A B O U T
Board Members
Kirsty Miller
Kirsty is an Academic Psychologist specialising in teenage mental health. She has taught at a number of stages in the Scottish education system including at secondary, further and higher education levels.
Donncha Marron
Donncha is a sociology lecturer, specialising in the sociology of consumption, economic sociology and drug addiction.
Jenny Cunningham
Jenny is a retired Community Paediatrician, who worked in Glasgow for over thirty years. She has particular experience in neurodevelopmental and autism diagnostic assessment.
Simon Knight
Simon has a PhD in education from the University of Strathclyde. He has been working with children and young people and managing teams of staff in a variety of social care, youth work and school contexts for 35yrs.
Penny Lewis
Penny works at the University of Dundee. She has two grown up children. She campaigns for parents rights and against Scottish government laws that undermine the family and adult authority.
Stuart Baird
Stuart is a teacher who has worked in the state sector in Scotland for over 25 years.
James Christie
James is a parent concerned about the teaching materials being provided to Scottish schools.
Sebastian Monteux
Sebastian is a registered mental health nurse and lecturer in mental health nursing. He has previously worked in Scotland and the Netherlands; in CAMHS in the NHS, in the fields of local authority residential childcare, adult social care and learning disability, and trained as a Steiner Waldorf School teacher.
Linda Murdoch
Linda is a retired professional who is currently undertaking a research degree. Linda is also a parent and long-time activist in support of women’s rights, democracy and freedom of speech.
Stuart Waiton
Stuart is a senior lecturer in sociology and criminology, an author and journalist, with a particular interest in the over regulation and policing of everyday life.
Constitution for the Scottish Union for Education
Name
The name of the group is the Scottish Union for Education. Called ‘the group’ in these rules.
Aims of the group
Encourage the advancement of education through a promotion of subject-based-knowledge teaching and learning.
Advance citizenship by empowering parents, grandparents and communities to have a say in how education is taught and developed in Scotland.
Encourage community development by acting as an information hub for parents/grandparents/communities about educational developments and advancement in Scotland.
Advance education, citizenship and community development by supporting parents/grandparents/communities and encouraging their input regarding concerns about dogmatic, age inappropriate or indoctrinating practices in educational establishments.
Values of the group
The Scottish Union for Education (SUE) is a non-party political and secular organisation that aims to represent a common-sense approach to education that is based on the understanding that education is about subject knowledge.
In this respect SUE aims to represent parents, teachers, grandparents, lecturers and members of Scottish communities regardless of their political, religious or non-religious outlooks and beliefs: It aims to promote the idea that schools and education should conserve the best that has been thought and said throughout human history.
Schools and indeed universities must be free to develop curricula but when education becomes ideologically driven, with objectives, for example that promote ‘social justice’ rather than an open-ended focus on knowledge itself, then the public has a right to challenge this shift away from education and towards indoctrination.
Scottish teacher training and education should be open, pluralistic and tolerant, encouraging a diversity of teachers and a range of views amongst educators who should all attempt to develop an understanding of the world that has objectivity as a primary concern.
Freedom of thought and speech are an essential part of a democratic society.
Schools should allow for a diversity of ideas which can be discussed within a framework in which teacher and adult authority is a central concern, and indeed where there is a clear understanding of the distinction between adulthood and childhood.
Schools have a role in promoting values, but these values should relate to the needs of education and should encourage a disciplined environment that equally facilitates and encourages an open and tolerant approach to a diversity of ideas.
In this respect, schools should recognise and respect the moral values of parents and communities, and make sure that the full range of these values is reflected in appropriate parts of the curriculum. There should be no attempt to re-educate us all in ‘correct’ ways of thinking and living. SUE believes that parents’ concerns about the curriculum and about inappropriate teaching materials should be heard, but should not override the need for all sides of controversial debates to be reflected in schools.
‘Education must enable one to sift and weigh evidence, to discern the true from the false, the real from the unreal, and the facts from the fiction. The function of education, therefore, is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically…. Intelligence plus character—that is the goal of true education.’ Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Powers
To further these aims, the group may exercise the following powers.
To raise funds and receive contributions, donations and otherwise, provided that the group shall not undertake any permanent trading activity;
To bring together representatives of voluntary and statutory organisations, government departments and individuals;
To produce leaflets/posters to publicise group activities;
To hold meetings and events;
To pay the necessary expenses involved in running the group;
To employ staff, when necessary, to carry out work;
To undertake any other lawful activity to further the group’s aims.
Note: any part of this document can be deleted, amended or added to, or additional parts added to it at the next AGM. Details of the proposed changes should be circulated with the notice of the AGM.
Membership
Membership of the group shall be open to all persons over 18 years of age who are in sympathy with the group’s aims and willing to abide by the group’s constitution.
Each member will have one vote and will be eligible to stand for election onto the committee.
Members will vote for 2 additional members of the committee at the AGM.
Employees of the organisation are not eligible for membership of the committee.
Application for membership may be refused by the committee. Equally, membership can be terminated by the committee who will ensure the member in question has a right to be heard by the committee.
An annual membership fee is necessary for membership. This will be a minimum of £3.50 per month or an annual fee of £25.
You can be a supporter of the organisation without paying a fee. However, supporters will not be eligible to vote for committee members or motions at the annual general meeting (AGM).
Management committee
The group shall elect a committee of between 3-16 members who will direct the policy and management of the group.
After the initial formation of the group there will be an annual AGM that is no longer than 15 months apart.
The initial, founding board members of the committee will remain in post but two additional committee members can be elected annually to serve for one year after which time they may stand for re-election.
The chair will have a casting vote in the event of a tie at meetings.
The committee will have the power to co-opt members if it wishes to use this power.
The committee will have the power to create sub-committees that must contain at least one member of the committee.
The committee can remove a member of the committee with a two-thirds majority vote.
The committee will meet a minimum of 4 times a year. The quorum level will be set at 3 members.
Committee meetings will be held as often as necessary and decided by the committee. These can be in person or online as determined by the committee.
From amongst the committee, a chairperson, a secretary and a treasurer will be selected. Other members may be appointed to undertake particular responsibilities within the group, eg fundraising.
Duties of the Officers
(a) The duties of the Chairperson are to:
chair meetings of the Committee and the Group.
represent the Group at functions/meetings that the Group has been invited to.
act as spokesperson for the Group when necessary
(b) The duties of the Secretary are to:
take and keep minutes of meetings.
prepare the agenda for meetings of the Committee and the Group in consultation with the Chairperson.
maintain the membership list.
deal with correspondence.
collect and circulate any relevant information within the Group.
(c) The duties of the Treasurer are to:
supervise the financial affairs of the Group.
keep proper accounts that show all monies collected and paid out by the Group.
General Meetings
An annual general meeting (AGM) will be annual and no longer than 15 months apart. All members shall be notified not less than fourteen days before the meeting. An agenda will be circulated. Business of the AGM will include electing the two additional committee members; reporting on the activities during the year, amendments to the constitution and approval of the group’s accounts.
An extraordinary general meeting (EGM) can be held at the chair’s discretion or by a written request to the chair of not less than 25 percent of the members, or by not less than 6 members of the committee. The meeting shall be called within twenty-one days of such a request and appropriate measures taken to inform all members. An extraordinary general meeting should only consider the business specified in the request.
General meetings will be advertised either by email or through an appropriate form of communication used by the organisation and specified by the committee.
A quorum for a general meeting is 3 members.
Each member will have one vote and results will be based on a majority. In the event of a tie the chairperson will have a casting vote. The form of voting will be determined by the chairperson before the meeting.
Finances
Any money raised shall be used to further the aims of the group and for no other purpose;
A bank account will be opened in the name of the group;
The account will require two signatures on any cheque or other bank document (except paying in slips). There will be three signatories available to the treasurer for signing cheques.
A simple written note of the group’s financial position, will be produced and available at committee meetings;
A statement of accounts verified by a competent person who is independent of the group shall be tabled at the agm;
No member shall derive any financial benefit from the group, except for payment of ‘reasonable expenses’;
No money will be paid out in the name of the group without a receipt being presented.
Amendments to the constitution
If amendment(s) to the constitution are necessary, committee members will vote on the amendments.
The amendment(s) will be made if there is a two-thirds majority vote of committee members.
Dissolution
If the committee, by a simple majority, deem it advisable to dissolve the group, it shall call a meeting of all the members of the group, giving not less than 14 days notice. If such a decision is confirmed by a majority of those present, then all the assets of the group shall be transferred to another local voluntary group or community group with similar aims.
Adopted on the 16th August 2023
Signed Stuart Waiton (chair)
Signed Donncha Marron (treasurer)
Signed Simon Knight (secretary)
