My time at Conference

Primary school teacher Jane Dennis writes about her role and experiences at ATL's annual Conference in 2010

I’m a primary school teacher coming to the end of my second year of teaching and am currently based in Trafford in Greater Manchester. After the spring term passing like a flash of lightning, it was that time of the year again: I began to think of what delights and dilemmas ATL’s Annual Conference would bring!

I made the short hop down the M56 to the 2010 venue, Manchester. This being my fifth Conference, I had a good idea of what to expect and looked forward to meeting familiar faces from previous years.

For the past two years, I have been on the ATL Future steering group. ATL Future is the part of ATL created for members to discuss issues affecting students and NQs, and to make sure that this informs the work of ATL’s Executive.

The six-member steering group that runs ATL Future meets regularly, but also canvasses opinion and feedback from the wider group of student and NQ members using online forums and group emails. The ATL Future annual general meeting was held at the conference and we were delighted to see so many student and NQ members present.

The ATL Future delegates also had a significant presence in many of the debates, speaking for and against resolutions on areas such as NQT recruitment, safeguarding, the use of MDF in schools and the quality of teacher training.

Attending Conference as a new or young ATL member gives you the opportunity to attend high-quality learning workshops, discuss topical issues affecting education at the moment and to listen to some inspiring and thought-provoking questions from key figures such as ATL’s general secretary Mary Bousted and the government’s education secretary.

If you have the chance to attend the 2011 Conference it will definitely be an opportunity not to be missed.