NEWS

Call to ‘stop insulting the profession’

Teachers must be supported, not denigrated, the NASUWT has told a forum of parliamentarians and educationalists.

Dr Patrick Roach, the NASUWT’s Assistant General Secretary for Policy and Communications [left], addressed members of the Westminster Education Forum, which brings together MPs and civil servants with public organisations and industry representatives to share ideas and shape policy making on education. Speaking on the topic ‘Morale and Recruitment – the State of the Workforce’, Dr Roach called for an end to attacks on teacher quality, saying that the view peddled by some politicians that the profession is riddled with incompetent teachers was false and insulting to the profession.

“What is clear,” he said, “is that there has been a persistent failure to invest in the continuing development of teacher quality at all stages of teachers’ careers. “Investing in professional development is the means for raising teacher quality; not by denigrating the profession; not by restricting access to government-funded initial teacher training (ITT) only to those students who have previously graduated with a 2:2 or higher degree or who had the privilege of studying at an elite university; nor by accelerating the fast-track to the sack by diluting or removing the employment rights of teachers; but by creating the conditions in every school for confident professional practice and teacher agency to be nurtured, encouraged, and supported.”

Dr Roach called for a contractual entitlement to high quality continuing professional development (CPD) to become a right for all teachers and stated that the new Masters in Teaching and Learning (MTL) would help to achieve this aim. An entitlement to CPD must also be at the heart of the Government’s new licence to practise plans, Dr Roach said, warning that teachers would not support the plans if they amounted to an ‘MOT for teachers’ or placed additional duties or responsibilities on them.


Estyn and the NASUWT agree TLR position

The NASUWT has secured recognition from Estyn that teachers in Wales should not be undertaking additional duties or responsibilities without being awarded a Teaching and Learning Responsibility (TLR) payment. The inspection body has agreed to make this clear in its self-evaluation guidance for schools, which is currently being prepared.

The NASUWT is concerned that too many schools are flouting the law by expecting teachers to take on the accountability for a subject area or to manage other teachers without appropriate additional remuneration. Agreement was reached during a meeting between the NASUWT and Estyn, which was chaired by the new Chief Inspector of Schools, Ann Keane [right].

During the meeting the NASUWT also raised concerns about the growing bureaucracy associated with self-evaluation and pupil assessment. Estyn representatives were clear that self- evaluation should be embedded within schools’ daily processes rather than schools producing one-off reports for individual departments. The NASUWT views this as signalling the end of departmental reviews. It was also stated by Estyn that under the new inspection framework the inspectorate will be expecting schools to move away from excessive and burdensome planning and assessment systems.

The NASUWT pressed Estyn to take a tougher stance on contract compliance and to monitor whether teachers and school leaders are receiving all of their contractual entitlements on pay and working conditions. Estyn representatives said they were willing for inspectors to meet with workplace union representatives during inspections where concerns were being raised by staff about compliance.

The NASUWT will continue to press for Estyn’s remit to more directly embrace issues of compliance. For more information on TLRs and contract compliance in Wales, see the NASUWT website at www.nasuwt.org.uk/ PayPensionsandConditions/Wales/Pay/index.htm.


Lesson Observation

The evidence is growing that teachers in Wales are being observed inappropriately by school improvement officers, advisers and governors.

The NASUWT is clear that the only person who can enter a teacher’s classroom without the prior consent and agreement of the teacher is the headteacher and even then there must be justification. School improvement officers, other staff members,

governors and local authority officers are only able to observe a teacher’s lesson if that teacher has invited them to do so. The only exceptions are during Estyn inspections and the application of capability procedures, performance management or induction.