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Secretary's Report, 2017

Ian Leaver March 2017
6th March 2017

Local NUT Organisation

Assistant Secretaries Peter Flack and Jenny Day continue to work three days per week in the NUT office, with Andy Haynes working in the office on a Friday expanding the vital H&S role. Joseph Wyglendacz, our Treasurer and President, also now works in the office for one day per month. In many parts of the country the facilities arrangements, that guarantee time for union officers to work with LA and support members, have been under attack. However, in Leicester we have retained all our time and have been able to offer the service that members expect, while continuing with our campaigning work. The Local Authority has now established a mechanism by which academy chains can pay into the local facilities arrangements, and the two biggest chains in the city, Rushey Mead Education Trust and Learning Without Limits, have agreed to do so.

Activities and Campaigns

As part of a campaign to publicise the impact of cuts to sixth form college funding, 40 sixth form college NUT members took part in strike action with a rally in central London on 26th March 2016. Since then, Leicester sixth form colleges have been subject to the uncertainty of the area review process. We have retained a very strong presence in all three sixth form colleges with excellent NUT work place reps.

The NUT organised a Leicester and Trades Council public meeting on the cuts in education. The meeting at The Adult Education Centre on 12th May had Christine Blower as the main speaker in one of her last official roles before standing down as NUT General Secretary. Around that time the NUT was also involved in supporting the Junior Doctors' strikes and linked the attack that they were facing to attacks on education funding. The anti cuts campaign culminated in NUT members in Leicester supporting the strike action on 5th July, with a march from Victoria Park ending in a rally in Jubilee Square. Since then the focus of the campaign has been on raising public awareness and there has been no further industrial action.

Leicester NUT supported The People's Assembly Health, Homes, Jobs and Education March in London on 16th April. We also had a presence at the Trades Council workers' memorial day event and at The May Day march and rally.

Leicester NUT also supported the Women Chainmakers Festival in Cradley Heath on 2nd July, Leicester Pride on 3rd September and the TUC protest at the Tory Party Conference in October.

The supply teachers' group has been very active in highlighting the problems caused by agencies. A well attended lobby of agencies took place on 1st June and credit must be given to Simon Robinson for working hard to build the group over the past twelve months.

Academies

Since the last AGM, Babington Community College, Braunstone Community Primary School, Humberstone Infant School, Knighton Fields Primary School, Merrydale Junior School, Thurnby Lodge Primary School, Uplands Junior School, Willowbrook Primary School, and Woodstock Primary School have become academies. Hamilton Community College, Heatherbrook Primary School, Rowlatts Hill Primary School, St Barnabas CE School and The Lancaster School have been granted academy orders. Our priority now is to ensure that the collaboration between Leicester schools remains in place to prevent outside sponsors taking over city schools and to challenge the chaos likely to be caused by a potential proliferation of free schools.

Meetings

Over the past year, we held eight Association meetings and eight Committee meetings. In addition, we enjoyed two Committee social evenings. These social events are used to thank committee members for the time that they give to the work of the Association, as well as to thank the volunteers who assist with the regular NUT mailings to members. Unlike in some other NUT Associations, local officers and committee members receive no honoraria and so I propose that the association continues to pay for these events.

At this year's meetings, amongst other things, members discussed the formation of a new union with ATL and the impact of further academisation in Leicester. Guest speakers this year included Dr Robert Jay who explained the junior doctors' dispute, Maria Patricia Parola who spoke about education and trade unionism in Argentina, and speakers from Leicester Friends of Bethlehem who described the work involved in supporting the dancers from the Ghirass Cultural Centre. The Association gave £1,000 to support their work.

We continue to be affiliated to the Local Organisations for National Action Campaign (LANAC), with Jenny Day chairing their steering committee.

The 12th annual NUT quiz was again well attended, with over forty members competing for the trophy. Thank you to Ruth Povey and Angela Burn for setting the questions. The hideous trophy was won by a team from The City of Leicester College. Planning is already underway for this year's quiz.

The Young Teachers' Group

The Young Teachers' Group held a Newly Qualified and Young Teachers' welcome function at the More Restaurant in the Autumn term. Many thanks to Minaz Shaffi for planning and arranging the very successful event.

Several young teachers from Leicester attended the annual young teachers' conference at Stoke Rochford.

Retired Teachers' Group

The Retired Teachers' Group has held a number of social events over the year and also holds a more formal annual general meeting. Thanks to Glenys Mulvanny for her work coordinating that group.

Black Teachers' Network

Several teachers from Leicester NUT attended the black teachers' conference at Stoke Rochford. The Black Teachers' Network has met a number of times over the year. Thank you to Julie Walters-Nisbett and Camille London-Miyo for all the work that they have done in building this group.

Recruitment and Training

Jenny and I attended the Local Authority's NQT functions at Forest Lodge to encourage NQTs to join the NUT. We are confident that the four terms for a pound deal means that most NQ2s will have stayed with us from January. Thank you also to Jenny Day and staff from Midlands Regional office for helping to recruit student teachers at Leicester University.

The number of new NUT reps in schools in the city continues to grow, and many have undertaken the foundation level reps' training, with several taking part in the advanced level training too. Feedback from reps, who have attended, is always positive and they come back feeling inspired and enthusiastic to develop the role in their school.

Conference 2016

As usual, we sent a delegation to National Conference in Harrogate. Sam Lane, Peter Flack, Jenny Day and I all spoke during various debates, but in particular to raise our concerns about professional unity and the formation of a new union with ATL, concerns that were raised again by Jenny and me at the special conference in November. The November special conference saw new delegates with Simon Robinson, Camille London-Miyo and Mark Smith all attending.

Communication

I have continued to liaise with web designer, John Bown, in developing the Association's website at: www.leicesternut.org.uk. I propose that we again agree to give him a gift to the value of £500 as a thank you.

We have Facebook NUT, Young Teachers' and Supply Teachers' Groups, with lots of people joining all the time. It is continuing to be a useful way to publicise meetings.

We have continued to ensure that the City Teacher is produced every month. Thank you to Kath Grainger for her proof reading and to everybody who has contributed a letter or article. I would like to offer a special thank you also to Jane Rudon, Kerrigan Rudon, Glenys Mulvany, Ruth Clarke and Sally Morrison for regularly giving up their time to come into the office to help with the distribution of mailings to members; it's always very much appreciated.

Membership

We have over half of serving teachers in Leicester in the NUT. Membership has increased over the past twelve months and currently stands at 2163 members. Leicester NUT continues to have the largest market share of any NUT division in the Midlands Region, with a particular strength in the majority of our primary schools.

Life Membership

This year the Association granted life membership to Alan Murray, Dave Swift and Ruth Povey.

Consultation and Negotiation with the Local Authority

The NUT has healthy delegations on Schools and Settings Consultative Committee (with the NUT's Peter Flack as Secretary) and Teachers' Negotiating Committee (with me as Secretary). Thank you to Dave Swift who served as a member until September 2016 and Jen Pick who was a member until taking maternity leave. This year's delegation are:

Peter Flack (Secretary SSCC)
Ian Leaver (Secretary TNC)
Andy Haynes
Jenny Day
Megan Van Brugel
Joseph Wyglendacz
Minaz Shaffi
Camille London-Miyo

Conclusions

The City NUT continues to thrive. We are a lively Association that supports our members very well indeed, both through the casework we do
and through our wider, more strategic work. This is evidenced by the work we do supporting reading and literacy through Everybody's Reading and Whatever It Takes. Our Committee is strong and meetings are well attended.

My personal thanks go, as always, to the officers and committee members who give us so much help and support over the year. I'd like to give a special mention to Alicia McElhill, who is standing down as a committee member after serving for nine years since joining us from the county, including spells as equal opportunities officer and as president in 2015. The support of everybody on committee is really appreciated.

Finally, this will be my final report as Secretary of City of Leicester Teachers' Association. When I first joined the Association from Coventry in 1990 and saw both Andrew Hind and Jane Rudon in action as secretaries I was in awe of their experience, skill and expertise. I never dreamed that I would one day become secretary myself and it's hard to describe what an honour it has been. To have been secretary over the past eight years and to see the damage that has been done to education, to teachers and to children has been tough. It would have been impossible but for the support of the best NUT committee and officers that we could hope to have. Jenny, Peter and Andy, as well as Glenys and Ruth, have been stalwarts throughout that time and I can't thank them enough. However, I stand down at the start of a new era for the Association and I know that all the (relatively) new officers, including Joseph, Minaz, Megan, Simon, Camille, Kuldip and Mark will continue to develop what we do to support teachers and education in Leicester. Finally, I want to thank those members who work full time in schools, but still drag themselves along to meetings week after week, turn up when we have a stall whatever the weather, help carry the banner and support this great Association through thick and thin. Yes, I'm talking about you: Anne, Sam, Alicia and all those school workplace reps, SSCC reps, and conference delegates who give up their time, and risk their careers and health to support members in their schools. You're what makes me proud to have helped in my small way. With the Association's permission, I will carry on as acting secretary until the end of this academic year before handing over to Joseph from September. It goes without saying that I know Joseph will be as fantastic as a secretary as he has been as our executive member and treasurer and I will continue providing casework support, editing The City Teacher and maintaining our membership database.

 

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