| Controversy-Free Blog |
| 11/09/2005 |
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In this blog:
Well, it had to happen some time… My determination to keep my blog up to do date with updates every 7-10 days has come a cropper since I got as far as August 13th. Since then, I’ve been a very busy boy, so I’ll try and take you on a whistle stop tour of what I’ve been up to! I have a few gripes and grumbles at the moment, but I’ll try and stick with the work I’ve been doing in this blog! So for the benefit of readers of educationet, there’ll be no talk of demos, the company that Kat’s been keeping, or any ‘my conference was bigger than your conference’ talk here. Further Education – Loud and Clear I had a meeting with Ellie Russell on the 16th August about the direction of the FE campaign in terms of education policy and student union development. I think we both got a lot out of it and I’ve been co-opted onto the FE Taskforce, so will be doing a lot of work for this campaign (as promised in my election speech!). My main interests are the 14-19 curriculum, campaigning to get the Educational Maintenance Allowance (EMA) entitlement extended to citizenship activities (FE students currently lose out on their EMA if they attend NUS democratic events like conferences or parliamentary lobbies etc!) and campaigning for increased funding for FE students’ unions. I managed to get hold of Bill Rammell, Minister for FE, at the priority campaigns launch on the 1st September to raise the EMA issue with him and he has agreed to look at this issue, though obviously wouldn’t make a commitment there and then whilst I was ranting at him! The Loud and Clear campaign looks to be coming together well and Ellie, Sian and I got together to put together a postcard campaign as part of the “Participate: Actions Speak Louder than Words” campaign, calling for an increase in student union funding and the extension of the EMA entitlement. THINK ABOUT itt – The NUT Scholarship I have pretty much completed my project plan for the year as the holder of the NUS/NUT Scholarship. I will blog it once it’s approved. The theme of the campaign is Think About ITT (Initial Teacher Training), with four main strands aimed at students, students’ unions, the NUT and Government. I will be taking forward the policy you passed at NUS conference on ITT students and looking to make this a more prominent part of the NUS’ work. The plan needs approval by the NUT and I will be attending a bilateral meeting with the NUT in early October to discuss my plans as well as. I’ve also been doing some work around schools policy in relation to teacher training and development, building on some discussions I’ve had with OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development) policy officers and the Teachers Matter report they published earlier this year. I also sent ed and welfare officers a letter outlining the support available to them with regards to supporting students on ITT course. Email me if you want a copy. I met the OECD officials at a conference in Poland from 25th August to 28th August, where I attended a range of workshops on developments in European teacher policy and examined the feasibility of eastablishing a European Student Teachers Association. I intend to write a full report for the NEC, which I will blog. I hasten to add that this was a very hardworking conference for me… Since I was a native English speaker, I was appointed as one of the conference secretaries so could often be found at a computer typing minutes in the evening when everyone else was in the bar! Unusual I know! Youth Matters – Responding to the Government’s Green Paper I wrote a comprehensive project proposal which was passed by the NEC. I’ll now be coordinating the NUS response. I’ll write a separate blog about it soon and will be contacting unions to get feedback and support you with writing your own responses. This is particularly pertinent (though not exclusive to) FE unions. I’ve been in touch with a number of youth organisations, mainly the BYC to collaborate and Kat and Ellie have discussed this with the AoC and I think we’ve got some common ground. On a related note, I’m currently writing a workshop I’ll be delivering at BYC Conference on Poverty, where I hope to talk about domestic policy as well as Make Poverty History and the value of education in expanding life chances. I’ll blog it when I’ve done it. I was also given the opportunity to take part in a telephone conference with Beverley Hughes, Minister for Children on Tuesday 6th September, with other young people, where I got some ideas from some of their questions and managed to express some of my concerns directly to the Minister about access to services and decision-making to young people from disadvantaged backgrounds. Priority Campaigns I attended the Priority Campaigns planning meeting on Friday 19th August, but couldn’t stay for the whole day as I had to leave for London. We discussed a range of actions that could support the Actions Speak Louder Than Words priority campaigns, ranging from the great to the not-so-great, but the whole point of the meeting was to bounce around ideas and I think we did that quite well. I attended the Priority Campaigns Launch on 1st September. I had mixed feelings about the day, but thought the format was one worth repeating. I have a rant but I’ll save it for now. In addition to this, I have been trying to focus some of my project work around the priority campaigns. On the NUT front, I’ll be doing some work for the Participate campaign in terms of engaging ITT students in activities (and making sure their working patterns are catered for!) and campaigning against PGCE top-up fees with WMANUS. My Youth Matters response should also be able to tie in some of our campaign policy objectives. Other events and happenings I attended an NEC meeting on 22nd August. I’ll save my feelings on this for a rant some other time. I was Lead Officer on NSLP in Herts from 31st – 2nd September. It was great fun, a fantastic course, though I ended up being the only NEC member there! Still, was nice to be back in East Anglia and catching up on all the gossip with the setting up of a new area! Was also great so meeting ordinary students. So refreshing! I attended the Quality Takes Time event on 7th September, run jointly with the QAA. Was very informative and I had fun getting involved with a role play, inspecting the Fraggle Rock Performing Arts College! I attended the Education Not For Sale Conference on Saturday 3rd September. There were some really interesting speakers and debates and people there from a range of political persuasions (or none). Like Gemma, I’m off on the Young Political Leaders’ Tour of Israel and the Palestinian Territories from 8th – 13th September, which should be an informative experience. It’s a long weekend so I’ll be able to get cracking next week with some of my upcoming commitments, including meetings, BYC Conference and some Freshers’ Fairs. By the way, I’ve got the winners of my competition noted. Will blog them soon. I won’t be giving out Wonka Bars anymore though, as they’re Nestle and I’ll get strung up! So you’ll receive Fair Trade chocolate instead. Catchya later, Wes PS – Increasingly convinced that noone reads by Blog except for the usual suspects. Prove me wrong with an email to wes.streeting@nus.org.uk
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