Created on: 06 Jun 2024 | Last modified: 07 Jun 2024
Delegates, colleagues, invited guests, friends,
I’m sure every President must stand here and say, ‘What a year!’ and I’m sure that for every one of them it will have been true for their time and for their circumstance.
This is a time for me to reflect on the year that’s just gone, but, no matter how long I speak for, how do I do justice to the school visits, branch meetings, picket lines, Local Association AGMs and social events, conferences, and the other ’all part of being the President’ experiences that I’ve had?
The hundreds of individual member interactions that have taken place across my Presidency.
From interactions with members who don’t want to rock the boat, to interactions with members who want to rock the boat so hard that it sinks because then we can build a bigger and better boat, I have had the privilege of travelling around the country listening to, collaborating with, and, on occasion, challenging the notions, ideas and preconceptions of our members from Early Years through to Higher Education.
No matter how long I speak, how do I do justice to the national stakeholder engagements that have taken place - with Education spokespeople, parents’ groups, SQA, GTCS, Education Scotland, NUS Scotland, ITE groups, EY working groups, with STUC colleagues, at parliamentary events, political parties and in meetings with the Cabinet Secretary and other government officials? (I will come back to the Cabinet Secretary and try though!)
And how can I possibly do justice to the UK wide and international work of the EIS across this year – TUC Congress in September and the TUC Special Congress held in December to agree to fight, as a movement, the Tories’ anti-worker minimum service levels in the Strike Bill, followed with a march through Cheltenham (and not Chelmsford, which is where I kept telling folk I was going!), the fraternal collegiality of our sister TUs in the UK and Ireland, of ETUCE in Europe (I’m not long back from a week in Sweden which could be a three hour speech on its own) or the International solidarity work that we do with Education International – we’ve a delegation going to World Congress in Argentina next month where over 100 TUs from around the globe will work as one movement for the advancement of workers’ rights, of social justice, of equality and of equity, for one and for all.
Because while it’s true that injury to one is injury to all, it should also hold that victory for one is victory for all.
I can’t possibly do all of that work justice, but I can give you my edited (and thank goodness for that, I hear you cry!) highlights.
There have been two main threads working through all of my work across this year.
SU4QE (a multi-coloured thread) launched at last year’s AGM, and it has been the slow burner that we knew it would be.
The original plan was for eight week-ish blocks on pupil behaviour, ASN and workload (an absolute ‘you said, we did’ structure, building on the longitudinal survey results that we have).
Our Pupil Behaviour survey results and the subsequent government commissioned Behaviour In Scottish Schools Report justified our starting with the Pupil Behaviour strand, and although we were right to be ambitious in that eight-week block plan, we were also right to listen to branches, reps and LA secretaries who needed time and space built in to liaise with their local authorities around our recommendations. And we made recommendations at National, Local Authority and School level – giving all spheres of the EIS a role in addressing this issue.
At every meeting I mentioned at the beginning of this speech, in every bilateral, in every conference speech the words ‘As part of the EIS’s SU4QE campaign, ‘we are asking….’ has been the mantra.
And the ask is a consistent one – resource, resource, resource.
Education is key to so many things but without appropriate levels of targeted ringfenced, transparently allocated and spent funding, how can we possibly get it right for every child?
So we will repeat that mantra until we do.
The other, not unrelated thread, that has spun through my Presidency is purple, and has EIS-FELA written straight through it.
I spent many mornings in September and October on FELA picket lines across the country as they fought for their 2022 pay award and, as is always my parting shot on a picket line, I hoped not to have to see them again.
But I have been back on those same picket lines twice more since then as they escalated their action through rolling, targeted and now sustained industrial action.
Colleges have been closed for four days a week.
Shame on College Employers Scotland for allowing this action to escalate to this point and for, at times, gloating that it has gone on for so long.
Shame on Graeme Dey, Minister for FE, who has been roundly missing in action (dey nothing as we call him) and who seems to defend the practice of deeming by public sector bodies. Our lecturers are having that happen to them right now.
Shame on Jenny Gilruth, Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills, who oversees the sector in her portfolio.
Shame on three successive First Ministers who have been at the helm through this dispute and could have stepped in and resolved it at any point and didn’t.
And shame on the Scottish Government – including the Scottish Green Party - for reducing the funding for our college sector.
If the new FM really wants to end child poverty, then he needs to get adults out of poverty too.
Child poverty is complex, but Colleges in particular help to give so many that opportunity to upskill or reskill and move on in, or into, work – it helps them, it helps their families and our wider society.
Our First Minister needs to recognise that investment in Education across all its spheres will bring a saving in the longer term.
Investment in Education now, and that includes in Further Education, you ease pressure on the health service, on the justice service, on adult social care and on so much more in the longer term.
Education will lift adults and their children out of poverty, will boost the economy and will allow our population to thrive. Our colleges and our lecturers are vital for that. And the EIS recognises that.
Just last week, our national Executive Committee agreed to allocate £5m to support universal hardship payments for FELA members who are engaging in strike action, until the end of this term.
Colleagues, that is what solidarity looks like and is a strong message of support from the national body.
FELA, your fight is our fight and as your almost ex-President, I will still be on your picket lines although I’d rather not be, I will bring the solidarity of the wider lay membership and we will be with you until this is resolved – because colleagues it will be resolved.
And now, a couple of wee personal highlights from my Presidential year.
One of the huge privileges of being an Office Bearer is becoming a trustee of the Gwen Mayor Trust. The Trust was set up to honour the teacher killed in Dunblane and offers primary school communities the opportunity to apply for funding towards a project that furthers arts, culture, music or sport in their school community.
An eclectic mix of applications were considered, and as the funding is sent out we’ve had thank you letters and pictures sent.
Excitingly, though, we also got an invitation to attend an event so off I went in March to see Royston Primary’s drama group production of Peggy, the Pint-Sized Pirate.
And what a treat!
A dozen or so pupils from P5 -7 performed their spectacular – I was sitting next to the gran of the actor who was playing Peggy and quite honestly, the glowing pride of that gran was worth the funding alone!
But wonderful as it was, that wasn’t my highlight of the afternoon….as a warm-up, the P1 - 3 talent show winners performed ahead of the main event and so we had some pint-sized performers too – a P3 boyband, a P2 soloist, and then, three P1s performing Katy Perry’s ‘Roar’ - using Makaton.
Just glorious!
Colleagues, when we get it right for our children and young people, we get it SO right! And if we can get it right for some, we should be getting it right for all.
That’s no slight on us as teachers, but if we can get it right for one we should get it right for everyone.
Another personal favourite is at the opposite end of the age spectrum.
The Scottish Pensioner’s Forum held a parliamentary event in September to celebrate UN International Day of Older People and I had agreed to go along…and as is the way with some of these things, as it got closer I began to wonder why I’d said yes to an evening event through in Edinburgh in the middle of a week. But along I went…
And what a truly life-affirming experience it was!
Campaigning pensioners from across the country meeting with a host of stakeholders to further their campaigning causes – some fights that I didn’t know needed to be fought – did you know you lose Carers Allowance when you start getting your pension? - and some fights that we’re already fighting – pensions and 68 being too late.
And the SPF fight these fights all whilst recognising that any victory that they win most likely won’t benefit them at all but will leave the world in a better place for us. That clear vision, that selfless drive for social justice made my heart sing!
SPF have a stall at the back of the hall – please go and speak with Eileen and the team – they’re marvellous!
And a last highlight, from East Renfrewshire’s AGM with permission from both colleagues I’m about to name.
Peter, ER’s chair introduced me just before I spoke. He read a short ‘this is your EIS life’ bio, fair enough, but then said he was going to tell a personal story.
This was a surprise as I don’t really know Peter, so I was all ears.
Peter had been at the Council meeting in March where, to celebrate International Women’s Day, a video of EIS women talking about being EIS women was shown.
Part of my contribution was that as EIS women we stand on the shoulders of the women who came before us and it’s our job to lift as we climb, to encourage and support other EIS women.
Those words resonated with Peter, and he said so in the meeting. I was really touched to hear that my words had had that impact and was readying myself to speak, but Peter wasn’t finished!
At a later part of that same Council meeting, a motion asking EIS to donate to Medical Aid for Palestinians had been brought and was being spoken to.
One of the speakers supporting the motion was Jane, whose daughter had lived and worked in Gaza and who was in contact with friends that she had there.
Jane was reading a message from her daughter’s pal about the impact of the conflict on his infant children. Jane was, understandably, finding it difficult to read and so I moved from my chairing position to stand with her, and hold her hand while she read the message.
Jane handed me her phone.
And so, I did hold Jane’s hand but I read the message and then others made sure she was ok as we both returned to our seats.
For Peter, sitting in that Council room he had watched me live my words, ‘we lift as we climb’ and it made such an impact on him that he shared it, not only with me, but with his membership in that meeting.
To hear that about myself, to feel that, after what was, to me, an everyday gesture of solidarity and support, is something I will never forget.
But I don’t tell this story just to balm myself up!
I tell this story to remind you that words aren’t enough. To remind you that union membership is not a spectator sport and to remind you solidarity is a verb.
Trade Unionism is about what we do, not about what we say.
The government could learn from us.
Manifesto pledges from 2021 – promises to an entire electorate; their ideas, not ours; vote for us and we shall deliver:
Contact time of 21 hours – Our Salaries Convenor will report on that later today.
3500 more staff in the system – more on that to come on page 16.
Free school breakfasts and lunches for primary school pupils all year and for all children in state-funded special schools. So far, Inverclyde are the only authority delivering on that, and only because of their own political choices, not because of government intervention.
Provide every child with a device to get online and a free internet connection to support that – the narrative around that has changed, it hasn’t happened yet and they are now ‘reviewing delivery models’.
Consultation upon consultation upon consultation on reform – Morgan, Hayward, Muir, the National Conversation – bringing recommendation upon recommendation - many of them the policies that the EIS brought to the table. Words on 100s of pages, so far the only action is to tell us there won’t be any action and no timeline for when action might happen.
The National Behaviour Action plan – again, much of it brought to the table by EIS and driven by our member survey – but words on a page with nothing to back them up.
No resourcing to allow us to act on it. No funding to build space in the system for meaningful engagement with the plan, with local processes or with reporting.
Now back to the manifesto.
Instrumental Music Teachers were met with a pledge to mainstream music as a core subject and to ensure our IMTs GTCS registration – another tumbleweed moment.
The Cabinet Secretary was invited, and had accepted, an invitation to speak at our conference.
Late last week that plan was cancelled, due to ‘parliamentary process’ around the UK election.
And whilst a UK election is welcome, it is a pity that the Cabinet Secretary could not come here, stand in front of the representatives of almost 65,000 teachers and defend the Scottish Government’s record on Education.
In 2021, we were told to judge the government on education, and we really would colleagues, if they would give us something to judge.
Colleagues, it’s not good enough.
Our children and young people deserve better, our schools deserve better, and our members deserve better.
We need action and we need it now.
Not least in Glasgow.
The Cabinet Secretary’s original letter to Councils mandating that teacher numbers are maintained had already been roundly ignored and last week, in an updated letter, Ms Gilruth has stated that a ‘small reduction’ is ok – but ‘small’ by which measure?
That statement would be found not competent by our Standing Orders Committee, its vague. Because, what is ‘small’?
2 teachers per school? 10 per cluster? 100 per authority?
Glasgow City Council had already axed 125 jobs for this session, another 172 jobs have been cut from August, with a further 278 earmarked to go over the next two years.
Is that ‘small’ by the Cabinet Secretary’s measure?
450 teachers, almost 10% of the teaching workforce in three years, against a backdrop of 37% of our pupils with a recognised Additional Support Need, support and third sector funding cut to the bone, and violence and aggression a daily occurrence in up to 82% of our workplaces.
EIS Glasgow have declared a dispute and are currently running a consultative ballot for strike action.
The ballot closes on Monday, and I would urge all EIS Glasgow members to vote YES/YES and send the message to COSLA and to the Scottish Government that it is not acceptable against that backdrop of increased ASN, the rise in violent and aggressive incidents in our workplaces and the increased workload caused by all of that and ever-increasing bureaucracy.
Other Local Authorities were watching Glasgow already, before the new letter was sent.
Now they’re watching to see just where the line is between ‘small’ and ‘not small’.
Glasgow, we stand shoulder to shoulder with you in your fight please vote YES/YES if you haven’t already – because it will be our fight next.
I argued with myself about using the word ‘proud’ in this next section, I wasn’t sure it was appropriate, but I will, because I am – and it takes me back to that internationalism, that solidarity and that fight for social justice.
I am incredibly proud of our position on Palestine, proud of the statement we issued in October, proud of the representation we’ve had at demonstrations, and proud of the donations we’ve made to organisations working on the ground in Gaza brought by motions from our members and supported by EIS Council.
As a rule, the EIS doesn’t make statements on world events between Council meetings. But how could we not this time?
In that statement, we rightly condemned the October 7th attacks by Hamas, and we rightly condemned the disproportionate response that followed.
That response was disproportionate when we released our statement in mid-October, but what we are seeing now – the decimation of infrastructure, attacks on homes and schools and hospitals, deliberate attacks on aid convoys with women and children accounting for over half of those killed – goes beyond disproportionate. It’s murderous. It’s barbaric. It’s inhumane.
We spoke out in October, and we have, and will continue to, speak out whilst these atrocities continue. And they do continue, despite two International Court of Justice rulings.
And so we will continue to demonstrate, and we will continue to donate.
We will continue to use collective action and our movement’s collective voice to fight for peace, for social justice and for a just resolution brought through dialogue.
We cannot, we should not, and we will not, be bystanders in this.
And so, in conclusion, I’ll end where I started - what a year!
From the mundanity of most of my train trips, to the frankly bizarre (just a few weeks ago I received a letter from a Baronet asking if we’d like a family heirloom which lists the original EIS Fellows from 1847 on vellum) – I have absolutely lived my best trade union life this year.
Thank you to everyone who has held me up when I wanted to collapse in a heap, to those who let me collapse in a heap when that was all that was left, and to the hundreds and hundreds of members, stakeholders, and everyone who I have come across along the way, who have made my year.
I will be eternally grateful to have been your President.
But I am, quite honestly, done in, and move to ex-President sound in the knowledge that I pass the tiara into the more than capable hands of Allan – metaphorically, obviously. I’m keeping the tiara!
And as I do make the move to ex-President, please don’t think I will go gently into the good night…..in the words and actions of P1 from Royston – ‘You’re going to hear me roar’ (Makaton signing).
Solidarity colleagues.