Speaking from experience
Extensive coverage by BBC staff from the annual conferences of the biggest teachers' unions.

Teachers' leader in reforms warning
Scottish teachers' union leader, Ronnie Smith, says his members will fight to protect the status of the profession.

Teachers vote to strike if pay talks fail
Members of Scotland's largest teachers' union have voted to support industrial action if agreement on contracts cannot be reached by August.

Warning over school class sizes
Oversize classes are threatening the government's effort to improve schools, a headteachers' leader says.

Heads snub Blair over merit pay
Headteachers are threatening to boycott the appraisal system that will determine performance-related pay for top-performing teachers.

Blair demands backing for schools 'crusade'
The prime minister urges headteachers to support the government's education reforms - hinting at more money in return.

Headteachers' mixed feelings about Blair
Headteachers have given the prime minister a standing ovation, but they still have doubts about his message.

Appeal for fewer tests and targets in schools
A headteachers' leader wants ministers to abandon "short-termism" of targets and to look for the long-term social benefits of education.

Heads say schools will miss targets
Research for the National Association of Head Teachers suggests that the government's literacy and numeracy targets will not be achieved.

Warning over teacher recruitment crisis
Secondary schools might be unable to teach some subjects because of gaps in teacher training, according to a headteachers' leader.

Headteachers call for more independence
Headteachers need less interference and greater independence from the government, says the leader of a headteachers' union.

Pay promise for deputy heads
The school standards minister has held out the prospect of a separate pay rise for deputy headteachers.

Schools 'over-reacting to drugs'
A survey shows secondary schools in England are ignoring official guidance not to expel pupils caught with drugs except as a last resort.

Princess amazed by 'parent rage'
The Princess Royal tells headteachers she is "often astonished" by the aggression they get from some parents.

Teachers demand action over abuse slurs
A union leader says children who make malicious allegations of abuse against their teachers should be expelled from school.

Union backs dialogue over teachers' pay
The second largest teachers' union in England and Wales adopts a "wait and see" stance on the government's proposals for performance-related pay.

Schools 'hoarding £545m'
Schools are hoarding hundreds of millions of pounds while sacking experienced teachers and increasing class sizes, according to a teachers' union.

Teachers reject five-term year
The proposal to end the long summer school holiday has prompted threats of industrial action from teachers.

Concession on pay reforms
The government announces changes to its controversial plans to introduce performance-related pay for teachers.

Pay: What the fuss is about
What it is that all the main unions representing teachers in England dislike about the changes the government wants to make to the way they are paid.

'Disaster, disaster, disaster'
The general secretary of the National Union of Teachers condemns the government's proposals for reforming education, and prepares for a summer term of discontent.

Literacy hour 'burden'
Teachers are being overloaded by attempts to improve the reading and writing skills of children in primary schools, a union conference is told.

Teachers back right to expel
The government's support for the teaching of violent and disruptive children within schools comes under attack at a teachers' conference.

School racism 'alive and kicking'
A black teacher attacked outside her school calls for race lessons for four-year-olds.

Class size drive 'a stunt'
Teachers have criticised the amount the government is spending on cutting primary class sizes.

Failing schools policy denounced
Teachers vote against the government's policy of closing failing schools and threaten strike ballots to support teachers made redundant by it.

Teachers reject £1bn pay package
The National Union of Teachers conference votes against the government's education pay policies.

More than useful
Alice Clay: " We are portrayed as incompetent, Victorian sadists - women with petticoats at least three inches below the skirt line."

Government on collision course with teachers
The Education Secretary, David Blunkett, says he will not back away from introducing performance-related pay for teachers after a union threatens to strike over the issue.

Rough ride for Blunkett
The education secretary tells a hostile audience of teachers that their threat of strike action over pay is "simply daft".

We lost touch, admit Tories
The shadow education secretary tells a teachers' union conference of his regret that the Conservative government "lost touch" with the teaching profession.

Teachers want training in restraint techniques
Teachers say they have to face an increasing number of violent children - and they want to be given more training.

Labour's 'designer deceit' over education
A union leader complains that ministers are alienating teachers with too much spin and too little substance.

Literacy hour training 'inadequate'
Teachers are being asked to adopt new education policies without sufficient resources, claims the president of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers.

Pushy parents told to 'cool it'
Infant school teachers complain that parents are putting young children under too much pressure.

Stressed-out teachers demand action
A teacher tells a union conference how an ever-increasing workload caused a breakdown that ended her career.

Teachers back industrial action
The Association of Teachers and Lecturers is to prepare for industrial action over the government's plans to introduce performance-related pay.

We are listening - Blunkett
The education secretary urges teachers to set aside their suspicion about his proposals for performance-related pay.

Pay row 'threatens school standards'
A teachers' union leader says there is no support for performance-related pay in the classroom.

Pupils shun teaching over 'low pay and stress'
Secondary school pupils say poor pay means they are not considering teaching as a career, according to a union survey.