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.

Full support otherwise the state education system, for our children continues to be eroded - the quality, the consistency and the accessible places as schools are closed.

Children are being let down by financial constraints.
Services that support schools cut. Behavioural issues at an all time high. A disaster for high need children who require specialist support a disaster for the other 29 kids in the class too. if that support is not in place. Impossible for teaching staff to manage, staff teams depleted.

In my area two of every three schools is already running a deficit budget, any unfunded pay rise comes from your child's entitlement.

I think this is the essence of it, and hopefully the message that the unions will be able to get out. I’m going to email my MP this evening about it.

And everyone should be fighting back. As much as the current goverment want it’s not a race to the bottom.

And many have or also striking.

Good for them all.

And under a Tory government who say that people who expect higher wages I'm absolutely sure that this won't need to get to strike point because the government are also supporting a higher wage society.

So

1. So I support the teachers.

2. I support all those asking for higher wages.

3. And I support the government saying this is what should happen.

The only problem with number 3 is they don't actually mean it because they are a bunch of lying scumbags who actually only mean their wealthy mates and no general Joe public who actually run this country and 2 years ago were the keyworkers who kept us going through covid.

And that's the problem. They won't deliver what they say we should expect.

Lying incompetent fuckwits that they are.

Public sector staff have had enough though so it will only get worse. I’m in the NHS and there will be strikes quite likely coming from the nurses, junior doctors, consultants and ambulance staff. Just like teachers can’t sit back and watch as schools crumble NHS staff are truly worried about the state of the NHS and patient care: it’s not as I’m simple as we just want more money! The wages/stress/workload don’t attract enough new people or keep staff in the sectors while the service users using those services wether it’s healthcare or schools for example don’t get the education they deserve or the proper healthcare they should receive.

if you are a parent you should be concerned about how your child’s education is going to be affected in the coming years in state schools. My sister works in education and it gets worse each year. Too many kids, too many kids with high needs and not enough TAS, too few staff, poor recruitment or not enough budget for the staffing needed.

I don’t think many parents get the implications for the 5% pay offer. Most schools don’t have the budget to pay it; so in order to pay it cuts will be made. My understanding is for the average primary school - funding it will require the loss of 1.5 TAs or similar…. So when parents complain their is no TA in their child’s class or that the TA only does mornings this may be why.

If people don’t support strikes to ensure the teachers pay rise (whatever the size) is fully funded and doesn’t come out of school budgets, they are accepting that schools will have less money to spend on things other than teachers….because they will have to pay the teachers 5% and have less left for other stuff.

For parents with smaller kids…think about them in 5 and 10 years. You know the massive shortages if teachers now. If you don’t support strike action and pay rises being fully funded now, then what will the state of education be when your kids are older and at the crucial exam stages?

Its hard to think longer term and not just about disrupting to schooling due to strikes this year, but that’s what people need to do. Don’t just consider a few days disrupted due to strikes. Think about the implications for education in 5/10/15 years if school budgets can essentially be cut further and if even more teachers are allowed to exit because the conditions and pay and funding of schools is so awful.

Who will lose in the long term if the issues are not addressed? It won’t actually be the teachers…it will be the kids.

I support them completely! I hope nurses do the same.

I get it, I do. And in another post I’ve said that it’s a big ask to get people to think of the long term when all of us are pretty much on our knees and desperate to maintain the status quo for as long as possible. Intellectually, we all know the ship is sinking, but it’s very hard to not get lost in the day to day. Of course I care about DC’s future education 🙄

Everyone in my school (in Scotland) will be voting to strike. The issue is that we get more and more under our remit but with less time and less money- to outsource or to be paid.

We have someone teaching on my dept who isn’t even a subject specialist because there’s no one to cover and we can’t find anyone willing to do it- this person is from a traditionally much smaller dept.

People in the private sector also forget that public sector workers have been facing cuts now for years and years, so we are no where near being paid the ‘old’ salary- which was also a much easier time in teaching!

In Scotland, we are also taxed more and will now be put into the higher tax bracket with almost any pay rise. This means that that pay rise won’t go far and will put teachers off working for the sqa as everything will be taxed at the higher band. So even if the % seems high, the take home will be significantly less because the SNP treat the middle class as if they are loaded.

I really don’t know anyone who has managed to maintain any enthusiasm under the dredge of day to day life and most people are trying to figure out how to exit the profession.

As an ex teacher with 2 young children at school I fully support the strike. I left due to workload but it's all linked to school budgets. We were down to one TA for one lesson a day. With more SEN children than ever it's unsustainable. My LA school was already way over budget with minimal staff and adding pay rises to school budgets is just another nail in the coffin for non-academy schools

Same at the school I was a governor at. To fund the pay increases they will cut a TA’s post and they have no idea how they can have the heating on over this winter. Parents don’t seem to have realised about the changes which will affect their children.

I’m worried about Ds education (13 and significant SEN thankfully very well supported) but even more so about future generations as things get chipped away at more. That’s why we need change NOW

I think part of the problem is that parents who are most affected by strike action are probably those of primary age children- whereas parents who really see the impact of the teacher shortage are probably parents of secondary age children.

I teach science, and until recently I used to teach in what mumsnet might consider a "leafy comp". It was the only school in a high cost of living town. The last year I was there, half the maths department left, some left teaching, a few left for promotions at other schools. The school was unable to replace them. The science department was also short a teacher as we couldn't get maternity cover. The geography department ended up being a teacher down as well, as again someone left mid year and they couldn't recruit a replacement.

The end result of this was some GCSE classes (as in Y11) having half their teaching time with non specialist teachers for maths and science. The other end result was staff being pulled left right and centre to cover when supply wasn't available or didn't show up. This affected the quality of teaching across the school. At the end of that year, more staff left or were leaving because of this- parents were aware of the issues, but most of them didn't have any other options.

The school didn't recruit enough maths teachers, or science teachers to replace the ones who left, so their plan was to rejig the entire timetable to protect exam classes- leaving KS3 classes with non-specialist teachers for those subjects. As in, they'd have e.g. an English teacher for all their science lessons. I think this wouldn't be acceptable to most parents.

I can't stress how much that this is just an ordinary school not outstanding, but definitely not failing either, it won't be the only school in the situation.

It used to be in my county, you'd rarely see secondary jobs advertised for a January start. Recently there were science jobs being advertised at 11 different schools, mostly for permanent contracts. I think some of these jobs are jobs where the schools have failed to recruit in the summer, too.

Yes, strikes are a short term inconvenience to parents and they may harm children, but long term, a major change in pay and conditions is the only thing that will save state education, in my opinion.

There aren't enough teachers, teachers are leaving the profession all the time, and we can't recruit enough trainees....

It is probably worth mentioning that if the pay rise remains non funded then many teachers will not receive a pay rise yet the government will say that they have.

Also the 5% is for those on the main pay scale, UPS will get about 2.8%

It will be a major PITA for me if schools close but I will support the strikers 100%.

Parents need to start thinking about what they will do with their DC’s if the school is closed for strikes (could be many days). Can you or your DH work at home and keep your DC’s occupied? If your job can’t be done from home can you take holidays or unpaid time off?

whereas parents who really see the impact of the teacher shortage are probably parents of secondary age children.

There are plenty of primary children who are being taught by TAs rather then full time qualified teachers. Schools can’t afford to pay for supply teachers and are using TAs to cover increasingly long periods of staff absence. Some schools are only able to give a class a qualified teacher for part of the week on a permanent basis.

Parents are kidding themselves if they think primary is unaffected.

In addition, primary classrooms are even more reliant on TAs than secondary, due to children who will eventually end up in special education still being in mainstream. Schools can’t recruit TAs due to being unable to offer more money than Aldi, which impacts on all children in the class.

My school is in a fairly unusual situation of not running a deficit budget. Yet. Most of us will be striking because it is getting harder and harder to recruit, schools are haemorrhaging experienced teachers. We have fewer and fewer support staff in our lessons with higher and higher proportions of students who need that support. This results in is needing to cater to the high needs of those students (difficult when only one of you) and takes away tie from every single student in that class.

Even if you think 5% is enough - the fact it is not funded is appalling. Schools simply cannot afford this along with massively rising costs (paper and electricity are two things that have gone up in price hugely for us).

Yep, if the pay rise is unfunded, then LA schools have to find it from their existing budgets, which hurt students. Academy schools can refuse to offer the pay rise, but then they have an issue- if other schools in the area offer it, they will likely lose staff, or struggle to recruit when staff leave for other reasons.

School budgets are stretched to the max, and if schools can't get/afford supply, there will be unplanned school closures anyway.

However, as a mother of a child who finally has a consistent routine and is progressing well in school after years of being in and out due to covid…

Which is why it is so important to try and retain teachers.

It’s no secret that the amount of work is not worth the wages and teachers leave the profession regularly. So the government need to do something to try and make it a job that people want to stay in.

I support anyones rights to have fair pay.

Totally support the teachers striking. They haven’t had a proper rise in years …and a below inflation payrise now, with all the additional workplace risk they have faced during the pandemic is inexcusable. It must be a fair and funded settlement.

hopefully most parents will take the view that they don’t fancy homeschooling again and will support teachers getting fair pay!

This.

You’re not striking for our children, you’re striking because you’re fed up. Totally understand that.

But how on earth will these strikes help matters? Do you think the government is going to turn round and give you everything you want? In the meantime the ones who suffer are the kids and the rest of the economy as we can’t work.

Inflation is 10% for all of us, by the way.

Although, in my county, there are very few secondaries not in a trust. I think maybe 3. None in my town, its like a monopoly of one specific trust in my town.

You’re right. We should martyr ourselves so that no one else is inconvenienced and, as usual, the kids being affected.

Yet you don’t seem to grasp that the way the 5% is to be funded is directly from school budget. So ‘the kids’ will be affected either way. It’s just whether you think that fighting for investment in our education system is worthwhile. Whether you want motivated, supported teachers educating children. Whether you want a government who is committed to developing education.

I honestly can’t remember the last time education was a headline policy- perhaps tony Blair? And here in Scotland we have literacy and numeracy rates that are declining year on year, and yet still all you hear about education, is when teachers are pushing for industrial action.

Does your school pta fundraise for the school? We have to have celidhs/sponsored walks/activities all just to buy materials for school. How can this be right?!