Staying strong collectively

Journalist Nic Paton looks at this year’s Annual Conference and other ways to become an engaged union member.

Our message to head teachers, teachers and classroom assistants is: ‘Thank you for your brilliant work; we need it to continue and in difficult economic circumstances’.”

T hose rare words of recognition came from chancellor Jeremy Hunt in the autumn statement (November 2022) as he announced a surprise £2bn extra spending package for schools in England over the next two years (approximately £4bn in total).

School leaders undoubtedly welcomed them after a challenging and bruising few years, operationally and politically, for the profession.

But NAHT members can also, to an extent, thank themselves for having been instrumental in wrestling this money out of a Treasury purse drawn otherwise tightly shut.

As NAHT head of policy (professional) Ian Hartwright explains: “You, the members, are the union. Together you are stronger. And the more you act collectively, the more your union can achieve.

“We won £2bn extra funding when, as

IAN HARTWRIGHT, NAHT HEAD OF POLICY (PROFESSIONAL)

a union, we were balloting on industrial action and had just published our ‘The Cliff Edge’ report (www.naht.org.uk/RD/ Funding-Cliff-Edge) on school funding. The findings of that report were so powerful because 11,640 of you responded to our survey. More than half (54%) said their schools couldn’t afford the teaching and support staff pay settlements in 2022/23. That rose to 76% in 2023/24.

“That was a powerful message to the government that gained mainstream media traction, forcing the Department for Education (DfE) to go back to the Treasury and negotiate for more money. We also magnified that message by working with other unions to reboot the ‘School Cuts’ campaign and website (www.schoolcuts.org.uk), bringing more pressure to bear. It’s not so much ‘what is NAHT doing for me?’, but rather ‘what can we achieve together?’,” he adds.

T H A K Y O U N endeavour. And last summer, when the government came forward and said, ‘yes, we accept the recommendations of the pay review body, the 5% pay award, but we’re not going to put any money in for that’, it just ignited at that point. That’s when the calls for us to ballot and be strong came through.

JAMES

BOWEN, NAHT DIRECTOR OF POLICY

“That money obviously doesn’t solve things; schools need more,” agrees James Bowen, NAHT director of policy. “But it is an awful lot better than it otherwise would have been. It was £2bn going into school budgets that probably wouldn’t have happened if we hadn’t had that sequence of events. That is why Annual Conference motions matter; the conversations you have in your branches matter.”

This year’s NAHT Annual Conference is coming up fast, from 28 to 29 April, in Telford. It is the moment where, traditionally, members come together to reflect on the year just gone and to set and direct policies and priorities for the year to come.

“Members have been giving us very strong messages about ‘we want to stand up and be counted, but we don’t want to damage our relationship with the children, their families and the communities we serve’. That came through loud and clear; there was proper engagement around what they wanted to do and how we should go forward. That was really, really encouraging.

“I’ve said we will ballot our members again on an offer if we get one. Or if we don’t get an offer, we will ballot on what we do next. We will be balloting members again, so all members need to understand how important it is to participate. Even though, in England, it didn’t hit that 50% threshold target, our members’ voices were heard very loud and clear. And we are in a position now where the government knows we are serious and need to be taken seriously,” Paul adds.

The common thread running through what Paul, Ian and James are saying is that it is not just membership that has made a difference here, but engaged membership, involved membership. As NAHT national secretary Rob Kelsall points out, last year was the 125th anniversary of the foundation of NAHT. And last year also saw NAHT hit what he calls “a staggering” 35,680 in-service members (as of 31 December 2022), compared with around 27,000 five years ago.

Above: NAHT was at London Pride, led by its LGBT+ Network

“We were involved in London Pride, led by our LGBT+ Network. We’re drawing in members from underrepresented groups, who perhaps wouldn’t previously have been drawn into what the union was doing, to participate and fly the NAHT flag at the Pride event.

ROB KELSALL, NAHT NATIONAL SECRETARY

PAUL WHITEMAN, NAHT GENERAL SECRETARY

This year, especially after NAHT’s unprecedented balloting on strike action in the autumn, we can expect the conference to send a strong, mobilised message to the government. As NAHT general secretary Paul Whiteman concedes, the fact the ballot did not meet the threshold in England was disappointing – and may, in part, have been the result of the postal ballot coinciding with Royal Mail strikes. But the strength of the collective voice with which NAHT has already spoken, and possibly more to come, should – by rights – be making the government sit up and listen even more than it did back in November.

“It might be me in front of a TV camera, on the radio or talking to a journalist; it might be me in the corridors of power in Cardiff, Westminster or Belfast. But when politicians aren’t listening, the union’s strength is within its membership,” he tells Leadership Focus

“I talk a lot about the strength of mutual support and the power of collective

“That increase, think, is a direct result of NAHT taking a more assertive stance in regard to its campaigning and organising strategy. What will also stand us in good stead for the next 125 years is the union’s ‘infrastructure’ – in other words, the 172 branches that support our members in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. All but a handful are now active, fully supported by local school leaders. We now have 900 regional and local officials, two-thirds of whom are serving head teachers,” Rob says.

“Those branches are flourishing as a result of new members joining us with a sense of optimism that the union can deliver for its members. And that we represent what school leaders see day in, day out in their schools – the lack of funding, punitive accountability, child poverty, pay erosion of almost 20% over the last 10 years and the incoherence of government education policy,” he adds. With the worst of covid-19 now (hopefully) in the rear-view mirror, NAHT has become increasingly active on the ground. Last year, in July, a delegation, for example, attended the Tolpuddle Martyrs’ Festival in Dorset for the first time. “We did a fringe event with the Child Poverty Action Group, the biggest fringe event over that weekend,” says Rob.

“We supported the Durham Miners’ Gala and its effort to celebrate not only the trade union struggle of the mineworkers but also the solidarity that the LGBT+ groups gave them during that strike. We attended Merthyr Rising in Wales, again for the first time. We’re working with our regions to ensure that in 2023, our presence at all those events is maintained and that we build on that work.

“Our organising strategy has created an emboldened union membership, which has seen the emergence of newly organised groups and activism; this has been the bedrock of our success, not only a growing membership but a courageous membership that’s prepared to take action, for themselves, their schools and, ultimately, the children and young people in their communities,” Rob adds.

Above: NAHT attending Merthyr Rising in Wales

PAUL GOSLING, CURRENT NAHT PRESIDENT

“People have a trade union membership, and it is a bit like an insurance policy. You have it in case things go wrong. But you can get so much more out of it by putting something in of yourself, by attending things,” agrees current NAHT president Paul Gosling.

SIMON KIDWELL, INCOMING NAHT PRESIDENT

For an executive leader, the NAHT membership fee is a smidge more than £40 a month, with a sliding downward scale from there. Many members, at least initially, invest in membership because of the insurance protection, representation and support it brings, as incoming NAHT president Simon Kidwell concedes.

“My first few years of membership were quite uneventful; I just used it as an insurance policy and status thing,” says Simon, who is head teacher at Hartford Manor Primary School and Nursery in Northwich.

“But when I was in a school as a new head teacher, and it was a really challenging school (I was facing challenges from Ofsted, the local authority and the school community), I reached out to our branch secretary, who was always there at the end of a phone to listen to my issues. He was always there to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with me.

“That showed me the value. It is an important network; we have some of the most experienced and highly qualified school leaders. Using that really can help members,” Simon adds.

“Whether you’re politically active, looking for continuing professional development (CPD) or interested in joining one of our equalities networks, there’s something for you. Or go to a conference or branch meeting. Sometimes you can’t beat a union meeting for a good old moan, to get things out of your system – and a good laugh, as there is an important social side to the union too,” Paul explains.

“When started as a head teacher, I wasn’t very active in the union initially. I got involved because of the sense of not being on my own.

“School leadership can be quite an isolating job sometimes. So, you get that sense of solidarity and coming together, and we’re all in the same boat and all fighting the same battle. You get energised by other people,” he adds.

Simon Kidwell progressed from joining his local branch to becoming branch secretary, then attending his first Annual Conference in 2011, when Michael Gove was the new coalition education secretary. “It just gave me that motivation to see the bigger picture, get involved with national campaigns and not just focus on my school. I was becoming a more established school leader at that point, and so I was able to raise my head and get involved in some of those big ideas, discussions, and debate around assessment and accountability,” he says.

“I have now been a head teacher for 18 years, and without NAHT, I don’t think I would have been able to sustain the long career that I’ve had. It has enabled me to look beyond my school and network and reach out to amazing colleagues nationwide. It’s like anything else; you get what you put into it. If you put effort into it, the professional rewards are returned in spades.

“But, also, being a head teacher is a job where it is known that we don’t have particularly good mental health outcomes. I’m 53, and see my colleagues around me either retiring or planning to retire, so it is challenging,” Simon adds. All of which is one reason why Simon’s nominated charity for his term as president is Education Support (www.educationsupport.org.uk), which supports teachers’ and education staff members’ well-being.

findings from the ‘Fixing the Leadership Crisis’ report have had. NAHT can also link surveys to its analytical work to produce other reports, such as, for example, its recent report on retention, ‘Gone for Good: leaders who are lost to the teaching profession’ (www.naht.org. uk/RD/Gone-for-Good). This enables NAHT to amplify the message and feedback from members in pursuit of NAHT’s wider policy goals.

were happening and whether school leaders’ and teachers’ voices were being heard, influencing policy change.

Initially, I wanted to find out if the views of school leaders and teachers from diverse backgrounds were represented.

“The conference gives us our agenda for the key things that members want NAHT to pursue. School leaders see first-hand things that are and aren’t working, government policies or whatever. It is an opportunity for them to try to steer and influence that,” he adds.

Last year, for example, Annual Conference was dominated by the issue of the chronic underfunding of the education sector. “We had speaker after speaker come and talk about that,” says James.

“That meant a big focus of our work over the last 12 months has been on school funding, and it is one of those areas where we have had some success.

MAGNUS

frankly, is quite broken,” says James.

“In the ‘Fixing the Leadership Crisis’ survey (www.naht.org.uk/ FixingTheLeadershipCrisis) nine in 10 said the role impacted their sleep, 83% reported increasing worry, and three-quarters of school leaders said the role had a negative impact on their mental health,” he says. “So I think my mental health focus and the focus on longevity will be very well supported by Education Support and the work that it does in being proactive in supporting school leaders before they get to the point where they have to finish,” Simon adds.

The fact Simon is highlighting the findings from an NAHT survey shows another important way for members to get involved. At one level, attending a branch or regional meeting outside of work or sitting at a screen to fill in a survey outside of work may feel like a busman’s holiday for a head teacher, especially given the intensity of the working day. But it does make a real difference, as Ian Hartwright emphasises.

“I’d like to thank members for their great response rates to our surveys. For most surveys, we get more than 2,000 responses,” he says, pointing to the traction that the

“The first question the DfE officials always used to ask me was, ‘well, how many responses was it?’. As I kept saying ‘more than 2,000’, they’ve stopped asking that question.”

“Now feel like I have a voice. I am being proactive in influencing change. Politicians who make decisions for our children and colleagues may not hear it fully. Still, I’m representing a voice, and that consists of not just my views and opinions but also those of colleagues,” Nazma continues.

“Yes, it is about your willingness to give the time. Head teachers are very busy, and it is a level of commitment.

I am lucky to have a very supportive governing body, and I never thought I would have done anything like being part of the national executive. But I have found a real camaraderie and friendship in the union. I feel heard, what I have to say matters, and I can influence change and make a difference,” Nazma adds.

“It is important to remind people that Annual Conference is probably the most important date in the diary for us as a union. Because it is at the conference that members have the chance, formally, to come along and set the direction of the union for the year ahead,” says James Bowen.

“Look at the link there. We started with Annual Conference and members highlighting that school funding remained a top priority for them and a major issue. In the autumn, as a result of NAHT’s campaigning, policy, survey work and press work, it led to an additional £4bn from the government.

“I wouldn’t want to suggest for a second that the issue of school funding is solved, far from it. But it is a good example of how members get their voices heard at the Annual Conference; they highlight the major issues and ask NAHT to go and work on those. We can have an impact, and we can make a difference,” James adds. For this year’s conference, funding will almost certainly still be a ‘live’ issue. Pay and workload, too. Plus, recruitment and retention and, alongside this, highstakes accountability pressures. “I think there will be some issues that will be a continuation of previous years. I think the ongoing issues around special educational needs and disabilities will likely arise. It is a part of the system that,

“Clearly, pay and conditions will be a significant part of the conference, I do not doubt that,” agrees Magnus Gorham, NAHT director of democracy and governance. “Other than that, we may be at the point where there are some discussions about the future shape of the School Teachers’ Review Body (STRB) and that whole process and how it will work.

“The other exciting thing about this year’s conference is that we are encouraging our branch network to fill their places. Average delegate numbers over the past few years have been around 250. We’re aiming to fill 450 places, and we think that’s possible because we have had such a significant increase in activism, fuelled largely by the activity going on in the last six months with ballots.

“It means a greater proportion of members are in the room making decisions on behalf of colleagues. It is about getting members together in an environment where they can talk honestly and derive comfort from people, sadly, going through the same things, and about talking to other people doing the role,” Magnus adds.

Certainly, the thought of spending your downtime sitting in a meeting about schooling and education after having had a busy day at your own school may not initially sound like the most appealing of prospects, agrees Nazma Jassat, Leicester City NAHT branch president, NAHT national executive member and head teacher at Charnwood Primary School in Leicester City. But a) in reality, it isn’t too onerous, b) there can often be a social and important networking side to national, branch and regional meetings, and c) this is a small step to influencing change.

“Being present at union meetings does make a difference. There is a level of frustration among school leaders and teachers with the current education landscape as it stands, and politicians are making decisions that impact the lives of children and our colleagues,” she says.

“I started attending union meetings for this reason. wanted to know why things

Below: School leaders gather outside parliament to call on the government to reverse more than a decade of chronic underfunding in England’s schools (October 2021)

NAHT in Wales and Northern Ireland

While, as we have seen, NAHT’s ballot on industrial action in England did not reach the required threshold – and so is set to be a key talking point at Annual Conference there – in Wales and Northern Ireland, it was a very different story. Members in both nations voted for action short of a strike, hoping to ramp up pressure for change on both the Welsh Government and, with the government in Northern Ireland still suspended (at least as of the time of writing in March), Westminster.

The big success of the last year in Northern Ireland was members voting to take action against inadequate pay and the gradual decline of funding in education in Northern Ireland. Our children are funded much less per head than any other part of the UK,” emphasises Liam McGuckin, NAHT Northern Ireland president.

“During the autumn of 2022 and spring of 2023, NAHT(NI) has been trying to galvanise the opinions of members to respond to these issues. Members voted strongly to take action short of a strike and possible strike action. This is a huge step to overcome, especially for principals,” he adds.

NAHT has also been hard at work running events and webinars, for example, recently on pension planning. “That was very successful; we had around 13% of our membership on that webinar,” says Liam. “Events like that are a great way to get people together and remind members about the importance of things, like upcoming webinars and our

Annual Northern Ireland Conference. We’re putting a real emphasis this year on education and encouraging members to think about their roles.

“We provide a lot of information to our members about what is going on in education in Northern Ireland, both with the ongoing lack of a devolved administration and the breakdown in support being given to principals. We’ve found ourselves plugging a massive gap there,” he adds.

“I think that demonstrates the strength of feeling from our members, not only that the erosion of their pay by 20% over the last 10 years is something they have got to take a stand against but also the wider implications of that for the education profession. In terms of recruitment and retention, we are struggling to keep those great teachers and leaders in schools.

“It is also what it says about the profession as a whole; the fact it is not being valued by the government and therefore not becoming an attractive proposition for postgraduates, which is a real concern, particularly with around 50% of teachers who come into initial teacher training leaving in the first five years – absolutely devastating.”

Assistant or deputy head teacher?

Beyond the current action, NAHT Cymru remains active in campaigning on the rollout of the new curriculum in Wales and, in particular, the failings around the implementation of the new additional learning needs coordinators (ALNCos).

Get involved with NAHT policy

Sector councils are vital in ensuring members’ views in representative areas are served effectively as part of NAHT’s national executive* structure.

For Liam, all this activity emphasises why not just joining NAHT but being an engaged and active member is so important. “It improves you as a head teacher; it also improves you as a person. It gives you a better perspective of what’s going on nationally. It has helped me go back to my school and see things in a different light. It is just good to know there are so many people doing a really important job who think in so many similar ways to you.

“Sometimes being a head teacher can be a very lonely job. It is great to get the chance to talk to people in a similar situation. And NAHT, above all, gives that opportunity,” Liam adds.

“There have been significant struggles, particularly with the rollout of the ALN system. As we warned the Welsh Government when it first mooted the idea, it is all very well to have a great system in place and something that puts learners at the heart of everything we do – we support that ethos – but the mechanics of the implementation of such a huge shift in the system just weren’t thought through.

“There wasn’t the funding put into the system to be able to release teachers to become ALNCos, and there isn’t the support for those ALNCos who are struggling with what is a mammoth responsibility – because it is a legal obligation and there are very real implications for them personally and professionally if we get this wrong.

One such example is the Deputy and Assistant Heads (DAH) Council; this is formed of serving school leaders, some as elected national executive representatives but with the majority as co-opted council members.

The DAH Council supports deputy head teachers, assistant head teachers and vice principals across all phases and school types. It meets at least three times a year, helping to steer and develop NAHT’s policy and campaigning priorities. It also ensures the union’s advice and guidance reflect the needs of these members, who are the backbone of the senior leadership team.

Over the years, the council has exercised significant influence on NAHT’s policy development, having led the creation of a series of illuminating questions investigating the mental health of assistant and deputy head teachers in NAHT’s report ‘Fixing the Leadership Crisis’, which found that more than a third of assistant (35%) and deputy (38%) head teachers had identified that they needed mental health or well-being support.

DIRECTOR

In Wales, action short of a strike commenced in February, and as Laura Doel, NAHT Cymru director, highlights: across the school system. Co-optee members form an integral part of the council. They bring valuable insight and experience of assistant and deputy head members’ challenges, helping amplify their voices across NAHT and beyond, including directly with senior DfE officials. Applications for DAH cooptee members are sought in recruitment rounds, so keep an eye on your inbox and NAHT’s website for future openings. Assistant, deputy and vice principal members from all backgrounds are welcomed and encouraged to apply for co-optee positions on the DAH Council.

“It is the first time our members in Wales have taken national industrial action over pay and funding. We had a resounding response from our pay ballots and successfully managed to jump through the anti-trade union hoops to get there.

FIND OUT MORE…

You can learn more about the DAH Council, including details of any future co-optee vacancy application rounds, by visiting www.naht.org.uk/DAH-Sector-Council

*National executive is the governing body of elected representatives of serving school leader members that oversee the policy direction we take between our Annual Conferences.

“Rather than being reactive to policy, thanks to our members, we now enter into co-construction of policy. Instead of complaining about it afterwards, we are now in the room discussing the practical challenges and, crucially, the solutions,” she adds.

The council has also played a pivotal role in providing feedback to the DfE on implementing the Early Career Framework, particularly the impact on mentors’ workload.

Looking forward, the council will begin discussions on the leadership pay structure, particularly considering how it can best support the progression of assistant and deputy head teachers as they move

EDI networks

NAHT operates three EDI (equality, diversity and inclusion) networks: the Disabled Members’ Network, the LGBT+ Network and the Leaders for Race Equality Network.

“Members tell me that one of the core values of the networks is being able to speak to other leaders, knowing that you are not alone and that there are other leaders like you who have similar backgrounds and experiences. Members who have overcome some of the same barriers and challenges to get into leadership or have grappled with that throughout their working career before becoming life members. It is a great space to share that.”

NATALIE ARNETT, NAHT SENIOR EQUALITIES OFFICER

“These are informal groups created and driven by members. This is something members have told us that they would like to have and the value they find in this kind of peer-to-peer support. It’s just another way to engage with NAHT,” explains NAHT senior equalities officer Natalie Arnett.

We examine the Disabled Members’ Network in more detail elsewhere in this edition. All three networks, Natalie emphasises, are designed to help amplify the voices of members within NAHT and provide support, information and networking opportunities.

The groups meet every half term online for one hour and then have an annual face-to-face event at the end of the school year. “There is no expectation that you need to come to every single one, although hopefully, members find it valuable and will want to come anyway. We try to move the meeting times around; we tend to have them in the evening, but we are also exploring whether to hold some during school time,” Natalie explains. Each network also has a WhatsApp group for those who wish to communicate and share resources and learnings – or vent about their day – between the meetings.

The networks are already making their influence felt.

Leaders for Race Equality, for example, led the development of the ‘You Are Not

Naht

For Life

NAHT is not, of course, solely for serving school leaders. There is a thriving and vibrant community of now-retired NAHT life members whose longstanding experience and knowledge are hugely valued by the union.

“Life members now have an NAHT National Sector Council, which we didn’t have before, so we have 12 representatives, one from each region in England and one from Wales and Northern Ireland. In addition, we have a member on the national executive; before that, we reported to someone else and had them making our points for us at executive,” explains NAHT life members’ communications officer Michael Wilson.

“We also now have an annual review of the NAHT life member charter in relation to what services should be available to NAHT members. And we’ve also affiliated with the National Pensioners Convention.

“Being active and engaged as a life member has been good for me. NAHT volunteering provides a real physical and mental reward. When you’re a head teacher, you’re enormously busy, and it’s a 24-hour-a-day job, so when you first stop, it can be a bit of a shock. You’re often looking for things to do to use your skills,” Michael says.

professionally Grow

NAHT offers members several pathways to grow, develop and improve professionally.

The NAHT Discovery Education Pathway online CPD programme (www.naht.org. uk/pathway) offers a blend of resources and materials that brings consistency to your school’s professional learning, with the aim of supporting the whole school. There is also a busy calendar of courses (www.naht.org.uk/courses), webinars (www.naht.org.uk/webinars) and conferences (www.naht.org.uk/ conferences) for members to attend. These can be on topics as varied as leading school safeguarding through to joining or forming a multi-academy trust, holding more successful ‘difficult’ conversations, and much more. All courses are held online, with recordings available for up to 30 days after the event has ended. NAHT courses aim to help school leaders with statutory compliance, enhancing the curriculum and achieving a work-life balance.

FIND OUT MORE…

Mentor

Your Peers

NAHT runs a highly regarded mentoring programme that enables members to share their experiences and knowledge and guide mentees towards their future career ambitions.

Working with a mentor enables mentees to learn from someone more experienced, work on their career progression, gain impartial advice and an alternative perspective, have a nonjudgemental sounding board for ideas and focus on overcoming challenges. But, equally, being a mentor brings its own benefits, too. These include passing on personal knowledge and experience to help others grow, having the chance to ‘give something back’ and support others, and gaining the chance to work on new and exciting challenges.

FIND OUT MORE…

To find out more about NAHT’s mentoring programme, visit: https://thehub.naht.org.uk/ management/4289/

Alone’ book (www.naht.org.uk/RD/YouAre-Not-Alone), which brought together 14 stories from members of the group. It also helped to shape NAHT’s anti-racism statement and position on the need for mandatory anti-racism training in schools.

The Disabled Members’ Network has led to the union adopting the social model of disability. “That has all come from members’ experiences and feeds into our more formal democracy,” Natalie says.

“We’ve seen people become members of NAHT to join the networks. They’ve then gone on to engage with their branches or regions or join the national executive as well. It is another route into NAHT’s more formal structures,” she adds.

FIND OUT MORE…

Learn more about the networks at www.naht. org.uk/EqualitiesDiversity-Inclusion

“You still have fantastic skills; you don’t lose them. Stopping might be fine for a few weeks, but once you’ve done the retirement cruise, I’ve found it healthy to get back involved and engaged in education.

“Once you’ve retired, you can choose what you want to do. You can say, ‘I’m not working on Fridays’, even though I’ve not managed that in five years! Just make contact with your local NAHT branch and the branch secretary.

“In the next 12 months, we’re encouraging all branches to have a position on their committee that is a life member representative so that life members can contact someone,” Michael adds.

Catch up on previous webinars by visiting the NAHT ‘Hub’: https://thehub.naht.org.uk/ in Sheffield; we are almost the twelfth most deprived in the country. The free school meal threshold is really low, and many of our families are just slightly above it. But because you’re above the threshold and, on paper, can feed your child, it doesn’t mean that you are. We feel that penalises the child.

“Our energy bill has increased from £20,000 to more than £50,000. So, money that we would probably have spent on the buildings, we’ve had to cut that back. Our number one priority is our free meals; that would be the last thing we would cut back on. I keep a close eye on it, and I think last year we overspent by £480 – that was it. It is so important,” Kathryn adds.