Little moan about the strikes…

[Postcovid]

DC has likely ASD and ADHD, year 2. His cohort I feel has been really affected by Covid as it is.

His school is 3 form entry. In the whole school only 3 classes are closing due to strikes - his class, one of the reception classes, and then one year 4 class. They’ll be closed on all of the four strike days while the rest of the school carries on.

This isn’t a direct attack at teachers striking, they have their reasons.

But I’ve just had to deal with a meltdown from my DC because we’ve booked him into (expensive) childcare for the day, we have no family nearby to look after him for the day and we can’t take time off work. His little sister is going to reception as normal so makes it very tricky for him.

I wrote to school asking if anything could be done for him on the strike days given he has SEN, and was essentially told “theme the breaks”.

I’m not interested in the “well if you care about your SEN child then you should support the strikes” because I’m dealing with the here and now, today, and a further four days where my SEN DC is going to feel the impact of the strikes. Whilst the vast majority of his school is able to carry on as normal.

As a teacher of pupils with SEN, it is children exactly like yours that I am striking for. The 5% pay rise that staff were allocated last year was unfunded by the government meaning that the school was forced to find the money elsewhere in the budget. There is no ‘elsewhere’ in our budget any more, so when the LSA supporting (alongside others) a child sounding very much like yours (SEN, but no EHC plan yet) left, she wasn’t replaced.

The media today will make it sound like overpaid lazy teachers who hate children, only work part time and haven’t worked anyway since March 2020, just want more cash. This isn’t the case. Had that pay rise been funding, I doubt there would be any strikes.

Yes but clearly there she teachers you don’t know that are part of the striking union and chose not to 😂

No chance!! A bonus day when I am not working and my children are off school. So treat day! 😂

And it’s not disrupting children’s education is every single child in the country is off.

Mine at currently at school because it’s a private school.

Many thousands of children are at school today under non striking teachers

Edit: Had that pay rise been funded

of all these teachers actually lobbying for better education for children and SEN children… why muddy the waters by asking for a huge pay rise?

So it's only immoral when teachers are striking to ensure your children have the best education they can? Riiiight.

Well let’s not forget the whoppa of a pay rise they’re also asking for! 😂

Because legally they are only allowed to strike over pay! They are not allowed to protest about anything else. If they were allowed to striking against working conditions and funding, they'd be out on strike every week!

What is the law that enshrines that point?

No, it's a fair pay rise to bring them in line with inflation. In real terms, teachers have had a pay cut every year for the past decade. Please do some research before posting such ignorant statements.

www.theguardian.com/education/2022/dec/21/teachers-and-social-workers-suffer-most-from-lost-decade-for-pay-growth-in-uk

Well it’s obviously a “fair” pay rise if you’re in support

So let’s be clear. This isn’t a Robin Hood strike purely with the children in mind. It’s the double digit pay rise that somewhat dilutes that argument 😂

Article 11 of the Human Rights Act which protects an employee's right to form and join trade unions for the protection of their interests. Honestly, if you're invested enough to comment on a thread about the strikes, the very least you could do is some basic research.

Some schools are completely shut with no provision for SEN or vulnerable children so this isn’t quite correct.

You can only strike if there is a trade dispute

"The law provides a detailed definition of what constitutes a "trade dispute" for this purpose. In general, however, there are two main conditions which normally must be satisfied:
• there must be a dispute between workers and their own employer; and
• the dispute must be wholly or mainly about employment related matters such as their pay and conditions, jobs, allocation of work, discipline, negotiating machinery or trade union membership."

assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/249807/10-923-industrial-action-and-the-law.pdf

Nope, it doesn't at all. A pay rise in line with inflation means more teachers joining the profession and more teachers staying in the profession, which means smaller class sizes, better SEN and pastoral provision, continuity in classrooms so kids aren't being taught by a different supply teacher every other day. Fine you want to ignore the bigger picture that's going on here, thankfully lots of other parents do.

www.equalityhumanrights.com/en/human-rights-act/article-11-freedom-assembly-and-association

where does it say you can only strike in the Uk about pay?!!

@BankOfDave it would be easier for my DC to take if the whole school was shut most probably! I had to take him to drop my DD off where almost the entire school is running as normal and his class shut.

Anyone considering going in to teaching should be banned from joining mumsnet.

Because it would take more than an inflationary increase to make anyone join teaching if you read the multiple daily threads started by teachers discussing at length how much they hate their job, the disrespectful pupils, the hours they put in, the awful parents 😂

@Inkpotlover completely agree!
Please do research what the strikes are about- just as NHS is on its knees so to is state education- maybe parents need to start providing supplies as in other countries...

OP can't you/ partner take a day off and do something with either both kids or just ds? Make the most of the situation you are in. Hopefully this will make a difference and children in y2 should see the difference in there school time- I'm SEND teacher- honestly we are doing a disservice to these children.

Maybe this will help illustrate the issue.

The law provides a detailed definition of what constitutes a "trade dispute" for this purpose. In general, however, there are two main conditions which normally must be satisfied:
• there must be a dispute between workers and their own employer; and
• the dispute must be wholly or mainly about employment related matters such as their pay and conditions, jobs, allocation of work, discipline, negotiating machinery or trade union membership."

So clearly not just limited to pay

It doesn't mention it there, but it is stated in the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992.

Outrageous that the same classes are being shut for all strike days while the other kids the same age carry on without losing any schooling!! I’m astounded that any school is doing this - they should rotate the closures so no kids are more disadvantaged than others. I support teachers in general but would be straight onto the school in this situation, asking them to justify the creation of inequality within year groups. Your child misses four days of education which others in their year group get and ‘thems the breaks’?! Yeah, I don’t think so!

I will have to take a day off at least for the strikes, but we can't take 4 days between us when we also have the school holidays to cover for (which is fine, because as everyone keeps saying, school isn't childcare.)