Motion

A very good friend of mine and highly respected unionist (I would say legendary in our borough but he probably would not approve!) has given me permission to publish what follows on the blog.

He was present in union meetings when his bullying head (being a member of the trade union and sitting in all the union meetings) intimidated members on several occasions. 

He has written this motion to go to NEU conference. It is something that I could not agree more with. If you are a member, please argue for this motion to be prioritised.

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Representing school leaders, allowing school groups to function

Conference notes:

1) Headteacher members are able to attend school group meetings.

2) That they are advised to not attend the entire meeting and that reps are advised to ask them to absent themselves from part of the meeting.

3) Many good headteacher members do just this.

4) Some headteacher members refuse to absent themselves from any of the meeting.

5) That, as it is advice, there is little the union can do if they refuse to leave.

Conference believes:

I. That school groups cannot function effectively where headteachers are present throughout the entire meeting.

II. That the current guidance offered to leadership members and reps is not sufficient, we need clear protocols to cover this.

III. The vast majority of our leadership members are in the union for the right reasons. However, there is a small minority that join to hinder the collective functioning of their school groups.

Conference instructs the Executive to:

Urgently investigate, and return to the next conference with proposals, about how to ensure that leadership members cannot hinder the collective functioning of school groups, whilst safeguarding leadership members rights to participation and representation.

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By sharing this, I hope that members will support my friend's motion. I also hope, more generally, to further reveal to a broader audience the real issue of lack of accountabilty of school leaders. Instilling such toxic cultures is unacceptable. This case is all the more shocking in that the head is a member of the union. Why is there such a disparity in the system of checks and balances imposed on teaching staff and that of school leaders? A naive question maybe, but certainly one that needs airing.