Teacher strikes 5th and 7th July

[noblegiraffe]

Just announced, because Gillian Keegan has refused to clarify whether the DfE will accept the recommendation of a 6.5% pay rise from the independent pay review body, and is also refusing the publish the report.

She is also refusing to re-enter into negotiations with teachers and headteachers.

The NEU will be striking in July, all 4 teaching unions, including the headteaching unions are currently balloting for strike action in the Autumn term.

https://www.tes.com/magazine/news/general/teacher-strikes-2-further-days-next-month

Thry need to stop bitching and get back to work like everyone else.
One of the jobs with the most time off and they will do anything for a few extra days off.

It's attitudes like this that caused my husband to quit his job as a secondary school Headteacher. Or rather the final nail in the coffin after yers of underfunding, lack of respect from the govt and horrendous behaviour from the kids.

Education has lost someone with 30 years experience; 15 of which have been in SLT and 5 as a Headteacher.

Not only that, but he is a very rare beast - a physics specialist with a PhD in astrophysics and who had been the only physics teacher in the school for the last decade (he still,taught the science top,sets for GCSE and the a level students). Now he's gone the school can no longer offer triple science or A level physics. He also regularly taught top,set maths and A level maths - that course is also looking unlikely as we hear that the most experienced maths teacher might be going as well.

My husband looks 10 years younger in his new job in the NHS as a finance administrator. It's lower pay but he's already looking into doing his accountancy training so he can progress. He gets less holiday but work is less frustrating. And he can get through the day without parents telling him that it's his fault their child who couldn't be arsed to,work failed their exam.

In response to the comments regarding lack of provision during covid, I can only share my experience.

First lockdown- the one with zero notice- we provided work for all students to complete independently and were available by email. As it was the end of term and we had no concept of how long the lockdown would be, we provided consolidation and extension work rather than try to teach new material. Work was marked and feedback given as quickly as we could. We also telephoned parents of all students in our forms at least once a week to check in with them and offer any additional support. Good packages were provided and delivered to the homes of students on FSM. We also had the hideous task of grading our exam year groups. This was the biggest challenge. It involved sifting through thousands of pieces of data, ranking students and having numerous discussions as a department about where we thought they were. This was done multiple times before we felt we had it right. Also bear in mind the DfE were not especially prompt with their guidance. On top of this we had to restructure our curriculum so that we could make up for lost time the following academic year.

Subsequent lockdowns- where we had had more time to plan and create policies to safeguard etc- we ran a full timetable with video lessons for all students. I created and uploaded booklets and other resources that could be used online and taught lessons as closely as I could to a normal, in school lesson. Then all work was marked electronically with feedback. We took registers for every lesson. Attendance was appalling. So often parents complain about the provision made during covid, but I'd like to complain about the lack of parents ensuring that their children attended their lessons. The legacy of this hasn't gone anywhere and we still battle with attendance every day.

In regards ti the current state of affairs, regardless of how I feel about my own salary, I am deeply concerned with the lack of qualified teachers coming to interviews. We have been short staffed for my whole career, and it's only getting worse. This means we have to employ instructors- who have no teaching qualifications and may not have a degree in a curriculum subject, if at all. This means we have to reduce PPA to the bear minimum which creates huge workload pressures. We have people teaching out of specialism and in rooms all over the building. All of this contributes to an incredibly unpleasant work life. And to those that say "you chose that job" or "if you don't like it then leave" I would say that that attitude is why so many are in fact leaving. But I believe that you can't change a system you're not part of, at least for now. I'm not sure how bad it needs to get before I would leave, but I'm definitely considering part time after my mat leave as I don't think that teaching is compatible with being a parent anymore.

Schools' responses to being closed to most pupils during Covid, was done to death over about the span of about a hundred mumsnet threads back then. Do we need to rehash all that? Even government ministers have looked back and said that they would do things differently with regard to schools if they had their time again. Its water under the bridge now.

However, what's happening to school funding and teacher retention and training presently, is not going to go away. It's going to get worse.

The very fact that keyworker places were available in schools during lockdown demonstrates that the government and the country as a whole are widely in agreement that schools provide a childcare function. I only ever seen it argued that this isn't the case by teachers on here, usually the ones that seem the most angry about being teachers.

And teachers might not care what parents think. But they're a huge voting block so the government will care. If they see that parents are not supportive of strike action they will be less willing to negotiate.

You're only shooting yourselves in the foot by alienating parents by making some of the awful comments on here about not having kids if you can't afford childcare etc.

Perhaps parents will be more supportive of teachers when they realise that their kid doesn't have one.

It wasn't a joke. it was childcare for keyworker and vulnerable children who had no other place to go. Teachers couldn't very well 'teach them' while others sat at home not being taught. Imagine the outcry then!

If you want to align yourself with the govt then please do crack on. Teachers have lots of options they don’t have to put up with this sort of shitty attitude. That’s why they are leaving, 10s of thousands of them.

Also, don’t assume it’s only teachers who can understand the difference between education and babysitting.

So they will continue to strike.
Parents are not balloted by the unions and we all have the right to strike.

You've suggested that only parents who can have one parent stay at home and not work should have kids.

It's not me with the shitty attitude.

Like I said, I support the strikes and have voted for strike action in my own under funded public service. But I also recognise that the public need to be brought on side if we are to succeed and comments like yours won't help.

May I ask why you think it's a teacher's responsibility to raise the alarm about poor quality of education? These strikes aren't new, the alarm was raised long ago. What have parents done? For teachers, this a short term problem in many ways; they can just quit and get another job. But for parents, children are being deprived of a proper, high quality education. Their futures are being threatened, as they may not be able to compete against students from other countries.

I know sometimes it's difficult to convey tone on Mumsnet, but my question isn't cheeky- I'm genuinely wondering why you think teachers should be doing all the work to fix things, and wondering what parents have done.

I'm not a teacher btw, I'm British but live in the Netherlands so don't have any skin in the game, just interested.

And while we're at it, I personally have been raising alarms since Gove took over education, together with many of my colleagues. We all predicted how much worse it could get back then.

I’m a governor, not a teacher. (Although ex-teacher!) I’ve explained this somewhere else as well.

The pay rise decision used to come around March and April time so you could set your school budget. It has slowly got later and later and now seems to come in July. We have set and agreed our current budget, it had to be signed off by the LEA a month ago. We (governors and head) are now in limbo. We put in a figure for teachers pay rises as advised by the LEA. Now we have no clue as to how accurate that is going to be, whether a pay rise will be funded or not. That announcement is likely to come just in the summer holidays. The head (who deserves a proper break) is potentially facing a nightmare having to make budgetary decisions over the summer to balance the budget if the announcement doesn’t tally with what we’ve planned. That is almost certainly going to be staffing as there is nothing else to cut. You wouldn’t be able to continue with the current budget if there was a big unfunded pay rise as you are mid budgetary year and have made decisions on timetables and classes. It is absolutely ludicrous that Gillian Keegan and the DfE won’t announce it whilst there is time to re look at the budgets. (Which are already tight.)

The school I’m a governor at was fully open for key workers
and vulnerable children throughout the lockdowns. Those teachers worked incredibly hard and it was the same for the other schools in the area.

If those of you who are so incensed and think you understand schools, then go and become a governor - most schools are crying out for those too and then you’ll understand. It has certainly opened some of our governor’s eyes.

As for what other action? Action short of strike hasn’t worked. Teachers have simply gone and got other jobs elsewhere, lots of vacancies still being advertised. Teaching training places haven’t been filled, the government reduced the targets and still failed to meet them. So now you have a perfect storm - can’t get Maths teachers, so cut Maths A-Level, less doing a Maths degree, less wanting to be a teacher and the spiral continues. People are now passing teaching training who a few years ago would have failed. Teachers getting fed up for covering and planning for non-specialists head off elsewhere and you simply have no one in front of your child.

If you haven’t noticed in your school, it’s either exceptionally well run in an affluent area (rare) or they’re amazing at papering over the cracks - much more likely. But where other children’s services are on their knees, schools are picking up the pieces and now they’re on their knees too…….. The NEU have said if the DfE release the pay decision and they may call off the strikes. That will allow heads and governing bodies a window to plan and revise budgets. If enough people campaign and write to their MP eventually they take notice. See previous government U-turns.

Because there is more chance of getting a response from Santa than my MP.

Seriously, I’ve tried.

So ‘Write to your MP’ on MN always makes me laugh.

This is a great question. Glad you asked. I have little idea about what is going on in my children’s school. The school makes it clear parents are not expected to be involved, and will not answer questions about the running of the school, though I’ve once or twice tried to ask. I have no idea about the school’s finances. No idea about staffing. No idea about resources. If the school told me these things I might have a clue. As far as I can see my children get a good enough education, but I’m sure that from what all teachers have said to me and threads here things are terrible.

perhaps I’ve not made myself clear - I truly agree that schools are underfunded. I agree that there needs to be change. I voted to get current party out - every single time since they got in.

what my problem is, is that I don’t agree with methods, and I don’t agree with messaging. Maybe people would rather we all forgot about covid, but my kids are months if not years behind where they should be because of it. I’m sure some teachers worked very hard during lockdown, but the children I worked with, and my own children did not get an education at all for the entirety of lockdown, the offering from their schools was so poor. The NUT even had a problem with teachers going back into schools. Bloody unbelievable.

if you think strikes can happen in a vacuum you’re wrong. Covid happened. Children suffered. And now they’re suffering again.

And they are not our problem. Our bills are.

I'm support staff. My wages are ridiculous. I couldn't care less about those kids missing out when it comes to my finances.
Just like I bet you don't care about our bills?

this is where schools are headed if the funding and support for teachers doesn't change: https://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/23594879.parents-arms-staffing-oxford-primary-school/

"One class at Rose Hill Primary School is currently being taught by two teaching assistants, one of whom usually works as a cleaner."
...
"The children are not progressing as much as they should be."
“Teachers are leaving who have been there for more than 10 years.”
...
"Figures from the School Workforce Consensus show there were 31 vacancies across state-funded schools in Oxfordshire last November, up from 23 the year before. Of the 31 vacancies, 25 were for classroom teachers."

"

"A spokesperson for the trust said: “Teacher recruitment is a huge issue across the country. It is particularly problematic in areas where property prices are high and where people are often priced out of the housing market.
"The problem has traditionally been worse in secondary schools and in certain subjects, such as science and maths.
“But what we are seeing in the UK today are vacancies across a greater range of subjects and also in primary schools."

"what my problem is, is that I don’t agree with methods, and I don’t agree with messaging. Maybe people would rather we all forgot about covid, but my kids are months if not years behind where they should be because of it."

I can guarantee you it's years behind for a lot of children, not months, and that's only going to get worse due to the government's failure to fund schools property and pay teachers and support staff properly as well.

Thanks for answering, it's really interesting.

Over here they take a very different approach, which I guess explains the variance in parent support/involvement.

I know exactly what the budget is for my kids school, how it is allocated, how many FT staff, TAs, SEN support staff there are and where they are assigned on each day. The Head teacher sends a weekly newsletter to all parents where we get updates on what's happening at the school, upcoming events, building repairs, sick staff and replacements etc.

A while back, Dutch primary teachers went on strike because high school teachers were given a higher %age payrise. The day of the strike parents and kids went to the playground with cakes, cookies, soup and had banners and placards etc. it was a real community spirit and everyone was 100% behind the teachers.

It's a shame teachers and parents are pitted against each other in the UK, when ultimately they want the same thing. Well played, government.

I hope your kids catch-up and aren't impacted long term, I can see why it would be such a worry for you.

I’m sure some teachers worked very hard during lockdown, but the children I worked with, and my own children did not get an education at all for the entirety of lockdown, the offering from their schools was so poor.

I said this at the time and I'll keep repeating it. The disparities in education provision that became apparent to parents during lockdown because it was in their living room instead of in a classroom did not go away when kids went back into the classroom. Parents were fucking furious that private schools had better resources, better IT equipment, better provision. Or that they heard that one class was getting regular marking, phone calls, support while their kid got an email link to some websites.

Why the fuck did that anger dissipate the minute schools reopened? Education provision is still patchy, private schools still have better resources, and many kids are still getting a shit deal.

Out of sight, out of mind?

I can't help but think too many people actually do view schools as 'childcare', not a place to provide their children with a good, solid education that will improve their life choices and chances when they grow up. It was all forgotten rather quickly by many....

My poor y10 has had 2 years missed with covid, and this year has had an extra inset, snow days, and strike days. And now more strike days.

She has no idea how to revise and hasn't covered anywhere near half the course. I know because I've just tried to help her with her mocks. She failed all of them.

I'm just sick of all of it and I can't afford private education as well as enormous food energy and mortgage bills.
This generation will suffer for the rest of their lives.

Has she actually got qualified teachers for all of her subjects, because if she has she's actually far better off in terms of education provision than a lot of her cohort.

Teachers are striking to try to make things better, because they are getting worse and worse and worse.

Why on earth is anyone still holding on to anger about teachers in lockdown? They were following nonsensical instructions from a government who has made it clear that they didn't give a monkeys about what people's actual experience was, and were soaked in incompetence. If you haven't clocked that by now, with the headlines over the last week, there's really not much hope.

www.theguardian.com/politics/2023/jun/18/who-was-at-conservative-hq-christmas-party-during-covid-lockdown-partygate-video

She hasnt had an extra inset. That didnt happen. She will have had an extra bank holiday given by royal proclamation. Take it up with the king.

my year tens have had the same and are absolutely not behind where we normally are at this stage of the gcse course. Are you saying every single gcse subject she is very, very behind? That will be worth a phone call to the school to discuss her progress, as that isnt the standard. You need to know exactly why she failed everything if she was predicted to pass. There are also lots of videos online on different revision methods. If you cannot help her with course content, help her with what revision methods work for her.