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.

Tadpoll · Today 20:27
*So what will the situation be?

Nurses, ambulance workers, care home workers, retail staff, train drivers and staff, postal workers, teachers and anyone who either is or feels that they are underpaid for what they do, all on strike?

How does that work?*

I’m hoping it’s a general strike. I support all of them.

All the more reason to contact your MP and get them to prevent strikes by addressing the pay issue so there is no need for a strike.

Offandonagain · Today 19:34
I’m a teacher and will not be striking. It rarely solves anything and just fucks things up… it’s also not fair on the kids and their parents/carers
Are you going to accept your pay rise, the one the unions are fighting for on your behalf?
As for not solving anything, strikes have bought better working conditions, better pay, better holidays, fairer pay systems and sick pay over the last 100 years or so.

I honestly don’t think threads like this help. Teachers need to get better at voting with their feet and stop relying on public sympathy. People will only care about school funding when it impacts their lives, and striking is one way to do that.

Staff shortages in teaching are often subject specific and specific to particular geographic areas, although they are getting worse everywhere.

Basically, in some subjects there either aren't enough people doing those degrees, or they can get better paid work in other sectors. However, in some subjects e.g. history/pe, there's a lack of high paid jobs elsewhere so there are more teachers, and some staff can't find jobs.

I used to teach in Bristol, and people who know the city will know the rental market is pretty insane and house prices are high. It's also a difficult city to commute into as public transport isn't great and neither are the road links. Many schools in Bristol struggle to recruit because of this. In other cities, or parts of the country, which are desirable, but not so expensive, it's easier to recruit education staff.

WRT your post about your DD, I feel for her. I feel for the Y11 class I taught who only had a subject specialist for 50% of their lessons. I feel for the Y11 tutor group in that school who lost their tutor and due to staff shortages ended Y11 without a permanent tutor. The answer is definitely more money for education, and a fully funded pay rise is part of that.

I think as well, teachers see the long term impacts- it might be too late to make a difference for this year's Y11, but if we can make a difference for say, all pupils in Y9 and below, that's important to us. For parents, they obviously care about their own children the most, and would rather we went on strike at a time when it won't have an impact.

I would say I've watched things get worse and worse in education over the years I've been a teacher, and I really, truly believe that successful industrial action could be the start of changing things for the better.

Of course it has. My point is that striking will only make things worse for kids, not better. Surely any teacher must see that?

I fully support my teaching colleagues and would support a strike. Partly for them and partly for the effect it will have on my school, potentially my job. If there are cuts, support staff jobs could be at risk.

I see the teaching staff around me and wonder how many will quit, the demands put in them are getting worse. Education is not ok!!

disclaimer: I could say the same about support staff but this thread isn’t about that. We are all one school and need to support one another

But if you get what you want in the strikes you’ll get a decent pay rise not funded from school budgets. Good for you.

Schools won’t get any more funding. So it doesn’t help the kids at all, only your own pocket.

We see it. It’s getting worse for kids anyway though. Have you written to your MP about your daughter’s disrupted education?

We cannot carry on underfunding education without significant disadvantage for decades to come. A few days of making things worse is nothing in the face of looking at students not having specialist teachers or having subjects cut. Because that's the reality. We've already cut everything else.

Teachers are voting with their feet- they're leaving the profession. Potential trainees are voting with their feet, they're not signing up to PGCEs.

And yes, I think we need to strike regardless of public perception. But I think a lot of parents don't realise how bad things are in schools right now. I have to say, I had the perception things were okay in primary, and it was just secondary that was struggling. This thread suggests otherwise.

If this thread prompts parents to ask questions about staffing in their children's schools, then I think that's a good thing, as much as whether they support strikes or not.

Last time I looked I’m not in charge of school funding.

And before you say ‘write you your MP’ - believe me, if you knew who my MP was you wouldn’t bother.

My OH is a Y6 teacher and has voted to strike. His school is in a deprived area and every term he buys class supplies likes pencils and books out of his own money because the school's budget is at straining point, and that's before the energy bill rises kick in. He'll be striking because his school cannot afford the 5% pay rise the Govt is insisting they must pay. He knows pupils now and in the future are going to suffer because of chronic underfunding and because of that he's grateful our DC are in secondary and almost done with their education.

So you’re striking to prove a point to parents? Believe me, we know how bad things are.

It won’t though, because it’s always blamed on teachers thinking they have it worse. There are people on here who I guarantee will complain about their kid’s disrupted education and what a pain it is to take a couple of days of work without ever making the connection that it’s due to terrible funding and endless budget cuts, and a bloated education system that is no longer fit for purpose. Education needs proper reform, not public support for teachers.

Schools won’t get any more funding. So it doesn’t help the kids at all, only your own pocket

But they would have 5% more budget if the government weren’t making schools find the staff rises. And why shouldn’t staff want more money? They aren’t funding their own ‘pocket’ They’ve been underpaid since 2010.

And there it is 😂

That’s what you want us to do? Write to our MPs?

What do you think that will achieve?

No. We're striking because it's the only chance we've got to make this shit show of a government listen.

Neither am I. So you didn’t write your MP, and your daughter continues with a disrupted education regardless. Some of us want change.

It will show that you, a parent, is aware of how shit the education your own actual child has received is. It would show you care about that, rather than whining about teachers. It would be a step towards change for your own kid.

The pay rise needs to be funded. Schools can’t afford it as it is.

And what are you doing about it?

Social services here. Support the teachers 100%.

It is looking like (from the ballot results so far) we won't be going on strike and will be accepting the payrise we have been offered.

I think a lot of my colleagues have failed to recognise that this offer is also unfunded. Which means that there will be service / job cuts.

The public sector can't go on like this. It's death by 1000 cuts.

I have written to my mp, met with my mp and attended a focus group with my mp.

My mp is jeremy hunt.

Well we can either whine on MN and other social media about how shite our government is, and how it's run public services into the ground, or we can stand up and fight for them.

It really is that simple. If you have children in state education then support teachers.

Legally we can only strike over pay and conditions but this is about way, way more than this. It's about chronic underfunding, the syphoning off of precious funds into the academy system, the massive SEND problems and the fact we simply cannot get kids the support they deserve.

The whole system is a house of cards which is about to fall.