President, Conference,
I want to begin my second address as General Secretary of the National Education Union by saying how proud I am to lead the largest education union in Europe and the third largest union in the TUC.
A union that is growing in membership and in activists
A union that fights for what is right for education workers, for schools and colleges and for the young people we teach
Conference, I want to extend my deepest thanks and congratulations to Sarah Kilpatrick, our President.
Not only for her fantastic chairing of conference, not only for her powerful speech on Monday, but for her comradeship and outstanding leadership throughout the year.
Since stepping into the role far earlier than expected, she has provided insight, strength, and an unwavering commitment to our union.
Her dedication to our cause and her conviction in the power of education is truly exemplary.
I also want to take this opportunity to thank the committed staff of the NEU.
Staff like Jane Townsend – on the card table. 47 years Jane has dedicated to our movement, our union, our profession. A stalwart of Hamilton House.
The work of our staff, behind the scenes – supporting members, helping organise our campaigns, writing policy and advice, helping with branch finances and everything else they do - in keeping the union running - so that we remain such a powerful force – does not go unnoticed. I am eternally grateful.
I want to say a special thank you to our fantastic signers.
To the Conference Arrangements Committee, who have worked tirelessly to bring this event together, and to the staff of this venue who have made our gathering possible – thank you.
Conference, I want to use my time today to take stock of our victories, to recommit to our struggle, and to chart the course ahead over the coming year.
In my speech to you last year I said that our union would light fires of resistance in schools and colleges to right the wrongs our members too often face.
In the past year we have witnessed the undeniable power of local industrial action.
We have ramped up our workplace organising and have supported even more school groups to take action on a range of issues where negotiations have failed.
In 2024, 219 formal ballots were approved by the action committee and 593 days of action were taken by members.
More than double the previous year.
Conference, together we have righted many wrongs.
Across the country, in primary schools and secondary schools, in cities, towns and rural areas our members have taken a stand - demanding better pay, manageable workloads, and improved conditions for teachers and support staff alike.
In non-academised sixth form colleges across England, 2,000 NEU members took 8 days of action after they were offered a lower pay rise than teachers in academised sixth forms.
Their committed action won AN improved pay offer and closed the door on attempts to introduce a 2-tier pay system in our colleges.
In the independent sector, members continue to stand together against attacks on the Teachers’ Pension Scheme, challenging employers on the ground and keeping the issue high on the government’s agenda.
Our dispute at the Coventry School Foundation has become our longest running TPS dispute in the independent sector, with 19 days of action taken so far.
In maintained nursery schools, last summer parents joined educators on their picket lines at Balham and Eastwood - to protest against job cuts, funding cuts and the closure of these vital settings.
In the state sector, reps and officers across the land have been leading the push-back on poor pay, excessive workload and bullying management.
We are lighting fires of resistance - in multi-academy trusts, with employer-wide disputes covering both teaching and support staff to deliver for all educators and all children.
A groundbreaking strike by NEU members in 8 schools in the University of Brighton Academy Trust - took on the employer over workload and cuts arising from excessive slicing of funds for central costs.
Following five days of action in the summer, the employer agreed to change its funding model – a win that will see more money available for young people and their education.
At the Dunraven MAT in Lambeth, NEU members took strike action to win improved maternity pay.
Winning for women, winning for mothers, winning for their families.
Members at three schools in QEGSMAT in Derbyshire won a victory over teacher and support staff pay last summer.
And a ballot process is currently underway at Outwood Grange Academy Trust (Sir Martyn Oliver’s old trust) over attempts to increase the length of the working day.
Teachers and support staff working and winning together.
We want to see more of this.
Organising in workplaces, developing reps and supporting branch officers to build links between workplaces to spread success.
Elsewhere, we have seen a wave of action in London in recent weeks, with schools from Haringey, Waltham Forest, Lambeth, Redbridge, Ealing and Hackney all taking action at the same time.
As a result of strike action across a number of Waltham Forest schools, NEU members won a pay policy that gives automatic progression up the pay scale.
Members at Cottingham High School near Hull beat back a bullying management after 18 days of action.
7 days of action at North Somerset PRU – with a further 16 days scheduled – saw members win years of back pay, after rejecting inferior offers.
And support staff members at Kanes Hill in Southampton won up to £400 in back pay.
In Wales, members have stood together to fight back against job cuts and attacks on working conditions
At Robert Owen special school in Powys, a formal ballot and the threat of industrial action halted redundancies and ensured provisions were put in place to address serious health and safety concerns.
At Llanwit Major High School in Vale of Glamorgan, a successful ballot has already seen improvements over behaviour concerns and strikes are set to take place in June over excessive workload and a proposed reduction of PPA time.
And NEU Cymru supply members took their supply agency rip off protest to the Welsh Government, with a demo at the Senedd, and we continue to lobby and push - to secure a national supply model for Wales - with all supply teachers covered by School Teachers’ Pay and Conditions.
Through all your steadfast action, you have proved what we already know: That when we fight, we win
Victories on workload, on pay, and improved conditions for teachers and support staff did not come from the generosity of employers or the goodwill of politicians.
They came from organised reps and members standing shoulder to shoulder, saying, "Enough is enough!"
Conference, we know that real change will only come when we build our strength from the ground up.
By increasing membership and workplace density.
By increasing the number of reps, training and supporting them.
By bringing reps together into lively branches to discuss and share good practice.
This is how we shape what happens in education –for early career teachers and their mentors, for women returning from maternity leave, for SENCOs needing release.
More members, more reps and stronger branches mean more power, and more power means fairer workplaces and that is good for education and good for the quality of learning.
And conference, this is as true of support staff as it is teachers.
We have doubled our support staff membership since the formation of the NEU.
I want to double it again.
And then double that.
And again double that.
Support staff join the NEU when we fight on issues - in schools - relevant to them.
So get out there and fight for them. Whether it’s on job creep, maternity, term time only contracts. Because a fighting union is a union people join.
Conference, our task in the coming year is to grow all sections of the NEU, to ensure every workplace is organised, and to empower every teacher and support staff member to stand up and be counted.
The vision I have for this union, is a union of a million members. If you are in the school and not in a union – you should be in the NEU.
Now, I said last year, and recommit today, to my belief there should be one education union for all education workers.
The case for professional unity is clear.
And I would like to wish whoever becomes the next General Secretary of the NASUWT all the best.
But I’d also like to mark the retirement of my friend Patrick Roach.
Patrick is only the 2nd Black General Secretary of a TUC affiliated union, I am the 3rd.
Patrick has done so much in the movement around anti-racism and has stood up for NASUWT members.
I wish him all the very best for the future.
I’d also like to note our joint working with colleagues in the NAHT and ASCL, especially around the issue of school funding.
I’d like to thank Pepe, General Secretary of ASCL, for addressing us yesterday.
He is a collaborative school leader.
He, like us, believes in ethical leadership.
It is often overlooked by the press and government that we, the NEU, are the second largest school leaders’ union.
NEU leaders are struggling to do the best they can in very difficult circumstances.
However, Conference, as we all know, not all leaders are as ethical in their decisions as NEU leaders.
The Harris multi-academy trust is emblematic of so many things wrong with national education policy.
Our members in Harris schools tell us about high rates of staff turnover, off-rolling, poor management practices and bullying tactics.
Members also highlighted to us the fact that overseas trained teachers, being recruited OFTEN from the Caribbean, with the promise of QTS, would find themselves NOT ONLY denied a pathway by the employer, but also being paid less than their colleagues.
We will not tolerate this practice in any Trust around the country. It’s exploitation, pure and simple.
I cannot tell you how proud I am of the reps and members across the Harris Federation who this year organised against hostile management to build a successful strike ballot.
Fearful of our action, Harris backed down and members won a significant, groundbreaking – trust-wide victory - on overseas trained teachers and a number of other issues.
Black members, white members, British and Jamaican, standing together, organising together and challenging discrimination.
Now, you will see behind me a picture of Sir Dan Moynihan, CEO of Harris.
You will also see his salary for 2023-24.
Half a million pounds
Conference, in what world can this ever be justified?
While schools struggle to afford basic resources, whilst support staff are being paid poverty wages, and whilst teachers are leaving the profession in droves, some academy CEOs are cashing in.
This is not just an injustice; it is a national scandal.
This is public money being funnelled into the pockets of a handful of education profiteers.
It is the marketisation - of education - in its most grotesque form.
We demand an end to this greed
We demand salary caps on Trust CEOs.
We demand full financial transparency from every academy trust.
AND we demand a return to a system of education that is run for the benefit of children and communities - not for the personal enrichment of a privileged few.
Conference, our union has a clear strategy.
We will build union power from the bottom up.
We will empower members - to stand up against and challenge the day-to-day symptoms of the wrong national policies
But conference, dealing with the day-to-day symptoms - a narrow curriculum, the data-fication of young people, a surveillance culture - is not enough.
We have to challenge the root cause of what is going wrong in education.
The root causes of high teacher turnover.
The root cause of low student attendance.
The root causes of the SEND crisis
We need to campaign for a system of education that isn’t based on the values of neo-liberalism – of interschool competition rather than collaboration.
Because competition – it might work for supermarkets – but it doesn’t work for children.
Conference - we know - as professionals - that accountability measures and league tables are not the way to improve the life chances of our kids.
Ofsted’s punitive regime does not build the capacity of schools to improve or to meet the needs of our young people.
Ofsted is only effective at measuring poverty.
During this year we have worked with allies to build on the Beyond Ofsted report and to lead the charge for Ofsted to be abolished.
Another policy which is damaging education and demotivating students is high-stakes testing.
It narrows the curriculum, stifles creativity, and fuels teaching to the test.
We will continue to build the case for an assessment system that prioritises learning over league tables, and child development over data
This year we’ve seen the launch of our Arts and Minds campaign - a coalition of organisations and high-profile actors, artists and musicians, who all realise the importance of bringing creativity back to our curriculum.
The Arts must be available in every school for every single child to learn and to enjoy
Where will our future Sam Fenders, our Vicki McClures our Stephen Grahams come from if the creative subjects are forced out of our classrooms?
Our assessment campaigning can be shown to have played a part in the establishment of the Curriculum and Assessment Review led by Professor Becky Francis.
We engaged with this review seriously.
Professor Francis said she wanted to be led by data
We argued that whilst data can never show us the full picture - actually we believe the data supports our arguments.
The research we supplied to Becky’s review showed us that 58% of primary school teaching is given over to English and maths.
Art, science, history, music, the subjects that make the school day enjoyable all squeezed out of timetables.
Conference, I welcome the call of the interim report for more creativity in the curriculum – but there is a massive elephant in the room – because unless you loosen the stranglehold of SATS over the primary curriculum – the creativity we want to see in our classrooms – will never be achieved.
On the question of Ofsted inspection, we welcomed this government’s move away from crude single word judgements – but - and this takes some doing - the proposals that Ofsted is currently consulting upon risk making a terrible situation even worse.
5 judgements, across 8 areas, inspected in 2 days, ranked in a Nandos style colour coding!?! Lemon and herb, to extra hot.
Come on, this isn’t a serious attempt to rethink school accountability.
Martyn Oliver’s ‘Big Listen’ has turned into the ‘big ignore’ and seriously risks becoming ‘the big disaster’.
Unless Labour comes up with an inspection model that is not high stakes and punitive in intent, they will not fix the recruitment and retention crisis in our schools.
The excessive workload, data collection and work intensity driven by Ofsted, and the fear of Ofsted, is unsustainable.
Everyone wants high standards in schools – NEU members are the first – but pigs don’t get fatter the more you weigh them. It’s not inspection that improves school standards – it is investment – and Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves, where on earth is that?
The strategy of this union is to work with this government when we can and press them where we have to.
It is the right strategy. It is the strategy our members expect. It is the only strategy.
I believe Bridget Phillipson, understands many of the problems in the education system and cares about working class kids.
I also think, on some issues, we share common solutions.
We welcome elements of - the Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill - particularly the steps taken to rein in the excesses of academies’ so-called 'freedoms'.
This bill is a step in the right direction, but it does not go far enough.
It is right we are a part of the Improving Education Together negotiating framework, around the table with employers, trade unions and government. Negotiating on workload, negotiating on accountability, negotiating on SEND.
Our members expect this. They expect us to be their voice.
However, having a seat at the table is not the end point.
Successful negotiations only result from leveraging our power, and the power of our union is based upon organising, it’s based on campaigning and it’s based on action.
But we are an independent trade union. One built on our shared desire to improve lives and improve outcomes for children here and abroad.
So it is absolutely right that we press this government where we must.
Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves may say austerity is over, but in this union we say austerity will only be ended by deeds not words.
Government say it would be indefensible for the NEU to take industrial action. Well I say to this government, it is indefensible for a Labour Government, a Labour Government, to cut school funding.
Because cuts hurt kids.
Time and again, we are told there is no money. No money to properly fund our schools, or to cover fair pay. No money to repair crumbling classrooms or to scrap the two-child benefit cap
Conference, after 14 years of conservative austerity, we expect better from a labour government.
So my message to government is this. If the STRB recommendation is not above inflation - if it is not a pay award that takes a step towards a correction in pay - if it does not address the crisis in recruitment and retention - and unless it is fully funded, then we stand ready to act industrially
We will make Labour MPs pay a high political price through our campaigning in their constituencies, with parents, across the country.
No teacher wants to strike.
But we stand ready.
The problems of tomorrow can be solved today.
Phillipson can publish the STRB report, today, and on time as promised.
The refusal to commit to fund fair pay and the wider funding of education is not just a policy failing - it is a betrayal.
It is a betrayal of a generation of children who get one chance at school.
It is a betrayal of the families in our communities who already have the least.
It is a betrayal of all those who voted for change.
Conference, this government has pledged billions of pounds for military expansion at the expense of the most vulnerable in society. Attacks on disability benefits, the winter fuel allowance and even a cheap bus fair.
It is an outrage.
The Labour movement should unite in its condemnation.
If there is money for bombs, for bullets, for hypersonic missiles then there should be money for carers, for those unable to work and for free school meals.
There should be money for mental health support.
For SEND.
For a pay rise that stops dedicated professionals leaving education altogether.
Our economic system is broken.
It simply does not work for so many people.
IF we are to truly change the country for the better, then we need an economic model that invests in people, in communities, and a productive and green economy.
It is time for taxes on wealth – A 2% wealth tax on those with assets over £5million – instead of short-changing education, instead of picking the pockets of our pupils, it’s time to tax profits. It is time to prioritise our children and our communities over corporate greed.
Conference, it’s undoubtably the case that the election of Donald Trump to the White House has added to the sense of global insecurity.
It’s not just on international issues where Trump is such a threat.
Trump and his allies seek to dismantle public education, censor what teachers can say, and roll back the progress on inclusion and equality in the classroom.
Their attacks on educators are not just an American problem - they are part of a global assault on education and democracy itself.
I’d like to thank Randi Weingarten for her video address to our conference and extend our solidarity to both the AFT and NEA.
We stand with our sisters and brothers as they resist Trump’s reactionary agenda.
Their fight is our fight.
An injury to one is an injury to all.
But Conference, as you know, we have our own little pound-shop Trump here in the UK.
Nigel Farage and Reform are part of a global movement of populist right organisations.
These dark forces seek to dismantle our public services, privatise education, and scapegoat refugees and the oppressed for societies problems.
They push a divisive agenda, they stoke up fear THAT undermines equality, and wages a so-called ‘culture war’ against progressive ideas and education.
Conference, you may have noticed that we appear to be living rent-free in Nigel’s head.
He believes we are indoctrinating children with “woke ideas”.
How dare he?
That man knows nothing about education.
We will not allow the populist or hard-right to dictate what we teach, how we teach, or who gets access to a quality education.
Our classrooms must remain spaces of inclusion, critical thinking, and empowerment - not battlegrounds for their backward politics.
But when Reform is polling 25% of the vote, we know we have to take these issues seriously.
The struggles against racism, the struggles against sexism, homophobia, transphobia, and ableism are real, and the NEU will always challenge discrimination and intolerance.
The NEU has always been, and must always be, a union built on solidarity.
Our strength lies in our ability to bring together - teachers, leaders, support staff, and educators from all backgrounds.
And whilst this government might be rolling out the red carpet for Farage to walk into Number 10, through their austerity agenda, we won’t stand for it.
Farage wants war, that’s fine - but I want our union, to continue to live rent free in his head as we organise for an education system and society where any child regardless of background, of colour, of religion, feels safe, happy and can flourish.
Conference, I have a beautiful six-year-old son.
He likes all the things a typical six-year-old likes - football, nerf guns.
Many of you are also parents as well as education workers.
Like me also, many of you will have watched the TV drama Adolescence.
Perhaps like me, you were stunned into silence when watching it.
It’s true that the representation of schools and teachers was neither fair nor accurate but as a father – and an educator – I felt fearful for my son and his friends – both boys and girls.
Across our schools, we are witnessing a disturbing rise in misogyny that is infecting classrooms, playgrounds, and online spaces.
Teachers and support staff are reporting a problematic trend where sexist, degrading, and violent attitudes towards women and girls are being normalised amongst young people.
Social media platforms have become breeding grounds for misogynistic content and at the same time, the widespread availability of violent and degrading pornography is shaping young people’s perceptions of sex and relationships.
We are in a safeguarding crisis.
And it is being fuelled by tech companies that prioritise profits over people, engagement over ethics, and algorithms over accountability.
These same companies are presiding over the introduction of Artificial Intelligence into education.
We cannot entrust this technology to the Silicon Valley tech bros who are only in it for the money.
We will fight for AI to be used to support teachers, not to replace or micromanage them.
And we will fight for regulation to force social media platforms to take real action against the algorithms pushing harmful ideas to our children.
The fight against online harm is a fight for the soul of our schools and our society - and it is one we must win.
Conference, the challenges before us this year are serious ones.
Our education system is being starved of funds.
Our professionalism and expertise is being undermined.
Many of our children aren’t getting the opportunities they need.
And the world outside the classrooms is in turmoil.
But we are a union of half a million members.
Teachers, leaders and support staff.
We are a union, with a high moral purpose, united in our shared desire to improve education for every child, in every classroom.
We are a union that stands up for what is right, when it’s right.
We are a union built on the optimism that only solidarity can bring, and it is in times of struggle that we find our true strength.
So, let’s leave here, confident in the courage that our collectivism brings.
Let’s leave here committed, energised and with a sense of purpose.
That we can right the wrongs.
That we can bring about change
That we can through, our collective endeavour, organise for a classroom that is creative, that is inclusive, that resourced in abundance.
Because this isn’t just what we demand. It is what our parents demand and our children need!!
So…..who would like a song?
When the unions inspiration through the workers blood shall run, there can be no power greater anywhere beneath the sun,
Yet what force on earth is weaker than the feeble strength of one,
For the union makes us strong.