Govt doing nothing to avert next week's two day teacher strike (England)

[noblegiraffe]

The NEU are due to take two days of teacher strike action next Wednesday and Thursday in England.

What the govt have done to avert those strikes:

Told the NEU to call the strike off and enter talks. With no offer on the table, with no promise of new money to fund any pay rises and no reason for the NEU to suppose that those things would be forthcoming

Made a patronising video telling teachers to enter these talks.

Told Ofsted that they can phone schools this Friday to be inspected next Monday. This is normally not allowed as it means that school staff will spend the weekend working their arses off preparing. (Normally you get a phonecall lunchtime for an inspection the next day so you only have an evening to prepare). This, during an industrial dispute where teachers are deeply unhappy about workload.

Ignored a joint letter from the teaching and headteaching unions suggesting that ACAS mediate talks.

"Paul Whiteman, general secretary of NAHT, said that using Acas “to create a safe environment between parties in order to begin movement is a well-trodden path in industrial relations” and the success rate is “impressive”.

He added: “It is extraordinary for any party in a dispute to refuse such an offer. I am really worried that the government are not serious about finding ways through these difficulties. I hope for the sake of children that the government can see beyond political posturing and join us all around a table.”"

www.tes.com/magazine/news/general/unions-dfe-not-serious-about-resolving-teacher-pay-dispute

The government, as ever, don't give a shit about education.

Errrr but this isn’t about education but teachers’ pay?
What is the actual published reason for the strike?

A fully funded pay rise. The pay rise of 5% which was awarded from last September had to be taken out of school budgets which had already been allocated to other things, like TA pay, building works etc.

However, if you value education, you should be deeply (and I mean deeply) concerned about the current critical shortage of teachers and the disastrously low number of trainees both training this year, and currently signed up to start training in September.

Teacher pay is also affecting recruitment, which is seriously affecting education.

Errrr but this isn’t about education but teachers’ pay?

Who do you think does the education? The point is that schools can't recruit teachers due to the existing pay and conditions.

If you're happy for your children to be taught maths and science (and other subjects) by a supply teacher who may not have QTS and may have a degree in, for example, history- then that's great.

But most people don't want that for their children.

It's also about class sizes- if you can't recruit enough staff, then the class sizes may get bigger for everyone.

Or being able to offer certain subjects that are less popular (e.g. a range of MFL) at GCSE and A-level.

It's also about the fact that many teachers have been buying equipment for schools (among other things) out of their own pocket for years, but now in some cases can no longer afford to. (These are basics, which schools should have, like glue sticks, mini whiteboard pens, different coloured pens for peer marking etc- all things I bought at my previous school, but it does add up).

It's also about the fact that many schools can't afford all the support staff they need from existing budgets.

Ultimately, teachers' working conditions (including pay, but also workload) significantly impact the learning conditions of students.

Rishi doesn't give a stuff about state schools. It's not like he'd ever have sent his kids to one. He probably considers state school kids to be the lowest of the low.
I think I read on here that teacher pay was frozen for a number of years?

Recruitment figures last year were dire- and 2023 figures are currently tracking the same level.

I've seen suggestion that this year it's actually primary school recruitment pulling the figures down, too- which is scary.

Since the tories have been in power, there have been multiple pay freezes, usually only for a year at a time- but the pay rise the year after is usually less than inflation too. This has led to experienced teachers effectively taking about a £10k pay cut over the last 10 years.

Often government figures about pay increases include newer teachers who can get pay progression on the main scale, but once you're M6 or UPS3, you're stuck with whatever the government gives you, unless you're willing/able to take on extra responsibility and there's a suitable post available at your school (not a given for primary, especially).

If you work in private industry (like I used to) you can often negotiate a pay rise with your employer on an individual basis, or you can move to another company, and get more money.

But in teaching, pay scales are set nationally for state schools, so our options are either to leave the state sector, or collective bargaining.

Are both days going ahead throughout England next week?

It's very depressing. I totally stand by the teachers but there is pretty much no chance the government is going to give in, they don't care.

Yes, both days across England, unless the government stop faffing around and do something.

The thing is, I think a lot of teachers feel the future of education is at stake. If the government don't come through with some kind of serious offer, including at the very least funding for next year's pay rise, then it's very possible there could be more strike dates in the summer (after exams).

It's also possible that NAS could reballot, or NEU could ballot support staff.

This isn't going away, because the issues facing schools aren't going away (and are likely to only get worse).

One thing that bugs me is that the government is putting a lot of pressure on schools at the moment to improve attendance, which has plummeted since covid.

schoolsweek.co.uk/more-ofsted-scrutiny-would-ensure-razor-sharp-attendance-focus-de-souza-says/

But they don't care who is teaching those kids, if anyone. Just so long as they're in school, that's the only thing that matters.

The government is hoping public sentiment will be against teachers and they will just call off the strikes.

It is a political decision not to give teachers a funded pay raise.

Anyone who cares about the future of the country would be supporting teachers. There are too many leaving the profession, not enough jointing, workload is untenable and anyone who thinks this is not true go to any north London mixed secondary and follow a random teacher for a week and see what it is like.

You could have shortened your title to " Government doing nothing".

I was at a union meeting at work this week. Full of the least confrontational, hardest working teachers. Nobody in that room wants to strike! In fact we all hate doing it and can ill afford to lose the money, but we’re continuing to take strike action because something has to happen to improve funding for schools and colleges.

Well that's not entirely fair, they're doing a lot of mopping up from obnoxious WhatsApp messages, and also pointing and shouting at refugees.

Rishi and every other Tory MP.

The state school strikes mean nothing to them

This is what's facing headteachers.

The government seriously don’t give a shit about schools.

What exactly DOES Gillian Keegan do? ‘Her’ department is in outright revolt and she can’t even be arsed to meet with them-literally what is she doing with her days?!

Roll on the General Election.

We have closed for the last two strikes. We won’t next week because staff are panicking about year 11 and when we will catch up work! Most are in over Easter anyway, the general opinion is if we don’t go on next week we won’t get paid, but we will be in extra over Easter. So far each strike day all of our teachers that have been striking (therefore not getting paid) have used the day to get caught up on work without kids around so haven’t even refused to do the work!

I honestly don’t think pay is causing the lack of teachers. There are plenty of qualified teachers - they just don’t want the job. The problem is 99% conditions. Which is not to say they don’t deserve paying properly, but it’s not the driving factor in the problem.

Told Ofsted that they can phone schools this Friday to be inspected next Monday.

The fuckers. A dig like that is the government truly sticking two fingers up at the whole teaching profession.

They really don’t care about teachers or their students, but teachers already knew that they place very little value on education through seeing the state that schools have been allowed to get to. That’s why they’re striking.

Fair enough. I can't remember any government in my lifetime being so corrupt and I am 69 years old.

At this stage, I honestly don't think public sentiment matters that much.

Most teachers I know don't expect public support and are surprised when we receive it. I think we do mostly welcome the opportunity to tell parents just how bad things are in schools.

We know education is on the brink of collapse, and this is probably the last chance to save it.

It's the balance between the two. That's what doesn't exist now.

If you want to continue to give me a high volume, high pressure workload, you need to pay me accordingly.

If you want to keep my pay at a lower level than the current workload, you need to lower my workload to match.

You cannot continue to get away with taking advantage of people like this simply by calling teaching a vocation and getting people to blindly repeat: "But it's for the kids."

Are you struggling to finish the course because of missed teaching in prior years that relate to staff shortages though? Or because of reduced teaching hours in KS4 due to lack of staff etc?

Your school should be in the position to comfortably finish work by Easter of Y11, and not asking staff to work over Easter. I know it's common, but it's honestly not okay, and it genuinely doesn't have to be this way. I've worked in 4 schools, and none of them have run Easter revision sessions or catch up- it's honestly not necessary, and it's part of the problem.

If you go in next week and over Easter, you're perpetuating the situation, and things will just get worse and worse.

Think about how you want Y11 to be for you and your students in 3 and 5 years time and what is going to get you there.

Do you have any evidence to back this up? My local district of the NEU recently did a survey of teachers in our LA, asking about recruitment. A lot of responses mentioned issues with pay, cost of living, housing costs and commuting costs in our local area. There are a few areas where it's much easier to recruit- these are where housing costs are lower.

If you look at the areas that have trouble recruiting staff, it's very often expensive areas of the country, where those on the lower end of the pay scale literally can't find anywhere suitable to rent and teachers move away once they reach say M4/M5 in order to buy houses.

It's also no coincidence that most subjects that are hard to recruit for are subjects where you could earn much more in industry with that degree.

Workload is a huge factor in people leaving the profession, but pay means it's often very hard to find people to replace them.

It's also worth bearing in mind that any significant workload reduction (e.g. 20% PPA, for example) has significant cost implications as well.