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NewsConference 2007 speeches: Kevin Brennan MP, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Children, Young People and Families
Date: 31.08.07
Summary of speech to Voice Annual Conference, Tuesday 31 July 2007
Kevin Brennan MP, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Children, Young People and Families Click here for full speech
Summary article by Deborah Simpson, Voice Principal Officer (Pay and Conditions)
A former teacher, Mr Brennan began his address to Conference by thanking members for all their hard work on behalf of children and young people. If ?Every Child Matters?, then so did all the people who worked with children.
Mr Brennan stressed the importance of Voice?s emphasis on professionalism and the contribution that we have made to the new professional standards and the revised arrangements for performance management. He also thanked Voice for its involvement in the work of the Social Partnership and commitment to taking the work of the partnership forward. Government curricular reforms, he continued, would give teachers greater flexibility to make professional judgements about what and how to teach pupils.
Discipline and good behaviour, he said, were crucial to teachers being able to do their jobs. He acknowledged members? concerns about pupil behaviour and recognised that the only school where you could wave a magic wand was Hogwarts! He praised General Secretary Philip Parkin for his involvement in Sir Alan Steer?s Practitioner Group and the Department?s Behaviour and Attendance Group.
Bullying continued to be a problem as it presented itself in ever-new guises. Reflecting Voice motions from this and previous Conferences, he spoke about abuse of camera phones, Internet chat rooms and other forms of cyber- bullying, which no child, or teacher, should ever have to experience and which can be viewed by thousands. Mr Brennan said that the Government expected heads to use the powers given to them through the Education and Inspections Act to send out a strong message and clamp down on this sort of behaviour. The Department would publish guidance on cyber-bullying in September and a taskforce had been established which included providers such as YouTube.
Mr Brennan spoke of the importance of the Social, Emotional Aspects of Leaning programme for secondary schools in which the Government had invested £13.7 million. This programme, already very successful in primary schools, helps pupils learn the skills and behaviour they need to be responsible, caring citizens. Mr Brennan said that improving pupils? emotional intelligence would improve their academic intelligence and attainment.
Parents had a crucial role to play and needed information, advice and support so that they could work in partnership with their child?s school. Mr Brennan reported that he had recently launched the Parent Know-How programme, aimed at improving communication with parents. He also wanted to give schools real power to intervene where parents were obstructive. From September, new provisions came into force for parental contracts, parental responsibility for excluded pupils and parenting orders.
Mr Brennan concluded by saying that he wanted to ?raise the bar? on pupil behaviour. It was a challenge for everyone ? government, local authorities, heads and teachers, parents and pupils.
Mr Brennan then took questions from delegates and comments were made about the removal of the word ?education? from the title of his department! He was also asked about what could be done to help parents make safe choices in light of the fact that the Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act did not require checks on nannies. Mr Brennan thought that checks were too intrusive in employment in a private home.
Picking up on the themes of his speech, delegates asked Mr Brennan about cyber-bullying and support for school staff who were abused or intimidated outside school.
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