_{Report of the Seventeenth Black Teachers’ Conference}

 Moving on up!

 Friday 31^st October 2008 – Sunday 2^nd November 2008.

 Stoke Roachford Hall, Grantham, Lincolnshire.

 WELCOME AND INTRODUCTION

Baljeet Ghale, the ex President, welcomed delegates to this conference and was pleased to back at in the renovated library and Orangey since the fire in 2005.

She continued with a brief history of the Conference whose main purpose it was to encourage black members to play a full and active role in the NUT. She highlighted the purpose of the Conference’s Open Forum to develop effective links between the Black Teachers’ Conference and the wider union work.

OPEN FORUM

Christine Blower was elected as Deputy General Secretary of the National Union of Teachers in January 2005 and on 5^th April 2008 she became Acting General Secretary after the sudden death of Steve Sinnott, General Secretary.

She talked about empowering Black teachers including recognising both Commonwealth and Overseas teachers and their contributions to local communities and the wider society including Black teachers’ achievement towards community cohesion.

Christine highlighted the year’s achievements of the NUT

• Born to be Great Charter: A Charter to Promote the Achievement of Black Caribbean Boys

• Show Racism the Red Card - Race Equality work  DVD produced to show Islamphobia

•   Anthony Walker Memorial Lecture – speaker was Gus John who spoke about the link between every child  having access to a local school and ‘Every Child Matters’ agenda.

• 30^th Anniversary of Anti Racism- Anti Fascists in Victoria Park in which Black and White stand and fight as human beings united in diversity.

•   ICT skills success

•   NCSL – Equal opportunities access to promotions.

This was then followed by a minute silence for Steve Sinnott.

 Roger King, Chair of the Open Forum, outlined the procedure for the Forum discussion and introduced the other panel members: the Acting General Secretary, Christine Blower, the Ex NUT President, Baljeet Ghale, members of the Steering Group, Yolette West and Sam Makinde and the Principal Officer for Race Equality and International Relations, Samidha Garg.

The panel were asked about the following topics

•   Racism in the NUT

•   International work of the NUT

•   Religious leave

 WORKSHOP SESSIONS

After lunch, there were six workshops organised for delegates which ran twice during the afternoon.

1.       Evolving Partnerships between Supplementary Schools and maintained Schools.

2.       Exclusions and Black Pupils in Schools.

3.       Young Teachers and the NUT.

4.       Legal Casework, Black Teachers and the NUT.

5.       The Leadership Challenge: Preparing for Senior Leadership.

6.       Creatively Embedding Cultural Diversity in the Curriculum; A Practical Classroom Approach.

7.       Fairer Futures – the Union’s Equality Project that Put Policy into Practice.

8.       Black Teachers Speak Out- Experiences of Teaching in the Education System.

 These were then followed by two relaxation workshops: Yoruba Supportive and Crystal Therapy/Mediation.

Workshops reviews:

Cultural diversity in the classroom

 At this my first NUT Black Teachers Conference, I had the great pleasure to attend the workshop of Marcia Hutchinson, founder and managing director of Primary Colours based in Huddersfield.

It was a real pleasure to attend such a lively and informative workshop, where Marcia and Pete Tidy (Creative Director) used humour to engage and inspire the audience.

Marcia and Pete began by introducing themselves us to; Marcia was impressively educated at Oxford University, and worked as a Lawyer before changing career to set up her own business primary colours.  A complete educational package that provides schools and local authorities with cross -curricular teaching packs, theatre and inset days. 

Marcia was inspired to produce her own resources that were culturally diverse after her young daughter told her she didn‘t want to have ‘brown skin any more’ and realizing that the resources in school were lacking in their diversity. Originally she had the idea to produce the books for other parents, but realized she needed to reach a wider audience.

 The aim of the Primary Colours range is to provide a whole package split into three parts, the teaching packs, Theatre in Education and INSET & Consultancy days that ‘aim to broaden teaching and learning by helping teachers and children understand and embrace cultural diversity within our society’ .

 Its all in the box

So what’s included in the teaching packs? Firstly I noticed that the packs were of a high quality, with beautiful images showing children that reflect our urban cities. Everything needed to take a lesson is included, books, (a set of six or 16), a DVD with real video clips and lesson plans and all linked to the National Curriculum. They have also launched a website www.primarycolours.net all to help support teachers in the classroom.

The topics for KS1 were Nice and Hot and Tasty which explores a range of Caribbean foods, we the audience actively took part in a interactive section, where we sorted the food and gave quick fire explanations of their origins or use, it was a lot of fun especially the creativity used to obtain raffle tickets for correct facts. The tickets were later put into a draw to win Caribbean food stuff.

They also have a World Alphabet range in KS1 ‘starring’ the ‘Coconut’ and other fruits and vegetables from around the world. This has links with Geography, English, History and ICT  whilst the Making Music range although this was not looked at in any detail it  appeared to be just as interesting and made links with English ICT and Citizenship.

‘Are we there yet?’ is a dual language range for KS1 featuring Marcia’s daughter. It has an interactive facility that speaks in Urdu.

Theatre in Education

Pete Tidy works with Marcia to produce four lively plays in their ‘Theatre in Education section,’  the dramatizations cover KS2 / KS3 topics as diverse as the controversial slave trade, and the life of civil rights activist Rosa Parks whose actions changed the history in America.

When Pete entered the room in shackles around his neck, wrists and feet it was quite shocking, and realistic, apart from the fact that Pete is a white man! He did however manage to produce a realistic portrayal of the fictional character Ottobah, a young captive slave, who after enduring the traumatic long sea journey from Africa now ends up at an auction with Marcia convincingly playing the rich white slave owner, complete with whip! They were tackling these sensitive issues using authentic props, accurate detail and a sprinkling of humour throughout.

Did I find this session useful? Yes, it was inspiring and made me want to go back to my school and put into practice some of the practical activities I had seen.

Would I use the resources? Yes they embrace cultural diversity within our society in a child and teacher friendly way, depicting realistic images and topics that may otherwise be hard to reach.

Salena Gray, Berger Primary Schoo

Young Teachers in the NUT – Giving Young Teachers A Voice

 Andrew Parry- Williams gave a brief history of the establishing of the NUT Young Teachers’ Section in 2005 which is to:

• Set the upper age limit at 35

• For in service members only

• Encourage more young teachers to become active in the Union, and

• Support those young teachers who are already active

 How can the above be achieved 

• Encouraging local associations and divisions to set up local young teachers’ sections. (those present talked about what was happening in their area)

• Establish a National Young Teachers’ Conference- This will take place 5^th – 7^th June 2009 (look out for publicity)

• Establish a Young Teachers’ Advisory Committee (this was set up last year to advise the National Executive on issues pertinent to young teachers).

Seema McArdle shared her experience and views on Islamophobia, in British society as she is currently taking part in a joint NUT/Israel/Palestine study: Magna Carta. 

Sandra Hall, William Patten

_{^{Exclusion and Black pupils in schools –}}    

_{The workshop considered some of the factors which were likely to affect black pupils and lead to their exclusion.}

_{Among these were:}

• _{^{Mother’s education}}
• _{^{Being socially disadvantaged}}
• _{^{Institutionalized racism}}
• _{^{Teacher expectations}}

_{^{The impact of this was discussed by the workshop participants.}}

• _{^{Every year 1000 black pupils are permanently excluded and nearly 30,000 receive a Fixed  Period Exclusion}}
• _{^{On average , these pupils will:}}

_{^{- be one third less likely to achieve 5A*- C at GCSE}}

_{^{- be 3% more likely to be unemployed}}

_{^{- experience a reduction of £36,000 in lifetime earnings}}

_{^{- be more likely to commit crimes, commit serious crime and to}}

     _^re-offend

_{^{- be more likely to smoke, drink and take drugs}}

   _{^{The workshop was informed that it matters to Black communities because:}}

_{^{? Racial inequalities in the education system do not just mirror the inequalities in society; they entrench them and pass them on to another generation.}}

_{^{? Exclusions from school represents the most stark and absolute denial of education.}}

_{^{? The iconic status of this issue for Black communities cannot be ignored.}}

_{^{It matters to Government because:}}

_{^{Exclusion from school is widely recognised as a driver for wider social exclusion. It is highly correlated with unemployment and involvement in crime. In the words of Martin Narey, Director of General of HM Prison Service (2001).}}

  _{^{“The 13,000 young people excluded from school each year might as well be given a date by which to join the prison service some time later down the line.”}}

_{^{The exclusion gap is the most obvious manifestation of an effect that seriously threatens to undermine the Department’s efforts to extend opportunity to all children and learners. Left to its own devices, the system will conclude that Every Child Matters, but that Black children’s failure and social exclusion is to be expected – that it matters a little bit less.}}

_{^{Personalisation could empower Black pupils to fulfil their true potential, but not whilst teachers’ view of the person is conditioned by subconscious prejudice.}}

_{^{The workshop considered some examples of best practice. Some best practice in schools is characterised by:}}

_{^{- strong leadership on race equality and behavioural issues}}

_{^{- effective use of data and IT to track the progress of individual pupils}}

_{^{- proper training on race equality for staff}}

_{^{- ‘restorative’ and ‘preventative’ approaches to behaviour management}}

_{^{- active and continuous involvement of pupils in shaping the school rules and disciplinary process}}

_{^{- involvement of Black parents and communities in shaping the}}

_{^{school community}}

_{^{The setting up of a Parent Forum, as well as the compilation of an Exclusions Hand book were two further ideas proposed.}}

_{^{However there is “no secret” as to what works.}}

Debate on Motion to Annual Conference

 After a length discussion the following motion was agreed as amended.

 Black Members Structure

 Conference congratulates the Executive for bring an Equality Section to the agenda for Annual Conference, pioneered in 2008.

 Conference further congratulates the Executive and delegates to Conference 2008 on undoubted success of the Equalities section.

 Conference notes that the success of the Black Teachers’ Conference and the LGBT Conference goes form strength to strength and welcomes the more recently established Disabled Members’ Conference.

 Conference recognises and values the work of the Union’s Equality Audit Working Group and Education and Equal Opportunities department in moving the Equality agenda forward.

 However Conference notes with disappointment that apart from the Black Teachers’ Conference, the union does not have any formal structures for Black members, some 19 years after Conference overwhelmingly passed the Black Members’ Memorandum.

 Conference believes this to be remiss of the union, well overdue and therefore instructs the Executive to:

1.       Establish and develop a self-organising Black Members’ Section, at both regional and national level, to be embedded within the formal structures of the Union, operating within our Aims and Objectives.

2.       Establish and operate a Black Members’ network.

3.       Seek the views of the Union’s other equality conferences and equality Advisory Committees/ Working Parties to ascertain the appropriateness of a similar structure operating within other equality sections of the union.

4.       Charge the Equality Audit Working Group with the responsibility of (a) producing clear guidelines on what constitutes discrimination (Racial, sexual, disability or religion). (b) Bring a proposal to the Executive for putting points 1 and 2 above into operations.

5.       Bring a report on the above to Conference 2010.