Paul Whiteman, general secretary of NAHT – the largest union for school leaders – will speak to open the union’s Annual Conference in Belfast at approximately 5pm Friday 1 May.
Thank you, colleagues.
Let me begin by adding my own warm welcome to the wonderful city of Belfast.
For much of my youth, Belfast was portrayed by the media as a city defined by violence, division and hatred.
And while it is true that during the Troubles there were atrocious acts committed on all sides, what I saw through a television screen in London was never truly representative of the people of Northern Ireland.
Because what you will experience here over the next few days is something very different.
You will experience warmth and generosity.
A sharp wit that quickly has you in fits of laughter - so easily softened by a deep humanity that radiates love and respect for others.
And it is precisely because of that love and respect that, despite the organised pursuit of the politics of hate and division, which so often led to outrage and tragedy, peace was ultimately found.
Found by politicians who were courageous enough, gifted enough, and supported enough to choose a different path.
It is therefore fitting that we are meeting here in Northern Ireland at a time when the politics of hate and division are once again at work across the world.
Exploiting good people. Feeding fear.
Seeking power not to serve humanity, but to serve the interests of a few in an increasingly frightening world.
Belfast, and Northern Ireland, stand as a powerful symbol of hope.
And they prompt a vital question:
Do we have politicians today who are equal to the task before them?
Motivated by a genuine determination to do good?
Prepared to unite society in the pursuit of prosperity and happiness for all?
Are our current politicians gifted enough?
Do they have the vision, the courage, and the character to genuinely serve the electorate?
I’ll leave that for you to decide.
What we do know for certain is this: Evil takes hold when good people say nothing.
Worse still, when good people search for simple answers to complex fears, they become vulnerable to exploitation.
It was either Thomas Jefferson – or more likely Joseph de Maistre – who observed that we elect the government we deserve.
That observation is a call to action.
A call for good people to speak up and call out lies.
A call for communities to recognise and resist deceit.
And a call to educators to ensure that future generations are equipped with curious minds and critical thinking skills so they do not repeat the mess the Western world increasingly finds itself in.
So, what’s my point?
Earlier, Dave reminded us of Nelson Mandela’s powerful words:
“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.”
And if that is true, and we know that it is, then you, as school leaders, and your teams, represent an enormous challenge to those who seek to divide and conquer.
They fear your professionalism.
They fear your commitment to public service.
They fear your dedication to the young people in your care.
But most of all, they fear the product of your work: a well‑educated, critical, demanding electorate.
That’s why they insult you.
That’s why they seek to control you.
That is why they seek to deny the problems you encounter everyday and fail to acknowledge your success.
By casting you as the enemy, with a continuing deficit narrative, they will routinely and deliberately seek to erode the respect and confidence of parents and communities.
They will erode your self-respect and professional confidence.
They will force you to comply rather than be true to the moral compass of professional educators.
Let me be clear, I am not taking aim at any single politician or party here.
The deliberate systematic erosion of your professionalism and status has been going on for a very long time.
But political debate is more febrile and more energetic than it has been for generations. Political change is not just coming. It is already here.
This presents you with an opportunity to be heard, to shape the debate.
It will require bravery.
It will require commitment.
I am here to make a point.
But before I go any further, I want to say a few thank ‘yous’.
Colleagues we are now a force of nearly 40,000 education leaders. We have grown from just over 27,500 nine years ago. Our branches, regions and nations are more vibrant than ever. That’s down to the efforts of members, our activists and our staff.
Thank you all for your dedication to each other.
Our national officers, Angi, Rachel, Dave and Judith are a reflection of that member led democracy.
Judith our treasurer, the constant of the national officers as her term of office lasts three years. You make the world a slightly easier place with every challenge we face. Your experience and support always hitting the spot. Thank you.
Rachel as immediate past president is currently staring into the abyss of the union’s back benches.
Rachel I am delighted that you will remain on the executive committee. And thank you once again for your diligence and professionalism during your presidential cycle. And thank you for your personal support and confidence too.
Dave, the first year of your presidential cycle as VP has been a great success and I am very much looking forward to your presidential year.
The way you threw yourself between me and that snake during our European School Heads Association visit was exactly the type of commitment I expect!
No colleagues, it genuinely was a real snake, it’s not a metaphor for anyone you know!
But I will get to some of the characters we deal with later!
Speaking of characters… Angi, our President until September.
You joined the executive committee at the same time I joined the NAHT. That’s nearly 15 years ago!
It would have been easy for me to think that I knew all about your strengths as I had known you for so long.
What I could not have known though was the absolute depth of commitment, the determination and energy you would bring to the role.
You have stayed in school throughout and led the way for the NAHT to explore different models of president. You have helped us to become a more inclusive union as a consequence.
How’ay man!
Thank you for teaching me Geordie, thank you for your bravery and dedication on behalf of your colleagues.
And a personal thank you from me for your support and more than a few laughs along the way.
Speaking of bravery and dedication. I just want to mention Ben Turner. Ben is headteacher at Akrotiri primary school. A British Forces school in Cyprus situated on the airbase recently bombed as a result of the current conflict.
Ben is also our Branch Secretary at Defence Children’s Services.
Without fuss, without drama he and his colleagues have ensured that education continues with the minimum of disturbance to the children in their care.
Ben you and your colleagues are a credit to teachers and emblematic of the dedication of the whole profession.
Thank you!
It is also my great pleasure and privilege to be able to announce that the Executive Committee preferred candidate for vice president 2026/27, Northern Irelands own Jackie Bartley, has been elected unopposed.
Congratulations Jackie. I know we are all looking forward to working with you.
Angi set the theme for this conference. Choosing hope. Leading with joy!
Hope is a choice, and if we choose hope over division, the joy will come.
But I think the important word in our theme is ‘Leading’.
Colleagues I believe we really are at a pivotal point for education, an important moment for the future of our nations.
We have to hope that in upcoming elections this month the people will choose wisely. It is then our job, your job to lead a profession that will demand the very best for the young people in your care.
So, back to being heard.
I want to confront this nonsense of the soft bigotry of low expectations. And changing the phrase to the quiet curse fooled no one, by the way.
I reject the lazy trope of soft bigotry.
As if a politician or a chief inspector in Westminster, literally miles away from the action of the small costal village or the forgotten post-industrial town has more ambition for children than the dedicated teachers and leaders who live and work there.
How dare they continue to insult you, your dedication, professionalism and love of your communities, how dare they.
What’s worse is that the obsession with narrow measures of attainment, added to a complete misunderstanding of basic maths, not all schools can be above average for goodness sake.
This introduces an academic and performance snobbery that is simply that, performative.
For many children the pressure to measure up at the exact point the system says they should is destructive. Hindering the development of true self-worth, educational confidence and a joy of learning.
And all in pursuit of a need for adults, in a poisonous, polarised political system to demonstrate their supposed worth, and ***** the longer-term consequences.
And why do they do that?
Because they feel the need to fuel a media and social media strategy that is so simplistic and reductive that it harms our ability to create and take the bold leaps our children deserve!
This has to stop.
It does nothing for the long-term prospects of children and it destroys their educators by placing yet another impediment in their way!
I promise our campaign for better inspection is not over, we don’t need motions just your bravery
Ofsted does not raise standards, nor does it serve children. You do.
We are told that anyone that who wants a different approach to inspection wants to lower the bar.
Poppycock!
We simply disagree. Inspection should not be about pressurising dedicated professionals to the point of destruction.
Making well trained professionals doubt their expertise in favour of a single model of delivery that demands compliance over good judgement.
That’s not raising the bar, that’s using a bar to clobber good people and ***** the human consequences.
Colleges I am proud that NAHT did all it could to stop this nonsense in its tracks.
Alas, we did not make the progress that you deserve, and even according to the independent report commissioned by Ofsted the risks that have already caused tragedy continue.
Indeed, many of you tell me they have intensified.
Let me be clear colleagues, I welcome that Ofsted has come towards us and agreed a package of measures to independently collect and understand your experiences.
For the first time Ofsted has voluntarily subjected itself to a level of scrutiny and cooperation not seen before.
I congratulate Ofsted for this as I think it provides a real chance of getting away from the public claim and counterclaim of they say all is fine as we say it’s all a disaster.
By achieving a common and uncontroversial understanding of your real experience we can focus on solutions not rhetoric.
But this will take time.
But let me be equally as clear, I am angry, yes mad as hell, that Ofsted, the government and the judiciary see fit to allow lives to be left at unnecessary risk right now.
I say, the education establishment is on notice. On notice that these risks are entirely foreseeable and avoidable. The responsibility for further harm or, God forbid, tragedy, is yours and yours alone.
But we must look to ourselves as a profession too.
And this will take bravery.
This profession has allowed itself to be defined by inspection and simplistic measures, with new ones seemingly added everyday.
We talk of collaboration but compete over falling rolls.
Enjoying success at the cost of the failure of your colleagues down the road is no cause for celebration.
Self-indulgent boasts of those judged exceptional. Offering advice devoid of context on how we can all do it simply does not help, it just adds to pressure.
So, I say stop. Don’t allow yourself to be defined by the reductive nature of a two-day snapshot of your school.
Accept it for what it is, a limited commentary on what was seen, respond to what is needed and have the professional confidence to ignore the noise and move on.
Then help one another to demand more.
Demand from government the support that is needed to deliver the education our children deserve.
Don’t put up with ‘make do and mend’ any more.
This is where your leadership counts.
Credit where it is due: the UK government has listened. The education White Paper sets a vision for education that we have not seen for well over a decade.
It goes beyond the school gate too seeking to support children and families.
And we should acknowledge the promise of the first two years of this administration.
On child poverty we have seen:
The expansion of free school meals
The creation of Best Start Family Hubs
And the removal of the two-child benefit cap.
We have seen new money too,
£4.7bn increase to core budgets
And £6.7bn to capital funding.
And money to support the ambitions contained in the White Paper and to further target deprivation.
On the teacher recruitment and retention crisis we have been heard with specific targets, modernisation of maternity pay and professional development focus.
We have a government that is going beyond acknowledging the SEND crisis and grasping the nettle of reform.
I congratulate the government for this, the promises represent much of what the profession has been crying out for.
But it’s delivery that worries me.
Also contained in those ambitions are further and new measures on enrichment and inclusion. Suggesting that you need to be forced to do what you already do.
This government, in common with those before it falls into the trap of describing education as a failing activity to be solved rather than recognising the heroic success you achieve every day.
And that success is in spite of the underfunding, lack of staff and compliance demands.
Imagine if governments took a different view and allowed your talents to flourish with proper support, what could be achieved?
As prices rise and the basic costs of running a school soar, I am not convinced that the worthy ambitions of the White Paper will be realistic unless proper funding is available.
And I am yet to be convinced that you will be provided with the power and resources to ensure you receive the support services promised and not be forced to carry the can when they are not available.
And we simply have to deal with pay and conditions.
Parents should demand that their child has the very best teacher in front of them.
Properly rewarded and supported to do a great job and focus on that.
Not exhausted because they have to travel miles in and out each day as they can’t afford to live nearby, or exhausted from losing sleep worried about paying the bills.
Teachers and leaders stressed beyond breaking point under intolerable workload and accountability demands that add nothing to the quality of education.
Colleagues we should demand what is needed not just in Westminster; But in Belfast and Cardiff too.
Governments throughout the UK make the same mistakes.
Our members in Wales battle against an administration that willingly diverts money meant for education to other places. £329m as a consequence of increased education funding in the UK but only £39m passed on to schools in the draft budget.
Schools left with an £137m shortfall to cover.
That’s redundancies and cuts. Less teaching assistants and less support for the most vulnerable children.
And despite the cuts they dare to introduce a new additional learning needs system destined to fail without proper support.
Talking big, supporting small and passing the blame to you.
And despite the warning they are surprised by teacher shortages.
Our ask of those courting power in the Senedd elections next week is simple.
Education is the bedrock of the nation’s future.
Fund it, reward teachers properly, provide the support services educators need, and grasp the ALN nettle properly.
Trust school leaders and get out of their way.
Let me turn to Northern Ireland. And let me say this plainly: how dare they.
How dare they place school leaders in a position where they cannot possibly succeed and then act surprised when the system starts to fail.
How dare they promise support, reviews, action plans and warm words ... for years … and then deliver nothing real that reaches the school gate.
And how dare they ask school leaders to carry the weight of a crumbling system on their backs ... and then question their commitment when they say “enough”.
Because the truth is this: Those professional insults meant that school leaders in Northern Ireland have launched a significant trade dispute against employers and the Department of Education.
This is not something that has come out of the blue, it is the direct and unsurprising consequence of system failings that have been ignored for far too long.
School leaders have said repeatedly that they cannot carry both the educational leadership of their schools and the administrative, operational, health, estates, HR, complaints and multi‑agency burdens that have been dumped upon them, with no administrative support to meet these additional demands.
They have warned that they cannot lead teaching and learning while also running procurement offices, triaging estate emergencies, managing contractors, firefighting SEN crises, handling legal‑level complaints and absorbing the work of every agency that has quietly stepped back.
And what have they received in return?
A series of reviews … followed by a series of broken promises.
How can anyone be shocked that principals finally said: This cannot continue.
And that is why, in February, NAHT Northern Ireland entered a formal trade dispute.
Not because they wanted conflict, but because the alternative was to allow a generation of school leaders to burn out in silence.
And yet, let me also say this, because of their courage, their leadership, we have secured movement.
We forced a pause to the TransformED reforms that were about to land like a sledgehammer on a workforce already at breaking point.
We won real commitments across the Independent Workload Review recommendations in administration, HR, complaints, safeguarding, special‑school autonomy and working‑time protections.
And we created something Northern Ireland has not seen for a long time: a defined window for talks, with pressure, with deadlines, with painful consequences but also with solutions placed on the table by NAHT.
I am pleased to say that a credible, meaningful resolution was proposed as a result of our industrial pressure. There is significant detail to pursue and we will now maintain our pressure on the Minister and his Department to ensure that they come good on the commitments that they have made this week to ensure that dignity, safety and professional space is fully restored to school leaders.
So, colleagues this is the leadership you must show at this pivotal moment.
You must have the professional confidence to demand what is needed from those who craved power.
Because those who enjoy power cannot be allowed to escape their responsibilities.
Whilst not fashionable to admit to, I do believe politics, is, in the main, an honourable pursuit. Occupied mainly by good people committed to public service.
But we have allowed debate to be reduced to soundbites and tweets, we have allowed the measure of success to be reduced to simplistic tables and short phrases.
We have allowed ourselves to be robbed of our natural compassion in favour of individual progress.
I say to the peddlers of hate and division, we will not submit to your oppression. We will teach young people how to evaluate, how to question and how to challenge.
And I say to the quiet peddlers of education compliance, we will no longer submit to your inaccurate and insidious narrative of a failing education system.
We will never allow you to paint us as the enemy.
Instead, we will demand what children need, and we will demand to be treated with respect and dignity.
Thank you conference, let’s get to work!
