THE town’s leading figurehead of the country’s largest teaching union has addressed 1,000 people at its annual conference.

John Rimmer, junior vice president of the National Association of Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers (NASUWT), accepted his new role at the union’s annual meeting at Bournemouth’s International Centre.

Mr Rimmer, from Appleton, spoke about the breach of school teachers’ pay and conditions and called for an end to more paperwork in the profession.

He said: “Non-compliance is a national virus which has infected some schools and some local authorities.

“It spreads like wildfire from school to school where governors and local authorities fail to take action to stop it.”

He called for an end to Ofsted gradings, excessive meetings and monitoring, along with the loss of planning, preparing and assessment time.

All the delegates and international guests voted in favour of the motion, passing it unanimously at the conference.

Mr Rimmer also spoke about the need for England’s General Teaching Council to be merged with Wales rather than have two separate bodies.

He said: “It would reduce costs and consequently remove what will undoubtedly be escalating pressure on members to pay higher and higher registration fees.”

Mr Rimmer wants to see excessive payments to members of the council to be stopped.

“Unless they change, then the opposition from the profession will continue to escalate. We could be calling for their abolition not amalgamation,” he added.