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Teachers annual meeting
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Mr John Mayes, National President of the National Association of Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers (NASUWT), the largest teachers' union representing teachers and headteachers in the UK, visited Gibraltar recently to attend the Local Association's (NASUWT/GTA) Annual General Meeting.
Local Association President, Mr Joe Cort?s, welcomed Mr Mayes before delivering his report to the meeting. In this report, Mr Cort?s went through a number of achievements the Gibraltar Branch had secured during the past year. Of these, perhaps the most welcome was the restructuring of all schools to come in line with the new Teaching and Learning Responsibilities (TLRs) and the modernising of the allowances attached to these posts.
Other matters of interest in his address were the NASUWT/GTA's involvement in local Trades Council issues and the training being undertaken by Executive members to make the Union mores professional.
The Association plans to have all Executive members trained in areas such as casework, health and safety and negotiation - two members already hold Level 3 accreditation in these areas.
Looking to the future, Mr Cort?s raised a number of targets for the Association of which the main one was to raise the profile and importance given to Education in Gibraltar as a whole.
Reminding the meeting of Tony Blair's famous speech on 'education, education, education', he said that the emphasis from our political parties in the forthcoming elections should be 'Education, Education, Education, Education!' He added that with the good working relationship which the GTA enjoyed with the official side, the future looked positive.
NEW SERVICE
Mr Jim Quigley, Head of Legal, Casework and Benevolent fund department for NASUWT UK, was also in Gibraltar to launch the new legal service now available for NASUWT/GTA members. Mr Quigley, and Ms Mary Howard, Assistant General Secretary, NASUWT UK, have been regular visitors to Gibraltar over the past six months as they negotiated a deal for the Gibraltar members with local law firm Attias and Levy. Mr Keith Azzopardi, of Attias and Levy, also addressed the members and introduced the legal team that would be working with the local Executive and membership.
Local Treasurer Mr Christopher J Cort?s said that the legal services now available to GTA members are second to none and a sure sign of the professional support ofered to the members by NASUWT on the Rock.
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