AS THE NUT arrives in Cardiff for its annual conference, it is a real honour to be taking over as president. This is a historic occasion as it is the last conference of the NUT — from September we will become the National Education Union.

As a union, we have been campaigning for professional unity for as long as I can remember and now that we are finally taking the first step towards this great achievement. We will become the fourth biggest union in the TUC with 450,000 members and this gives us a real opportunity to use this unity and strength to defend our members, our children and our schools.

The NUT has a long and proud history of defending education but also of showing solidarity with other workers locally, nationally and internationally. As a union, we understand that an injury to one is an injury to all.

The education system in Britain is under attack from a government which has its heart set on privatisation of our public services. We are also facing the biggest funding cuts to our education service in a generation.

The NUT has led the campaign to expose the appalling funding cuts that our schools face. The evidence is clear, 99 per cent of schools will face significant cuts by 2020 and it has quickly become a national issue. Some of us can remember the cuts in the 1990s and the huge Fight Against Cuts in Education campaign that was set up to oppose what was happening.

The current Fair Funding forSchools campaign feels very much like this.

There have been huge meetings and rallies up and down the country with parents, head teachers, school staff, politicians and other members of the community coming together to speak out about what is happening.

We have a real opportunity to reverse these cuts with the increasing pressure that is being put on this government.

These cuts are going to be damaging for all our children, but it is particularly concerning that the joint research conducted by the NUT and Child Poverty Action Group shows that those schools with the highest proportion of pupils eligible for free schools meals, generally those that serve the poorest communities, will suffer the worst cuts as a result of the real-terms funding freeze and the impact of the proposed new national funding formula.

We must also continue to build the campaign opposing the current assessment arrangements in our primary schools. At a time when there is no money for our schools, we are spending an inordinate amount on testing our children as they move through primary school. Unfortunately these tests are not about what is good or useful for our students but are about high stakes, accountability measures on our schools.

In 2016, new tests were introduced for 11-year-olds. These tests were terrible, the worst I have ever seen. On the first morning of SATs week, I went into the room with my year six teacher. We gave the papers out to the children and then I started looking through the test.

I have no words to describe my thoughts; I was shocked, outraged, furious. Later I heard stories of children crying, children putting their heads on the table defeated and children vomiting over the paper — what are we doing to our young people? In years to come people will look back and ask who allowed our children to be treated in this way.

The whole of 2016 was a mess. Lack of clarity, constant updates and amendments to the assessment guidance, the key stage one spelling, punctuation and grammar test accidentally published on line and therefore withdrawn and the horrendous workload implications and confusion around the writing assessments and the moderation requirements. Teachers, parents and pupils were furious and rightly so.

Following this chaos, an impressive coalition of parents, academics, campaign groups and trade unionists set up the More than a Score campaign.

They held a national conference and have produced campaign materials including some excellent short film clips exposing what is happening in our schools.

Local groups are starting to develop around the country and we need to get involved in these. We need to organise local events to engage with parents, grandparents, teachers, support staff, governors and all those involved in our schools.

At the start of this year we saw the election of a new US president. He has shocked many with his sexist, racist, disablist comments. His politics of hate and fear have driven many to the streets in protest across the globe.

Many NUT members joined the protests around the country. They joined those demonstrations as individuals but also as teachers, acutely concerned about the message Donald Trump’s words and actions send to the young people they teach.

It is essential that we continue to be involved in campaigns and events that oppose all forms of discrimination and that we defend all in our communities.

• Louise Regan is president of the NUT.