Today we are bringing you live updates from the @UCET_UK annual conference in Stratford-upon-Avon. First up is keynote speaker @MaryBoustedNEU, joint general secretary of @NEUnion
@UCET_UK @MaryBoustedNEU @NEUnion Bousted begins by saying: "Teachers are the most valuable resource in any education system."
@UCET_UK @MaryBoustedNEU @NEUnion Reflecting on The OECD Teaching and Learning International Survey, she tells the conference that, when teachers in England are asked why they want to join the profession, their response is often rooted in a "strong social mission".
@UCET_UK @MaryBoustedNEU @NEUnion Pupils in the UK are more likely to say "my teacher cares about me", Bousted says. She adds: "I think that's really important".
@UCET_UK @MaryBoustedNEU @NEUnion Bousted says she asked Pisa founder Andreas Schleicher why the UK is third in the league table for memorisation. He said: "You have a system that relies very heavily on exams."
@UCET_UK @MaryBoustedNEU @NEUnion Bousted says schools need to prepare students for rapid changes; to "tackle societal changes that have not yet transpired"; to "mop up the mess that we have created".
@UCET_UK @MaryBoustedNEU @NEUnion However, she adds: "That does not mean that subjects are dead. You cannot teach skills in isolation. You must always teach something. But the value in the new world will not just be about what we know, but what we can do with what we know."
@UCET_UK @MaryBoustedNEU @NEUnion Bousted says: "That which is easiest to memorise is also easiest to digitise", leading to "less need for human teachers".
@UCET_UK @MaryBoustedNEU @NEUnion Bousted now turns to teacher workload. She says the NEU members often don't value their work - they believe "it's done for someone else, for accountability purposes".
@UCET_UK @MaryBoustedNEU @NEUnion Bousted says she believes excessive workload, lack of mentoring and being put in the most challenging schools explains the poor retention rates in England
@UCET_UK @MaryBoustedNEU @NEUnion So what can we conclude from OECD research? "We are not making teaching intellectually attractive enough," Bousted says.
@UCET_UK @MaryBoustedNEU @NEUnion Thirdly, CPD is "drying up". People will teach as they are taught, Bousted says.
@UCET_UK @MaryBoustedNEU @NEUnion People are given far too many responsibilities in their early years of teaching, for which they have not been given adequate training or support, Bousted says. This is a "brutal way to teach dedicated professionals".
@UCET_UK @MaryBoustedNEU @NEUnion What are the implications for policy? England has to tackle its teacher recruitment and retention crisis "head on", Bousted says. We need"fundamental and radical changes to what we require of teachers".
@UCET_UK @MaryBoustedNEU @NEUnion We have to "refashion teaching" as an intellectually challenging profession, she says. "We need to focus on initial teacher preparation."
@UCET_UK @MaryBoustedNEU @NEUnion Bousted says: "The single most important thing we have to do to reinvigorate teaching is to reduce workload."
@UCET_UK @MaryBoustedNEU @NEUnion Teachers are "unable to fulfil the ethical impulse which drew them to the profession," she says.
@UCET_UK @MaryBoustedNEU @NEUnion Bousted describes teaching as a "terrorised profession" - with schools intimidated by Ofsted.
@UCET_UK @MaryBoustedNEU @NEUnion On academies, she says: "If you are going to have a self-sustaining school system, what do you do about the schools which are not self-sustaining?"
@UCET_UK @MaryBoustedNEU @NEUnion She asks, why is it that our most deprived children have to be exceptional in order to succeed?
@UCET_UK @MaryBoustedNEU @NEUnion And why do we require teachers to be martyrs to their profession? "I see too many teachers who are physically exhausted and mentally broken", Bousted says.
@UCET_UK @MaryBoustedNEU @NEUnion The system is facing too much change, Bousted says. Teaching needs "time to breathe".
@UCET_UK @MaryBoustedNEU @NEUnion I think the Early Career Framework is one of the "best bits of policy work the DfE has done", Bousted says.
@UCET_UK @MaryBoustedNEU @NEUnion Bousted reflects on the Labour's plans to abolish Ofsted, compared with the current Conservative stance. "We're not politically affiliated, I'm not telling you how to vote, but have a think," she says. Big laugh from the floor.
@UCET_UK @MaryBoustedNEU @NEUnion One of the main takeaways from Bousted's keynote is that the NEU wants a "radical change of the assessment system", the "abolition of school league tables" and the "abolition of Ofsted". Accountability formed a huge focus of her speech.
