Speaking from experience

Race attack victim Alison Moore moved NUT delegates

A round-up of our coverage of the bigger teaching unions' annual conferences, in chronological order: the ATL, NUT, NASUWT, SHA, NAHT, EIS.

Pupils shun teaching over 'low pay and stress'
Secondary school pupils say poor pay means they are not considering teaching as a career, according to a union survey.

Pay row 'threatens school standards'
The ATL's leader says there is no support for performance-related pay in the classroom.

Peter Smith warned of low pay and high stress in the classroom

We are listening - Blunkett
The education secretary urges teachers to set aside their suspicion about his proposals for performance-related pay.

Teachers back industrial action
The ATL is to prepare for industrial action over the government's plans to introduce performance-related pay.

Stressed-out teachers demand action
A teacher tells a union conference how an ever-increasing workload caused a breakdown that ended her career.

Pushy parents told to 'cool it'
Infant school teachers complain that parents are putting young children under too much pressure.

Literacy hour training 'inadequate'
Teachers are being asked to adopt new education policies without sufficient resources, claims the ATL's president.

Labour's 'designer deceit' over education
The union's general secretary complains that ministers are alienating teachers with too much spin and too little substance.

Teachers want training in restraint techniques
Teachers say they have to face an increasing number of violent children - and they want to be given more training.

'Disaster, disaster, disaster'
The general secretary condemns the government's proposals for reforming education, and prepares for a summer term of discontent.

School racism 'alive and kicking'
A black teacher attacked outside her school calls for race lessons for four-year-olds.

Doug McAvoy delivered an uncompromising challenge to the government over performance-related pay

Class size drive 'a stunt'
Teachers have criticised the amount the government is spending on cutting primary class sizes.

Failing schools policy denounced
Teachers vote against the government's policy of closing failing schools and threaten strike ballots to support teachers made redundant by it.

Teachers reject £1bn pay package
The NUT votes against the government's education pay policies.

Rough ride for Blunkett
The education secretary tells a hostile audience of teachers that their threat of strike action over pay is "simply daft".

We lost touch, admit Tories
The shadow education secretary tells a teachers' union conference of his regret that the Conservative government "lost touch" with the teaching profession.

Teachers want money for abuse slurs
Teachers' union delegates say colleagues falsely accused of abusing children should be compensated.

Union backs dialogue over teachers' pay
The second largest teachers' union in England and Wales adopts a "wait and see" stance on the government's proposals for performance-related pay.

Nigel de Gruchy called for dialogue over pay

Schools 'hoarding £545m'
Schools are hoarding hundreds of millions of pounds while sacking experienced teachers and increasing class sizes, according to a teachers' union.

Teachers reject five-term year
The proposal to end the long summer school holiday has prompted threats of industrial action from teachers.

Concession on pay reforms
The government announces changes to its controversial plans to introduce performance-related pay for teachers.

Literacy hour 'burden'
Teachers are being overloaded by attempts to improve the reading and writing skills of children in primary schools, the conference is told.

Teachers back right to expel
The government's support for the teaching of violent and disruptive children within schools comes under attack.

Headteachers call for more independence
Headteachers need less interference and greater independence from the government, says the leader of the Secondary Heads Association.

John Dunford called for greater freedom for headteachers

Warning over teacher recruitment crisis
Secondary schools might be unable to teach some subjects because of gaps in teacher training, according to the SHA's general secretary.

Pay promise for deputies
The school standards minister holds out the prospect of a separate pay rise for deputy headteachers.

Schools 'over-reacting to drugs'
A survey shows secondary schools in England are ignoring official guidance not to expel pupils caught with drugs except as a last resort.

Princess amazed by 'parent rage'
The Princess Royal tells headteachers she is "often astonished" by the aggression they get from some parents.

Warning over school class sizes
Oversize classes are threatening the government's effort to improve schools, says the NAHT's general secretary.

Heads say schools will miss targets
Research for the National Association of Head Teachers suggests that the government's literacy and numeracy targets will not be achieved.

Tony Blair became the first serving prime minister to address a teachers' union

Blair demands backing for schools 'crusade'
The prime minister urges headteachers to support the government's education reforms - hinting at more money in return.

Headteachers' mixed feelings about Blair
Headteachers gave the prime minister a standing ovation, but still have doubts about his message.

Heads snub Blair over merit pay
Headteachers are threatening to boycott the appraisal system that will determine performance-related pay for top-performing teachers.

Appeal for fewer tests and targets in schools
The NAHT's president wants ministers to abandon the "short-termism" of targets and to look for the long-term social benefits of education.

Teachers threaten action over pay
Members of Scotland's largest teaching union could vote to start industrial action after the summer holidays in a protracted dispute over pay.

Teachers' leader in reforms warning
Scottish teachers' union leader, Ronnie Smith, says his members will fight to protect the status of the profession.