get them back on track.