Shortly after his birth, someone said to me "You have now seen the face of the future", and these words remained uppermost in my mind as I finalised what I would say to you today. In essence, this is what we are all about - we help to secure the future for all the Isaacs and Kates of today and tomorrow. We are the guardians and guarantors of the future that they will achieve, a future far beyond our capacity or imagination. But until those faces of the future are the teachers of the future, the responsibility lies in our hands to make their future as positive and productive as we possibly can. This has been the year of the retrospective so beloved of the arts community. Our retrospective in 2007 has been on the work of Gavin McCrone, or to be more accurate the McCrone School of Artists, of whom very few remain active in their field. The two major exhibitions have been held in the galleries of Audit Scotland and HMIE in Livingston with a follow up in the Holyrood galleries and debating chamber, all featuring the post McCrone impressionists. What we have learned from the retrospectives is this - "if we had been there, then we would have done things differently". Well, there are only two things wrong with this hindsight philosophy. First, you weren't there, and second, you fail to recognise and understand just what was taking place in the context of the negotiations at that time. We were replacing decades of "boom and bust" pay reviews with concomitant industrial action. We were seeking to repair the damage to the status of the profession and to make it attractive to the desperately needed potential recruits. We were working against monumental constraints of time and resources - the deal reached in early 2001 would never have been on offer in mid or late 2001. What the three sides sought to do was to conclude the best possible deal in the available time, and if we didn't seek to insert performance analysis measures, and expected learning outcomes then - sorry! What is a pointless exercise in sophistry at this stage is to seek to analyse and criticise a deal which has brought pay enhancement and stability to our teachers and schools in terms of post hoc data or rationalisation. The flaws - and there have been flaws - in the Agreement are sins of omission, not commission. They reflect the haste in concluding the deal, not a failure to expand the terms even further. If we ever have to conclude such an Agreement again, then perhaps we should include some of these analytical factors. If we do, they require to be part of an agreed, pre-planned, joint and clarified approach, for only in this way can they be valid. The issue of Disclosure checks has been with us for sometime now, but regrettably it will increase in significance in coming years. We live in a world now where nothing can be taken at face value - the internet chat room with 40 year olds masquerading as 15, the "Brandon Lee" schoolboy, fake trading online. Whereas in generations gone by the priest, the police officer, the nurse, the teacher, were figures automatically beyond reproach, sadly this is no longer the case. In our brave new world, technology has enabled us to run checks on an infinite range of people and so now we face not only checks on entry to TEI's, and by GTCS, but also on taking up any new employment, or even a new post with an existing employer. To this will now be added checks for everyone - and not of the monetary value kind. The inexorable spread of computer checks is here to stay. So will the world of education in Isaac's day be wholly secure? Sadly, the answer is no. Firstly, despite the huge burden and cost of Disclosure checks on teachers, they do no more than make a single statement of fact. They provide no help as to inclination or intent, no surety as to conduct in the future. Like the investment warning says, "past performance is no guarantee of future returns". Secondly, like any other such system it will suffer from weaknesses and inaccuracies. It cannot guarantee 100% accuracy or consistency. Thus some may escape detection, while others are erroneously listed. The system will become like so many in our day and age - we rely on it automatically and tick the "job done" box. We sit back complacently and vigilance decreases. If and when the system fails we are unprepared for the consequences ("Cullen Locks") The only way to ensure the safety and wellbeing of our young people is for perpetual vigilance by the regulatory body - the GTCS, by education authorities, by schools and by teachers themselves. We must never allow harm to befall any young person in our care, and must never allow blind reliance on a database to do this job for us. We are the professionals. I turn now to the vexed question, "How does a union which is avowedly non-political take a stance on political issues?" We have been faced with this challenge before and failed to rise to meet it. For decades the question of whether there should be devolved government in Scotland was debated by Congress, but we never reached a conclusion. The late Alex Stanley observed that we were not sure if we wanted a Scottish Parliament, but we were sure if there was, we wanted it elected by proportional representation. Well, we got our way - or did we? Almost as sure as day follows night, the birth of a Scottish Parliament has led to discussion of a referendum on independence for Scotland. This is not the time for sound bites, but once again we feel the hand of history on our shoulder! What will be our attitude some 20 years on. Would the future for Isaac and his generation be better with an independent nation, or a devolved administration? Are we going to debate and examine the issue or will our fence-building skills be called into action again? I'm calling today for this union to be pro-active in any debate to come - not by supporting any party or parties, but by examining the proposition in an open and balanced way, rather than waiting for the outcome of a referendum and the responding to whatever new political reality exists thereafter. We need to stand up for education in Scotland, without fear or favour from political parties or other groups. A move to independence would have potentially far-reaching consequences for our education systems and thus for future generations of our young people. We have a duty to these to care to ensure that the way in which we govern ourselves is to the benefit of young people and not simply for the sake of political dogma. This whole issue is complex, but it is being raised before us now as never before. Whatever may happen and whenever, as one of the major players in Scottish Society, we have a duty to the young people of our nation to do our utmost to ensure that the governance of this land is the most fit for purpose so far as education is concerned. From a global perspective, the outlook for remuneration of teachers does not look promising. The OECD Economic Outlook for 2006 shows that wages as a share of national income in the EU, Japan and USA has fallen substantially, brought about by the process of globalisation. The effect of this is to enrich a tiny minority of the population at the expense of wage earners. In the EU the wage share percentage has dropped steadily and drastically from 68% in 1975 to 58% in 2005. This effect is most marked in the "northern European ...... deregulated market countries". Downward pressure on wages through increased automisation, export of jobs, feminisation and casualisation is a phenomenon with which we are all too familiar. Its inexorable route march through our country is well documented, and the reclaimed landscapes of Bathgate, Revenscraig and Linwood bear testimony of this. However, the fuel for this process of change requires constant renewal - the easy targets have been eliminated -the "low hanging fruits". More recently we have seen the "new dawn" industries similarly affected - Motorola no more, Compaq no more, Hewlett Packard no more. In all of this, the direct provision of education has been relatively little affected, so far. Or has it? We have seen job losses and wage cuts across support services for many years now. The thin end of the PPP wedge has fully inserted itself in the corporate body of education. So far, however, the work of agencies is providing supply teachers is about as far as the private sector has invaded the direct provision of education. Soon this will change as the analysts get to work on the algorithms for teaching tasks. More and more analysis will lead to greater and greater opportunity for alternative providers to supply the market. Producing the same final product (or pupils as we used to call them) at a lower cost using automation or lower skilled workers is the direct consequence, and I make no apology for returning to this theme once again. When the inconceivable becomes the unthinkable, and the unthinkable becomes the impossible, the journey from impossible via unlikely to highly probably becomes entirely credible. Education will be delivered in teacher free zones. Light touch supervision from the professional will be all the human input needed. The education system can then produce to the exact demands of the global economy, and can re-tool its production to deliver a modified output when required. The acceleration of this whole process is being driven not least by the rapid growth of non-regulated hedge funds and private equity. These hugely leveraged funds are exempt from any regulation and seek only one thing - maximise short term return, and then sell it off. Maximising return means lower wages, more productivity and greater profit. It also means less jobs, lower paid jobs and less societal value. We need to support EI and the newly-formed International Trade Union Confederation, whose 168 million members in 153 countries are led by Sharon Burrow, a good friend of the SSTA. All of these colleagues are in the front line of this battle, the next stage of which will be in Heiligendamn in three weeks time when the G8 meet again. We need to tell them - education is for the life of young people not a commodity. Education is far too important to subjugate to the needs of global capital. Education enables people to be free in thought and action, to grow and develop beyond the constraints of the previous generation. Without education, women would not take the vote, slavery would still exist in many nations, and fear, ignorance and superstition would rule. Education is far too valuable to give over to those who only seek to enrich themselves. Education is the heritage of which we are the current custodians - our task is to preserve it for future generations not to sell it for a mess of pottage. Isaac's birth right is not for sale. Not now, not ever, not by this Association and its members, nor our sisters and brothers across the union movement.

David Eaglesham 8 May 2007

Observers are always keen to refer back to the original McCrone report when it suits their purposes to do so - so let me do likewise.

“ One other message to emerge from the analysis of pay trends was the fact that over the past quarter of a century teachers' salaries have progressed in fits and starts, with a series of small increases, then a major upwards revision – often following an independent review – then further small increases. The Committee considers this pattern to be unsatisfactory and liable to lead to discontent.”

I would suggest that we are now well into the series of small increases phase – McCrone pay levels have already been significantly eroded and with a background of a pay award limit of around 2% or even less being imposed on other public sector groups this is set to continue. The SNCT faces difficult negotiations next session to halt, never mind reverse, this trend now that the current 4 year agreement has ended. A further multi-year deal seems unlikely in the present climate and perhaps it is time for the SNCT to invoke one of the more obscure paragraphs of the Teaching Profession for the 21st Century Agreement, Section 5.4 Research Into Salary Levels “”¦..the SNCT will have the power to commission research into pay levels or any other matter which it may agree would be helpful within its remit”.I'm sure that the secretariat, Professional Officers and District Secretaries will be glad when the new SNCT Handbook replacing the old “Yellow Book” and incorporating all SNCT circulars (52 at the last count) and other extant agreements finally comes into force in August this year. Issues surrounding Annex C of the TP21 agreement remain and these centre around collegiality and workload and the absence of clear monitoring procedures at LNCT level.I expect also that concerns about the quality of leadership and management in our schools and the review of the Chartered Teacher programme to be at the forefront of ongoing discussion and debate during next session. I had secretly hoped that for the first time in many years the serious problem of indiscipline in our secondary schools would not feature in the Presidential Address, but it ranks highly in the league table of member concerns and with close to 43,000 exclusions from state schools last session (over 80% in the secondary sector) it is clearly a major ongoing issue. Once again I must stress that this presents a serious impediment to effective learning and teaching not only because of the loss of valuable, productive time in the classroom but also when the time spent on processing discipline issues through often tortuous school systems is taken into account. The SSTA is giving a voice to the vast majority of well motivated and co-operative young people who are having their educational opportunities denied by a small but significant minority of their peers. There are some worrying trends (more than 10% of those excluded last year had been excluded more than 3 times during the session yet there were fewer than 300 permanent exclusions, exclusions for physical assault or the threat of physical violence had increased) and extra dimensions are appearing with a small but increasing number of exclusions resulting from the misuse of mobile phones and websites.I spoke last year about the Behaviour in Scottish Schools survey being carried out at the time by the National Foundation for Educational Research on behalf of the Discipline Stakeholder Group (SEED, ADES, GTCS, COSLA and Teacher Unions). The key findings of the survey report (October 2006) were that the majority of respondents considered most pupils to be well behaved in and out of class, low level indiscipline was prevalent and disruptive but teachers were confident in dealing with this. There had been no significant increase in bad behaviour but no significant improvement either since the last survey in 2004. Serious aggressive incidents between pupils do happen occasionally but violence towards teachers is rare. Head teachers have a far more positive perception of discipline issues than either teachers, support staff and particularly pupils themselves. When all staff are involved in discipline improvement and feel supported by senior staff they are more positive about discipline and more confident and effective. Strong leadership is the key to best practice developments based on the Better Behaviour, Better Learning (2001) agenda but implementation of suggested strategies is not consistent at local authority and individual school level.

How many teachers have heard of, never mind been trained in, new approaches designed to improve behaviour?

Staged Intervention, Restorative Practices, The Motivated School, The Solution Oriented School, Cool in School. Behaviour Co-ordinators?

Every council and head teacher is expected to use a suitable mix of these measures known to improve behaviour. Have you had any contact with your authority Positive Behaviour Team (formerly Regional Communication Team) member?

They work with teachers and schools to develop these approaches to positive behaviour.All of this is part of the joint Action Plan agreed by the Discipline Stakeholder Group back in October 2006 but yet to be published.

Additionally other agreed measures are;• The Executive will do more to support quality improvements in on-site and off-site behaviour units.

• New practice guidance on better behaviour in corridors and playgrounds will be developed.

• Head teachers will be expected to engage with all staff and other members of the school community to develop and sustain behaviour policies and approaches to promoting positive behaviour in school.

• The Positive Behaviour Team will develop Executive funded training for Additional Support staff who should be better integrated into school discipline systems.

• HMIe will evaluate the extent to which policies and strategies impact on the experiences of teachers and pupils in schools and classrooms.The SSTA will carefully monitor these initiatives to ensure that outcomes are delivered – only in this way can improvement occur. There may well be long term benefits flowing from these proposals but in the short term the negative effect of poorly motivated and disruptive pupils for whom repeated short term exclusion presents little deterrent will continue to undermine the ability of teachers to uphold classroom discipline, damaging the experience of the majority and causing irrevocable harm to their own life prospects. Is anyone here going to confess to completing either the Scottish Parliament or Local Council ballot form incorrectly? Statistically about 20 people from a group this size got it wrong in one way or another and this, along with the whole catalogue of events both preceding and since the election itself, have contributed to a situation which dwarfs even the fiasco surrounding the cost of the Holyrood Parliament building itself. “You couldn't make it up” - even the most talented scriptwriters would have struggled to justify the inclusion of so many “ I don't believe it” scenarios into one series, never mind one programme, of “Yes Minister”. The only consolation is that amidst all the chaos and confusion no one has got round to blaming teachers and the education system – yet!!

And it had all started so harmlessly. Party manifestos were predictable as far as education commitments were concerned and largely devoid of specific promises to the secondary sector. Class size reductions would apply in early primary, expansion of provision would be at pre-school nursery and even playgroup stages, introduction of a second language and employment of extra modern language teachers would begin earlier in primary school. In Further and Higher Education there were undertakings to investigate general funding levels and student funding and finance, to scrap the graduate endowment scheme, to provide extra money for research and to increase degree and post graduate courses in science and languages. The main policy thrust with implications for secondary schools came in the area of school / work transition with the intention to expand the Modern Apprenticeship scheme, School / College Partnerships and School / Business Partnerships and to establish Skills Academies making leaving school before 18 years of age conditional on staying in education, training or full-time volunteering. Otherwise, only those general pledges to refurbish or rebuild 250 schools, to make school premises available for community use during evenings and weekends, to give more power to Head Teachers and more choice to parents, to create a homework support service, to ensure 1 hour of physical activity for all pupils each day, to devise individual local authority strategy for teaching science and technical subjects and, most importantly, to introduce a Discipline Code with rights and responsibilities for teachers parents and pupils, impinge on SSTA members.I was intrigued by the education manifesto of one particular party which simply pledged to “restore discipline and traditional teaching methods to make sure all students are literate, numerate and well educated, instead of being fed trendy PC nonsense.” I had considered a Congress competition to “Name that Party” but couldn't think of a suitable way of rewarding the winner. Which, if any, of these manifesto commitments ever reaches fruition against a background of lost, missing and late postal votes, technical problems, software glitches and rejected ballot papers, suspended counts, legal challenges, attempted coalitions, failed coalitions, possible minority governments and deadlines for the appointment of a Presiding Officer and First Minister is beyond a mere SSTA President but the fall-out from this election has certainly undermined electorate confidence. It is now up to the members of the new Scottish Parliament and Scottish Executive to restore our confidence through their actions in the months ahead. The Association owes no political allegiance to any party and whatever the personal views of individual members, is committed to working constructively with governments and Education Ministers of any and all political group. The “What's best for Scotland's schools, Scotland's pupils and Scotland's teachers?” test will always apply and we will uphold our web-site mission statement, “focusing on advancing education in Scotland and promoting the interests of Scottish secondary teachers.”

It only remains for me to thank the Association and you the members for allowing me the privilege of being your President for the past two years. I have enjoyed the experience tremendously and the opportunity to represent the Association in Scotland, elsewhere in the UK and Ireland and occasionally on a European and world stage has given me enormous personal satisfaction. The SSTA is held in high esteem in the wider education community and I hope that I have contributed at least in part to the maintenance of this enviable position. I have made many friends at home and abroad during my Presidency. I have also amassed a vast collection of ID/Security badges over the years - available to purchase on e-Bay in the next few weeks, developed an unhealthy, “train spotters” knowledge of railway timetables to and from Aberdeen and an intimate knowledge of the bends and speed cameras on the M90 / A90 between Edinburgh and Aberdeen. The General Treasurer will be enormously relieved that the President's travelling expenses will now be brought under tighter control. However, it is through the routine core work of the Association that the organisation will flourish and in this context I must thank our General Secretary, David Eaglesham, our Depute General Secretary, Jim Docherty and the team of Professional Officers, and Executive Officer, Lesley Reid-Galbraith and the admin staff at West End House for their advice, help and support since 2003 during my period as Vice-President and President.

I know that Ann has done a vast amount of work as my Vice-President and I am aware of the considerable contribution Peter has made to the Association over the years – I am confident that the Association is in safe hands and wish the Ballinger/Wright team every success during 2007 – 09. ALBERT MCKAY

11 May 2007.

CONGRESS 2007 MOTIONS PASSED

The following motions were approved at the Association's 63nd Annual Congress, 11-12 May 2002 , Hilton Coylumbridge, Aviemore. The following motions were approved by Congress.

MOTION 1This Association believes that employers of teachers in Scottish schools should ensure that every time a pupil is excluded from school for violent behaviour, a Risk Assessment is carried out, as a matter of course, before that pupil returns to school.

MOTION 2This Association expresses grave concern about misuse of internet posting sites to harass, intimidate and defame teachers. The Association calls on the Scottish Executive to co-operate with all appropriate regulatory bodies to ensure that owners of such sites are made responsible for the content therein.

MOTION 3Congress calls on the Scottish Executive and the GTC(S) to ensure that the providers of Initial Teacher Education courses in Scotland review each of these courses to ensure that students are appropriately trained regarding Health & Safety legislation and regulation. Students should also be trained to recognise problems which they may encounter as teachers and which may affect the health & safety of both pupils and teachers.

MOTION 4 This Association, being aware of unusually high levels of mesothelioma in the population who attended school in Scotland from the 1960s onwards, demands that the Scottish Executive undertakes an intensive audit of all local authority schools in Scotland and ensures that no asbestos remains present in these buildings so that in consequence future health risks are minimised.

MOTION 5 This Association expresses concern that the focus of “A Curriculum for Excellence” loses sight of the traditional subject-based curriculum in favour of an excessive emphasis on a process driven approach.

MOTION 6 Congress notes with concern that, while schools are being exhorted to engage with the Curriculum for Excellence programme, there is, as yet, very little concrete detail with which to engage. SEED is therefore exhorted to produce a more definitive timetable for the programme's implementation and more information to assist schools with forward planning and necessary curricular decision-making.

MOTION 7This Congress calls on the Scottish Executive to take action to preserve the breadth of curriculum which has gained Scottish education an international reputation for excellence. The basic content of curriculum must be protected from individual Head Teachers and Authorities removing subjects currently on offer in schools and thus limiting choice to students.

MOTION 8Congress calls upon the incoming Scottish Executive and all local authorities to ensure that the principles of a Curriculum for Excellence are not compromised by reductions in funding or staffing in any of Scotland's schools.

MOTION 9This Association reminds local authorities that the concept of inclusion has a wider application than merely to assign or condemn young people with additional support needs to mainstream education where some are clearly unable to access the curriculum in any meaningful way.

MOTION 10Congress supports moves by the Scottish Executive to create an effective framework which ensures that monies intended for school use are actually used to provide services for or within schools and not diverted to non-educational services.

MOTION 11Now that all schools in Scotland are health promoting schools, this Association calls upon the Scottish Executive to encourage and assist local authorities to take all necessary steps to ensure that a teacher's work can be achieved within the agreed 35 hour week.

MOTION 12This Association welcomes, in principle, the proposed introduction, by UCAS, of post qualification applications (PQA) to Higher Education, but registers its concern on the potential workload implications for teachers during the summer holiday period.

MOTION 13This Association urges all local authorities to ensure that they observe the requirements of SNCT18 in disciplinary procedures relating to teachers. Furthermore, we urge employers to ensure that no employee may act as investigating officer without having undergone relevant training to include familiarisation with ACAS Code of Practice and the Employment Act 2002.

EMERGENCY MOTION

Congress welcomes the assertion by the Scottish Executive that funding will be made available to reduce class sizes in S1/S2 English and Maths from August 2007.

Congress does, however, remain sceptical that the introduction of 20 as an 'average' rather than 'maximum' class size will be to the benefit of all pupils, particularly those who will remain in classes of over 20 pupils and calls upon the new Minister for Education to reaffirm the SEED commitment to a maximum class size of 20.

63rd ANNUAL CONGRESS 2007 - 11/12 MAY 2007

The Association's Annual Congress was held on the 11 & 12 May at the Hilton Coylumbridge, Aviemore. Details of motions passed, President's Address and the General Secretary's Report are now available for your information

GENERAL SECRETARY'S REPORT - FRIDAY 12 MAY 2006

President, Colleagues,I rise today to present to you the report of the General Secretary. I now do this for the 10th time, re-enacting my first speech to you here in Aviemore in 1997. You may recall that day well, but it will almost certainly be for reasons other than the perspicacity and erudition of my peroration. Yes, it was the day when Anthony Charles Lynton Blair, aged 14 ¾ first ascended to the throne and swept away 17 years of Tory misrule. The good old days – days when any scandal or disaster by new Labour could be blamed on “the bleedin' Tories.” So, no change there then Charles Clarke?My personal recollections of that day have a slightly different focus – the awesome task of advising the then Acting-President Bill Guthrie, of 4 weeks standing, on the basis of my several weeks of experience; a comedy of errors in the suspension of standing orders in the Constitutional Amendment session; doing TV interviews when I was due to be speaking in the hall. Ah yes, the good old days indeed. However, my purpose in making reference to this anniversary is to ask you to join me in looking at the ways in which we as an Association have changed or remained the same over that period.In the vast majority of ways, we have collectively made huge advances. Not least of these is the reversal of the previous trend of a falling membership to give us a 40% increase in membership against a background of lower teacher numbers overall. It would be very wrong, however, to look only at these bare statistics quod vide school exam results and league tables. If all we did was recruit with empty promises we might well have imploded by now. Instead, what we have seen is an empowerment of our activists and a huge expansion of our capacity to deliver services to members. We have decentralised power and allowed and encouraged lay members at national and local level to seize the opportunity to advance the cause of the Association at every and any opportunity.We have reshaped our staffing to give even greater priority to direct Member and Official support. Our administrative colleagues have been encouraged and enabled to work at the highest level of their personal capacity and as a result we now have outstanding achievement in the technical and service areas of our business. Their excellent input has freed up our Secretariat and Professional Officers to devote much more time to direct contact with members and officials, whilst ensuring the highest level of service delivery overall. Our continued expansion in quantity and quality has seen us move premises on two occasions, most recently to our new and as yet unnamed office in West End Place. As well as restoring our capacity to hold meetings within the office once more, we have paved the way for future growth and development. This signifies the attitude of a dynamic and forward thinking union, confident in its past achievements and its future prospects.Our influence and impact on the education scene remains at a consistently high level, locally, nationally and internationally. I have to repeat to you, however, that not everything has changed. In some ways we have not budged an inch, and we remain exactly where we were when I reported to you for the first time. What are these ways?Our stance as being non party-political remains unaltered. We are a broad church, with activists from all political parties and none, but we are beholden to no external group. This allows us to be unchanged in our other main stance of being fearlessly willing to speak out on every issue we believe to be of concern. We remain willing to be eccentric, egregious and emphatic as well as consensual and co-operative as the need arises. We speak in measured tones, or stridently as the need arises and we speak with authority on our areas of expertise and only on these.We remain distinctive as a union for secondary teachers and schools, whilst showing the greatest respect for our colleagues who work in other sectors of education in which we do not operate. This applies to our geographically separated kith and kin in these islands and all over the world, not least the recent delegation from New Zealand who sought our views in their visit to our office just last week. Here endeth the first reading!Going back to a more recent date, 2003 to be precise, I reported to you my growing concerns about the role of local authorities in a devolved Scotland. Our policy moved on in 2004 to call for sharing of services across Council boundaries in addition to our longstanding but often forgotten policy of having Joint Boards for education, most likely along the lines of the police force and health services. I have to report to you today that there is a more urgent need than ever to review governmental functions in a devolved Scotland. In a nation of 5 million persons, we simply do not need the level of bureaucracy that we suffer under. In terms of education we have organised, controlled or maintained at national level the curriculum, examinations, teacher entry/exit and qualifications, pensions, salaries, conditions of service, CPD, promotion structures, inspections, overall funding levels, health and safety parameters, employment law, old uncle Tom Cobleigh and all. There is a national strategy which seeks to devolve much operational control to the individual school and head teacher.What then does this leave us in the middle? 32 local authorities who are simultaneously charged with implementation of all of the national strategies whilst attempting to show how much better they are than their neighbouring authority. As Professor Richard Kerley recently put it, how can there be 32 best ways to pay salaries to staff? How can there be 32 best ways of interpreting SNCT 26? How do the young people of our nation benefit from 32 separate sets of local conditions and arrangements? At what price comes such diversity? It is a constant source of contention that tracing the progress of money allocated at Holyrood (or Westminster) to be used in schools is more akin to a game of “find the lady” than a scientific analysis. The so called “Brown money“ which we hear of annually is an unknown quantity to most head teachers. The fog of war obscures the whole issue of finance, so much so that we now have Highland Council threatening the demise of all Advanced Higher classes. The reason given – yes it's the other old game - blame McCrone! The lack of classes is down to the extra non-contact time from 2006 apparently, even though all of the McCrone agreement was fully costed and funded, from 2001 onwards.The true underlying problem is in the structure we have. It does not require 32 separate authorities to administer the system. The concept that local democracy hugely influences strategy is outdated in the context of the education service we now have. Do the citizens of Hamilton and Motherwell have such radically different views about education as they have football teams in different leagues? Are the requirements of young people in Musselburgh so different to those in Dalkeith or Peebles? Very few, if any, motorists now subscribe to the old theories that certain brands of petrol are superior to others. The old allegiance to BP and Shell has now been replaced with buying from the cheapest or most convenient source, reassured by the BS number on the pump and the activities of inspectors. Our habits have changed radically in this area. The same should be true of governance of schools – we need a new model which avoids the problems created by the 1994 local Government Reform Act, passed by – oh yes, of course – the “bleedin' Tories.”When the Scottish Executive get around to looking at all of this after the 2007 election, they could do worse than look at our standing policy for joint boards and devise a system around that model. As an Association we will need to have some debate about our view on what shape we believe any reformed system would have, and we need to do this in the near future.In conclusion, I want to make a third visit to my past reports, this time to 2004 when I gave you a glimpse into the way I saw the world in 2020. Bringing you up to date involves letting you know that First Minister Tommy Sheridan survived the “votes for flights to the moon” scandal and went on to sit in the new Scottish House of Peers as “Lord Sheridan of that ilk.” Taking you even further beyond this world of 2020, an exercise which we have had to undertake in the recent negotiations on pensions, we need to look at the long-term trends in birth rates and population structures. Whilst these matters will not directly affect most of those in the room today during their teaching service, we do have to look forward to see what kind of education system and what kind of teachers we will require in 2040 and beyond.The falling birth rate – down by 32% since 1960 continues its cyclical downward trend. The impact of this will be to leave us with an ever-reducing group of young and working-age citizens whilst the over 60s will be the largest group in the overall profile. These diagrams are actually representative of Germany, but the trends are made very clear and are equally true of the UK. Will a society with this greater dependence on a smaller number of wealth-creating citizens start to press for a more Dickensian approach to education and work? Will we see selection at 5 or 10 years of age into the “students” and the “workers” to enable a much greater young workforce to help support the rest of the community? Will teachers be expected to run an increasingly elitist system for the greater good of all? Will the average age of teachers in 2040 creep up and up so that much of the service delivery is done by colleagues over 65? The concept of “Knowledge leverage” will apply in the world of 2040, so much so that, for example, a naval warship which currently has a crew of 350-400 will operate with less than 100 through the use of this technologically driven “Knowledge leverage”. Pilotless aircraft are already seen as the next step in potentially hostile environments such as flying football fans of a certain nation to away football matches. The ability of an elite of highly-trained and skilled workers to deliver with a minimum of human interaction will be crucial to the prosperity and growth that nations will demand and suggests that differential levels of education may well become the norm. These will be based, however, not on parental wealth or background, but on a psychometric testing of perceived aptitude for the higher order tasks. It will echo the world of Romanian gymnasts and East German swimmers, segregated at the age of 5 or less and “hothoused” to harness their capacity to deliver, regardless of the personal consequences. There will be a considerable moral dilemma for the SSTA members of 2040 – societal development or personal growth may be the choices for learners in those days.In the usual way of latter-day prophecies, it may well be that 2040 arrives long before its chronological position. Regardless, the consequences will be equally inescapable. Crystal ball gazing it may be, but to the 31-year-old teachers today, this is their future career and we must prepare them and our Association for these days. What kind of union will we require then for these years ahead? We will still need a union run by its activists, one in which member involvement remains crucial, and one which is characterised by the personal touch. And who will run this union in 10 or 20 or 30 years time? The baton will pass to those of you here today, and to those back in your schools, just as it has passed from generation to generations over that last 60-some years. What we need to do now is to enable the next generation to maintain the tradition, the record of achievement and the forward-mindedness of this Association. In your hands the future of the Association and all it stands for will be safely assured. You will not fail us. I present my report. David Eaglesham

11 May 2007

Congress will be hugely relieved to hear that I have no intention of giving a resume of all the meetings, conferences and other events I have attended over the past year but I would like to mention briefly two very contrasting events which illustrate for me, in different ways, the Association's central place as an organisation for professional teachers. The first of these, and by far the largest, was that wonderful sun-filled day on Saturday 2 July last year when half a dozen SSTA members, along with around 250,000 others from Scotland, the UK, Europe and beyond, took part in the Make Poverty History march in Edinburgh prior to the G8 summit at Gleneagles. Some of the events surrounding the G8 itself are perhaps best forgotten but I'm sure that the scale of the march, the camaraderie and unity of purpose amongst the many diverse groups participating and hopefully the clear message sent to governments that day will remain in our memories forever. The SSTA banner (with a little help and local knowledge of the area surrounding the Meadows) was on prominent display. The second, and possibly one of the smallest, was on a somewhat less sun-filled day on a wet and windy evening in Stornoway on Wednesday 15 February this year when I attended the Eilean Siar District AGM. There were 9 members in attendance, several apologies received and Alistair Moffat apologised for the unusually sparse turn out. When I tell you that there are 71 members in Eilean Siar District and that over 12% of the membership were in attendance that evening (equivalent to over 50 attending meetings in my own Aberdeenshire District) I think we need Alistair to share the secrets

of his success in achieving such a high participation rate. It became clear in the course of the evening that this was a meeting of dedicated and experienced teachers, concerned for the future of their profession and fiercely loyal to the SSTA and all it stands for and I am confident that I would have found the same commitment to the ideals of the Association at every District / Area AGM.This year's Congress theme “Supporting Teacher Professionalism” recognises this as a core responsibility of the Association towards its members, but also identifies the emphasis currently placed on the development of a confident and highly regarded workforce of committed, well-trained and supported teachers with an enhanced concept of professional autonomy within a more collegiate working environment and has its origins both in the original McCrone Report published in May 2000 and the “Teaching Profession for the 21st Century” agreement based on the McCrone recommendations published in January 2001. Scottish Ministers have increasingly emphasised the value they place on the professionalism of teachers in Scotland and Curriculum for Excellence documentation stresses the move towards more responsibility for professional judgement and creativity within broader curriculum parameters. I must admit that, for me, this does make a welcome change from being constantly berated for a complete lack of professionalism during various disputes during the last 30 years and an uneasy feeling that teachers were being seen more as technicians delivering production-line qualifications rather than credible skilled professionals. August 2006 is the very earliest date for the criteria identified in Annex C of the TP 21 agreement to be seen to be in place, and for the final sections of the jigsaw leading to a formal implementation of the national agreement on the working week. At this point, the contractual obligations of teachers will be expressed simply in terms of a 35 hour week within which a maximum of 22.5 hours will be devoted to class contact. This is conditional on there being sufficient teachers in place to deliver the 22.5 hour weekly maximum class-contact time, the establishment of well-functioning national, local and school-based negotiating machinery, clear monitoring procedures at local LNCT level, the outcome of a sample workload survey referring to the feasibility of the 35 hour working week and the outcome of an evaluation of working arrangements at local level assessing the wider climate of collegiality in schools. This is a decision for the SNCT, but there would appear to be little likelihood of a determination that all of the objective conditions are in place at this stage and this is certainly the SSTA view. Our own survey of members highlights significant shortcomings in core areas such as the failure of school Working Time Agreements to limit and manage teacher workload enabling duties to be completed within a 35 hour week, the very variable impact of additional support staff in removing Annex E non-teaching duties from teaching staff and disappointing levels of collegiate working – there are clearly enormous differences from school to school even within the same local authority.

There remains a lot of work to be done both locally and nationally before we can consign our own battered copies of the SSTA TP 21 agreement to the recycling bin.

In his address to Congress last year, in the context of pupil behaviour and school discipline, Alan McKenzie encouraged members to “Tell it as it is” and many of you may have had just such an opportunity in late February / early March this year if you and your school had been selected as part of a representative sample to complete the National Survey on School Discipline questionnaire. This is part of a national survey of behaviour in schools in Scotland commissioned by the Scottish Executive, supported by teacher unions and COSLA and carried out by the National Foundation for Educational Research by seeking the opinions of head teachers, teachers, non-teaching staff and pupils across the country with the aim of developing a greater understanding of the reality of pupil behaviour and discipline in Scottish schools.Although initial analysis and findings will not be available until mid-June and many teachers will question the need for yet more statistics to establish what every teaching professional already knows to be a serious, endemic and deteriorating problem in classrooms throughout the country, having corroborative research can't but strengthen our position in demanding resources and supportive measures to tackle the situation more effectively.

The SSTA has consistently maintained that the rights and educational opportunities of the co-operative and conscientious majority of our young people are being regularly

compromised by the actions of a small yet significant disruptive minority and nothing that has happened in the last few years has changed this view - if anything recent experience has consolidated these concerns.We must acknowledge and recognise that an increasing proportion of our young people have additional support needs, either physical, social, emotional or behavioural, and the principles underlying the educational inclusion initiative are readily accepted and worthy of our support. The daily realities in our schools of this drive for inclusion at all costs are not. Across the broad inclusion spectrum, initiatives that are well planned and organised, well supported and suitably resourced, well monitored and regularly reviewed and modified, have the greatest chance of success. There must, however, be a further criterion and that is an “implications for the majority test” and if there are significant negative effects identified then there has to be an admission of failure and alternative provision developed with the absolute minimum of delay. This is particularly so in the context of behaviour and indiscipline. Children and young people prefer to have clearly defined behaviour parameters and respond better, and indeed, are more comfortable when such fair and unambiguous guidelines exist. This is precisely why all schools have a classroom code of conduct incorporated into their wider discipline policy with escalating sanctions for repeated and serious breaches of classroom behaviour rules. No matter how well thought-out this code of conduct may be and how acceptable it may be to the majority of young people

in the school, it can be quickly discredited, rendered inoperable and almost worthless by a few pupils in any class who quickly and regularly reach the upper levels of the discipline system and for whom short periods of exclusion from class and ultimately from school itself pose little deterrent. The corrosive effect of such pupils being regularly recycled through the school's discipline system has a generally damaging effect on teachers' ability to maintain good class discipline, but equally damaging are the consequences of permanent exclusion on the life prospects of the individuals concerned. There has to be a much greater emphasis on the availability of alternative educational provision in such circumstances and at a much earlier stage than at the point of permanent exclusion – there are too many losers by then!! I turn now to the President's Award for the most consistently irritating phrase of the year, and although several contenders for this accolade spring to mind for me, one stands head and shoulders above all others: “gold-plated public sector pensions”. It seems that no debate on the future of pensions in the UK is ever complete without such a reference, however ill-informed or misleading. Comments of this nature contribute nothing positive or constructive, but do succeed in fomenting envy and indeed hostility towards public sector employees.

Teachers rightly have always held the view that the benefits of their pension scheme represent an element of deferred salary, and, to some extent, compensate for the generally lower salary levels available during their working lives compared to similarly qualified professionals in other career areas. Remember, too, that today's pensions relate largely to contributions made during the 1970s, 80s and 90s when salary levels in teaching were at times relatively worse than they are today.Teachers have faithfully contributed 6% of salary into a scheme rated safe - yes, with unspectacular benefits (half salary after 40 years); yes, gold-plated - no. Indeed, so unspectacular that in the 80s and early 90s teachers were besieged by insurance companies and financial advisers falling over themselves promising “wealth beyond rubies” for doing nothing more than opting out of the Teachers' Pension Scheme and into a money purchase scheme. How times have changed - as with the similar advice to ditch your dull repayment mortgage and to switch to an endowment mortgage, the promise of future wealth has disappeared like snow off a dyke. Safe final salary schemes, once dull and boring, are now gold-plated. We are grateful to have it pointed out to us that for all these years, we have had a gold-plated scheme without knowing it but not to be told that it is now too good and that it must be snatched away. I have little recollection of any call during the past 30 years for improvements to the Teachers' Pension Scheme to bring parity with the best “platinum-plated” private sector schemes.

I don't deny that there has been some scandalous treatment of groups of private sector workers who have seen company pension schemes being wound up and that final salary schemes have been closed by some companies, but why is it that public sector pensions should always be compared to the worst available in private industry and never to the best? And when, for once, public sector pensioners seem to be enjoying a fairer pensions deal does this bring such envy and hostility?As I look forward to my second year in office, I do so convinced that changes during the past year have enhanced markedly the capability of the Association to offer a professional service to professional teachers. The appointment of our two Professional Officers and the move to modern, more flexible office accommodation, will deliver clear and important longer-term efficiency and financial benefits. The SSTA remains a strong and vibrant organisation with a stable and healthy membership, but there can be no complacency about the future and we must be ready now to respond to the challenges presented by a significant number of member retirements over the next decade. I would like to take the opportunity to thank Aberdeenshire Council for the generous allocation of time during the past year. This has meant that it has been possible to minimise any conflict between Aberdeenshire District Secretary and Association President responsibilities and has done much to preserve my sanity – at least for another year!!ALBERT MCKAY

12 May 2006.