Teachers potentially striking again

[CitrusSparklePinkClouds]

Teachers want a pay rise above the rate of inflation this time.

1. Yes, don't we all?!
2. Haven't kids missed enough school?

This. The government are kicking schools every way they can at the moment (including changing the benefit rules which will hit a lot of mid day meals jobs, making it even harder to recruit).
There is no money. For anything.
The only thing staff can strike over is their own pay, but it’s a tiny part of what is broken about schools at the moment.

Some schools are having to consider 4 day weeks because they can’t afford to stay open full time. So consider the strike a trial run for that OP.

I work as a science teacher, in a very popular, over subscribed, 1000+ student secondary school.

Last year, we had a single applicant for a full time teaching post. We had no applications for a business studies teacher (our head teacher is currently covering the lessons).

I don't have a teaching base, but have to move room every single lesson. To each lesson I have to take a box of books weighing between 10-15kg, any equipment needed to actually teach the lesson. Every single one of our classes has at least a lesson a week in a random classroom around the school, as we've not got enough money as a school to build more science labs.

Yesterday, I walked 20,000 steps, carried 6 boxed of books around the school, taught science in three different science labs, a maths, an English and a history room. I had no lunch, because I was trying to sort out things to help a student in a mental health crisis. I worked until 10 last night, because it's being rammed down our throats that Ofsted are imminent.

I do this because I do care about the children. I've cared for 16 years. I'm one of very few old timers left in the school. Most of our staff have been teaching for 5 years or less.

However, I earn far and away less now, than I did when I started, 16 years ago. My car is 19 years old. I've had to use community fridges, budget to the last penny and food recycling apps, to be able to cover the cost of childcare. I cannot teach your children, if I am faint from lack of food, as I've fed my children the last of the breakfast. I can't take on a second job, as all my spare time is taken up with marking and job admin.

The current situation is unsustainable. If things do not improve, next academic year, we will not have the staff to run the school as it currently is. We simply cannot recruit. What should we do? Send a class of student per year home, everyday? Tell a class of students they need to leave the school, and find some other school?

My union is renowned for not striking. They are in continuing talks with the government, and even they have said that they will ballot us regarding striking, if no further progress is made.

This is the knife's edge. Education cannot carry on this way. We are about to fall into the abyss.

2nd lockdown maybe but not in the first at least that was not my experience and lots of others. My child has ehcp so was allowed in 2nd lockdown, 1st lockdown even though classed as vulnerable children with ehcps weren’t allowed in at all in many cases. We were both still working full time, me from home and dh out at work, whilst trying to juggle that with an autistic child and we didn’t get any calls or anything to check up on us, we got given some worksheets and the teachers uploaded pics to the dojo showing them doing things like art or learning a new musical instrument which I admit did grate on me. I am very sympathetic to teachers and the job they do and agree with the strikes but please do not keep going on about how hard teachers worked in the lockdown, that is the one thing where I find myself losing sympathy as it was not reality for anyone I know.

This is so sad! I hope the TAs strike too.

I fully support the teachers and TA's at my DC school to strike.

@CitrusSparklePinkClouds you sound like you just don't want t the kids to have a day off. Once the day is announced I will quickly put it in as annual leave and no doubt offer to have friends kids if I get it. As someone who also works for the government everytime I compare my pay with friends in the private sector with similar responsibilities, it makes me wonder if enjoying my job is enough to make up for the difference in pay. The only time you are going to have public services where people are performing to the best of their abilities is to pay them at the same rate as they would get in the private sector. Hopefully the junior doctors strike (covered by senior staff) and a teachers strike will show we mean it.

@RooksAndRavens @SequinsandStilettos

Absolutely.

It's a very hard job at the bottom of the pile.
Is there a specific Union for support staff?

Support staff apparently did have no rights to stay safe as at my school TAs had to go in (pre vaccination) to staff the pop up school while the teachers did their online lessons from home.
Then when teachers returned to school they were told not to move outside a chalked box around their desks while TAs were still asked to move amongst the pupils and in some cases to still sit next to pupils in crowded classrooms.
Though I do support the rights of teachers to strike, it’s not true that they were put at the same amount of risk during the Covid crisis as certain other key workers like TAs or supermarket staff who had to engage with their customers face to face.

@SpringIntoChaos

But many weren't?
Surely you get that?
My friends had DC having nearly a proper day via zoom, whilst mine sat for 20 mins doing a self esteem destroying quiz?

I had to do it all whilst teach on line?

Anyway, I don't mind the

Them striking at all , we can cope for a few days but it's definitely the support staff who need support.

I really hoped that having had their children at home every day during the pandemic more parents would appreciate what a wonderful and difficult job teachers do, day in day out, for less pay than they could get in many other professions with the qualifications they have.

This is why all those people are struggling in poorly paid jobs. Because you help to keep the status quo because you don't want your life impacted even if the aim is to improve it for many others, including the "children" you seem to be basing this "concern" around.

If you really worried about children and their education you'd be on the streets too demanding this shitty cabal started funding education properly for teachers and children

Striking hurts everyone - nobody wants to strike. And your childcare concerns are really not the school’s problem.

Support staff are being balloted about strikes too

How much are teachers paid in England. I think welsh teachers are paid pretty well. And 5% pay rise is not bad.
Starting wage of £27,500 in Wales

Agree support staff pay should be increased as a priority

Wrong place to post OP, I think 90% of the MN population are teachers... and they're also really hard done by!

Of course they should strike. We've been far too passive for too long in this country, this is why we have ended up where we are. It's not militant it's just people working together to create a louder voice to try and maintain a standard of living that is fair and equal to the work carried out.
I think children will learn a valuable lesson that you stand up for what you believe in to get things done.

Teachers also worked through Covid, as did the vast majority of workers in this country.

Your pay and conditions and poor too? Take action? It’s not a race to the bottom.

I support the action teachers are taking. I was experienced teachers, and enough of them, teaching my kids.

Please let's not keep going back to what happened during COVID, that has absolutely nothing to do with the state of education funding today!

There are also a lot of support staff like TAs on MN and we generally support the teachers right to strike. It’s because we see first hand how hard they work and how stressful their job can be and they deserve to be paid fairly for that (so do we but this thread is about a potential teachers strike).

If some of us strike, we lose our jobs.

Then there should be more unions to protect workers rights. It's not reasonable to complain about other workers striking just because your industry dies nothing to protect its employees.

I've been teaching 20 years. I earn bately more now than I did 12 years ago. The idea of pay increases coming out of already non-existent budgets is appalling. I am deeply concerned about who is teaching my Y8 DC maths, science and computing. We need decent salaries to attract teachers given the working conditions are putting people off the job. I have never gone on strike before but will this time.

Teachers don't want to strike you know...we would rather be in school teaching. It makes more work for teachers being on strike because we have to catch up on the missed teaching when we return. But we feel we HAVE to strike so we can get paid enough to support our own families.

You realise teachers also homeschooled whilst working during the pandemic?
my school provided a full day of live lessons. I was online all day to teach and support children whilst looking after my own family with my dh working as well.
Strikes are there to cause inconvenience, they are used to force the government and those In charge to think carefully. No teacher really wants to strike, we want to be with our classes but sometimes we are forced to do more.
I currently am struggling with money like so many other people out there. I can’t afford to pay into my pension, I have no security for the future, like so many other people out there, I’m just doing what I feel like I really need to do to try support my family.
Janitors, support staff, catering, cleaners and early years workers have called off their strike for now but I supported them in their striking action because they deserve more money. It was not the teachers who were striking and were still going to be working. I was still required to go into school and work during the strike days, it just wasn’t safe for children to be there. Thankfully the strikes were paused for now and hopefully the teachers one will go the same way but realistically it’s not the teachers fault.

What system did you use to process applications? How did you mark the places as offered, accepted or admitted? What parent payment system was it linked to for lunches? How did you get paid? Who administered the network? Who sent the UPNs to year 6s' secondaries? Who raised the CTFs and posted the student files? Updated FSM entitlements so that they were able to access the voucher system? Who minuted the remote governor meetings, updated the statutory policies, made the compulsory returns, kept GIAS current...?

Just because you didn't necessarily see them, that doesn't mean that the support staff weren't working flat out from home every day (and many evenings).