Tyrone woman to head up Northern Ireland's biggest locally-based teaching union

TYRONE native Lynelle Fenton has taken up office as president of Northern Ireland’s biggest locally-based teaching union.

Mum-of-two Lynelle was born in Ballygawley and attended Fivemiletown High School after Ballygawley Primary before moving to Belfast where she studied at Stranmillis College.

Indeed it was the support she received from her teachers at Fivemiletown which helped shape her future and ambitions to enter teaching.

“My aunt gave a plaque when I graduated from Stranmillis College – Teaching Today Touches Tomorrow. Over 20 years later I still have that plaque in my class because you can never underestimate the impact even the smallest gesture has on a child, whether or not you’re a teacher,” said Lynelle, a teacher at Braidside Integrated Primary.

Back then though, she could never have imagined the responsibility she’d one day take on as President of the Ulster Teachers’ Union and its 7,000 members, the biggest locally-based teaching union in NI.

Her appointment, however, comes at a time of unprecedented challenge for education and just weeks after UTU members took strike action, the first time in their 104-year history.

“It was an indication of the sheer desperation we’re facing in a sector which isn’t only failing us but failing children for it’s they who are at the very heart of everything we do,” said Lynelle (nee Bingham).

“In real terms teachers’ pay has been cut by 20% over the last 10 years yet workload is rising exponentially.

“A third of young teachers coming through recently haven’t stayed in the profession..

“The consequence of this will be a poorer education system for our children and a reduction in their potential employment opportunities. Ultimately this will impact on the success of the Northern Ireland economy as a whole.

“We want to attract the very best graduates to the profession and they deserve to have the level of their professionalism rewarded.

“Why would a graduate, with potentially thousands of pounds of student debt, take a job teaching, with all that responsibility and workload, when they could go into another graduate level job for substantially better pay?

“Without the best graduate teachers our education system, which is the envy of the world, risks falling behind,” said Lynelle, who believes one the biggest challenges facing the sector is special educational needs.

“Pupils across Northern Ireland are coming into primary school with increasingly complex social, behavioural, emotional and educational needs.

“Teachers are spending more and more time, often outside their agreed contracted hours, devising Individual Educational Plans (IEPs) which they then have to deliver and evaluate.

“I’m hearing too from UTU colleagues that the number of children in any class requiring these plans is rising so a teacher could have a third - or more - of their pupils on IEPs.

“These address challenges in literacy, numeracy and/or behaviour with behaviour, even from four and five-year-olds, at times manifesting as physical violence towards staff.

“There are teachers going into work every day not knowing if they’ll be hit or kicked,” explained Lynelle who fears the referral system to help these children is also broken.

“Children who require assessment with a view to getting a statement of Special Educational Needs are, due to funding constraints, struggling to gain access to our beleaguered educational psychology service.

“With the resultant waiting lists now running to years, they have little chance of getting assessed early in their school journey yet without a statement, these children are being deprived of the resources they require.

“The result is that teachers become the catch-all back-stop,” continued Lynelle who never thought she’d end up striking though she’s been a member of the UTU for over 20 years, since her first post at Dunmurry Primary.

“Seeing how union officers work for and with teachers is inspirational. I used to love attending our annual conference. I’d leave so enthused that I was part of something bigger .

“The UTU motto is ‘Caring for teachers, Caring for children’ and this year I will do my best to make a positive difference for teachers, and ultimately children.

“I want to be the sword for those who can’t fight for themselves and the shield for those without protection.

“But no matter where I am or what I’m doing this year, or any other, it will always about the children. They’re at the heart of everything we do.”