1.       Elections for vacant officer posts:

Vice-President - RA

Equalities - RA

Young Teachers - NI

International Solidarity - DR

Supply Teachers - DG

2.       Amendments to motion to Easter 2016 NUT Conference:

Motion 9        Workload, Teacher Shortage and Funding

Add two new paragraphs before "Conference instructs the executive".
"Conference welcomes the decision of the People's Assembly Against Austerity to call a national demonstration for Health, Homes, Jobs and Education on Saturday April 16th and believes this is a great opportunity to promote our campaigns.

Conference congratulates all those school groups who have acted collectively to win improvements in policies, procedures and practices - we not that sometimes this has involved no more than a series of meetings, sometimes the threat of action has been enough and sometimes strike action has been necessary."

Add two new points after "Conference instructs the executive to:

d)promote the People's Assembly demonstration to members and local associations,urging them to build for the best possible turnout by NUT members

e)continue to promote our success at school level in order to encourage others."

f)review, update and republish the ASOS guidelines to schools, taking account of the Ofsted "myth-busting clarifications" and Annex C from the Workload Challenge;

g)produce a step by step guide for NUT Reps and members on how to use these new guidelines in seeking to win improvements in their school.

 

Motion 33      Teaching by Numbers

After “Conference instructs the executive to:” add new point g

g) commission as a matter of urgency - working with supportive experts -  a series of short   videos, each less than 5 minutes in length, hosted on the NUT website and suitable for showing in school union meetings which each target and debunk one of the many myths or lies around data in education.  These could include, for example: “The myth of linear progress”; “Blue, Green: are the Raise Online labels really significant?” and many others.  

 

Motion 16       Teacher Shortage

Add at the end of first paragraph ‘and therefore damaging the education of our young people.’

Add new paragraph 2 and 3:

Conference notes that increasing numbers of teachers are leaving the profession citing excessive workload, and the lack of trust that underlies the constant surveillance and monitoring of teachers, and prevents them from exercising professional judgement.

Conference further notes that having access to genuinely affordable housing, whether to buy or rent, is increasingly difficult for many teachers, especially in the south east of England.

Add new paragraph 5:

Conference condemns existing and planned cuts in education spending, which are increasingly being used to hide the teacher shortage, while in fact restricting the curriculum, cutting support from the most vulnerable students and leading to an unsustainable workload for teachers and support staff.

After “Conference instructs the executive to:”

In point 1 delete  'as the main two' and replace with ' as two of the main' 

Add new action point 4:

Campaign with parents, students, teacher, headteacher and support staff trade unions, governors, local and national politicians and others to oppose cuts in education funding, and to develop a more humane and sustainable education system which allows all students to flourish.

Motion 20       Education Funding

Add new paragraph 7:

Conference further notes that proposals for so called ‘fair funding’ are anything but fair, and would, if implemented, devastate education in areas such as London that have made significant progress and enhanced students’ life chances in recent years as a result of increased funding, schools working together and hard work by teachers and support staff.

Add new paragraph before “Conference instructs the Executive:”

Conference recognises that a campaign to fight education cuts of any kind has the potential to be huge if it reaches beyond teacher and support staff trade unions to involve headteachers, parents, students, governors, local and national politicians and others, and engages with schools at a local level.

Add new action point 4 and renumber:

4. Encourage local Associations and Divisions to work with local schools and all those committed to defending education to build campaigns against cuts in educational funding.

3.       Motions. The meeting agreed to take two emergency motions

(a) Heathrow 13

ITA agrees to send a message of support to the Heathrow 13.

(b) Stand up to racism public meeting and demonstration.

ITA congratulates Stand Up To Racism for calling a public meeting at Islington Town Hall on Monday 29^th February as part of the build up to the National Demonstration against racism and fascism in London on 19^th March.

 

ITA notes that the NUT Deputy General Secretary will be among the speakers at this meeting and that the meeting will be chaired by an Islington ITA member.  

 

At a time when racist attacks are continuing and racist press coverage against refugees and migrants is widespread, teachers can play a vital role in challenging prejudiced attitudes and fostering positive relations within school communities. 

But the demands on teachers from the Government’s deeply unsatisfactory “Prevent” programme are threatening to undermine teachers’ ability to support all pupils and to treat them all equally, especially pupils from Muslim communities.

 

ITA therefore encourages members to attend this meeting and requests the ITA committee to consider donating £100 towards costs of publicity etc for this meeting.