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Welcome
Andy Ballard is national president of ATL
This issue of Report includes lots of information from our recent Conference in Liverpool and lots of other great articles too.
I am delighted that we have included an interview with Professor Tanya Byron, who is not only a television star as a result of her programmes about supporting parents and their children, but is also chancellor of Edge Hill University, with whom we have a productive relationship providing masters degree courses for increasing numbers of ATL members. If you have not heard about the opportunity for postgraduate study with Edge Hill, and the fantastic discounted cost, contact your branch secretary, union learning rep or the London office for more details.
Equalities issues have always been a high priority for me and so I welcome the advice presented in Mary Towers' piece about the new Equality Bill and its important impact on public bodies such as schools and colleges. What more important place than a school could there be to demonstrate good equality practices so that young people grow up understanding the importance of equality in their daily lives?
As many of you will know, I have lived in Somerset for many years and taught in a rural comprehensive school. When I started in 1981, a large proportion of my pupils lived on farms, or came from families where most of the adults were employed on farms. Lots of the boys had permission to arrive late as they had milking duties to complete before coming to school, and the year was punctuated by farming activities - lambing, ploughing, haymaking and harvesting - and the annual harvest home supper was the social event of the year.
These days hardly any of the children in that same school have any connection with farming at all and so the article by Michael Morpurgo is of great interest. Our culture has moved away from agriculture and the work done by Farms for City Kids is crucial in helping young people understand the continuing importance of sustainable and ethical food production for all of us.
