TEACHERS are being urged to steer clear of meetings. Workload was one of the main issues discussed at the annual union conferences.

Local representatives attended both the NASUWT and NUT gatherings.

At the NASUWT conference in Belfast, teachers were reminded that an instruction to reduce workloads issued in 2000 was still in force.

‘This means that teachers in Guernsey, where the NASUWT is the biggest union, should only be attending one meeting in any week and any meeting attended should be well run and have a good reason for its existence, otherwise members should not attend,’ said local representative Caroline Bowker.

‘Perhaps this is something that gets forgotten in the rush to introduce more and more change in the education system. I will certainly be reminding my members that they should not allow the idea of so-called voluntary meetings to impinge on their need for a sensible work-life balance.’

The conference also focused on supply and part-time teachers.

‘In Guernsey we tend to treat our staff better than many areas of England and Wales,’ she said.

‘But I will be discussing with the Education Department how they can ensure in particular that those with caring responsibilities, which makes part-time work the only answer, should not be disadvantaged in terms of their access to training and promotion opportunities.’

Sean McManus was the local representative at the NUT conference in Harrogate. There were about 900 delegates.

‘Key issues were pay, workload and the pressures of maintaining professionalism in the face of an ever-present string of initiatives which detract from the core business of teaching,’ he said.

‘Of particular interest to colleagues in Guernsey was the debate on workload.’

The conference heard that 50% of teachers leave the profession within five years of qualifying.

The prime reason was excessive workload, particularly that associated with unnecessary planning in primary schools.

The second reason given was management bullying and the third was the failure of schools to deal with disruptive pupils.

Significantly, the charity Teacher Support Network also reported that workload topped its poll of reasons for stress-related cases.

‘It is important that teachers in Guernsey be made aware of these trends so that they can be encouraged to take responsibility for maintaining their own work-life balance should initiative overload threaten,’ said Mr McManus

The message from the NUT conference was that managers must be aware of their duty of care to staff, he added.

‘Treating staff as professionals enables staff to function as professionals in the interest of more effective teaching and learning for the children in our local schools,’ he said.

‘The drive towards higher standards is also behind moves in the UK to remove non-teaching tasks from a teacher’s duties. It is expected that such developments will be replicated here in the near future.’

They both said that they had come back from the conferences better informed of developments in the UK.