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?

ve you read the news in the last few months???

5% pay "rise" makes us all worse off. In fact, we are all worse off than we were when we went to bed last night...

Starting salaries are ok. They don't rise easily and are capped at about £43,000 for a classroom teacher (London pay is slightly more). This means that other careers are far more tempting for experienced teachers.

you provided a full day of live lessons. Many schools did not, especially during the first lockdown many were just given a few worksheets and left to get on with it themselves with no contact other than a few pictures but on dojo or similar, ok the the teachers may have been home schooling their own kids so couldn’t work but why is that different to anyone else that was working and expected to home school. I have sympathies with teachers pay and conditions but posts that keep bringing up how hard teachers worked during covid make me lose sympathy as this wasn’t my reality or anyone I know

I realise 5% doesn't keep pace with inflation but the costs of rising with inflation for all in the public sector would be impossible. Teachers in Wales have been consistently getting 3-6% for the past decade while the rest of the public sector have been getting about 1%. Where I live teachers pay is far above equivalents in other sectors.
I think teachers pay fairness really does vary depending on where you live. Where I am it is definitely one of the better paid jobs as the pay increases have been fairly steady so they've risen above other jobs

Teachers are just one of those professions where they keep shooting themselves in the foot

1. most of them don't teach during covid.
2. they are rarely kind and reassuring when others are interested in becoming a teacher. And then whine about being short staffed.
3. Treating TAs badly during covid as per PP upthread
4. Strike while children were already behind and lonely at home
5. another strike.
6. believing they were THE most vulnerable. Even more so than bus drivers, shop workers and care workers.

The ones who engaged with above behaviour shout the loudest. And alienate the profession even more

While the hardworking ones are probably cursing the rest, muddling on regardless.

Sorry I should have said didn't teach during lockdown*

As covid is ongoing and teachers are at work, just about

Agreed @Morph22010 my children's schools provided next to nothing in first lock down, sent some work sheets home.

What do you mean, strike 'again'?
You're making a grand job of saying over and over 'please.don't.strike' but ignoring the questions raised about your actual (inflammatory) thread title

Same @Wafflefudge - ours sent selfies of her gardening and sent one worksheet a week.

They have to strike. Teachers have been chronically underpaid and undervalued for years and what they've been offered is a pay cut. If they accept things as they are, the existing problems (overwork, underfunding, understaffing) will only get worse. If we care about education, we need to support the strike and fight for increased long-term funding.

Just about? What are you on about?

Your list of complaints is ludicrous. My work during lockdown was directed by the headteacher. My TA's work during lockdown was directed by the headteacher. Lockdowns themselves were directed by the government.

I worked fucking hard to make sure the children made progress that made up for the fact that many of them did little work during lockdowns, for many reasons I couldn't control. I'm proud, for their sake, that they achieved so well.

And, quite importantly, it's been 20 months since lockdown, every school day of which I've been in school teaching. Knowing that some of my colleagues are inadequate, because the pay is insufficient to attract competent teachers, and schools don't have enough money to pay experienced teachers, because the 5% wasn't funded. And support staff are being laid off, because there just isn't money. Children are suffering. The very children who struggled through lockdown and deserve the best teaching ever are being taught in a classroom with a single adult, who is inexperienced and has little support. Interventions that could really help children can't take place. There are few resources. The classroom roof is leaking and there's no money to fix it.

This isn't a complaint about me. I love my job. I am personally comfortable on the pay I get. But teacher recruitment is in a fire situation and children are suffering. If a strike is voted for, I'll be striking for the first time in my 9 year career, because children deserve better.

If some of us strike, we lose our jobs

That's illegal.

Good. Teachers are far too passive these days.

As a parent, I definitely back the teachers. With their workload and school fund cuts, they really deserve decent pay.
I really don't get any parent who oppose this, we need good teachers for our children.

Really! Your not the only one who worked through the pandemic.And why would they think about supermarket workers?

@CitrusSparklePinkClouds

oh how boringly predictable.

& ridiculous.

the teachers etc are underpaid NOW, you want them to wait until the next GE & see what happens?

Very Helpful

Agree! Crap argument. Supermarket workers also in many cases received bonuses for their hard work with some big chains. I work in a hospital. Worked all through the pandemic. minimal PPE, covid, long shifts blah blah blah. I don’t deny others also had it tough.

So did teachers. My sister is a ta and worked in a school throughout, by the end of the first lockdown almost if their kids were in school. Second lockdown 3/4 were in school. They also did online working too. Most staff did over and beyond with no extra pay plus extra cleaning and safeguarding and so on.

Tories have been in power for years and only made it worse for everyone bar the rich. Can’t see how labour could wages any worse tbh.

I fully support striking action. It’s about the bigger picture not just the now. Conditions and low pay mean that it will be harder to recruit, let alone retain staff.
No one in public services wants to strike and disrupt services but it’s got to the point where things are really bad. If you want decent schools and other public services you need to pay a decent wage.

Ludicrous for you maybe and thanks for working really hard. Standard for others @Stevenage689

Heres a "just about" ....I just dropped mine off at school. Teacher announces there's no PE because it's forecast drizzle again. They haven't had PE since they went back to school. There's an empty school hall with gym equipment in it, I just asked the Head who was out greeting parents. She was raging that our class had PE cancelled again for another meek excuse. Its part of the curriculum ffs. There's space indoors to do it, room for 26 kids and yet each week the teacher finds another reason to cancel. Who gives a shit about the curriculum anyway, eh?

Yes there are some amazing teachers. But let's face it - some just can't be arsed and demand respect at the same time.

Anyway, Im sure the head teacher will sort it out finally. Her face was an absolute picture.

It is frustrating to read messages where Covid is brought up again as there were a huge range of school staff and parent experiences during this time. Covid does not account for the many years of teacher pay freezes or 1% pay rises before it.

For posters arguing that children will be missing out because of 1 strike day, I hope they realise that long term the children are missing out year on year due to falling budgets and increased responsibilities heaped onto schools. Essentially having to do so much more with less . The budget is cut to the bone so things which benefit the children have to be cut back. Plenty of people on this thread have given real examples of this

• SEND children not getting the support they need as the school can’t afford adequate TAs.

-not enough basic resources needed to deliver the curriculum such as paint and glue -not enough money to fund trips and clubs -schools can’t recruit or retain staff in many key subjects leading to classes being taught by different supply teachers, non subject specialists in secondary and HLTAs (who are brilliant but this should not be their responsibility.)

It is appalling that the pay rise has not been funded by the government. This is where people should direct their anger because yet again children will be missing out. They deserve so much better.

So yet again, the OP disappears when her arguments are countered by others. Clearly wanting and expecting everyone to agree with her and annoyed when they don’t.

School is not childcare.

Teachers and support staff cannot continue to teach and support children in the situation we’re in. If teachers are leaving (and they are) or taking second jobs to make ends meet (and they are), then everyone suffers.

Striking is always an absolute last resort. No one wants to do it.

Which is why, whenever any industry announces a strike I am in support. If they have been driven to strike it is because all other avenues, pleas and discussions have failed. The Government is not listening or acting.

So if you are fed up with strikes, write to your MP.

That it is teachers is largely irrelevant. Anyone striking in this climate has the right to do so - and it is one of the only means we have to express displeasure at a sitting government - this one being the very worst, most incompetent and self-serving in living memory.

@Bluevelvetsofa is it full time teachers that are seeking 2nd jobs or thr teachers that work 2 days a week?

We have quite a few 1 day / 2 day a week teachers who reduced hours after maternity leaves.

So just wondering!

And then some teachers who are only contracted to work 3 or 4 days a week to make up the difference in the job share - so I can see why some need 2nd jobs 🤔

Teachers hate striking. If the government forces them into this position then they should be supported, for the sake of all children's futures.