Mid Essex NUT Meetings

Forthcoming meetings are as follows :

 

Monday 22 September

Welcome Function

An invitation to alll NQT's and Teachers new to the area

to come and hear our young teachers talk about their experiences as NQT's

and give help and advice where needed.

School Representatives please come with your NQT's

Red Lion pub,
New London Rd.
Chelmsford from 7 to 9 p.m.

Please indicate if you would like a vegetarian meal

 
Wednesay 15th October

 

What are my rights as a Teacher?

And what do I do when things go wrong?

Red Lion pub,
New London Rd.
Chelmsford from 7 to 9 p.m..

Please indicate if you would like a vegetarian meal

Conferences

27 September at Congress House , a Conference for trade union and retired women
A look at how women's pensions have changed in 100 years, and how the UK pension compares with that of Europe.
Contact the secreatry for more information

2!st October Retired Teachers' Conference at Hamilton House.

 

More details as and when received.

 

Secretary’s Report to the AGM on 18th March 2008

This is my 12th annual report.

Meetings
There have been 4 General meetings since the last AGM , with subjects as varied as
reports back from our delegates at the Annual Conference and the Education Conference, to coping with Stress and dealing with Inheritance Tax and Investments.
All were well attended and members were given the opportunity to share any problems they had at school We had our usual School Reps. meeting which was well attended and our NQT meeting which was not. It is difficult to know how to encourage youngsters to come along and meet us. It works best if their school Rep. comes along too.

Membership
This has gone up to 1461 from 1430 last year. It includes 102 supply teachers, 98 retired, 48 in private schools and 45 in establishments other than schools. These include the Education Office, home tutors, the Inspection/ Advisory service. etc.

Newsletters
There have been 3 newsletters this year. Sufficient copies are sent into schools for all members and those not in school receive their copy by post or email. Newsletters are also posted on the website.

Website
This is updated at regular intervals and is linked to the National and Essex websites.

Conferences
We have been represented at the Annual conference, the Education conference and the Young Teachers’ conference.

Casework
This continues to increase and my phone rings constantly with members in need of help. The introduction of the Workload Agreement does not seem to have lessened teachers’ hours and the PPA time is not always allocated in blocks of time which are of any practical use.

Representation
I represent Essex Division on the JCC and SEN JCC and on the Essex group looking at the cost of Non vocational adult education.
At National level I am on the Retired Teachers Advisory committee and the Mental Health working party
I also represent the NUT on the :-
TUC Pensioner’s committee
The SERTUC Public Services and Pensioners Network
The NPC’s Council, Executive committee, Trade Union Working Party and the Women’s Working Party, the latter of which I now chair. Last week I attended the TUC Women’s Conference in Eastbourne and chaired a very successful meeting on “How Women’s Pensions Have Changed Over 100 Years. “
This is the Centenary of the introduction of the State Pension and the NPC are running year long activities, details of which can be found on www.pension100.co.uk

Marion Wilson 17/03/2008

Secretary’s Report to the AGM on 22nd March 2007

This is my 11th annual report.

Meetings
These continue to be lively well attended meetings. Jerry Glazier spoke on PPA and what counts towards directed time.
We were given a useful and enjoyable training session by John Dixon on “Learning to Negotiate” and a helpful talk about the new OFSTED regulations by Karen Robinson,
and held an in-house session on the excellent new NUT publication on Workload.
In addition we held our annual Welcome Function for NQT’s. It never fails to amaze me how today’s young people do not have the manners to reply to an invitation to a meeting with a free meal and a free bottle of wine, even if it is to say “No thank you”. Out of about 120 invitations sent out only a fraction took the trouble to reply although we did have a full house again.

Membership
Our current membership stands at 1430 compared to 1417 last year. Of these, there are 104 supply and 100 retired teachers.

Newsletters
Regular newsletters have been sent out to all members and can also be seen on the website. A new departure this year is that several of those members not in schools have agreed to receive their newsletter by email. This not only saves postage but a considerable amount of time in producing and addressing and ‘enveloping’ about 300 individuals newsletters.

Website
This is updated at regular intervals. The Essex website now has links to our website and both provide information about the other Essex associations.

Conferences
We have been represented both at the Annual Conference, the National Education Conference and the Young Teachers’ conferences.

Representation
I continue to represent Essex at the JCC and the SEN JCC.
At national level I am on the Retired Teachers’ Advisory committee.
In addition I am now representing the NUT on the NPC Council, Executive committee, Women’s Working party and the Trade Union working party.
As a consequence of my membership of the Women’s Working party, I recently attended the Women’s TUC conference.
Their most recent booklet on pensions aimed at retired, and about to retire women, will be sent to all our retired women members and those in their mid to late 50’s who request a copy.
I have also now been asked to represent the NUT on the TUC Pensioner’s committee and sit on the SERTUC Public Services and Pensioners committees, so life is not dull!

My thanks go to all our officers for their help and their willingness to continue in office.

Marion Wilson. 20/03/2007

 

 

Mid Essex AGM 2006Secretary's Report to the AGM on 13th March 2006

This is my 10th annual report
Meetings
We have continued the format of holding all our meetings in the same venue and in the evening. This has proved to be popular and we now have regular 'full houses'. In fact we hope this is not going to cause us a problem of having too many members turning up! Topics this last year have included Make Poverty History, PPAs , TLRs and Problem Pupils. In addition we had our regularschool representatives meeting in the summer term and the Welcome function in September, both of which were well attended. It would be helpful to know whether schools reps. prefer June or July for their meeting.
Membership
This has continued to grow and at 1417 is an increase on last year of 59. Of those, there are 104 supply and 98 retired teachers. Newsletters These are produced at regular intervals and sent to all members either via the school representative or by post for those who do not work in schools. The change in postal rates to include both size and weight will affect the cost of postage for the association in the coming year.
Website
This is updated regularly and we are still the only Essex local association to have a website, though Essex Division has now caught up with us and can be found on www.essexnut.org.uk
Representation
This year as County President I have attended County JCC meetings and the re-constituted SEN JCC. At national level I sit on the NUT Retired Teachers Advisory panel and through that on the Council, Executive committee and Women's working party of the National Pensioners Convention. The latter produced an excellent booklet on pensions for working women, copies of which were bought and sent to all current serving women members. I am also a member of the South East Region TUC Public Services committee, which gives an insight into the problems of other unions and other areas. My thanks go to all our officers but in particular to Paul White who left in the summer to become a student again, and to John Bowers who visited many schools to give help and advice with TLR's
M. Wilson 13/03/2006

 

 

Essex Division Conference

This is held every two years at Stoke Rochford. Last year in November Mid Essex was represented by the secretary and 4 young teachers.
Subjects ranged from the role of the school representative to how to get members actively involved in the union led by Hilary Bucky.
Jerry Glazier led a session on Management Allowances and Pensions and John Bangs on Performance Management and CPD.
Gloria Carpenter, a Basildon Infant head, spoke about pupil behaviour and on the last morning are young colleagues talked us through the plusses and minusses of their first term.Although there were obvious difficulties in one school the youngsters were very loyal and supportive of the more senior staff who they realised were also being stretched.
A very good weekend to be reccommended to anyone in the future.

The 4 NQT's at Stoke Rochford

 


The photo below is of NUT members at the meeting on 2nd November 2004

Free refreshments are provided at all meetings and expenses of 40p per mile are paid.

We will be holding 3 General Meetings this year, plus the AGM.

We also hold a Meeting for School Representatives in July, designed to help Reps in their day to day union work, and a Welcome Function for teachers new to the area in September

 

Welcome Function 2004

Jerry Glazier, hotfoot from Stratford on Avon, gave NQT's excellent advice on how to cope with the demands of teaching and how to get the most satisfaction out of the job. He also gave advice to school reps. who were there on cover, point 3 of the pay scale and many other topics of general interest.

NQT's enjoying an evening at The Red Lion with officers of Mid Essex

 

 

The Annual General Meeting 2004.

Secretary's report to the AGM on 24th February 2004 This is my 8th annual report. Meetings In the last year we have held 5 meetings and the AGM, with topics ranging from Pupil Behaviour and Inclusion, the 21 Tasks, Professional Unity to Non Contact Time For All, but at What Price? We had planned to look at the SATS boycott in our January meeting, but had to adjust the subject to Education versus SATS in the light of the ballot results. It is still very difficult to attract an audience although every effort is made to publicise meetings. Apart from posters to all schools and notification on the website, members at the host school are invited to meet officers at a lunch prior to the meeting and individual leaflets are sent to all members at the host school and on occasions to adjacent schools. The situation is worse in secondary schools with large membership. The more close knit working of staff in Primary schools appears to pay better dividends in terms of attendance. In addition to General meetings our annual School Representative meeting and Welcome Function for new teachers are held in the evening at appropriate times of the year. Membership Our membership now stands at 1329, of which 86 are supply teachers, 91 retired and others are individual members who do not teach in schools. In addition we now have 48 members in 9 private schools as well as from the Inspectorate and the Essex Education office. It is interesting to note the number of NQT's who are working as supply teachers. Many seem to prefer this to the rigours involved in coping with the ever-increasing burdens of a permanent school post. However with the advent of more Teaching Assistants acting as cover, they may soon find this is not a good option with regard to regular work. All new members receive a letter of welcome and the most recent newsletter and, at the same time, school representatives are notified of new members in their school. Newsletters These are sent to ALL members approximately every other month. A time consuming job but a necessary one when so few teachers manage to attend meetings. They are often used to give information about future meetings in the hope that it may attract someone to come along who might not otherwise have done so. Website This is updated at regular intervals when time and fresh news permits. Representation I have continued to represent members on the National Advisory committee for Retired Teachers and on the South East Region TUC Public Services committee and have just been appointed to represent the Union on the National Council of the National Pensioners Convention. We said goodbye to two of our stalwarts this year. Norman Judd, a long time committee member not just of the current Mid Essex Association but also of the original one, died last year, and our President Geof Lynn left for the warmer climes of a more southerly part of the country. Our thanks got to both of them for their time and commitment. Marion Wilson 24/02/ 2004

The Annual General Meeting 2003

This is my 7th annual report. Meetings In the last year we have held 5 meetings and the AGM with topics ranging from Target Setting, The Threshold, The Upper Pay Spine, Numeracy Strategy and the new Role of Support Staff, the latter being particularly topical at the time of the meeting. In spite of this it is becoming increasingly difficult to attract an audience although every effort is made to publicise meetings. Apart from posters to all schools and notification on the website, members at the host school are invited to meet officers at a lunch prior to the meeting and individual leaflets are sent to all members at the host school and on occasions to adjacent schools. We recognise that teachers are increasingly reluctant to travel to yet another meeting after school, which is why we take meetings to them rather than expect people to travel. Some associations do not have visiting speakers or indeed regular General meetings. This is a route we are reluctant to follow and indeed one wonders how these associations fulfil the requirements necessary to obtain their grant from Hamilton House. In addition to General meetings our annual School Representative meeting and Welcome Function for new teachers are held in the evening at appropriate times of the year. Membership Our membership now stands at 1279, of which 93 are supply teachers, 91 retired and others are individual members who do not teach in schools. In addition we now have 42 members in 9 private schools. This means that whenever a newsletter is sent out (of which there have been 4 this last year), some 250 have to be posted to home addresses on top of those sent to schools through the Wells Fargo. Postage cost is therefore about £50 by the time the cost of sending them to members in private schools is added on. However I believe this is an important part of communicating with members who are not necessarily based in schools and is something we should continue. All new members receive a letter of welcome and school representatives are notified of new members in their school at the same time. Representation I have continued to represent members on the National Advisory committee for Retired Teachers and on the South East Region TUC Local Government Forum. The latter has now been amalgamated with the Health Forum into a new Public Services committee. Marion Wilson 25/02/ 2003

 
John Dixon, the Regional Secretary with Reg Richardson,
former President of Essex ,at the AGM
Two Mid Essex members considering the debate on how to recruit more School reps. at the AGM

 

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