Welcome to the Scottish Borders Local Association of the EIS

Please note: The Scottish Borders Local Association telephone number is 07904 835054.  Our email address is borders@eis.org.uk.

Scottish Borders Local Association provides local advice and support to members. Natasha York is the Scottish Borders LA Secretary and can be contacted via phone and email (see above).  Scottish Borders Local Association provides local advice and support to members.  We hold regular LA Executive meetings to discuss local matters.

In order to keep up to date with the latest news, we ask that we are kept informed of any changes to your membership or contact information. 

You can update your details by logging in to the My EIS section of the website https://www.eis.org.uk/Account/EISLogin or by emailing us on borders@eis.org.uk.

LA Secretary's Newsletter August 2024

Dear Colleagues

Welcome back to a new academic session, and I hope you all managed to relax and enjoy the summer holidays in some way, despite the weather. 

I’m very conscious that this is my first proper newsletter since taking up my role as LA Secretary in April 2023 and can only apologise for not having got my head round this part of my role sooner. I hope to send out a newsletter once a term if possible and other bulk emails as necessary, but I don’t want to overwhelm you all with emails, as I know how busy you all are.

Just to remind you all of how our EIS Local Association works, you are all members by virtue of working in the Scottish Borders. We have an LA Executive Committee which meets once a month and the AGM for that is in March each year, at which any member of the Association can stand for election to the Committee, whether as an office-bearer or ordinary committee member. As the LA Secretary, I am generally the point of contact for school reps needing more specific advice and information, but any member can contact me directly for support as and when they need to, particularly if your school doesn’t have a rep yet. My union working days are Tues/Wed/Fri and I teach at St Peter’s Primary School on Mondays and Fridays. If a query arises which I cannot deal with, it is then passed on to Scott McCabe, who is the full-time paid EIS Area Officer for our area, or another appropriate contact at EIS HQ. My contact details are in my signature line below.

To help with organising local training, campaigning and other events, we have our EIS Area Organiser Eilidh Gittus, who for many years taught in the Scottish Borders herself and was on the LA Executive Committee as an active union rep. Eilidh’s email is egittus@eis.org.uk and she is a great source of advice, information and support.

Information about your conditions of service can be found on our LA website at https://www.eis.org.uk/borders/home . We are planning to update and extend the information on the website over the forthcoming session, so please do check in from time to time to see what has been added. 

This session the LA Executive Committee is committed to updating and improving our existing local agreements, with a particular focus on the guidance and procedures for negotiating Working Time Agreements, as this is an area in which there is much confusion among both teachers and senior managers. The mechanism for negotiating local agreements is the Local Negotiating Committee for Teachers, which comprises members from both management and unions, and the local agreements produced by the Committee are binding on both SBC and teaching staff, so they are extremely important for protecting your terms and conditions of employment. As the LA Secretary for the largest union in the Scottish Borders, I am the Joint Secretary for this Committee, along with Justin Sinclair, the Chief Education Officer. The EIS has four members on this Committee and the SSTA has one member – we work closely together to try and ensure the best possible deal for all teachers in the Scottish Borders. The NASUWT are kept in the loop through joint union pre-meetings for the LNCT meetings.

For any members who are interested in becoming school reps or for existing reps who would like more training, the following 4-day training events are available this session:

National online 26/27 Sep 24 & 14/15 Nov 24 Deadline for nominations 13 Sep 24

Edinburgh in person 16/17 Jan 25 & 6/7 Mar 25 Deadline for nominations 3 Jan 25

Glasgow in person 6/7 Feb 25 & 20/21 Mar 25 Deadline for nominations 24 Jan 25

For any members who are interested in becoming Health & Safety reps or for existing H&S reps who would like more training, the following 2-day training events are available this session:

National online 23/24 Jan 25 Deadline for nominations 10 Jan 25

Edinburgh in person 27/28 Feb 25 Deadline for nominations 14 Feb 25

Glasgow in person 1 / 2 May 25 Deadline for nominations 18 Apr 25

Please get in touch if you are interested. There will also be local training opportunities for school reps, hosted by me and Eilidh Gittus – further details to be confirmed. 

Well done if you managed to get to the end of this email, and thank you for being a part of the EIS. Good luck for the term ahead, and remember – it’s only 7 weeks until the October break!

Warmest regards

Natasha York

she/her

Scottish Borders EIS Local Association Secretary

Email: borders@eis.org.uk

Mobile: 07904 835054

My union days are Tues/Wed/Thurs. I teach at St Peter’s Primary School on Mondays and Fridays.

Natasha York (EIS Borders LA Secretary) speaking about the importance of supporting our LGBTQ+ young people in schools.

Martin Christison (EIS National Council) speaking about greater transparency about PEF spending at school and local authority level.