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?

Ah ha, the holidays. Teachers can be required to work for some of it. And even if not required, most do. There's clearing the room for a deep clean. Passing work books on to the next class, and simply recovering from the year. That's one end of the summer. Then there's planning and collecting materials for the next term, teaching materials and equipment, developing work sheets and so on. That's the other end. In the middle of the summer break, there's the possibility of a fortnight. The other breaks are two short for much more than collapsing and recovering.
And, of course, the holidays happen when travel and hotels are particularly expensive.
And not really directly holiday related, after retiring I managed a trip across Europe by train. Telling a neighbour about it (ex pupil, now teacher herself) I said I had been making notes on the geography, and she said "You can take the teacher out of school, but you can't take it out of the teacher". It would happen whiel I was still teaching as well.
We don't stop. Just 'cos non-teachers don't see it, doesn't mean it isn't happening.

Plus they get around 30 week's holiday a year it's not all bad

We do....shit I better get onto senior management ASAP...

Good, hope they do, together with nhs workers too.

Your kids education and health will tail spin if there are no teachers or health workers and its down to the govt, no one wants to strike and lose money.

Just engaged maths. Year equals 52 weeks. Minus 30 weeks equals 22 weeks. Funny, it always seemed like more than that!

I'm a teacher in FE (I have QTS, 2 relevant degrees and all the debt that comes with that)

I'm in day 3 of Industrial Action. 7 more days planned next month

We've had an AMAZING turnout.

Teachers are emotionally broken and financially broke. Changes are needed now.

Who would be a teacher if you got paid minimum wage or barely over? What do you think would be an adequate wage for those who teach your children?

It looks like senior leadership are massively overpaid, trim some of that fat and give it to the teachers I say!

I've recently retired from teaching so am not involved in the potential strike action but rather than a pay rise, I'd have liked an improvement to conditions. I taught in Scotland where, although things were bad, nothing like the horror stories I hear about teaching in England. Since inclusion was made a priority, we have had many children with issues in our classes whom we're not trained or experienced to help. We're lucky if we got a PSA for an hour a week, endless meetings with no purpose other that to satisfy Working Time Agreement hours.

Unfortunately teachers get very little public sympathy - working from 9 till 3 and all those holidays etc. I'm not looking forward to being able to take holidays in term time at a fraction of the cot. My reply to these people is that if teaching's such an easy job, go and qualify as a teacher - hmmm thought not.

No wonder you don’t have much respect for teachers. Your maths teacher must have been appallingly incompetent.

The school year is 195 days / 39 weeks (including 5 days of INSET when children do not attend but teachers are at work).

52-39=13.

There are only a small number of professions in which striking is not allowed. Military and the police force. If you aren't one of those, then you can legally withdraw your labour.

A general election isn't for a few years, so should teachers carry on leaving the profession in droves because they can't afford to live while we wait?

I will strike, thanks. Because I care about the children and their education, not because I don't. If you had a child with SEN, would you care that schools can't appoint LSA's because the pay is min wage and they earn more in a supermarket? Because that is currently happening in the school my son attends. Boot would be on the other foot then, I feel.

Or that schools can't appoint good, experienced teachers, as NQT's are cheaper? That's just happened in my son's school too. Wouldn't you rather schools could afford to appoint experinced staff, instead of whoever is cheapest?

You're being naive and blinkered by your viewpoint. HTH.

Of the 13 weeks holiday, statutory entitlement is 5 weeks and 6 days which leaves 7 weeks extra leave, you can guarantee that most teachers will work at least half of that ( and heads/deputy heads and those on the leadership scale are contracted to work over the holidays anyway) so perhaps 3 -4 weeks additional holiday than the minimum !

I know teachers so know their workload is absolutely ridiculous. They should be paid more. We should also pay them much higher to attract the best, the ones who have a passion for it.

I support anyone striking. I'm here to home educate again if they do and I'm more than fine with that.

You think that teachers are on holiday for seven months of the year?

Don't teachers earn around 40k a year? They're hardly on minimum wage

I earn that after 20 years in the profession. What similarly educate

Sorry, what similarly educated professionals are on a similar wage? People I was at university with (who did less well than me) are mostly on double that. Yes, going k to teaching was a choice because I wanted to do something worthwhile, but the disparity in wages was not so big 20 years ago.

I’m sure there are CEOs of academy trusts who earn big money. They aren’t teachers though. If you work out, as I did when I was teaching, the salary earned against the hours worked, it generally is less than minimum wage. And yes, I know lots of people work unpaid overtime, but that doesn’t mean it’s ok to work 60 hours and be paid for half of it.

That’s your job so if you can’t strike and don’t like the pay look elsewhere.
Schools aren’t daycare, if your child is sick, snow days or any other closure what do you do? You should be supporting those who look after your children day in and day out.
Teachers also home schooled their children during lockdown (wasn’t any more fun for them), whilst juggling hubs and online learning for their students.
Yes kids are struggling but then so are staff. It’s an ever increasing job role and teachers have taken many a pay freeze over the last 15 years. They deserve to be paid appropriately for their profession.
It is a tough time which is exactly why teachers should stand up and be counted.

I'm not a teacher but I agree with this

Plus they get around 30 week's holiday a year it's not all bad

Except that that’s not remotely true.

'Plus they get around 30 week's holiday a year it's not all bad'

Yes it's surprising there's a teacher shortage really; what with having 7 months holiday a year. I mean why aren't we all signing up? Hahahahaha

If you’re complaining about bad teachers, you should support a teacher strike. Until teacher pay improves, we cannot hire enough teachers, let alone good ones. Beggars can’t be choosers.

If you are complaining about kids missing education, you should support a teacher strike. With class sizes increasing and not enough qualified teachers to go around, your child will be spending time in lessons without a qualified teacher to teach them. They’ll have a body in front of them because they need adult supervision, but not a qualified teacher. They are missing out on education because of poor pay and working conditions for teachers.

If you care about education, you should support a teacher strike. This shitty pay offer that is a real terms pay cut after over a decade of real terms pay cuts, which isn’t funded by the government so schools will have to make cuts to your child’s education provision to implement, is just another feature of this government’s total lack of investment in education. If you let them get away with this, things will only continue to get worse for your children.

And I hope support staff strike on a different day, also closing schools, so that people can see what a vital role they also play in education. Without them, schools can’t run.

Yep. I'll wind them up & fuck off when they point out I'm a selfish, stupid twat.🙄🙄🙄

The local senior school is having WFH days already. Splitting the year groups has allowed them to operate with fewer teachers (as they can't recruit the number they need!). It's MORE work for teachers, not less.

@jgw1
Thanks ❤️