-- Let us handle the financial burden of pursuing your claim

Education Secretary Charles Clarke assured teachers at the NASUWT annual conference that his goals were to ensure that teachers received amnesty from frivolous lawsuits in an effort to spur schools to endeavour more creative education activities, such as school trips.

He specifically asked that teachers take children on more school trips as one way to make education more interesting and to tackle the "scandal" of England's relatively high drop-out rate of students once they hit the age of sixteen.

Clarke said he would like to see a "dramatic increase" of extra-curricular activities as those functions are one of many different ways to educate children in a fun and engaging manner. He said he believed that trips provided a curriculum that was much broader than merely what is taught in the classroom.

The Education Secretary also said that family involvement was important, in fact, critical, but that good schools "vibrate" with extra-curricula events, such as including a jazz band before the commencement of lessons, cookery clubs at lunch time, chess clubs and football and dance clubs after school.

Clarke said he wanted one goal of teachers to be to encourage children to welcome the idea of learning, even if they did not realize they were doing so through fun events.

There is, however, the fundamental issue of social justice and it is important to make sure that all children have the same exposure and opportunities, he stated.

"I am a firm believer in being able to offer children some form of residential experience." This contributed to their self-confidence, resilience and independence.

The growth of the compensation, or "blame" culture has mean that when something negative happened on a trip or at an event, somehow the teacher was always to blame.

"I want to offer today, very explicitly and directly in the context of this broader curriculum, consultations about the concerns you are expressing," Clarke told the delegates, who responded with enthusiastic applause.

Currently NASUWT encourages its members to not involve themselves in school trips or many other extra-curricula activities.

Clarke also stressed the import of teachers pursuing educational endeavours that allow them to stay up to date in their subjects. This process should be constant and ongoing.

NASUWT holds its conference in Llandudno and this conference was only one of three bit Easter teacher gatherings Mr. Clarke Attended.

Last year, the Education Secretary deliberately and publicly ignored the biggest union, the NUT and this year, he announced that he has better things to do on Easter Sunday. He mentioned to the NASUWT delegates that he had eaten fish and chips and played mini-golf in Lowestoft on Sunday.

Clark went on to attack the NUT, which is the lone hold-out of the main education unions regarding signing a national agreement to reduce teachers' workloads and he characterized the NUT's general secretary, Doug McAvoy's suggestion that the government had "taken away the right of children to be taught by a qualified teacher" as "outrageous."