Catherine Nicol, SSTA President

Address to the 78th Congress of the SSTA

The Trade union movement is still a force to be reckoned with.

Trade union members need to be alert to the neoliberal forces in the press, political sphere and social media that strive to create division in our ranks. There is no room for unilateral and partisan action if we are to achieve our shared aims. Holding the line when others seek to break it down is crucial. When those ranked against us succeed in causing division, they take delight in conflict between grassroots members. When our opponents gain the upper hand, this causes misplaced anger and argument between those at the heart of our collective movement. Energy that should be directed into the mission is deflected, purpose is lost, resolution is delayed, and solidarity becomes the victim.

Over the years we have learned that members must be mobilised if we are to achieve our aims and that swift communication and seamless co-ordination is essential. We know that good organisation is necessary and that this is achieved through clear and concise messaging. We recognise that the people that we are fighting for are our strongest asset. We understand that backing each other to the hilt in the fight for the common cause is vital.

Every member of the Scottish Secondary Teachers Association who cast a vote in indicative surveys and formal ballots demonstrated that Secondary Teachers are willing and able to engage in action.  Today I want to pay tribute to District Secretaries, School Representatives and grassroots members who facilitated and took part in our successful industrial action. The Office Bearers, members of the Salaries and Conditions of Service and Executive Committees deserve high praise. All of you stepped up to the mark whenever the call came: you persevered despite a punishing schedule. You listened to the membership throughout and had the courage to make decisions that others shied away from. Accolades also go to the SSTA Secretariat and Office staff who worked relentlessly to ensure our members were kept informed and supported during the pay campaign. Our General Secretary stood at the helm throughout and steered a course through the dark pools & treacherous waters during negotiations. The pay agreement was reached after extensive wrangling between all sides of the SNCT and the final resolution was achieved -in no small part- due to the considerable negotiating prowess of the SSTA’s Commander in Chief.

In March, the Teachers Side of the Scottish Negotiating Committee for Teachers voted for acceptance of a pay settlement brokered by the government and offered by employers. This offer came after a war of attrition between all three sides, it was decent but make no mistake it only goes part of the way to restoring our incomes to the level required to remunerate dedicated professionals.   A majority of members of the SSTA concluded the deal agreed was adequate given current circumstances.

Insult was added to injury when a few employers delayed making good on the back pay due. What a disgraceful way to treat professionals who had been so recently lauded and applauded. Some Local Authorities, a shout out for North Ayrshire, honoured their commitments and demonstrated that the teachers they employ are valued and trusted professionals. They ensured payment due was received in whole by the end of March. One rule for some of the 32 and another rule for others. COSLA need to get their act together if they are to remain part of the negotiating mechanism that determines teachers’ pay and conditions. They keep giving us reasons to chuck them out of the way!

Our dispute has come to an end but colleagues in Northern Ireland fight on. Members of the Northern Ireland Teachers Council, which includes the UTU, INTO, NEU, NASUWT and NAHT are working together in a joint effort to demand better for education and educators. They have unified in action to achieve a fair pay award. Today I send a message of solidarity from the SSTA.

The struggle continues in England too. I was heartened to see the leaders of all 4 teacher unions sit down together to announce that they will co-ordinate action in their fight to obtain a fair pay deal. This happened on the anniversary of the day in 1789 that Fletcher Christian led a mutiny against the infamous Captain William Bligh on the Bounty; and hopefully the UK governments intransigent attitude will take a walk off the plank.

Members of other public sector unions are prepared to take action to obtain decent pay for a fair day’s work; as did we. Their members are willing to stand with colleagues during days of National strike action: as did we. We stand with you and beside you in spirit and cheer you on. Today, I send a message of fellowship to all sister unions still engaged in battle.

The SSTA hope that sense prevails, that the public purse is opened and that sister unions campaigns bring about pay awards that recognise the essential work that you do; all your members deserve better. Have no doubt, the general public and parents who benefit from the work that we do to deliver high quality public services are on your side. Everyone here wishes you well!

While our attention has been focused on the pay dispute the reconfiguring of the education landscape has moved on at pace. Education reform has spawned a variety of reviews and consultations. A rapid response from the SSTA was required. We adopted digital forms of communication to connect with SSTA members in this fast moving and ever-changing environment. The SSTA is grateful to all members who took the time to read our frequent updates thoroughly, contributed to surveys or contacted the office to share their views. The information you have provided the SSTA leadership team has been invaluable during social dialogue with national and global partners.

Members responses have created a rich source of evidence that committees and Office Bearers have drawn on. The data you provided has determined the SSTA position in negotiations, consultative groups and discussions with national education bodies.  Knowing your perspectives on teaching in the secondary sector has enabled us to speak with authority on behalf of Secondary Teachers at conferences organised by Education International. You have enabled your representatives to provide advice for the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development which will influence their research and resultant education policy. You have helped the SSTA to build partnerships and foster good relationships with trade unionists around the world. You are invested in education, your views matter. You can rest assured that everyone that sits at the table during Congress does everything in their power to ensure the voice of secondary teachers is heard wherever and whenever the opportunity arises.

You may be asking yourself why all of that is important! Why must this be stated?

Last year we heard much of visions and grand plans. Announcements were made about the whole sale restructuring of the education system. Education Scotland were to be transformed. The Inspectorate were to morph and the SQA was to be no more by 2024.  So, what happens next Cabinet Secretary? Secondary School teachers need to know where we are heading.

The Hayward Review presented us with the best opportunity we have had in a generation to create an assessment structure that truly captures the knowledge base and aptitudes of all learners.  The review seeks a reimagining of the type and range of qualifications that learners could achieve.

A wide-ranging consultation has taken place, but this has involved many stakeholders. Professor Hayward envisaged that every secondary teacher in the land would participate in some way.  However, this hope was not realised. Largely, since teachers were not given the time to access and digest the materials or respond to surveys during In-Service days. This grave mistake was highlighted by the SSTA, and the lack lustre response of employers led us to provide all our members with a direct link to the review web pages. It is essential that Secondary Teachers are not just heard, we must be listened to. Policy makers and decision-making bodies must be made to realise the implications of their latest Visions, Values and Proposals. The reality of working in Secondary Education seem to be wilfully misunderstood. Alterations to existing assessment conditions for National Qualifications is necessary but alterations must be introduced gradually. Skilful persuasion is required to make the architects of change alter their course. We all know it is better to divert the missile before it obliterates the target.  Members of the Education Committee and Office Bearers have advocated for the inclusion of approaches to assessment that you have called for, many to not want to stray from the path that they are sure of.  We have contributed to the teacher trade union response to proposals being made. I note with great interest that in Ireland ASTI and the TUI are pushing back against moves to reduce the weighting given to terminal examinations for the leavers certificate in favour of more extensive internal assessment. Just as this is being proposed as a suitable model for Scotland. It seems the Education ministers of our nations do have time to work collegiately!

The report is soon to be published. Fundamental changes to the assessment and qualifications system could be on their way. Despite our input there is still a danger that the report will be based on thin understanding of what can be done in schools. We will soon know if the recommendations are realistic and if they will gain traction. After all it may not come to pass, the government and employers keep telling us they have nae money!

The SSTA and its members must be fully involved in the establishment of any new assessment & qualifications regime. We need to be persistent in our call for some aspects of the planning and implementation process to be mandatory. We must insist on measures that will control workload.  It must be possible to teach coursework and do all assessments within the time available. Aspects of the wider curriculum must also be considered. Assessment of any subject must not require teachers to work beyond a 35hr working week. All tests must be of a high standard, of sufficient range and pre verified. Assessment deadlines and calls for predictions of pupil attainment need to be aligned with the completion of all coursework.  The use of algorithms to alter grade boundaries in exams should be abandoned.

Educators at all levels in the system are working in a fog and in this sea of uncertainty we are left clinging to the things that we know will float.

To avoid mistakes made in the past; we insist that a troubleshooting process needs to be completed before any new assessment and certification model goes live. Secondary school practitioners need at least one calendar year to prepare before full implementation. Respected professionals and the learners we teach deserve nothing less.

The impact of the pandemic is still keenly felt by many.

Some are living in dire straits, teachers included. Education services are focusing budgets on methods of supporting learners and their families. Many of you mitigate the effect of the cost-of-living crisis on learners. Running breakfast clubs for youngsters that are sitting exams. Making sure that kids have the bus fare to get into school. Organising collections for food banks and gathering second-hand clothing. Going as far as making sure pupils have clean uniforms. Providing pencils, rubbers, glue, paper, and other scholastic essentials.

Austerity has reached the classroom. A make do and mend culture has set in. Many of us are exhorted to find sources of grant funding to maintain basic provisions. We do not have enough for jotters, never mind chemicals or the equipment necessary to deliver rich experiences and joyful lessons.

The fact that we are being asked to do more with much less is ignored. How many of us have dipped into our own pockets to subsidise the department budget? How many of us are purchasing resources needed to make lessons more engaging or buying materials that pupils need to create an assessment piece? You should stop that you know, this is what the SAC and PEF funds are for. You did not get a pay rise so you can subsidise the department budget, diminished as it is. Some of you feel like the world rests on your shoulders, you go beyond your remit to support learners but stop and think: who is looking after you?

And now, the elephant in the room.

 We are living in the aftermath of a global pandemic, but the crisis does not confine itself to school and personal finances. Educators in secondary schools have been hit by a tidal wave of distressed behaviours.

Many of us feel that teaching and learning is now subordinate to managing disruption. Agents of disorder ruin lessons. Pupils refuse point blank to engage in even the simplest of tasks. Some refuse to sit in their allocated seat. Explanations are interrupted by demands for attention. A critical mass of class members are downright rude to staff and each other. Disrespect and selfishness are the order of the day. At worst mob rule prevails in classrooms and corridors. In many schools’ teachers are faced with torrents of verbal abuse during lessons. The number of violent incidents reported is increasing. A culture of accommodating the needs of the transgressor has become the default position in some places. Learners that do come to school to learn do not feel secure. There is an increasing sense that classrooms are not safe learning spaces for staff or pupils.

This was never the intention of law or policy makers; this is the result of misinterpretation of their instruments and lack of funding. There are many reasons why children make poor choices, there is a wide range of circumstances that affect each person’s ability to regulate their behaviour. However, the school is a community, and each classroom is a micro community within it, and we must find better ways of helping children to accept the norms required for good teaching and learning. We need more staff; we need more resources. Increased levels of funding are required to put measures in place to fully support the needs of all learners and their teachers. Secondary teachers seek to develop learners’ capability to develop their subject knowledge and create a safe environment where learning can take place. Demonstrating how learners can take part in lessons in a manner that is productive is integral to our mission. Teaching learners how to behave and respect their peers and the staff is also critical to building a safe environment for everyone- including teachers and support staff.

The OECD are suggesting that governments ensure that people are taught to swim, but I do not think this was the high tide of which they were thinking. If we do not act now Good Ship Education will sink: many teachers are already heading for the lifeboats!

So….

The morale of teachers has never have been at such a low ebb.

The entire system is in a state of flux and uncertainty reigns.

Scottish Secondary teachers and colleagues in other sectors must march onwards to ensure that the health and wellbeing of teachers is not wounded more severely than it already is. We must refocus our effort on our campaigns to reduce class contact time and class sizes. We must jettison causes of workload that make our working lives intolerable. We must intensify our effort to improve and extend support structures available to teachers. We must insist on the introduction of measures that actively reduce the causes of work-related ill health & stress. The Teachers Side of the Scottish Negotiating Committee, our Association, and colleagues in the EIS, NASUWT, AHDH, SLS and Community will join forces once again to defend, improve and secure the conditions of service of all teachers working in the Scottish Education system.

Collective action is at its most powerful when we support each other. In future we must maintain a unified front if we are to succeed.

Now more than ever you need to know that your union will support you. We will continue to listen to you and advocate for you.

 Your union puts your needs first, we are here to insist on better conditions for you.

The SSTA is invested in Secondary Teachers!

Teachers are invested in Secondary Education!

Thank you for hearing what I have to say!

SSTA General Secretary Report to Congress 2022

Friday 13 May 2022

Dear Colleagues, it is a great pleasure to stand before you and see so many familiar faces and so many new faces in the room as we try to return to a normal SSTA Congress. Unfortunately, I unable to see the 20 plus delegates who are joining us virtually today. I would also like to welcome the large number of members, guests and observers who are joining us online today. I believe the way we organise Congress has changed and will not be the same again.

I would like to thank the Crieff Hydro for accommodating us again and a big thank you to Tapestry for providing all the technology to enable such an event to be carried here in Crieff and some many other places all at the same time.

I must thank the SSTA Head Office Staff Andrew, Laura and Clare who have been busy for months making all the arrangements for Congress and ensuring that we all have a brilliant event. This Congress just highlights the commitment and enthusiasm of SSTA members across the country.

I can’t stop there as I must mention members of the secretariat Assistant General Secretaries Fiona, Iain and Euan and Catherine or Professional Officer who done an amazing job supporting members throughout the pandemic.

The pandemic created a scenario that none of us could have expected. Secondary teachers went beyond all expectations to deliver national qualifications despite all the hurdles, to ensure our young people did not lose out. Secondary teachers kept education on track and did their best to keep teaching and learning taking place and give some stability to all our young people.

Last October I said that the 1000s of Scottish secondary teachers were a credit to the teaching profession. I applauded the professionalism and determination of teachers to succeed in such difficult and dangerous circumstances in the service of our young people.

You played your part in delivering education when the schools were closed, keeping the schools open and allowing society and the economy to return to some form of normality.

Today we are on the verge of a new era in Scottish education. The things that we have accepted as normal, if there ever could be anything normal in education, is about to change. But we must learn from the past and not make the same mistakes again.

As you all know, the Government is embarking on a new direction for education. The various OECD reports, the International Panel of Experts reports, the recent Professor Ken Muir Education Reform report and the forthcoming Reforming Qualifications and Assessment Review being conducted by Professor Louise Hayward that is due by the end of the year.

Unfortunately, the track record of the Government on some of these reviews is to ignore the teacher trade union voice. It often appears that the Scottish Government that the teachers voice is a selected few individuals, that have no mandate but are speaking on behalf of teachers. This is merely a tick box exercise like most consultations. They don’t represent the profession and are not accountable to the profession, and most importantly they do not represent the SSTA.

Parents, community groups, businesses, the GTCS, the SQA, education officers, politicians and others could be called stakeholders in education. I am not however convinced that pupils are stakeholders, or consumers, or customers or something else.

But one thing I do know is that teacher trade unions are not stakeholders. Teacher unions are Partners in education. Teacher unions represent its members, are the voice of its members, and most importantly is accountable to its members.

Government and others must not by-pass teacher unions this time or the same mistakes will be made.

It was well documented during the pandemic the admiration teachers received particularly from the parents who struggled with ‘home schooling’ when the schools were closed. I said I was hopefully this admiration would be more than just words but a real reward for the efforts of teachers not only during the pandemic but every day in every school in Scotland.

In 2019 I talked about teachers’ pay, teachers’ career progression and teacher workload. And they are, I am sad to say, still the same issues today for all teachers in Scotland.

It cannot be underestimated the importance of teachers’ pay in the battle to retain and recruit teachers in Scotland. The performance of COSLA who represent the employers in delaying for more than a year to reach an agreement with the teacher unions for pay due on the 1 April 2021 is in excusable. What was finally offered in March 2022 could have been offered a year before when inflation was below 2%.

In the previous pay deal, there was a focus on increasing the pay of newly qualified teachers and the pay scale was reduced to 5 points and an enhanced starting salary. This was a recruitment measure and there was an understanding that the issue of retention was to be addressed in 2021. Unfortunately, this did not happen.

The SSTA has repeatedly argued that retention must be the priority and keeping the teachers we have. It makes no sense not to value the experienced teachers and any attempt to focus on recruitment alone would miss the point.

The SSTA is serious about a restorative pay deal that acknowledges and rewards those teachers who have served their time and give so much. Teachers at the top of the pay scale and those in management positions need to see a major change in salary levels.

The SNCT pay claim for April 2022 is 10%, it should be probably more considering the increases in the cost of living and the additional national insurance contributions.

I have said before why not ‘pull out all the stops’ to encourage teachers to stay? This could be achieved by paying teachers properly, providing a ‘real’ career structure, valuing teacher’s professional judgment, reducing workload, and giving teachers ‘real’ support with the appropriate educational professionals in meeting the challenges that pupils bring into schools.

Unfortunately, all these things are lacking. The career structure is diminishing with management positions with increasing workload demands dwindling away. In our recent management survey, many members reported having low amounts of management time with 20% reporting that they received no management time at all.

A common theme is the expectation that they need to do far more than what appeared within their job description. Many of our members said that most of their time had been taken-up taking cover or ‘fire-fighting’ rather than any of their main management responsibilities. Is it any wonder many of our members are reluctant to undertake such roles and probably in truth these are the exact people who know their limitations, what is possible and what is not, that should be encouraged in to these positions.

It does not take a genius to work out that if you reduce the number of people in management positions in schools the bigger their jobs become. Together with the ever-increasing demands by Government, Education Scotland, SQA and local authorities, the bigger the jobs become and the more unmanageable and the more stressed the post holders become.

The Teacher Career Pathways Review offered so much to further the career aspirations for teachers but has ended up sitting on a shelf gathering dust. The many months and countless hours of people’s time taken to develop the report has stumbled on the doorstep of COSLA. Only one element has resulted in an SNCT agreement. In August 2021 ‘Lead Teacher’ can into existence but to date not one single teacher has been appointed or is likely to be in the near future. The only other outcome has been the development of a self-funded secondment that sounds just like a career break. Another opportunity for retaining teachers has been lost.

The school-based Lead Teacher will remain a classroom teacher and should not be regarded as part of the school’s management structure. Lead Teachers would function alongside and complement the existing leadership roles, structures and posts, bringing clear additionality to the system through supporting the professional learning of colleagues. Lead teachers offer salaries starting at £47,000 up to £67,000 what a boost that would be for the profession and an acknowledgement of the importance of the classroom teacher.

Teachers are crying out for career pathway that recognises curricular specialism, pedagogical and policy specialism that runs in parallel with the existing leadership/management routes. The review will only benefit the profession if it allows all teachers to be valued and respected for their knowledge, skills and experiences.

Teachers are demoralised by the never-ending and increasing teacher workload. More new initiatives, more tracking and monitoring, more record keeping, more personalised learning plans, more accountability for every move and every decision a teacher makes, and of course a national qualification system that appears to go out of its way to dream up new ways to increase teacher bureaucracy.

This unfortunately, highlights how little teacher professional judgement is valued and the lack of trust shown by many in senior positions in the world of education.

But none if this would be necessary if schools, local authorities and Government would trust teachers’ professional judgement in placing pupils in the correct course, allowed a common course for all Nat 4 and Nat 5 pupils so that all pupils in the class could all be taught together. This would cut teacher and pupil workload at a stroke. 

The Government must mean what is says and put pupils at the centre, allow teachers to teach, put appropriate assessment in place for all pupils at all levels across the secondary school. As more and more pupils are staying in education it is time for a review of the Curriculum and National Qualifications. This is not an opportunity to start all over, but to talk to teachers (the unions who represent and speak for teachers) but identify what works, what is appropriate and put a plan together for implementation.

It is time for teachers to take back control of their workload. Agree sensible and properly accounted for Working Time Agreements that recognise the professional judgment of the teacher.

The teacher must be allowed to make decisions on what is a priority, what is appropriate to prepare for lessons, the how and the structure of the lesson, the method of assessment, and be trusted to present pupils for national qualifications.

The SNCT claim 10% pay increase is for all grades. This 10% claim must be the next step in a restorative pay claim. The Government needed to support and value its teachers by making a major effort to restore teacher pay levels.

The British and Irish Group of Teacher Unions (BIGTU) have resolved to support all teachers across these islands to achieve a salary that reflects their professionalism and equally address the excessive workload that has become the norm in all of our jurisdictions.

I call upon all the teacher unions across these islands to work together in every school to ensure that teachers are paid properly and that drastic reductions in teacher workload is achieved. This joint movement has already begun and the first battle is our 10% for all teachers at all grades.

Catherine Nicol, SSTA President

Address to the 77th Congress of the SSTA

In October 2021 we were all aware that the Pandemic was not yet over. At that time news of the Omicron variant was emergent but the impact it would have on society was as yet unknown.  It was abundantly clear that the measures that teachers had called for to safeguard the health and wellbeing of our colleagues, our families and friends, pupils, care givers and other service users must remain in place inside educational establishments. Trade Unions remained steadfast and ensured the continuance of mitigations to protect workers from harm. Other voices advocated for reduction and even removal of these mitigations thus demonstrating a shameful lack of recognition of the risks being taken by teachers and fellow public sector employees. The entire Education community pulled together and many employed in the sector left the safety of their homes every working day to ensure continuity of education for the young people of Scotland. There was a palpable sense of trepidation in schools. We all remained optimistic that the hand cleaning, one way systems, face coverings, increased ventilation and carbon dioxide monitors would decrease the likelihood of serious infection. We hoped that the most vulnerable, would be protected as staff and youngsters waited their turn to get the next dose of the vaccine.

As the Christmas break approached the impact of this highly contagious variant was all too apparent.  Infection rates increased massively and staff and pupil absences rose sharply. Whole classes and entire year groups had to be sent home, insufficient numbers of staff were present to teach all classes. The SSTA recognised that this would have a detrimental impact on the health and well- being of members and on teaching, learning and assessment in schools. The union consulted members and as a consequence advocated strongly for school closures and a return to remote learning. This fell on deaf ears as the rhetoric for keeping schools open to maintain pupil engagement and health and wellbeing got louder. The work undertaken earlier in the pandemic by secondary teachers and other practitioners to upskill and use digital technology for teaching looked to go unheeded. Our determination to prepare high quality learning resources for all young people seemed to be disregarded. The cost and effort that had been incurred to equip secondary teachers with resources to deliver lessons using technology appeared to be overlooked.

In early 2022 it became evident that levels of pupil and staff absence in schools had reached critical levels.  Members were reporting timetables were becoming unsustainable and disruption to teaching and learning was the inevitable result. The availability of Supply Teachers was extremely limited. Head Teachers, Deputy Heads and Principle Teachers had time normally earmarked for management and organisation revoked so classes could be covered. Teachers were in front of classes for the maximum number of hours allowable in any given week, redeployment of staff that normally worked in additional support roles became necessary so that pupils could be taught. Classes were sent to Assembly Halls on rotation, pupils were sent home to isolate in large numbers, sometimes entire year groups were sent home because of staffing shortages.  Teachers struggled on however an expectation that they could simultaneously deliver lessons to pupils that were in school and provide for those who were working from home became prevalent. The workload of those who remained in school rocketed.  Pupil, Parent and Teacher anxiety about missing course work and internal assessment increased, worry about producing evidence of attainment escalated. Pupils’ capability to prepare fully for examinations became more uncertain. The pressure over the past two years has been relentless, in the past six months more acute than ever. This has taken a heavy toll on the mental and physical well-being of many teachers and pupils. Where schools and Directorates worked with Trade Union representatives the scrutiny and improvement agenda was paused to reduce workload and alleviate stress.  Unbelievably this was not the case across the board. In some places mitigations to workload were not enacted revealing a shocking disregard by some employers for the health and wellbeing of teachers and staff fulfilling supporting roles.

In response to members concerns the SSTA gathered information about members’ experience of working in schools. This has resulted in actions such as our call for the suspension of the examination diet however this was rejected. The SSTA challenged the SQA to provide greater support for teachers and pupils, this was answered however the guidance and resources that were produced were heavily criticised by teachers, pupils and parents. The SSTA maintained that Education Scotland should suspend school Inspections and provide more resources to support teachers’ health and wellbeing, this message was taken on board. The Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills was made aware of the concerns that SSTA members had about workload, working conditions and deteriorating behaviour in schools. We trust that the viewpoints expressed on behalf of members influenced decisions concerning the future direction of the Education system.

The Curriculum for Excellence has been in a continual state of flux since its inception. Education Scotland list eight Policy Drivers that have a direct impact on the Secondary Education sector. A complex web of Implementation Plans, Frameworks, and Delivery Plans underlie them.  An unintended consequence of the multi-layered policy environment has led to multiple interpretations and confusion in the system.  This has led to teachers being confined to highly prescriptive structural frameworks for lesson planning and being told what they must include in lessons. Some common examples:, conversations with pupils that adhere to specific narratives, a need to focus on particular type of attribute or skill , strict adherence to ideological constructs, references to employment or obvious demonstration of aspects of the inclusion agenda. In some schools this may be happening in a series of lessons across the term, or as part of an interdisciplinary learning or themed projects but in others teachers are expected to incorporate all of this into each and every lesson taught in the Broad General Education and Senior Phase.

 Monitoring and recording methods used to provide evidence that teachers are compliant with policy have imposed additional burdens on classroom teachers. A moratorium on Lesson Observations, Lesson Studies, Learning Rounds and the like was in place during the pandemic due to the need to lessen the risk of transmission. The efficacy and suitability of such methods for demonstrating improvement in Education is subject to debate. Currently a drive to reintroduce these measures in schools is taking place:  at a time when teachers have little capacity to absorb the additional pressure and could do with some breathing space.   The manner in which these types of supervision are conducted is crucial, all too often they only serve to feed the accountability culture; demonstrate a lack of trust in teacher professionalism and drive down teacher’s mental health and sense of wellbeing.

The Scottish Government’s “National Improvement Framework Improvement” publication describes plans to upgrade Education in Scotland; much of it stems from the OECD report “Scotland’s Curriculum for Excellence. Into the Future” Right now we have reached a stage in the journey where we can ensure that what comes next is based on realistic targets, is actionable and focused on outcomes that benefit educators and those who are educated. The Scottish Government intends to co-create a new communications strategy for the Curriculum for Excellence. It remains to be seen if teachers will be fully involved in the change agenda that accompanies Education Reform. Many in the profession will not be convinced that lessons have been learned. Teachers must press for full inclusion in decision making processes.

In the past policy drivers emanating from the Learning Directorate have impacted on the work done in Local Government settings. This forced remodelling of extant procedures, revision of existing policy and has necessitated changes to Local Authority Education Improvement plans. Head Teachers have felt the need to alter School Improvement Plans so that national and local priorities are included. Negotiations that should take place before embarking on any new schemes did not take place on occasion. Where unplanned initiatives were instigated Working Time Agreements that had been negotiated previous to their adoption became less fit for purpose and the potential for conflict increased. Unfortunately when circumstances such as these arise in schools working relationships can become strained to the point of fracture. Inevitably stress levels increase and tension builds in the work place. This exemplifies how top down approaches to implementing change can contribute to unmanageable workloads and encourage the development of unfair working practices.

The reform agenda gives an opportunity to regenerate the curriculum and restructure the Education System from the ground up. Secondary Teachers must be at the heart of the renewal process.  Experienced teachers and SSTA representatives that have dedicated time and effort to develop their knowledge and skills are experts in their fields. It is essential that these professionals are trusted and given the opportunity to make meaningful contributions during curriculum reconstruction and development. In response to the “Putting Learners at the Centre: Towards a Vision for Scottish Education” report produced by Professor Ken Muir the Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills has announced that there will be a new qualifications body.  Factors such as the architecture of the school day, the structure of the academic year and activities unrelated to direct teaching of coursework must be taken into account by this organisation.  Time taken out of the school day for gathering robust and reliable data to evidence progress towards the National Improvement Framework agenda, National Standardised Assessments and PISA must also be reckoned for. These activities eat into the quantity of time available for internal assessment and preparation for external assessment. Well- informed secondary teachers and SSTA representatives must be directly involved in the establishment of a credible and fair assessment and qualification regime.

A new national agency for Scottish education will come into being.  This body must be focused on supporting teaching and learning and facilitating professional development. The very nature of Education is in question at the moment. Incorporation of more vocational courses is being called for so pupils can gain skills and aptitudes that will transfer to the work place. When curriculum change takes place there is an opportunity to develop course content that would enable the collection of naturally occurring evidence that can be used to support professional judgments on progress and level of attainment.  The creation and maintenance of a bank of resources that can be utilised in secondary schools should be a main aim. This needs to be curated, adaptive and well- signposted. The resources made available must be suitable to meet the needs of the learners in both broad general education and senior phases. Assistance for teachers at all points on the career ladder must continue to be available. The offer of a wide range and variety of information, support and training opportunities must remain. We stand at a junction.

A new independent Inspectorate will also be formed. This organisation must instil a quality assurance culture that is based on supervision, in the supportive sense of the word. Local Authority education directorates already engage in extensive quality assurance reviews in schools under their control so it is questionable whether this type of supervision should be duplicated by a National body. Perhaps their focus should be on Local Authorities and organisations that operate out with their governance.

In any event we must move away from the culture of blame, mistrust and fault finding that has emerged in some schools. Thought needs to be put into the methodology used to gather information about schools during scrutiny. The Inspectorate should ensure that measures used to capture data about quality indicators are fair, relevant and focused on naturally occurring evidence. Quality assurance should not include intrusive approaches for fact finding or necessitate collection of large portfolios of evidence. In Secondary schools analysis of this kind should not take place in the term prior to National Examinations, frankly this is a time when all effort must be placed on completing coursework and providing pupils with the guidance they need to reach their goals for attainment.  Any recommendations for improvements must be reasonable and actionable over an appropriate period of time.

These institutions must work in concert with each other and in partnership with teachers and Teacher Trade Unions.  If a constructive and inclusive approach is taken conflicts between remits can be anticipated and reduced. Temporal reality is a limiting factor and must become integral to all policy drivers. All organisations that create work for teachers and other practitioners must assess where their policy objectives overlap or are repeated. Adaptations to the curriculum, teaching and learning and qualifications must be practicable and time costed. Streamlining and reducing bureaucracy will reduce workload for all involved in Education.

Going forward an emphasis on supporting teachers to fulfil their core duties as stated in the SNCT Handbook is vital.  These duties must be prioritised during any given working week. Policy Makers, Education Officials and Managers need to realise that teacher’s time is a precious commodity that can only be used once. “Managing and organising classes through planning and preparing for teaching and learning”, and “ assessing, recording and reporting on the work of pupils’ progress to inform a range of teaching and learning approaches” are the most important aspects of a teacher’s job. These duties take a little time to do superficially but a great deal of time to do properly. Teachers must be enabled to focus their attention on these tasks because they are of upmost importance to raising attainment and closing the attainment gap. Other policy objectives are not as significant.

The fact that teachers working conditions are our young peoples’ learning conditions cannot be over stated. Education Reform gives us an opportunity to reframe the curriculum and also to re-establish working environments in which teachers can complete their work within the terms of contractual agreements. It is essential that the school day is structured in a way that allows teachers to do their job well and timetables need to provide ample time for teachers to plan, prepare, mark and correct, and give well targeted and meaningful feedback to pupils.  The Scottish Government’s proposal to reduce pupil contact time by ninety minutes within the working week would have a positive impact on pupil achievement and increase job satisfaction. Recruitment of thousands of teachers and hundreds of support staff will be necessary to reach this goal and the funding being offered by the Scottish Government to support these aims is welcome.   If steps are taken to make this a reality building positive relationships between all members of the school community, a core theme in policy related to GIRFEC becomes more attainable.  Schools could become workplaces where every teacher can perform the tasks required of them within a 35 hour working week; no matter what type of post they hold. If this is accomplished school life for pupils and work life for teachers would improve and the benefits to health and wellbeing of teachers and pupils would be substantial. Perhaps greater numbers of teachers would choose to remain in the profession if fair working conditions existed.

The curriculum has become inclusive of a myriad of social constructs and there is now an expectation that teachers will fulfil roles that are more akin to that of those who work in health and social care, this is stretching us to the limit of capacity. Teachers do not take the responsibility they have to help and encourage young people to achieve their full potential lightly.  An Educators core objective is to teach essential knowledge that brings about greater understand of the world and support pupils as they progress towards their chosen destinations. Teacher’s  go above and beyond to provide for pupils but our goodwill has been stretched to the limit as the expectation that we can  take on board more and more increases.  While these expectations have increased the willingness to pay us a fair rate for the work we do has not. The tactics used by our pay masters to delay negotiations show a complete disregard for the work that each of us carry out.  Fair dues for the job teachers do will only be achieved if we stop giving or time away for free and are resolute in this aim.

The last pay offer was derisory and far below what we would have accepted however now that it has been agreed we would expect that it will be paid as soon as possible. Further delay shows a continued disrespect for teaching professionals who have worked tremendously hard throughout the Pandemic.

The campaign for a 10% pay increase in 2022-2023 has begun and we stand ready to take action if the next pay offer is not commensurate with the professional duties we perform day and daily.

[ENDS]

Friday 13 May 2022

Kevin Campbell, SSTA President

Address to the 75th Congress of the SSTA

Colleagues it gives me immense pleasure and no small amount of pride to welcome you all to the 75^th Annual Congress of the SSTA.

I’d like to extend a warm and heartfelt fraternal greeting to our friends and comrades from our fellow unions and to the members of the press who are in attendance. Furthermore, I implore any politician who is here as a guest of the Association: please listen carefully to what we are saying. It is in places like this and at the coming EIS AGM that you will hear the voices of the “experts”. Not at parliamentary committees, not at panels of academics or “stakeholders”, not at the OECD or even, dare I say it at Education Scotland or the RICs but here where our profession gathers to discuss what the situation really is and uses the combined weight of hundreds of years of experience and practice to evaluate what is best for Scotland’s children and for the professionals who will deliver Scotland’s future!

Most importantly, however, I’d like to welcome our delegates, as selected by districts from across the length and breadth of Scotland. For me, you and our sister union’s representatives are the most important people in any school, for it is you who have decided to put your efforts into safeguarding the working conditions of your colleagues and it is you who is helping build the best educational environment, often at odds with some of the ridiculous ideas of our bosses, for our young people!

Colleagues, even the not so observant amongst you will have noticed this year’s strapline: Teaching Scotland’s Future. Now this may sound grandiose but that is exactly what we are doing and we are doing it in a climate in which, I feel, aspects of that future are under dire threat.  The World in which we live is becoming ever more precarious. Democracy, as we experience it, is in my opinion under siege. We are seeing the rise, across our planet, of unethical, amoral and downright disgusting political opportunism and right-wing, neo-liberal populism. Our rights as citizens are being eroded on a continual basis. The little democracy we are allowed, and remember this democracy was fought for and won through the blood and sweat of our trade union forebears, is gradually being scraped away, layer by layer. A good example being that on one of the days of the absurd bickering in the House of Commons about Brexit the “government” slipped in under the radar the cutting by up to 25% of housing benefit for people with spare rooms! Now that I’ve mentioned it, we just can’t get rid of the ongoing nonsense of Brexit, with the uncertainty that it brings and the platform it, either intentionally or unintentionally, gives xenophobes and racists. I find it strange that I am able to quote or rather paraphrase, of all people, a comedian- Frankie Boyle, whom, I tried to persuade Seamus and Alan to invite as our guest speaker. They weren’t having it. But yes colleagues, Glasgow’s own son, Frankie Boyle, whom I watched on TV asking why it is that our media allows these xenophobes and racists a platform from which to spew their repugnancy as if they actually had a rational and valid argument? Remember: this is the same media that is creating the spring board by which, and I say this with absolute conviction, the enemies of all mankind- Jacob Reece-Mogg and Boris Johnson, can launch their vile views upon our people in their attempts to become the Prime Minister of the UK! Colleagues, if this happens we should prepare for the very worst. Rees-Mogg and Johnson have articulated with unashamed clarity that the first thing to go after Brexit is worker’s rights. Both of these men, and their party in general actively want to return this country to the Victorian era and want workers kept in their place as slaves to their masters, ie them. Rees-Mogg is a border line fascist who in the past has shared speeches from the German far right AfD on his Twitter account. He is a disaster capitalist who makes millions from people’s misery. Johnson is an aristocratic thug and a chauvinist of the worst hue. This pair’s views are not exactly underrepresented amongst Tories.

Colleagues, this isn’t just a general rant, The Tories are the sworn enemy of the Trade Unions and of the majority of the children we teach. Look at what they have done to the education system of England. They have destroyed it! Rampant privatisation has led to the complete erosion of any semblance of a unified comprehensive system. Schools are operating without qualified staff, the rise of religious fundamentalist schools of all stripes, grammar schools, and “academies”. On top of this, management bullying and utterly contemptible performance related pay structures, which are solely based on whether the boss likes you. The ongoing atomisation of the comprehensive system in England makes it very difficult for our sister unions to effectively organise and negotiate at a national level. To us the English system may seem a million miles away but colleagues we must remain vigilant, there are many characters in Scotland who want to enact the same crime here! To them our charges are nothing more than fodder for their slave shops and their wars.

Colleagues, the Tories don’t need Brexit for any of the aforementioned but the Brexit debacle will have further negative impacts on our profession. As mentioned, the Tories are already planning an all out offensive on the working people of this country. Ladies and gentlemen, that will include teachers. We are already seeing in Scotland, that some of our co-workers from EU countries are electing to leave as Brexit either effects them or members of their families. We are seeing that the number of applicants to come into our profession from the EU are falling. Colleagues this is criminal! Talking of criminality, the GTCS are also rightly concerned about the loss of the database through which they check for criminal records from EU applicants. They fear a return to a hit and miss approach to finding this information out, as it will then be a case of relying on the law enforcement agencies of the applicants country of origin responding with the required info. The point is of course, the people most negatively affected shall be the pupils in our classrooms who will be going without a teacher because we have allowed small minded bigotry and parochialism to manoeuvre our country into this position. Our children welcome diversity, it opens their minds to how other people live and how they may in future choose to live. We need to oppose this and call on the Scottish Government to take concrete action against anything that reduces the horizon towards which the vast majority of our children gaze.

Comrades, I don’t know about you but for me this has been a slog of a year. As is perennially the case we have been involved in a three way battle with our bosses. Pay, workload and pupil behaviour. These three issues have plagued our profession since its inception. At this, our Association’s 75^th Congress we are talking about the same issues as we did at the 1^st! Fair enough, I’m sure there was also a lot of talk about why this Association even had to exist in the first place but nevertheless, I’d be prepared to bet that these things were also on the agenda.

However, everything is relative and I’m positive that every single one of you would agree that we are suffering from historically unmanageable workloads and behaviour and that on these fronts we’ve yet to score any sort of victory whatsoever. Colleagues we need to be committed to changing that! As an aside, I was looking through a document from our archives and found an article in a magazine we produced at the time. This magazine was highlighting issues with growing pupil indiscipline, much like I’m going to. However, the reasons cited made me laugh out loud. At that time the causes of our young people’s unwillingness to do what they’re bloody well told was thought to revolve around them listening to subversive music on Satan’s wireless and watching innocence destroying and culturally damaging movies at the cinema. What?  Westerns and Musicals?! Fair enough this was the 50’s but it makes you wonder what the reasons would have been a few years later in the 60’s!

Anyway, this year did see a major victory for our Union. The stalwart determination of and the partnership between the SSTA and the EIS has resulted in the 10% breaking pay deal. Colleagues, this didn’t just happen. Our profession mobilised on this issue on a scale scarcely seen in Scottish Union history! 30000 teachers, their families and supporters took to the streets of Glasgow to demand our just due. Anyone who was there that day should never forget that they were a part of trade union history. To be able to look behind you at any point and see what appears to be a never ending procession of thousands upon thousands of your brothers and sisters receding into the distance and the same in front was, for me awe inspiring! As soon as my wife and I entered Kelvingrove Park and saw the number of people already gathered there, long before the march was to start, I knew we were in for something special. Colleagues what an occasion that was! We have to give credit to our comrades in arms in the EIS for their fantastic efforts in getting that march organised and in ensuring the mobilisation of their membership. However, the success of the pay campaign wasn’t just down to the march in Glasgow that day. The numbers turning out to demonstrate were as high as they were because we have simply had enough! The level of anger and frustration teachers are feeling, then and now, is palpable. We can’t take any more! We already know that we can’t get people in, that people are leaving and those of us determined to stay are increasingly finding it difficult to remain but even though, it just keeps getting worse! Whilst talking to members over the last year or so it is evident that the pay issue was not the foremost issue. Or at least was only one amongst the other issues that are making our job so very difficult.

Colleagues, Curriculum for Excellence, whilst utterly laudable in its principles has been, in its implementation, an absolute nightmare for our profession. It has been, from the start, a half arsed, half baked hodgepodge of semi rational notions of pedagogical rationales and curricular inconsistencies. At virtually no point in its history has our profession been fully consulted in its ideological underpinnings, curricular necessities or implementation. Indeed at every turn the voice of teachers has been ignored. Why? Is it because, on some level, the bureaucrats in charge realised we would recognise the contradictions between what they said it should be and what it turned out to actually be? Is it because they see us as wreckers who would upset their plans by insisting on well thought out and joined up strategies? Or is it because they know we would see the insidious culture of ever increasing workloads implicit in the wholesale removal of one system to be replaced with another having had zero groundwork put in? Colleagues, they wanted it all, yesterday! It was never going to work. They blazed on regardless, knowing, indeed expecting, that we would carry the burden that we would just knuckle down and get on with it. The thing is, we have! We are the reason that the education system in Scotland isn’t a complete shambles. Some may argue it is but nevertheless we continue to spend unthinkable volumes of time and effort in trying to make this system work. Comrades, we need to say enough is enough! Our health, our families and our sanity should be worth more than sorting out the mess that our education system is in. We have to say no! We have to take action to reduce the workload! We have to resist the culture that insists on constantly re-designing the wheel, constantly wanting to re-work what we are already doing, constantly wants to codify our responsibilities and erode our professionalism:-  resist the bureaucratic insistence on handing us down our instructions from on high in the form of HGIOS. Comrades, in Northern Ireland, as part of their ongoing industrial action, they have refused to interact with their version of Education Scotland, this has led to teachers taking back their power to decide what’s best for the young people in front of them and has led to the removal of fear from managers to ensure they have all their silly checklists, in their concertina folders completed. It has removed the need to micro manage staff in the angst they may not be meeting one of the quality indicators! Incidentally, the drive for the recording of evidence on every aspect of a child’s ability and the fear of not having that evidence, in my opinion, is leading to a burgeoning culture of management bullying in our schools. Colleagues for our Irish friends the result is more time to just get on with what they are good at, teaching!

We know the implementation of CfE was poorly thought out and enacted, but we are several years down the line now and the issues are not being resolved. Our school structures cannot meet the demands that the curriculum places upon them. The desire to offer pupils every thing, when they want it and how they want it just can’t work! I’d like to ask if there is anyone in this room that works at a school where the timetable isn’t in some way or another making their job harder than it needs to be? Isn’t this because it is impossible to deliver the demands being placed upon it? There just isn’t the resources. There aren’t enough teachers or rooms! There also isn’t the expertise amongst senior managers to be able to design the parameters within which all this can be delivered. No wonder, who has?! This inevitably leads to the situation where a teacher has to contend with multi-course classes, split classes, sharing rooms, a lack of resources, over subscribed classes, reduced teaching commitments for BGE classes etc. You all know: this just means more work for us! My own Local Authority, through my constant raging and ranting about it, just to shut me up for 5 minutes,  recently conducted a survey of teachers to try and understand how timetabling affects workload. The results were incontrovertible and overwhelming: teachers, in huge numbers cite timetabling as being a prominent reason for increased workload. The level of planning involved due to timetabling shortfalls becomes onerous and unmanageable. How can learning and teaching and thus attainment be made better in these circumstances? Add to that continual, (still) changes to the curriculum, a lack of clarity and exposition regarding assessment arrangements, constant cover demands, the need to find time to try and understand and implement your responsibilities around GIRFEC and inclusion, constantly having to negotiate subject levels with kids and managers, having to pick up the pieces from inappropriate subject level choices, i.e. everybody doing every level and every unit, ever reducing budgets, the demands of tracking and monitoring, report writing and parents nights and of course all the other things I haven’t mentioned of which there will no doubt be hunners and the situation becomes clear: comrades, we are being asked, no forced, to do an impossible job. It cannot be done! Of course, ultimately it is the children of Scotland who will suffer, are already suffering, when they don’t get the time they require with their teacher and when their teacher doesn’t get the time they need to do their job.

Now, this takes me on to my next topic. Colleagues as mentioned earlier, if you were to peruse the history of our Association, you wouldn’t be long in finding complaints about behaviour. Obviously wherever children are involved there are going to be issues with how they behave. We have to accept there are elements of being a teenager that just aren’t going to go away. Rebelliousness, for instance is, in my opinion a good thing. Teenagers should question what they are told by adults. How else do they develop independent thought? They should be able to consider the situation and weigh up the pros and cons of it and how it relates to them and what they want or need. However, I would argue that the present situation in our schools has gone way beyond such innocent personality building. In recent surveys conducted by our Association it can be seen that over 70% of you are being effected by this on a regular basis. Colleagues, how many of you can say you have not been, at least, verbally abused just this week. For me, this verbal abuse ranks top of all stress inducing factors in my job.  Colleagues, there seems to be an expectation that we are to be subjected to the most foul abuse on a daily basis, often more than once. Pupils are belligerent in the extreme in their use of language. Very often violent, personalised, sexualised, homophobic and sexist language, occasionally sectarian and racist. The latter two though, in my experience are rarer. Nonetheless, to be subjected to this sort of language on a continuous basis is damaging. It’s damaging for morale, self-esteem and ones health. I suspect however, even more damaging is the lack of support staff can expect from their managers. The lack of action taken against such individuals or the perceived, sometimes open implication that somehow or another you were to blame for the situation only makes it worse. Simply put, children are not to be accountable for their actions! Colleagues, how has this situation come to be? Are these children to be exempt from the laws of our country when they leave school? Do we want a society where no one answers for their actions? Do we want a society devoid of respect for others?

To my mind this sort of behaviour has slowly evolved over the course of the last two decades, it has worsened under the aegis of CfE.

The Nurture or “Cuddle” culture, stipulates that the child is to be at the centre of all aspects of education, a la GIRFEC. As a progressive and a socialist I have no problem with this notion in any way whatsoever. What I do have a problem with, and I suspect many of you do too, is with the notion that with the many rights a child has, and these rights must absolutely be upheld at all costs, is the direct result of how we have implemented this paradigm. Namely, that a child has many rights but never a single responsibility! This culture has led to the situation where a teacher almost has no authority over their charges. When attempting to maintain discipline in the class room a teacher can expect to be challenged on every instruction issued with cries of “I don’t need to do what you say” or “you’ve no right to make me do this” or even the tried and tested “I’m getting my mum and /or dad up here.” This leads to an intolerable position of powerlessness for the teacher. When these issues are raised with PT’s or Guidance there is often an extreme reluctance to resolve this power imbalance. These colleagues feel that they are in the same position of powerlessness. Why is this? I feel, and many won’t appreciate hearing it, that the central issue lies with many teachers ideas of how Pupil Support should operate within a school. The core concepts around the wellbeing of the child lead many to assume that this means they cannot or should not suffer a consequence for their actions. Most often you will be told about how awful their backgrounds are and of the many issues they have to deal with. Colleagues, I don’t doubt it! I spoke at length last year about how many of our children are suffering from the health and social affects of the criminal levels of poverty suffered by many of our people, indeed I would argue the majority of our people. Child poverty is at its highest level in 20 years! However, are we doing our children any favours by allowing them to think that how they are treated at school is actually how they will be treated as adults? I don’t think we are, indeed I think we are allowing our children to develop a seriously distorted idea of the society they will emerge into. In fact, we are creating for these children a complete fantasy! In the real world they WILL be held accountable for their actions, be it in the workplace, within their communities or in a court of law! It is critical that we impart to our pupils the need for discipline, especially self discipline. We can argue about how best to achieve this but we must absolutely agree in the first instance that it must be accomplished. Our senior bosses in schools, Local Authorities and in the Government must accept this. They need to empower our profession to take back control in our classrooms.

As I’ve said this revolves around the notion that with rights come responsibilities. In my opinion you don’t have the right to not have responsibilities! Also, as any probationer should know: children need boundaries, they want boundaries. Having boundaries makes it easy for everyone to know where they stand and what they are able to do and not do. We often hear about the right to an education but should you continue to have that right when you are infringing upon the rights of your classmates to their education or indeed, when you are infringing upon the right of your teacher not to be verbally or physically abused? We need our bosses to support us and challenge pupils’ and parents’ unacceptable behaviour.

 At the heart of many of these issues is Inclusion. Colleagues, I’m not talking about Inclusion as you or I understand it or want it to mean i.e. the notion that all children, regardless of any impediment, have the right to learn to the best of their ability in the same conditions as their peers or in the conditions that best suit their needs, I’m talking about Inclusion in the world of austerity! The cuts to our education services since the calamitous worldwide crash of 2008 has led to an environment where almost all special educational needs establishments have been closed down. There is no longer specialised provision for children with acute behavioural needs or even for children with hearing or sight impairments. The services that remain extant are under constant threat! The funding once in place for these services has not followed the pupils into the mainstream. On top of this the attacks on PSA’s go on unremittingly. Our schools cannot function without these highly committed colleagues. It is they who support these children through the most trying and difficult periods of their time in school. All of this is justified in terms of Inclusion! Colleagues, it is a bare faced lie! This is the natural conclusion of the Tories horrific and murderous attack on the people of this country. These cuts must be resisted with all of our collective might! 

Comrades, I believe that in order to tackle the issues we face with workload and behaviour we are going to need to tap into the anger and frustration I mentioned earlier in my speech. To do that is going to require every one of us stepping up their game. We need to be in our schools setting an example. We need to be leading our colleagues on these issues. We need to be the first person putting in the violent incident form, the pain in the arse demanding a pupil risk assessment, the trouble maker down at the headteachers office demanding they take action around issues as they arise, we need to be in our departments reminding colleagues and PT’s what our terms and conditions actually are and not what some may like them to be. We need to be in our LNCT’s demanding our bosses take cognisance of our demands and make them take action, zero tolerance posters in the classrooms, receptions and staffrooms of our schools would be a start. Colleagues we need to ensure we are doing our utmost to engage our members. Organise regular meetings to discuss the issues, put out regular informational emails, share what comes out from the District and HQ. We need to organise to recruit new teachers, both students and probationers. We need our General Secretary and President kicking down John Swinney’s door to demand he take action!

Folk in my school often ask me for advice about this, that and the next thing and what they should do about various issues, colleagues, more often than not my answer is “say you’re not bloody well doing it,” often enough I think I may get it tattooed on my forehead, in Gaelic though cos I like to appear cultured. My mates often rib me asking what does a union rep do anyway? I tell them I’m out putting my life on the line for their jobs! I’m joking but there is an element of truth in that. Obviously it’s not the same union landscape in which courageous men and women have indeed given their lives over the course of the last two centuries fighting for every single right we enjoy today but we do need to be courageous. We need to take our fight to the bosses and demand action! We need to stand up to bullying and disrespectful behaviour from our bosses, parents or kids! We need to make our union an example to all teachers, if we do we can make our jobs the life affirming vocations they once were!

We need to follow the old union maxim of organise, educate, agitate!

Thank you.

17th May 2019