Teachers balloting for strike action - school closures

[noblegiraffe]

A pre-ballot poll from the NEU suggests that the ballot will be in favour.

The NASUWT have announced that their ballot will open around 27th October in England, Scotland and Wales, and will close on 9th January, I assume that the NEU will be doing similar and it would be joint action.

Strike action would mean school closures around Jan/Feb time and obviously this will impact parents who need to start thinking about arrangements for this eventuality. Please consider emailing your MP asking them to forward any concerns about this to Kit Malthouse, Secretary of State for Education, as any pressure on him from parents to avert strike action by entering pay negotiations would be highly welcome.

The current pay offer of 5% for most teachers is unfunded, meaning that it has to come out of current school budgets. This means that the pay rise will result in cuts to education provision for your children. However, this offer is after over a decade of real terms pay cuts for teachers and with inflation at 10%, teachers cannot afford more pay cuts and to continue to shoulder the burden of government financial incompetence and deliberate running into the ground of public services any longer.

The unions are asking for an above inflation fully funded pay rise for teachers. A teacher pay rise, any teacher pay rise, cannot come out of current school budgets as this will mean a lower quality of education for your children. This could involve even bigger class sizes, even fewer courses on offer, even less provision for SEN children, fewer school trips and extra curricular activities.

School funding has been devastated by the Tory government over the last 12 years. SEN funding has been cut: the impact falls on schools and teachers to deal with. CAMHS funding has been cut: the impact falls on schools and teachers to deal with. Schools are being asked to solve more and more of society's issues, with fewer and fewer resources. It's unsustainable.

People will tell you that teachers are well paid and don't deserve a pay rise. However, we have a critical shortage of teachers, and the obvious conclusion is that if we can't get teachers for the pay that is on offer, then the pay is not enough. Market forces, right?

The government know the impact of increasing pay to attract and keep teachers; they have, this week, announced a big increase to the teacher training bursaries in response to the truly dire and alarming numbers of applicants to teacher training this year. They have also introduced early career payments in shortage areas. They have yet to extend this logic to increasing teacher pay to retain more experienced teachers - the ones who are crucial in training and supporting the new and early career teachers.

I'm not suggesting in the slightest that teachers are more deserving than other workers, or that we have it harder than other workers. If you have also not had a pay rise in years, that's unacceptable. If you are balloting for strike action, or undertaking strike action to try to improve your working conditions, then all power and support to you. I really hope that school support staff join us in taking action.

This government is ruining the country. I think everyone can see that now. Instead of proposing increases to public funding, they are proposing further cuts. But we've already cut everything.

They'll claim there is no money, but then propose tax cuts for the best off. They'll reject windfall taxes even when Shell is asking for them. They'll claim that higher wages will increase inflation so they can't possibly increase wages, while talking about how important it is to move to a higher wage economy. Not higher wages for the ordinary worker though, they mean the ones already on high wages. The ones who would have benefited from the 45p tax rate cut that they've already had to u-turn on.

The DfE have said that strike will damage the education of children, that they can't afford to miss out on more school. Teachers, if they vote to strike, will be voting for better education. We want a qualified, decent teacher in front of every class. This is absolutely not happening at the moment, and will not have a chance of happening unless teacher pay and conditions improve.

TLDR: Support teachers; the government are self-interested, public service destroying, incompetent shitheads.

Which statement on funding? Schools have access to £7500 of SENIF funding per child per year and then whatever the child is allocated within the EHCP, less the £6000 notional SEN funding.

I agree with you about SEN schools - there is a desperate need for more of them. However, I think a school in which 35% of children have SEN is not the norm, and if it is, we need to look at ways of turning existing schools into SEN schools because that represents a third of pupils.

It does though highlight the need to sort out school funding across the board. And make sure we keep the staff who are able to see the individual and wants to do their best for them.

It does though highlight the need to sort out school funding across the board.

Well yes. A kid with an EHCP is probably the only child with SEN who will get any TA support.

If the teacher pay rise is unfunded any remaining nice-to-have support staff will be gone. I know some schools are getting rid of their librarians.

Exactly. I have noticed that the fantastic learning support team at DS school is much smaller this year than it was last. That doesn’t impact DS too much directly because he has the 1-1 specified but it
will inevitably have a massive knock on for many other pupils.

every parent should be worried about what’s happening now and supporting the staff in fighting for better. Both staff and pupils deserve so much better.

But teachers already receive £40,000 plus (depending on where they are on the pay scale, but in many cases, way in excess of this), as well as a pension where the taxpayer contributes 23.6%. And this represents payment for working 39 weeks of the year.

I get that it’s not a banker’s salary, but nor is it a banker’s workload. I think some perspective is needed.

They really don’t www.nasuwt.org.uk/advice/pay-pensions/pay-scales/england-pay-scales.html

However, I think a school in which 35% of children have SEN is not the norm, and if it is, we need to look at ways of turning existing schools into SEN schools because that represents a third of pupils.

Looking at the spreadsheets that lie behind the Gov.uk website for 2018-19, in my own - relatively affluent - county there are 17 mainstream schools that have over 30% SEN, and another 17 between 25% and 30%. Numbers of children on the SEN register have risen since then, however, so the new census is likely to show more.

I checked this against a different county and the numbers are pretty similar.

Nationally, there were well over 500 mainstream schools with over 30% of their children on the SEN register in 2018-19.

And another 900 between 25% and 30%.

So, as well as all the pupil referral units, which have exceptionally high SEN rates, there are probably at least 1,400 - 1,500 mainstream schools where over 1/4 of their pupils is on the SEN register - not the 'norm' but not a tiny minority either.

I guess this is mumsent Noble, where a thread can start about which hoover to buy and end up talking about goats in the Himalaya's?

Sen and lack of training is a massive issue in school and feeds back through into society. I will certainly keep beating that drum because it needs to be ..

Remembered so many Sen simply isn't recognised or supported in school.

Parent's are waking up to it with the internet and that actually their DC maybe has barriers to learning.

^But teachers already receive £40,000 plus (depending on where they are on the pay scale,)

£40k is just under the very top of the upper pay scale for classroom teachers. So if they are top of the upper pay scale they get that. To get more than that they have to do less classroom teaching and more management.

And it is totally irrelevant how cushy a wage you think it is if it is too low to be able to recruit and retain the people we need to do the job. It’s their opinion that matters, not yours.

Don't teachers start on about 25k? This is similar to NHS professions allied to medicine and both sets of salaries are ridiculously low. Young people who are able to achieve these qualifications are intelligent enough to do other jobs. They might decide to teach or be a PAM if the job itself was lovely, but the jobs are rubbish for the most part. Stressful and unrespectful with ridiculous work loads. So if we want high quality teachers, or indeed any teachers at all, we have to pay them more.

@EYProvider

My dd has had a battle with undiagnosed Sen which is why I'm so invested in this.

I learned that tutor's are also the best way forward with a bespoke targeted approach.

Re , school maybe not helping a child advance with a large amount of funding...

I can certainly see how that would happen.
The school first of all has to have the culture and will to help.
Sounds mad but it's what I've come up against!
And other mums also.
Then the school needs some knowledge of the issues the child faces. How on earth can a school help a child when not the teachers nor the ta nor the senco understand what that child might need?

It might be more complex involving regular breaks etc or it might be offering different colour over lays to read!

If no one knows, no one knows!

It's the blind leading the blind.

There must be a push to tackle it and turn it around.

I started teaching on 20k, I'm sure it's now risen to 25kish. That's the starting salary - and given an ECT is now one for 2 years, they're already stuck on that for a while.

I have been on M6 - the pay you receive for 6 years of service - for an additional 10 years, because every school I changed to started the 2 years of evidence needed (we're talking ring folder size) again, and the process for going through to UPS is being made incredibly difficult, depending on the classes you teach.

Now I'm on UPS I earn 38k, plus a management allowance, which basically means I've signed my life outside work away. Around 43k all in. I have been teaching for 2 decades. Most teachers don't get that far.

The pay for the upper scale has been eroded even faster than general teacher's pay - where on the odd year the bottom tier would get 2-3%, UPS have been stuck on 1% most of the time; what I take home now is worth far less than it would have been 20 years ago as a proportion.

The pay difference calculator says that I'm missing out on over 11k per year because pay has not kept up with other rises. 11k. A. Year.

I get that it’s not a banker’s salary, but nor is it a banker’s workload. I think some perspective is needed

But the fact remains that while people are clamouring to be bankers, teaching is in a severe recruitment and retention crisis. Using your 'perspective', why do you think this is...?

I’m overpaying my staff then because anyone I interview looks at me aghast if I say the salary is less than £30,000. And that’s just for nursery staff without QTS. I would never find a qualified teacher willing to work for less than £38,000, which is what the agencies quote (at least) for someone with two years of experience.

But I am based in London, where things appear to be different.

Comparing a City banker with a classroom teacher is just total deliberate false equivalence.

The above inflation pay rise is to make up for all the years when our pay rise has been below inflation or not at all. It won't actually bring parity with inflation over the last 10 years, but it will go some way towards making up for the fact there was no pay rise at all last year.

Depending on his needs, who covers the 1-1 if his usual TA (s) are absent? This is a major issue in schools which run close to the bone on TAs- and in some cases, students with medical needs have to stay at home because no trained TAs are available (and yes, this is a disgrace).

I've also taught a class where one child had 2:1 TAs, and another had 1:1. Guess how many TAs the class had- both specified in the ECHP, and both parents complained, but it never seemed to go anywhere.

But yes, it absolutely has a massive knock on impact on all students- because those who would benefit from general TA support in a class don't get it, and then those students need more support from the teacher, so other students in the class get less support. The teacher also feels burnt out and is less able to deliver a good lesson to the next class.

Do you think that anyone else has had a payrise in line with inflation over the past 10 years? I’m private sector and got 1.99% this year, 0% last year, 0% the year before,….. and this is far from uncommon. I’m not saying it’s great but giving all public sector above inflation pay rises (because why should teachers get it if doctors, nurses, military don’t) would bankrupt an already bankrupt country and make them better off than most people in the private sector so I’m just saying you’ll not get much sympathy when asking for so much

I reiterate that I support modest pay rises being funded

Then you are happy with the teacher recruitment and retention crisis getting worse.

For the avoidance of doubt, pay scales for teachers are available here: www.nasuwt.org.uk/advice/pay-pensions/pay-scales/england-pay-scales.html

Pay is higher in London, but not as high as some posters are making it out to be.

Only teachers on UPS, who are the most experienced teachers, making long term contributions to the school will be making more than £40,000 even after the proposed pay rises kick in. And UPS is increasingly difficult to get in many schools.

Other teachers earning higher salaries would be those with additional responsibilities, such as heads of department, and heads of year, and of course SLT.

Ultimately, though, it doesn't matter if individuals think wages are too high- the reality of the situation is that they are too low, as across the country, schools cannot attract enough qualified staff.

That would get you a teacher with 4 years' experience in London.

Not where I live (midlands).

OP, do you ever wonder how those people working 12 hours a day with 25 days holiday a year do things? Have you considered moving from teaching into a job that pays more rather than simply complaining?

I hope teachers at boarding schools won't strike (they even get private healthcare!). What a bloody cheek you have, no wonder people are sick and tired of all this!

Just go ahead, strike and I hope you don't get paid for the days you strike AND you don't get your salary increase.

We are sick and tired of these public sector employees doing nothing but complaining. Did you choose teaching or were you forced at gunpoint?