National Conference 2008, Manchester

Another conference of great debate. This year's national president is Bill Greenshields and he chaired conference fairly and with a sharp wit. In his opening address he reminded delegates that we are the only union that accepts only qualified teachers as members and insists on qualified teachers in every class.

Although a written report from delegates will be available at the next association meeting and will be publicised on our local website, along with details of all motions passed, some of the main outcomes are highlighted in this piece.

As expected, there was talk of how to continue the current action on pay and a priority motion from the national executive, unanimously passed by conference, called for a strategy to:

• Protect and improve teachers' salaries;
• Reduce teachers' workload;
• Establish enforceable class-size maxima;
• Ease the financial burden facing many young teachers;
• Fund state schools on a par with the independent sector.

The strategy to include:

• Preparing members for industrial action, including consideration of discontinuous action involving the widest possible coalition of public sector unions;
• Negotiations with the government;
• Working jointly with other teachers' organisations, other public sector unions and the TUC; and
• Active campaigning for education, teachers and the public sector in preparation for and during the forthcoming General Election in 2009 or 2010.

Peter Flack and Ian Leaver were due to propose and second a motion on faith schools, but we ran out of time before the debate was begun. However, Steve Boyce and Pete Flack moved and seconded a successful amendment to a motion on early years education to include reference to children's centres to protect teachers' conditions of service.

An excellent motion on supply/Agency teachers called for an end to a two-tier workforce. It is pleasing to note that our Local Authority are at last re-launching the idea of a permanent unattached supply pool, initially in the primary sector.

One of the best fringe meetings was on academies and a motion was passed restating our opposition to academies. The motion welcomed the support of the TUC and the continued unity between education unions on the issue. It also applauded the work of the Anti-Academies Alliance and the many local campaigns led by parents and teachers. It called for a legislation to return all existing academies to the state maintained sector.

In a rousing final address to conference, Steve Sinnott mentioned Leicester specifically and he talked about his visit to Leicester last month.

Several delegates gave interviews for TV and radio, particularly anticipating a debate on faith schools which, in the end, did not take place.

Other motions called for an end to compulsory homework in primary schools, reiterated our rejection of precise numerical targets when setting performance management objectives, and called for an end to our exclusion from national negotiating arrangements.