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?

I support teachers striking. My son's teachers are great, but conditions need to improve and no one is really listening. It is not their fault if our children fail, they are trying to help our children!

I assumed it was some attempt by one of the Tory parties useful idiots to stir up some hate to distract from the real problem which is of course that they would rather fund bankers than education.

The standard of most of the teachers leaving uni is nowhere near what it used to be. When my daughter was considering teaching, she only needed 2 Bs and 2Cs which, given how much the highers I did have been dumbed down over the years, is pretty pathetic. If you've got a degree in maths or science, you're not going to want a teacher's salary and workload when you could work in a much higher paid job with a lot less stress from management and parents.

Teaching must be the only job where experience is a disadvantage. Nobody wants to employ old dinosaurs who have seen every educational fad come and go and know that they were a load of shit when you can fill your school with keen young things who will be burned out or disillusioned in 5 years .

I fail to see how what grades one got at the age of 18 has on whether or not one will be a good teacher.

The reason that there are now as many older teachers as there could be in state schools is that schools cannot afford to employ them and that is only going to get worse with the nonsense that is the government not funding a pay rise for teachers again this year.

How would not striking help that situation?

Crap teachers have most often been hired because there was no one else. There was no one else because pay and conditions are bad. They've been recruited onto teacher training courses because these course providers are given targets that they can't meet even if they say yes to literally everyone.

If we want quality teachers, we need to pay teachers appropriately.

Thanks so much for this thread, @CitrusSparklePinkClouds
I opened the union's ballot earlier as to whether I would vote to strike. I paused it, wanting to think further about it.
This thread has helped me make up my mind.
I have voted to strike.
Can you tell me why I should prioritise YOUR children over MY OWN?

Yet its not that long ago that teachers didn't require a degree at all, and many of those that taught during the rose coloured spectacle 'O' Level days had a cert Ed.

Link please? Even the most cursory of searches reveals a 1.75% pay rise last year, so sounds like utter bollocks to me. But have a go at proving it of you like.

If it’s a better paid job regionally, are you comparing it to ‘other jobs’ that require degree + post grad qualification? Otherwise I’m not sure what purpose that comparison serves.

I mentioned exam grades because in some countries teaching requires very high grades on a par with medicine and law and they are paid a comparable salary.
I don't want my grandchildren taught by people who can't speak or write grammatically correct English - as I've had first hand experience of.

The Government has repeatedly failed to meet it's targets for teacher training recruitment because the job isn't attractive enough. There haven't been enough trainees to meet the need and, as such, the minimum requirements to get a place on teacher training have fallen again and again.

If you want the right people, you need to make the job attractive to the right people.

“Of which I’ve had first hand experience” if we’re really going to be pedantic.

You see I would like everyone children to be taught by someone who is interested in children, understand how they develop and learn and is passionate about improving them.

Whether or not they can use "correct English" is frankly irrelevant to most of the skills a teacher needs.

I don’t know what is meant by ‘again’. The last time I remember a strike was when my DS was in Year 1 think - so in 2016? Maybe I missed another one? I’m surprised there haven’t been more to be fair.

No, you’re quite correct. OP has apparently conflated the Covid lockdowns with strike action 🤷🏻‍♀️

I'm support staff, this thread has reminded me to join the union...so Thankyou!

How can a teacher help improve a skill they don't have?

It was a long time ago, but I recall how the back pay from one negotiation enabled me to buy a small portable B&W TV. Until then, if there were anything I needed to watch I had to use the school one before locking up time, or the teacher's centre one. The next negotiation brought me my washing machine. Things other people had, I didn't. Sounds like it's that way again.

Do the best footballers make the best football coaches?

What do you mean, again?! When was the last teacher strike? Behave! They have the right to strike, same as the train drivers etc.

All the best sports coaches are, in secret, the truly amazing athletes. They just don't want to have the limelight.

But, seriously, if you expect to attract a higher calibre of candidate, you need to make teaching a more attractive profession for high quality candidates. Sure, some decide to come into teaching because it's how they feel their work is making a difference and matters: that's why I transferred from another sector where I could have been earning way more by this point. But you can't rely on staffing an entire sector like that because it just won't happen.

You can have both, you know.

Again? When did they last strike?

I'd like to know where the OP got the "wanting an above inflation pay rise" from.
Fully funded yes (because at least that way I would get one)

I know that, and it will be all the other skills that make them a great teacher. I am not sure the pp who appears obsessed by "correct English" knows that.