Minutes of the General Meeting held on March 14th 2006

Apologies

Miriam Murch, Chris Cheetham, Dennis White, Peter Moss, Jane Rendle .

Minutes

The minutes of the last meeting were accepted as a true record

Matters arising

There were no matters arising

Correspondence

The Education Bill Conference, London University , March 25 th .

Reports and Discussion

The Education Bill

How Trust schools can affect other local schools by expanding and forcing their closure .

Ian has written to local MPs . Philip Davies (Shipley) opposes the bill but for reasons different from ours – he wants more selection and freedom for schools .

Marsha Singh opposed the bill for more sensible reasons . Other MPs not yet replied .

TLRs and re-structuring

Problems remain in some schools . There have been three indicative ballots for strikes in Bradford schools to date – Heads tend to come up with new proposals when these are successful .

Pensions

Ian summarised the background to the pensions dispute and the talks currently taking place.

Ofsted .

John reported on the problems being caused by the new short-notice system . Some managements are keeping pressure on all the time .

Nominations for the Young Teachers’ Conference, July 7-9 .

Agreed to put on a Newsletter and to seek volunteers .

Infectious diseases

Winter vomiting has closed several schools and put many under restrictions . Stuart to contact affected schools about supporting staff on interviews .

AOB

The Unison, GMB etc strike on March 28th. Discussed what we could do to support striking colleagues .