June 2026

June 2026

Message from the General Secretary

Thank you and all the best for summer!

As the summer break approaches, now is an important time to look back a little at the great work that EIS reps have done on behalf of members this year.

Across 2025-26, EIS reps have engaged and activated members on local challenges and national campaigns, especially the national Stand Up for Quality Education Campaign. This included a threshold-beating turnout in the last statutory ballot, which ultimately resulted in SNCT agreement on the reduction of weekly class contact time and corresponding increase in “professional time”.

This campaign would not have been won without local EIS activists like yourselves motivating many thousands of members towards collective action.

This was reflected in speeches at the recent EIS AGM in Dundee, where speakers praised the efforts of EIS reps and emphasised how the Union’s strength rests on the commitment you all show in supporting and organising members in your school.

We also appreciate that local campaigning in pursuit of the national SU4QE was only one aspect of your role as EIS school rep. We also thank you for all your support to individual members and to progress collective branch issues.

Well done on another successful year, and be sure to enjoy your summer when it arrives!

Andrea Bradley

General Secretary

Preparing for 2026-27: In-Service Day meetings and member engagement

Many school branches use In-Service Days early in the new session for EIS branch meetings. This will be an excellent opportunity to invite in your EIS Organiser or your Local Association Secretary to engage with members. Their contact details may be found below.

The start of the new session is also a time to expand EIS membership in your Branch, especially by approaching Provisionally Registered Teachers (probationers) and other new colleagues in your school.

Monitoring and auditing of your new Working Time Agreement can also begin in August, to ensure that the work you and colleagues have undertaken to reduce workload is realised through appropriate enforcement of the agreed WTA and school calendar. The audit template to share with members is available online.

Action for Reps: Consider planning a branch meeting for members early in the new session and plan other activities for August with Organiser or LA Secretary support.

Working Time Agreement (WTA) 2026-27: Negotiation and Sign-off

Negotiation of your WTA for the next school year usually continues throughout the spring and concludes in June. As the school year draws to a close, it is appropriate to seek additional support if progress has stalled or if there is no agreement in place at the start of the new session.

The end of term ‘deadline’ should not be used as additional pressure on teachers to sign-off an inappropriate WTA and nor should EIS Reps feel pressured to accept an unworkable or unrealistic WTA simply because the normal period for negotiation is coming to an end.

If agreement cannot be reached on your new WTA and school calendar, then ‘Failure to Agree’ is a formal outcome which involves the LNCT joint chairs arriving at a compromise. If you think this outcome is likely in your negotiations, please get in touch with your LA Secretary to discuss.

Guidance and resources are available on the EIS website. Your EIS Organiser will be able to talk to you about these resources to support local negotiations.

Action for Reps: Continue to progress WTA negotiations in your school and seek support from your EIS Organiser and Local Association as appropriate.

Refugee Week 2026

Plans are underway in the Education and Equality Department to deliver a copy of our Early Years ‘Mochara Goes to Nursery’ resource to every local authority early years’ establishment in Scotland, to coincide with Refugee Week 2026. Look out for Mochara visiting your setting!

EIS Reps' Training

We train Reps to be effective,knowledgeable and confident in their work. We also train activists so that they may support members and Reps in our schools and workplaces,and eventually become Reps themselves.

EIS Stage 2 Online Course for Experienced Reps

We are delivering an online bespoke EIS training course for experienced Reps or Reps who wish to upskill on their casework,negotiation and campaigning skills. The Stage 2 EIS Reps course is an online course delivered by college lecturers over twenty weeks – starting in mid-September 2026 and finishing around Easter 2027. The course is TUC-accredited and delivered by TUC tutors from a FE College and EIS staff.

There will be an induction day at a FE College for the EIS cohort. Places will be allocated on a first-come,first-served basis.

Please keep an eye out on the EIS Website as new dates for this course will be announced soon,you can register your interest in this course by emailing Sophie Cooper Scooper@eis.org.uk

EIS Stage 1 Courses for new Reps and Activists

Further editions of both School Rep and H&S Reps Stage 1 courses will be made available in the next session. Please keep an eye out for new dates to be announced.

For more information and to register your interest,please see the EIS website.

Action for Reps:Please attend the EIS Stage 1 for Reps Course if you have not yet completed it,or if you would like a refresher. 

PACT National Programme:Anti-Poverty Professional Learning

In one of the wealthiest nations in the world,1 in 4 children in Scotland are continuing to grow up in poverty,and of those,70% are living in working households. Poverty has a deep impact on children and young people in every community and classroom in Scotland. To get involved in the EIS’s National Anti-Poverty Professional Learning Programme and be part of our PACTivist community,why not sign up to joinour next cohort?

Action for Reps:Please consider coming along to one of our sessions and encourage members to participate.

Engagement with Local Association and EIS Organisers

It is important for EIS Reps to have two-way communications with their Local Association – to share what is happening in their school and to hear what is happening at the local authority level.

We also have a team of EIS Organisers that support their own Local Associations and who visit branches to discuss our latest campaigns,local campaign issues and support Reps.

Action for Reps:Please engage with your Local Association Secretaryand attend LA meetings if you can. Please reach out to your local EIS Organiserto attend a branch meeting or if you want support as a Rep.

0131 225 6244
enquiries@eis.org.uk 
46 Moray Place,Edinburgh,EH3 6BH
www.eis.org.uk