NATT+ AGM
Minutes from the Meeting held on 15th May 2012
Held at Durham Ethnic Minority and Traveller Achievement Service
Present:Sue Wadsworth (North Yorkshire CC), Rob Watson ( North Yorkshire CC), Jayne Freeman (North Yorkshire CC), Malcolm Wilson (Wolverhampton), Lesley Asbridge (Cumbria), Helen Perfect (Durham), Christine Walton ( Gateshead), Amanda Fenwick (Gateshead), Victoria Brown (Durham), Gillian Middleton (Durham), Ducie Richards (Durham), Una Mee (Newcastle), Ian Luke (Northumberland), Fiona Ranson (Stockton), Nicole Quayle (Durham), Susan Paver (Stockton), Kathleen Guthrie (Hull), Claire Lockwood (Leeds), Anthea Wormington (Newham), Natalie Stables (Salford), Kath Cox (Bracknell Forest),
Apologies:Linda Lewins – Joint President
Liz Haines – ICT Group Chair
Maggs Harrison – Membership Secretary
Kay Poole – Worcestershire
Marion Rowlands – Retired
Margaret Telfer - Retired
Ruth Barnett
Michelle Nye – Hampshire
Shirley Everall – Hertfordshire
Patricia Di Capite – Hampshire
Jill Lloyd – Wokingham
Lorraine Hodgson – Wokingham
Steve Clifton – West Berkshire
Helen Lovell – Windsor and Maidenhead
AnnaMarie Maddison – Sunderland
Maureen Barrow – Sunderland
Welcome:Claire Lockwood welcomed everybody to the AGM and thanked Helen Perfect and the Durham team for their warm welcome.
Minutes and Matters Arising from AGM 2011: The President circulated copies of the minutes.
Page 3 - Natalie Stables stated that the trip was to Hungary.
Proposed by Natalie Stables and Seconded by Kath Cox
Passed unanimously.
President’s Report:
This has been the best year to become joint president of The National Association of Teachers of Travellers and other professionals and has been great to work in partnership with Linda as co president and with all the executive who work very hard. Unfortunately Linda can’t be with us today as her father is very ill. She is very disappointed not to be here as Durham is her home town. My first job on behalf of Linda and myself is to thank them all individually.
Kathleen Guthrie who has taken over as treasurer this year and doing an excellent job and who also administers the GRTHM competition.
Maggs Harrison – again cannot be here today. Maggs is the membership secretary who does a fantastic job looking after all our members
Kath Cox – chair of the professional development group and who organises the members meetings – Thank you Kath for doing a brilliant job today
Liz Haines – chair of the ICT group but can’t be with us today. Liz is responsible for the upkeep of the website and does an amazing job
Anthea Wormington – has kindly stood in as chair of the previously known Education partnership group and now newly named Fairground and circus group. Anthea is doing a tremendous job at stepping in and organising the annual fairground and circus conference in January.
Natalie Stables – chair of the Roma group. An expanding area and Natalie has got a superb handle on this area and is involved in some exciting and adventurous projects
This year start with the 4th annual Gypsy, Roma and Traveller History Month. Again this year NATT+ was in the forefront of helping schools and educational settings to get involved. We produced a wonderful GRTHM booklet with tons of ideas, information and resources for schools.
These books were free to nominated schools and NATT+ members. They were very well received and soon disappeared. The book is available on the members area of the NATT+ website. I would like to thank Graham Alexander who works miracles to meet our sometimes very short deadlines. We also posted a calendar of events listed on the website for the GRTHM.
Last years national schools competition ‘A Moment in Time’ was also well received and we had over 1000 entries. A big thank you to Kathleen Guthrie and her team in Hull who organised judges and administered the competition. The winners received their prizes at a wonderful ceremony organised by Jill Lloyd in Wokingham. A big thank you to Jill. A book was produced ‘ A moment in Time’ and sent to all 1550 old and new nominated schools as well as free to the winners and their schools. They are selling at a cost of £5.00 but are free to NATT+ members. We only have a small number left so please let me know if you would like copies.
This years GRTHM competition looks very exciting and I am sure will be our best yet. The theme this year is the Queens Diamond Jubilee and we have produced 8 postcards that look at GRT culture and lifestyle 60 years ago and today.
The competition is to complete the postcards with stories, poems, collages, photographs, drawings or paintings inspired by the images on the cards. Over the Easter holiday NATT+ sent sets of these 8 postcards to all the 1550 nominated schools. A great resource to use in the classroom. Extra images and more details can be found on the NATT+ website. The competition is again going to be administrated by Kathleen. The awards ceremony has already been booked and is on Friday 21st September at the department of education in London thanks to Angela Overington.
On a more political front Linda Lewins had a successful meeting with Nick Gibb and is involved with the Children’s Commissioner regarding the school exclusion inquiry report. Linda represented NATT+ at the School Exclusion Enquiry which took place in Parliament in March this year. NATT+ involvement in this enquiry was much appreciated and we look forward to working with the Children’s Commissioner in the future.
Both Linda and I have met with Angela Overington at the DFE along with ACERT and the details of the discussions and ‘the progress report by the ministerial working group on tackling inequalities experienced by Gypsies and Travellers’ are all on the website. Angela is sadly moving on within the DFE, she will be missed and our thanks go to her for all her support and involvement in our work. Please see attached letter.
NATT+ is involved in the many consultations that the Government invites people to comment on yearly. This work is done by the Policy and Strategy group chaired by Linda Lewins. The current consultations are
- Reform of alternative provision
- On school funding reform
- On draft revised statutory guidance for local authorities on service and activities to improve young people’s wellbeing
- On revised sure start children’s centre statutory guidance
It is important that the government get the GRT pupil and community prospective on these various consultations. If anyone would like to join this group and have input into these that would be much appreciated. It is a virtual group.
March saw the annual NATT+ conference this years title being ‘Mission Possible’ and held in the stunning Highcliff Marriott Hotel Bournemouth. This years conference focus is on Roma both looking at the current situation in this country and Europe and learning more about English as an additional Language. We heard from, OFSTED and from the Department of Education. The conference was a great success and feedback from delegates was the best we have ever had.
NATT+ received, on average, 10 enquiries each week from people via the website. These can range from colleagues working in the field wanting advice to someone asking how she could become a Gypsy as she thought it sounded a great way of life. All are answered to the best of our abilities.
NATT+ membership continues to be a cause for concern as, without members, we cannot exist workload wise, financially or innovatively.
Treasurer’s Report:
Kathleen handed out copies of the audited accounts for 2010-11. She explained how the role of Treasurer is slightly easier now due to the end of certain funded projects eg elamp. This will be reflected in a reduction of money in the accounts in the current year. A copy of the report is attached.
Proposed by Malcolm Wilson and Seconded by Helen Perfect.
Passed unanimously.
Reports from the Groups:
ICT:As Liz Haines was unable to attend Claire read out her report:
We haven’t met as a group since last time but have busy ‘behind the scenes’
At the conference we issued a questionnaire to help us gauge feelings about the website. We had feedback from 32 people, the feedback was generally very positive
· Generally people find it useful
· People like how it looks
· Like the facebook link
· Request for more resources and lesson plans
· Request for more content around good practice
The last 2 points are dependent on members being willing to share these resources. Lynne Powis has recently given us the fairground school support they use in her authority which we have put on (Thanks to Lynne).
· One comment was that the eshop was a problem with all the different suppliers – they would prefer just one supplier
We agree – but it’s not possible to do this
· A couple of people didn't know about the Members area, or that there was exclusive content there (We think this is maybe because these members weren't receiving emails due to contact data missing or the fact they had not given us their email addresses.)
This problem is being addressed by the re-vamp of the website and the removal of the members area.
· Quite a few comments from people not having the time to visit
We couldn’t really help with this one! Suggest putting on favourites list and getting in the habit of looking? The facebook alerts work well as some commented it reminded them to look on when there was something new.
Other points:
There was a noticeable increase of database updates following the conference
Margaret Telfer is progressing with contact database updates – again we do need to stress that any changes in services are forwarded to us
Marion Rowlands will be inputting GRTHM 2012 events (if we get some) please forward any to her
Graham is currently working on Site redevelopment:
Improvements will include
-Refreshed appearance
-Removal of members area and instead member content will be marked as "members only" (If you are not logged in - or a member - and you try to access exclusive member-only content this will bring up a box informing you to either log in, or to become a member to enable you to see that content. It is hoped by doing this people will be encouraged to become members in order to access the exclusive content)
-Simplifying process of adding content so the exec can add items too
-Reworking home page. Content slider, latest stories.
-Simplifying navigation to make access to the site content easier
Finally, on a positive note, a couple of members have used the group email function asking questions/for support. Both have confirmed that this has been a success for them.
NATT+ Circus and Fairground Group(Formerly the Educational Partnership Group):
Due to the retirement of Kath Creswell who formerly chaired the group, Anthea was co-opted by the Executive, at the NATT+ meeting in October 2011, to take over the chair of this group on a temporary basis to assist in the organisation of the annual conference for the parents and the Education Liaison Officers for Circus and Fairground children.
The conference took place at the Paragon Hotel in Birmingham on Sunday
January 29th. (Please see the web-site.) There were approximately 20 delegates and the agenda was packed with up to date information, examples of good practice and presentations from both the communities and educationalists.
One of the outcomes from this conference was the promise of an All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) meeting with the politicians at Westminster for May 3rd 2012.
The group reconvened and had its first meeting at the British Library in London on April 16th 2012. It now comprises of: Kathleen Guthrie, Liz Haines, Carol Stotter, and Anthea Wormington.
At this meeting we decided to:
- Change the name of the group
It was decided by all present that the group would be renamed from “Educational Partnership Group” to “NATT+ Circus and Fairground Group”
- Decide the functions, direction and actions for 2012
These were:
To build closer links with the communities so that we can respond to their current needs and requests
To develop our section of the web-site so that it is more user- friendly.
To have information on it that is of use to both the communities and the schools.
- Best use of web-site
We decided that it would be best for us to have our own section of the web-site, like the Roma section where it is easy to find our postings and for the community groups to find information.
To be included:
Links on our section to Showmen’s Guild, World’s Fair and King Pole web-sites
Examples of good practice and case studies
Advice for parents to take into schools
Links to distance learning platforms.
It was proposed that we write to World’s Fair (and King Pole)requesting that NATT+ are notified of regional meetings of ELOs and circus groups –so that if possible we can attend to be kept in touch with their concerns re-education. Also that we introduce our web-site and promote the Conference planned for next February.
We started planning for the 2013 Conference.
The date will be Sunday Feb 3rd at Goldthorne Hotel, Wolverhampton.
As the ELOs have offered to pay we need to remind them of this and ask if they want to go ahead with conference. It was felt that they need to take ownership of it more fully. We will ask the communities what they want in the conference. Do they want us to try and promote it as a “training day for ELOs”? What would be a good title?
We will also keep an eye out for Learning Platforms that could be included.
The date of our next meeting is Monday September 17th at British Library 11 a.m.
Any new members to the group are welcome. Please contact
Anthea Wormington
Policy and Strategy:
As Linda was absent, Claire talked people through the revised process for Teacher Appraisal and Capability:
Teacher Appraisal and Capability – Revised Process
New Appraisal regulations:
- Based on new national standards
- Apply to all teachers
- Must be applied differently for each pay level
- Requires teachers to be audited
- 2/3 targets or more - 1Linked to pupil progress
- No limit on lesson observations or warning needed
- Applies equally to Head teachers
- Teachers have to declare if they have been on capability even if resolved
Appraisal and capability Policy
- One joint policy strongly recommended
- Model policy is available form DfE
- Targets not met could lead to capability
- Timeline – September - all agree school policy and audit against standards – all PM agreed & in place by October 31st – Head teachers by December 31st
- Governors still do HT PM
Pay Implications
- No changes in pay for September 12
- School teachers Review Body have to feedback by September 28th 2112 but Govt doesn’t have to listen
- Pay scale based on best teachers skill scale not pay scale
- Upper Pay Spine to Main scale 8 – could go up and down
- 3 year entitlement - likely to go immediately
- Master teacher Standards – not sure what this looks like as yet
- PPA time could go
- Regional pay – not sure yet
- Earliest implementation – Sept 13
Changes still to be made – unions advice needs to be sought by schools writing their policies and changes implemented slowly and in full agreement with school staff and governors.
Professional Development:
Current Status: Kath Cox functioning as the Executive Lead.
Over recent years TES staff has found it impossible to attend meetings with a release from their LA or have been moved into other areas of employment.
Professional development needs are now identified by the Executive throughthe already established Working Groups, Government/DfE strategies/policies and frommember’s feedback comments and suggestions after the General Meetings and conferences.
However – Member’s voluntary support on the day at these meetings and conferences is invaluable in presenting a professional delivery to the speakers and our members and I thank all those who respond so positively on the day.
2011 – 2012 Meetings for Professional Development included:
July 2011 Executive Meeting in Wolverhampton
October 2011 Members Meeting in Wraysbury, Middlesex
March 2012 Residential Conference, Bournemouth
May 2012 Members Meeting, Durham
Roma Research and Support Group:
Current Status of the Group: 5 members who meet up regularly
Virtual Membership: 4
1. Preparation for Nassea/NATT+ conference “Developing Approaches to Working with Roma Families and Children” Manchester18th May 2012
Over 110 delegates to attend.
Keynote speaker: Alan Anstead of Equality
Other speakers: Ciara Leeming photographer, Roma community members working in schools, secondary and primary school teachers working with Roma pupils.
Workshops: Leeds-RICE Project, Liverpool-Youth Service ,Bradford-Early Years, London-Romanian Roma, Manchester-Teenage pregnancy and School networks.
2. Roma Resource: NATT+ on line resource
3. NATT+ Visit to Hungary May 2012: School and community visits, networking- Roma Education Fund, Mundi Romani, Conference at CorvinusUniversity.
4. Update on wider EU Perspective in particular, the EU Commission’s National Strategies for Roma Integration. Explanation of UK government’s position and recent developments.
Forum: Claire led a discussion around the use of the forum and possible ideas for future topics.
Ideas suggested included – Roma, Free School Meals, Academies, Retention of pupils on KS2/KS3 transfer, CapacityBuilding.
Update from TES teams present:
Durham:They are a team of 22, totally core funded, covering GT, EAL and Race Equality. 230 ascribed pupils. Currently piloting new way of working – having key case workers to track families more like LAC. They sit in The Vulnerable Groups Team, each manager is going to become a virtual head. Used to meet with other teams from NE for such things as EYs but rapid decline in teams and time has reduced contact.