Education Motions 1-24

Created on: 14 May 2018 | Last modified: 31 Oct 2018


Motions

Resolutions

1. Dundee Local Association

"That this AGM instruct Council to campaign for a change in the way National 4 is assessed, moving National 4 to the same model of assessment as National 5."

Remitted

2. Dundee Local Association

"That this AGM commend the work of the EIS in delivering high quality CLPL and instruct Council to develop a strategy to increase such opportunities with a view to making the EIS the main provider of CLPL for Scottish Teachers."

Amendment Glasgow Local Association

Delete all after "opportunities"

Amendment Edinburgh Local Association

Delete "the" before "main provider" and replace with "a" after "Teachers" add "and to report on the resources that would be required for this."

Amendment Aberdeen Local Association

Insert after Scottish Teachers; "and associated professionals."

Carried

3. Glasgow Local Association

"That this AGM call on EIS to demand training and support for all teachers in order to address the impact of the increasing number of pupils with social, emotional and mental health issues being accommodated within schools."

Amendment Aberdeen Local Association

Insert after teachers; "and associated professionals."

Carried

4. East Dunbartonshire Local Association & Glasgow Local Association

That this AGM recognise that children and young people in Scotland have different learning experiences outside school and, in particular, have different experiences of homework.

This AGM instruct Council to report on recent research into the impact of homework on young people at all stages or in the absence of existing relevant research, to conduct such research.

On the basis of this research, this AGM instruct Council to develop guidance for members:

  • on how to devise homework tasks that are effective for pupils while minimising impact on workload, and empower teachers to provide advice to parents as to how young people can be supported with homework;
  • takes account of poverty, home circumstances and the mental and emotional health of learners and their families."

Carried

5. Dumfries & Galloway Local Association & Renfrewshire Local Association

"That this AGM instruct the EIS to conduct a scoping exercise into the use of homework apps across all 32 local authorities and their possible impacts on the terms and conditions service of classroom teachers and to produce clear guidance on the use of homework apps such as Show My Homework."

Carried

6. Glasgow Local Association & Renfrewshire Local Association

"That this AGM instruct Council to investigate and report back on the use of the Pupil Equity Fund money in schools to establish whether it is successfully targeted at raising the attainment of pupils from the most deprived families."

Carried

7. Glasgow Local Association & Stirling Local Association

"That this AGM request Council to undertake a review of current SQA alternative assessment arrangements to ensure that they are equitable, fair and fit for purpose in the 21st Century and request that Council work with the SQA on poverty proofing all SQA qualifications."

Carried

8. Glasgow Local Association

"That this AGM agree to:

(a) Offer advice and encouragement to teachers and lecturers who develop and use learning and teaching materials that present a balanced understanding of the Israel/Palestine topic;

(b) Promote the wider use of suitable materials."

Carried

9. Falkirk Local Association

"That this AGM call on Council to investigate and report on the education provision for children and young people recovering at home from long-term illness, or serious injury and subsequent treatment."

Carried

10. Falkirk Local Association

"That this AGM call on Council to investigate and report on the delivery by Secondary schools, of the SQA's notional 160 hours class contact time for National 5 and Higher subject courses and to highlight any discrepancies identified."

Amendment EIS-FELA

Add "and colleges" after "secondary schools."

Carried

11. Edinburgh Local Association & Midlothian Local Association

"That this AGM instruct Council to carry out a review of the delivery of Standardised testing across the authorities and the results shared to ensure that no authority tests whole cohorts at a time; uses the results of standardised testing inappropriately e.g. in producing 'league tables'; uses other standardised testing programmes.

Further, this AGM instruct Council to monitor the use to which the outcomes of Scottish National Standardised Assessments are put by seeking information from EIS Local Association Secretaries."

Carried

12. Midlothian Local Association

"That this AGM instruct Council to investigate and report on models of current forward planning and assessment practices in local authorities and how they relate to workload."

Carried

13. Edinburgh Local Association

"That this AGM instruct Council to:

(a) ascertain the numbers of pupils in each local authority in Scotland who are developing bi-lingual learners;

(b) seek information about the number of EAL teachers and bi-lingual support assistants within these authorities."

Carried

14. Renfrewshire Local Association

"That this AGM call upon Council to engage with the SQA with a view to reducing the workload implications resulting from recent course changes to National Qualifications.

Further, AGM instruct Council to lobby the SQA to release more sample papers at National 6 level."

Carried

15. Renfrewshire Local Association

"That this AGM call upon Council to highlight and reaffirm the professional autonomy of teachers, to advise members on how to resist any excessive monitoring of their performance and to restate its commitment to GTCS Professional Update as the principal means of teacher professional development."

Carried

16. South Lanarkshire Local Association

"That this AGM resolve to instruct Council to review EIS policy on Peace Education."

Carried

17. North Lanarkshire Local Association

"That this AGM call for Council to demand that the SQA implement a policy of:

(a) publishing proposed changes to arrangements for National Qualifications with at least one year for consultation before;

(b) publishing changes to arrangements for National Qualifications at least one year before the beginning of the academic year of their implementation."

Carried

18. Orkney Local Association

"That this AGM call on Council to publicly reiterate that the reporting of attainment levels should be based solely on the professional judgement of teachers."

Carried

19. East Dunbartonshire Local Association

"That this AGM investigate and report on the levels of stress of computing science teachers as a result of the handling of the subject by the SQA."

Carried

20. Fife Local Association

"That this AGM instruct Council to investigate and report on the impact on teaching and learning when there are multiple children with Additional Support Needs (ASN) in a mainstream classroom.

We further instruct Council to use these findings to lobby the Scottish Government and Local Authorities to increase the level of additional support in mainstream classrooms to improve the learning and teaching for all."

Carried

21. Council

"That this AGM instructs Council to highlight the impact of local authority budget cuts on pupils from the most disadvantaged backgrounds."

Carried

22. Council

"That this AGM instructs Council to monitor the development of Regional Improvement Collaboratives. Such monitoring should focus on:

(a) the extent and quality of the pedagogical support being offered to schools, including fully resourced opportunities for professional collaboration within and across local authorities;

(b) the impact, if any, on School Improvement Plans and collegiate decision-making on their content;

(c) the impact, if any, on teacher and Headteacher workload."

Carried

23. Council

"That this AGM, in response to the growing emphasis by Scottish Government on the need for schools and teachers to collect and analyse data on their pupils and students using digital platforms, instructs Council to:

(a) produce guidance for members on data-handling;

(b) reaffirm and publicly highlight the importance of a holistic approach to the education of children and young people;

(c) reaffirm and publicly highlight the purpose of assessment and the role of teacher-led formative assessment as a generator of valuable learner-centred data for teachers;

(d) monitor the workload impact of new developments in digital data collection and analysis."

Carried

24. Council

"That this AGM instructs Council to assess the current range of arrangements for HMIE inspection of schools and to update the relevant EIS advice accordingly."

Amendment EIS-FELA

Add "and colleges" after "schools"

Carried