School rep honoured with young activist award
Younger members of the NASUWT are its “lifeblood” and its campaigning work is now more important than ever before, according to one of the Union’s rising stars.
That was the message from Stacey Gray, a member of the Cornwall Executive who was this year honoured with the Eamon O'Kane Young Activist of the Year Award at Annual Conference.
Stacey, 26, is head of year 8 at Looe Community School, a rural secondary set in a small fishing town and was honoured for her activism work.
She was inspired to join the profession while in the sixth form by her English teachers and qualified in 2006. After working in temporary posts she joined Looe in 2008, becoming the teacher governor the same year.
She was appointed head of year in 2009 and later became the school rep for the Union, picking up the mantle from Kat Jones.
Stacey had warm praise for Kat Jones who motivated her to become active: “If it wasn't for her then I never would have joined NASUWT or become active in the union.
“She took me along to my first General Meeting where I was invited to Regional Conference. Kat left shortly afterwards and I picked up her mantle as school rep.”
Stacey later attended Regional Conference, speaking about APP and was asked to go on the any questions panel.
Recalling the episode she said: “I remember shaking through my first speech and the any questions panel and I still find public speaking terrifying!”
She went on: “I continued to attend the Cornwall meetings where I was whole-heartedly welcomed by everyone. I am particularly thankful to Kathy Wallis who encouraged me from the very beginning and continues to do so. “
This year Stacey attended the Young Members' Conference which gave her the opportunity to meet other like-minded young teachers. She stressed: “I definitely feel that it is important to encourage other young members to become active in the union as we are the life-blood and future of the union.
“I have been working with Chris Thomas who works at the South West Regional Centre and we are looking very closely at how we can encourage other young members to become active.”
This included encouraging members to use the Union’s dynamic and expanding Facebook pages.
Stacey said she was “absolutely shocked” when it was announced by Schools Minister Nick Gibb at Annual Conference that she had won the Eamon O'Kane Young Activist of the Year Award.
Stacey said the work of the Union is “more important now than ever before” in the light of the cuts agenda being pushed through by the Coalition Government.
She said: “I came into teaching during Tony Blair's Labour Government and so took for granted the conditions that we had become accustomed to.
“They certainly weren't perfect and yes, funding was seriously lacking in certain areas of education but in comparison to Cameron and Clegg's Coalition Government it seemed like utopia!
“The brother's Grimm have been in power in little over a year and already a significant number of schools in Cornwall have converted to academy, we are finding that funding is being pulled on diplomas, short stay centres, LA advisors and extended learning to name a few.
“I'm no politician but I'm puzzled about how cutting essential services such as these can raise academic standards. “
She added: “In addition, the introduction of the English baccalaureate is affecting many teachers around the country. Those who teach subjects deemed as less valuable such as PE, RE, the technologies and the arts will face cuts to their timetabled hours meaning that they may end up teaching subjects they aren't qualified in or even facing redundancies.
“And the students? They're the reason we come into this profession; they're forced into boxes at the tender age of 14. Who really knows what they'll be doing up until retirement age (whenever that may be) at the age of 14.
Michael Gove and co clearly have not stopped to consider the implications of their new decisions.
“I think with all the cuts, teachers are suffering from sickness and stress more and more.
“At conference we heard from teachers speaking about their colleagues struggling to drag themselves into work even though they're clearly very sick, being asked to take on additional duties without the additional pay they so rightly deserve or the time to be able to undertake their duties.
“The threat of redundancies, the process of 'consultation' as headteachers and governors choose to convert to academies - it all adds up and the result is teachers suffering unsustainable levels of stress.”
