Page 34

NUT at the political party conferences

Making the point

The NUT has a strong presence at the party political conferences each year. Parliamentary Officer Emily Evans explains why.

The NUT attends the three main party conferences each year to take our campaign messages to the decision-makers and the media. This year we promoted our campaigns on phonics, Reading for Pleasure, workload and pensions, and highlighted our concerns about Government cuts to education budgets, the academies and free schools programme, the future of local authorities and fragmentation of the state education system. We also showcased our professional development and international work. 

Education is always a hot topic at party conferences. In a year when the Government has pressed ahead with unwelcome changes to education policy and teachers’ terms and conditions, the NUT worked hard to get its messages across. 

We held well-attended fringe meetings at the Liberal Democrat conference in Brighton, the Labour Party in Manchester and the Conservatives in Birmingham. We hosted popular fish suppers and drew the crowds with our Reading for Pleasure exhibition stand. We used these events to establish contacts with MPs, policy-makers, councillors and delegates, who often shared our concerns.

Award-winning stand

Our Reading for Pleasure stand was a useful platform from which to speak about our campaign to make reading for pleasure a fundamental part of childhood and learning. Those who visited it, including Olympic medallists and celebrities, enthused about the pleasure they found in reading. They largely shared our concerns about the Government’s nonsensical Year 1 phonics check, and the importance of making reading enjoyable. 

We asked visitors to record their favourite children’s stories in our enormous book. Top of the picture books was Paddy Ashdown’s favourite, The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle. Julia Donaldson’s The Gruffalo was popular too, but Ed Miliband preferred The Gruffalo’s Child. Judith Kerr’s The Tiger Who Came to Tea was chosen by Nick Clegg and Diane Abbott, while Stephen Twigg MP, Shadow Secretary of State for Education, plumped for Mrs Pepperpot by Alf Prøysen.

Continued on page 34