AGM Presidential Address

Presidential Address
West Sussex Teachers’ Association AGM March 1st 2008

Thank you Bob for your hard work as president over this last year, and thank you to the executive committee for all the hard work they do on behalf of the teachers in West Sussex. I know they will continue to support me in the coming year. Thank you to you all for coming today.
It is an honour and a privilege to be selected as president of the WSTA for this year. It will be a challenge for me and the rest of the executive committee, and a steep learning curve. It is also an opportunity for me as a nursery teacher, to talk about the concerns that nursery/early years teachers currently have and the challenges facing them as nursery schools disappear and children’s centres become the norm for early years education.
Firstly, I would like to introduce myself and tell you a bit about my background in teaching and in the NUT. I’m sorry to say that I did not join the NUT as a student teacher. It was AMMA who got to me first, and happily for me, they no longer exist. I initially trained as a secondary teacher, in remedial Maths and English. I did my PGCE at Edgehill College in Ormskirk in Lancashire, and my placements were in quite challenging comprehensives in Preston and Liverpool.
I found myself either with a class of Year 7s, attempting some basic maths or english, or with a group of 15 year olds, mostly boys, who were waiting to leave school. One memorable occasion was in a year 7 class, I had written some maths problems up on the board and turned round and said to the class; “Are you with me?” One bright spark replied, “No Miss, we’re with the Woolwich!” I’m sure that child has done well. It did make me smile.
Other than those moments of light relief, it was a difficult year. Staffrooms then didn’t seem particularly friendly places. I remember the ones that I encountered as being full of smoke – to which I contributed furiously as well, between lessons, and the scariest thing was trying to figure out which chair or mug you could use without being yelled at. I’m not sure who I was most scared of – my pupils or my colleagues. Actually, it’s the same now – just that I’m taller than the children I teach – mostly!
After qualifying I went for a number of interviews, one of which was in a children’s home in Liverpool that had education on the premises. It was a secure home for girls from 11-18 who were habitual absconders, from their homes as well as from schools. I didn’t get the teaching job, but was offered a job on the care team. I enjoyed working there and made a lasting friendship to this day, with a fellow member of my team, who had also trained as a teacher.
I spent two years in Liverpool, and then moved to Bristol, where my eldest son was born. Two moves and two more children later, I arrived in West Sussex, and when my daughter, Liz went to school I decided to try to get back into teaching. However, not in secondary education. After the initial shock of having young children, I really enjoyed spending time with, and educating and being educated by my children and their friends. In addition to my 3, I found I often had a house full of other young children. I helped out and worked in my children’s playgroup, and completed a training course with the Pre-school Playgroups Association, on child development, working with and providing a suitable environment for young children to learn and develop. After completing a certificate in Adult and Further Education I tutored adults in pre-school courses. I joined KIT – a West Sussex organisation for returning teachers and volunteered in a local reception class. In 1995 I applied for and got my first teaching post as a nursery teacher at Horsham Nursery School. Since then I have worked in two other nursery schools and one children’s centre.
Not long after starting at Horsham Nursery School, I joined the NUT and was contacted by Veronica, who invited me and my colleague, Mandy to her presidential dinner. I knew Veronica socially, through church and having two children the same age – our sons both played football for Horsham teams. Mandy and I attended Veronica’s presidential dinner at Slinfold Golf Club, and began to attend local NUT meetings. We both felt that nursery/early years teachers needed some representation, and we were the women to do it!
That leads me to today and becoming president for 2008/9. What are the issues concerning teachers at this moment and over the next year? Pay – on which we are about to be balloted for strike action – the first national ballot over pay in more than 20 years. Workload – still an issue for many teachers despite legislation to ensure 10% PPA time for full-time teachers – no matter what phase of education they are employed in. Academies – an issue we are currently campaigning against in West Sussex, as NUT members in other parts of the country are doing. Early years education, the introduction of children’s centres and the role of the nursery teacher – not issues that you may have read about in the paper or listened to on the news, but ones that are quietly transforming the nature of early years education as we have known it since the time when Margaret McMillan introduced the first nursery schools.
Nursery schools, which have traditionally employed qualified teachers to work in a team alongside nursery nurses, with young children aged 3 and 4 years old, are disappearing nationally. There were 4 LEA maintained nursery schools in West Sussex. These have been and are in the process of being transformed into children’s centres. Children’s centres are part of the government’s 10 year plan for children and families to have all services located in one place – a “one stop shop”. Excellent plan so far – families can access nursery education, day-care for under 3s, health visitors, childminders, social workers, family support workers, parenting classes, learndirect courses, job centre information, a whole range of services and training opportunities in one place. The worrying aspect for nursery/early years teachers who find themselves in a children’s centre rather than a maintained nursery school, is that their role is changing, and in some instances disappearing. Job opportunities for teachers whose specialism is in early years are few now and possibly non-existent in the future, in the non-statutory sector. When a teacher leaves or is promoted to the management team, they are not replaced by qualified teachers on the classroom team. This is my experience.
The government seems to take the view that it is not necessary to employ teachers to work with young children. This is despite all the evidence and research to the contrary. The government’s own funded research, EPPE, which stands for Effective Provision of Pre-School Education, is the first major longitudinal study in the UK to focus specifically on the effectiveness of early years education. It is a large scale study of the progress and development of 3,000 children in a range of government funded settings, exploring the characteristics of the different kinds of provision and examining children’s development in early years settings from the age of 3, and their progress in school to the end of KS1. The study has recently been extended to the end of KS2. What the research has shown is that high quality pre-school provision is one of the key factors influencing a child’s later progress in school. The other key factor is their home environment. By high quality provision, we are talking about specialised nursery teachers working alongside well trained and qualified nursery nurses as part of a team. Children’s centres most recently, seem to be appointing a teacher to lead the nursery team, rather than being a working part of it. Young children need qualified teachers to work and play with them and to make relationships with them, in order to extend and enable their learning – not to be in an office surrounded by planning.
Let’s look at the example of Finland, where results from the third Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), released in December, confirmed that Finnish students were the outstanding performers, setting a record score in science and coming second in literacy and maths. One of Finland’s strengths, alongside truly comprehensive education, is systematic and professional early childhood education delivered by teachers with masters degrees.
It does not help that nursery education is not part of the statutory sector, nor that it is traditionally seen as “women’s work”, as young children are involved. I have met reception class teachers who ask me what qualifications I have and are astounded to discover that I have the same qualifications as them.
The NUT understands and supports the position of nursery teachers, as can be seen by its policies and currently, the executive motion to conference. This calls for the maintenance of high quality provision within children’s centres and the continuing requirement for Heads of Centres to have QTS and experience of working in early years settings. The union reasserts its belief that qualified early years teachers are essential to the provision of high quality early years education and that they create the best possible conditions for children’s learning and for their personal, social and emotional development. I would go further and state my belief that if we get it right for 3 and 4 year olds, if we nurture in them a positive attitude towards learning and a delight in exploring and experimenting, then their primary and secondary school lives can only benefit.
So, to finish, for all of you primary and secondary colleagues out there, I’d like to leave you with this thought. Nursery/early years teachers need your support and your interest in their phase of education – so please, no yawning or going out for coffee when early years motions are discussed – stick with it! Hang on in there – even if your bum is numb.
Think about it – what are your best moments in teaching – attending endless meetings, planning lessons, making assessments, writing reports – unlikely, I would hope. The best moments happen when you are interacting with children – those are the moments in a day that make you smile and make you feel that you are doing a worthwhile job. Early years teachers want to continue to experience those moments too.
As Daniel Day-Lewis said when he collected one of his awards, “it’s just playing”, and we all need to do that!