Annual General Meeting Officers' Report 2005

Secretary's Report

Officers and Committee

We started the year with a full complement of officers but the situation changed when Annette Pryce (Health and Safety Advisor) left the area. Norman Machin took over this role for a while — thanks to him, also to Steve Boyce who has helped us with casework. There is now a vacancy for this post.

Neil Alexander has decided give up the editorship of City Teacher after many years as Communications Officer. We are most grateful for all the work and effort he has put into our local newsletter which is well received by members. Many thanks go to Neil. His shoes are more than adequately being filled by Ian Leaver and Kathy Grainger. Peter Whalen has kindly taken over the Membership Secretary post.

Meetings

We held 8 Association meetings and 10 Committee meetings (including socials) during the year.

Student and newly qualified recruitment — We have, as ever, endeavoured to ensure that we sign up as many students and newly qualified teachers as possible.

We attended the Freshers' Fair at the university and spoke to a group of students at De Montfort University. We attended the NQT meeting arranged by the LEA and gave the NQTs NUT packs. Our NQ function took place in conjunction with the Leicester Social Forum Social evening.

Annual Conference 2004

Our delegation comprised; Jane Rolfe, Annette Pryce, Ruth Byrne, Ian Leaver, Alistair Emerson , Neil Alexander and Pete Flack. Nic Gavin went as Executive member. We attended a variety of fringe meetings and represented the City well.

Campaigns

Our biggest campaigns this year were:

In opposition to the City Academy — It seems as if we are coming to the end of this struggle. Cabinet have approved the proposal for the City Academy. We might not have achieved our aim of stopping the Academy, but we have certainly delayed it by a couple of years; made the sponsors justify every aspect of the Academy; ensured that the Academy will be as benign as possible.
A stakeholders' group has been set up by the Church of England. I attend this on behalf of the NUT.
In opposition to Building Schools for the Future — This little Government gem raised its ugly head in September 2004 when consultation eventually began. The NUT has done all it can to oppose this scheme. We have attended many meetings and ensured that information biased towards BSF is challenged. We have written to all the councillors with honest information, outlining the financial risks involved and stating that in our view the focus for capital works should be on need, with many of our Primary schools being far needier than the secondary schools which have had large amounts of money spent on the following the Secondary Review. The general response from politicians is "it's the only show in town".
Pensions — We were unable to attend the Lobby of Parliament, but sent out postcards for members to send to their MPs and/or wrote letters to MPs. I lobbied my MP.

Budget

The schools' budget has been largely protected this year and most cuts will come from the LEA's budget. If schools did not have to budget for PPA time and a possible shortfall in funding of the assimilation of Teaching Assistants and Nursery Nurses on to the new scale, the situation would be fairly good. As it is, some schools are struggling.

Redundancies

The NUT supported a number of colleagues last year who were threatened with redundancy. There were no compulsory redundancies.

Working parties

I have attended a number of working parties, including:

Behaviour
African/Caribbean Dual/Heritage (a successful conference was held in May with over a hundred Year 9 students attending.)
School Terms and Holidays (the status quo is continuing.)
TNC Personnel where we have worked on documents such at the Driving Policy and the Whole School Pay Policy

Amalgamations

We have been involved in with several consultations on amalgamations of infant and junior schools.

The Rolleston amalgamation is complete.
The Bendbow Rise and Crescent schools' amalgamation is on hold because a suggestion was put forward to change the venue of the new school.
The Southfields Infant and Newry Junior will go ahead if the Academy goes ahead.
The Queensmead schools are going through the process at the moment.
The Avenue schools have just started the process.
We have just heard that there is a proposal to amalgamate Emily Forte and Piper Way.

Remodelling the Workforce

The NUT has been involved in local discussions and monitoring of the remodelling agenda. The Remodelling Working Party worked on a LEA Recommended Model for a Career Grade Structure for Nursery Nurses and /Teaching Assistants. NUT sent out letters to school reps, headteachers and Chairs of Governors because we were not happy with the final document that was sent out to schools, because it allows people without Qualified Teacher Status to "advance pupils' learning in whole class settings where the assigned teacher is not present".

We have a local WAMG group which is monitoring the removal of the 25 tasks, cover, Change Management, PPA etc. I am on subgroups that are looking at Work/Life Balance and a Parents' Briefing.

Review of Secondary Student Support Service

The NUT is involved in this review. We are concerned that there might be a loss of teaching posts, with HLTA's taking over some of the teaching from teachers.

European Social Forum

Three members of our Association attended the European Social Forum in London this year. A Social Forum has been set up in Leicester. The NUT is playing a leading role in this.

Meetings and courses attended

Briefings at HH, Div Sec's course.

General

This has been a very busy year, with issues such as Remodelling the Workforce, Upper Pay Spine and pay, teachers' pensions, pupil behaviour etc taking up officers' time. There has also been more casework from individual members and school than ever. So many teachers are suffering from stress and other illnesses and need a lot of support. Issues such as movement up the Upper Pay Spine have caused us increased workload.

New College Leicester continues to be of great concern to us. A National Deputation came from London in May 2004 to try and address the situation. Recently we declared a Collective Dispute as the situation has not improved. If our officers are not satisfied that the situation is being urgently addressed by the school and the LEA, our members will be balloted with a view to taking discontinuous strike action to achieve satisfaction.

The situation is not helped by a restructuring of the management structure which is currently taking place.

Officers and Committee members have provided me with a great deal of support. In addition, I receive twice-termly supervision from the AMICA counselling service which has helped me immensely. The officers put a massive amount of time and effort into the union to help it to run smoothly and effectively. My grateful thanks go to them. I am most appreciative of the help, support and guidance that we receive from Regional Office which provides an excellent service. We also have some very good school representatives who work very hard for NUT members. We do our very best to provide a good service to our members.

Jane Rolfe 28.2.05
Association Secretary and SEN Co-Ordinator Report

Assistant Secretary (Campaigns) Report

I have co-ordinated our responses to and assisted in campaigns around.

Pensions — We organised a public meeting last May through Leicester Social Forum on behalf of the national campaign. Several school groups have also had speakers on the subject of the attack on pensions and briefing materials have been sent out. We are currently liaising with Unison and PCS locally about action.
City Academy — This has included leafleting schools, street campaigning, speaking at other unions meetings to gain their support and distributing materials to schools. Arising from the campaign, a new organisation Campaign for Action on Community Schools has been set up.
BSF/Privatisation — A number of school meetings were addressed, briefings were provided for schools and a First person article appeared in the Leicester Mercury. Our response was the most detailed submitted to the council. This was distributed to members of Cabinet. This will be a continuing campaign and we need to ensure that parents, primary schools and local communities have a say in the future, not least in terms of the cost to the city.
Social Forum — Following a resolution last January calling for the setting up of a Leicester Social Forum we have collaborated with the Trades Council, community organisations and campaign groups to establish an LSF. This commenced in May 2004 and has met regularly since then, taking up a range of campaigns. The Social Forum has begun a campaign against Privatisation of Education and held a 'Day of Action' in Gallowtree Gate in January. It has also moved ahead with proposals to twin Leicester with Bethlehem.
I have drafted responses to all major consultations held by the city over the past year.
A considerable part of my work has continued to be support to members at New College. I have regularly attended meetings at the College and have had to intervene on a number of issues not least behaviour, security and working conditions. This culminated in the declaration of a collective dispute in January. The monitoring meeting to establish the effectiveness of the school's response is in two weeks. In the interim we are carrying out an indicative ballot of members for discontinuous strike action.

SEN Issues

We have continued to press the LEA on the issue of Inclusion. Our concerns about the LEA's proposals for closing Special Schools were taken up at Education Scrutiny Committee and through Teachers Consultative Committee. We held an Association Meeting on the way forward for SEN with Richard Reiser as guest speaker. We are currently responding to the proposals to close Western Park School and amalgamate Emily Fortey and Piper Way.
We are also supporting members in the Student Support Service who face a reorganisation that includes job cuts and wider use of non-teaching staff to 'educate' the pupils. We have supplied written guidance and held several meetings at the Key Way Centre.
We have used the budget consultation to seek to restore £1.2m lost to SEN through underfunding of inclusion. All money saved on places in Special Schools is meant to be ring fenced for SEN. It is to be hoped that this comes through in the budget this year.

Peter Flack, Assistant Secretary (Campaigns)and SEN coordinator
March 2005.

Communication Officer's Report — from November 2004

Kath, my assistant editor, and I are picking up from the excellent work that Neil Alexander has done for more years than he probably cares to remember. City Teacher is a popular publication in staff rooms and a refreshing change to some of the less than inspiring things that teachers are expected to plough through, and Neil deserves a huge thank you from the membership for all that he has done over many years.

At the moment, we intend for City Teacher to continue to be produced monthly (with occasional specials when required.) We hope that we can use it to engage members with the local association and inspire them to take a more active part in the running of the association.

I am currently negotiating a deal to have the website produced more professionally than my ICT skills can stretch to, and would like to propose spending (with the association's approval) a suitable amount each year to cover this.

Ian Leaver

Membership Officer's Report — up to November 2004

After about twelve years as Membership Secretary, it seemed like an appropriate time to hand over the reins to somebody with some fresh enthusiasm and ideas. Membership numbers are healthy, with a large proportion of serving teachers in the City now members of the NUT. Best of luck to Peter Whalen, who I know will make an excellent membership secretary.

Ian Leaver

Membership Secretary's Report for the Annual General Meeting 2.3.05

Since formally taking over from Ian in January, I have been trying to get to grips with the vagaries of the job.

Between now and March 2005, my aim is to recruit 500 more members into our Association.

I think the present Pension Campaign may see large numbers of ATL and NASUWT members transfer to us if we are sufficiently energetic and enthusiastic, as we know their union will sell them out.

Peter Whalen