Is the fact that many of England's schools are closed today not newsworthy?

[Lonelyplanet]

If it was a snow day it would be on all the front pages.

However school funding issues that have become so bad that the majority of teachers are taking action and refusing to work, doesn't appear to be of any consequence. Do people really care that little about the state of our education system, or are we being manipulated yet again by the press?

TBF, there have been so many education secretaries in the last few years, they might well have just run out of people to take the job!

But yes, I think she is very much always going to toe the party line- it's very clear she doesn't care about what is happening in education!

it's very clear she doesn't care about what is happening in education!

She is very keen on visiting innovation and skills centres. Schools, not so much.

She was appointed because she did an apprenticeship, and because she is vocally anti-trade union.

Striking doesn't currently have the impact it once did. I say that as a paid up member of the RMT.

Who accepted a 9-14% pay rise on the back of strike action?

Correct, in our leafy suburb the state school’s PTA is providing lots of things, minibuses for school outings/pool etc, playground refurbishments, costume loans for various school plays, this type of things. They also raise funds to buy classroom equipment, and organize parent volunteer to come at school to listen to the children reading (and there is fierce competition amongst parents to get a spot!)

So on a daily basis, no the effects of the cuts are not really visible to parents.

The school is open today, I wasn’t aware other weren’t.

If we hadn't been on strike, we wouldn't have had the offer before Easter at all. That was on the back of just 4 days of action.

In my memory (including when I was at school) I don't think teachers have ever struck in this way.

ASCL is balloting for the first time in its history. I'm not sure how anyone can predict what the outcome of them striking would be!

But, even a one day strike from ASCL, NASUWT and NEU together would close the vast majority of secondary schools in the country (and probably many primaries too, especially if NEU and Unison support staff were also out). I don't think we've seen a strike like that in education since... the 80s?

But, even a one day strike from ASCL, NASUWT and NEU together would close the vast majority of secondary schools in the country (and probably many primaries too

NAHT are set to announce that they will also ballot for strike action at their conference this weekend. NAHT out would close primaries.

How large are your children's class sizes, and do they have any TA support? What's pastoral support in the school like?

Now ask friends with children at local state secondary schools. What are their class sizes? Do they have subject specialist teachers for everything? Do they have supply teachers teaching them regularly? Do they ever see a TA? What's pastoral support like?

I think this thread is eye opening for me in terms of seeing what parents actually value about education.

Yeah.

If the NEU strikes last term slowed economic growth, the impact of all 4 unions striking together would be huge. You'd think even the threat of that would bring the DfE back to the table.

But I guess the Tories just don't care?

This thread was eye-opening for parents who, it seems, are largely ignorant of what is going on in schools.

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/_chat/4790641-what-is-really-going-on-in-our-schools-well-laura

So perhaps parents are just in ignorant bliss.

I think we, as in teachers, need to ensure our schools aren't covering up the situation when speaking to parents IRL too. I mean, I don't anymore, and I doubt you do either.

But more generally, there seems to be huge pressure to paper over the cracks, and pretend everything is fine, even if it isn't. Last year, I got in trouble for telling a parent I "didn't know" when we would be able to recruit a new science teacher. The head was not happy about this, apparently I should have put a more positive spin on it.

Our school has always been open and my kids teachers (3 of them) have never gone on strike

I agree with your first para totally. It's simply not news anymore.

Laura Kuenssberg says that her programme on Sunday 'what's really going on in schools' got more emails in than any other topic.

It's clearly news, what's going on in schools, it's just not being reported.

If it's not news, why are we getting more local news coverage than previously?

The first few strike days, we struggled to get local news outlets interested in what we are doing. We now have cameras and radio journalists on picket lines and attending our events, and for the first time a proper article in the biggest local paper, talking about how national issues are impacting schools locally.

My son's school is effected today and also on strike next Tuesday. In total this will be 6 missed days of school.

Come on government, stop messing around and fund our schools properly!

@Postapocalypticcowgirl Are you saying primaries are usually better off than secondaries?
I have no idea about secondaries about here I have to say.
To answer a few of your questions: class size is 30 as oversubscribed so as soon as a place is left vacant is is filled with someone from the wait list. They sometimes have a TA but not one per class.
What I would like to see improve is differentiated work for pupils, I feel like this is the big disadvantage of state school, at least for homework but ideally also for work done at school in maths for example.

Our primary school hasn't been affected at all, none from around here have been from what I can tell, high schools are a different story, eldest is home today- is the situation more dire in secondary?

Yes, in terms of teacher supply. Historically there haven't been shortages of primary teachers, although this varies by area and there have certainly been threads on here about primary children being taught by TAs instead of teachers.

Shortages of teachers at secondary levels in certain subjects have reached critical levels. Some schools cannot run certain subjects at GCSE or A-level. Some children have been left without specialist teachers as their teacher quit partway through the course and the school couldn't replace them.

Chances are your secondary child is having more cover lessons than historically, and is being taught by non-specialists at least some of the time, particularly in subjects like computing, maths, science.

This, just released, is horrifying.

The government is expected to only recruit 46% of the secondary trainees for September that it needs to meet its targets.

Less than half.

It only got 59% of what it needed last year.

We are running out of teachers.

@noblegiraffe thank you, yes now you mention it, they've had to cancel one of my son's subjects mid way through the year due to a teacher shortage (Spanish).

I think the OP was taking about national news. Certainly I was.

Depending on size of school, I think Primaries are harder hit from a funding perspective, but from teacher recruitment perspective Secondaries are worse off. It's all just shit really. And many parents don't get it and blame the school/Trust (as they do for many things that should be provided by other agencies but schools are now meant to pick up the pieces, with no funding!)

At primary...

No support staff available.
Put aside the very basics of children needing support in lessons, there is also no one to...

Administer first aid
Find a missing lunch box
Tie shoe laces
Chat to an upset child
Ring a parent who is concerned about the child

These things happen multiple times a day. Without support staff, not only do children not get help in lessons but the teacher has to stop teaching so so often to do tasks such as these.

My younger dc primary school has been open through the strikes. My older dc secondary school has been closed and my dc have been doing online learning. My year 10 child has just got on with it but my year 7 child has had to be nagged for a large portion of the day.

Funding in schools is awful. My child in year 5 has a moderate learning disability and should really be in a specialist setting. But he is stuck in mainstream because our nearest special school is full of children with severe and profound learning disabilities. The nearest school for children with moderate learning disability is an hours drive away which he wouldn't be able to cope with doing every day.