Conference 2008 was in Manchester. Notts had a large delegation - Chris Gibbon, Bec Frankland, Margaret Hamilton, Dan Farthing, Rob Illingworth, Louise Regan, from Central Notts, Giovanni Russo, Tim Cooper, Claire Jenkins, Paul O'Neill, Sarah Leigh Barnett from South Notts, Ivan Wels and Andy Parsons from Division and Liam Conway from CBC.

Louise, Liam, Ivan, Claire and Rob spoke in debates. Louise moved the Ofsted amendment, Claire seconded the LGBT motion in the Equalities

section, Rob seconded the Young Teachers motion and seconded an amendment to the Performance Management motion, Ivan seconded the Public Sector Pay Freeze motion and the Ofsted amendment and Liam moved the workload amendment and spoke in the debate on support for school representatives.

Conference was chaired by Bill Greenshields of Derbyshire NUT.

On Sunday morning Andy Parsons was awarded his RUMDA (Regional Union Membership Development Award). This was well deserved following the hard work he has put in to increasing our membership over the year.

Sally Hunt, General Secretary of the UCU., spoke about the need to defend public services and joint work towards the strike on April 24th. She talked about continued joint work on public sector pay and conditions.

Saturday morning session was opened by Bill’s speck. His main focus was around the privatization agenda.

The first session was Membership and Communications during which two motions were supported by Conference, one on Young Teachers and the other on Defending School Representatives.

The second session was Organisation and Administration and a motion on Support for Local Associations and Divisions   the UCU also spoke in this session.

The next session was Salaries and Superannuation. The priority motion on Salaries, Workload, Class size and Supporting Young Teachers was carried in this session and a subsequent motion on the Public Sector Pay freeze was also carried. There was much discussion about the need for a good turnout on April 24th but also for a continuing campaign of action over all these issues to ensure a real improvement for our members.

Then the Coordination and Finance section discussed and carried motions on Supply/Agency Teachers and Negotiating Rights and Social Partnership.

This was followed by the private session on the union finances. Ian Murch made this an enjoyable and entertaining session but also informative. We were told that the union finances are in good shape, we are gradually increasing the sustentation fund and looking at more ethical investments for the future.

We then discussed and agreed motions put forward by the Equalities Conferences. Overseas Trained Teachers was submitted by the Black Teachers Conference and International Homophobia and Transphobia from the LGBT Teachers Conference.

There was then a repeat of last years questions for the general secretary. There were a number of questions put to Steve Sinnott. Delegates from Nottinghamshire had hoped to ask questions but were not taken.

We then moved to the Conditions of Service section. We discussed and passed motions on Workload and Maximum Class Size. Liam spoke about the need for national action on workload. There was a fringe meeting where Patrick Murphy from Leeds spoke about their workload campaign in Primary Schools in Leeds. We have arranged a meeting for Mansfield schools initially to discuss developing a similar plan of coordinated action across a number of schools.

Monday morning session began with Conditions of Service and then moved to the Education Early Years section. Here we

covered motions on the Primary Curriculum and Early Years. We then moved to the Education General section and started with the Priority Motion on Funding of Education in Wales

This was followed by motions discussed and passed on Classroom Behaviour, National Curriculum Testing and Ofsted.

The next section, Education Secondary, discussed and passed motions on Academies and Specialist

Diplomas.

We then moved to the Equal Opportunities Section where motions on Gender and Anti-Racism were discussed and agreed. This is the first year for a long time that conference has discussed a motion on Gender – there are some quite disturbing statistics – the majority of our membership are women and yet they are the minority in most positions of authority throughout the union at local, regional and national level. A number of women delegates from Notts attended the women’s fringe meeting – this saw the launch of an excellent DVD produced by the TUC about equal pay but was hindered by lack of seats and no speakers for the lap top meaning many women were unable to hear! This is an area I think we need to look at developing over the next year

taking up the issues identified in the main motion and amendments.

On Tuesday morning the International Section discussed and agreed a motion on War. Following this in the Special Educational Needs section a motion on Inclusion was discussed and agreed.

During unfinished business we completed motions on Class size, Ofsted, the Primary Curriculum and Performance Management. The motion and an amendment on Ofsted were written by Notts delegates and again emphasised the need for real action over the next year on this issue. Judy Moorhouse of the executive was not happy that we criticised a lack of action taken nationally but was not able to tell us anything they had done to enact previous conference policy! It is important that we ensure there is an effort to see this policy followed through over the next year.

Overall a successful conference with many of the motions and amendments submitted by associations and divisions being considered however it is not enough that these are discussed annually. It is now essential that the necessary work is carried

out by the executive and by officers around the country to ensure that these are acted upon. This will improve conditions for everyone.

Louise Regan March 2008