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

Please take some time to read and understand the challenges facing the provision of education in the UK today. Education is at crisis point, this really is no exaggeration.

I was lucky to be teaching during the Blair years, when funding was better (although still nowhere near enough) and you could plan genuine development for your department.

In terms of funding, my department this academic year received the same amount as I was given in approx. 1995. This is no exaggeration. Imagine how much less this amount now buys you and you might have a small insight into just one of the issues.

I am glad to be in my late 50s and planning to retire early after two more years, completing 36 years service. For approximately 25 years of that, education has been severely underfunded. It’s so demoralising that lessons are never learned in government.

Exactly the same here. My oldest had no transition day due to covid. I really hope the youngest gets to do it.

As a serious question, are you not more concerned about how staff shortages will impact her secondary experience?

I think the importance of transition day is overstated compared to having a stable timetable and teachers in Y7.

More power to then, I say. The government has got to start listening to their concerns.

Not really, no.

The suggestion that perhaps teachers could forgo a pay rise has annoyed me. Woukd you suggest doctors and nurses forgo a pay rise so equipment can be bought? There seems the underlying thought for sine people that teachers are public property. The retention crisis will onli be solved if there are more staff,which in turn could lead to a lighter teaching load and more support for pupils. To recruit them they need to be paid a decent wage but this needs to be continued to help with retention. It an absolute mess. The kids are suffering. It pointless giving a figure for the increase if that then must be taken out of existing budgets. This will.lead to even.less provision. Something will have to give

Good now I can take my children out for a much needed (affordable) holiday during term time and not be made to feel guilty for it.

Then write to your MP and Gillian Keegan.

Tell them how they are continuing to cause disruption to pupils by underfunding the education system for another year.

Ask them to release the report from the independent review panel.

Ask them to fully find the pay rises rather than take it from the already low budgets they provide to educate your children.

If numbers of the public got behind teachers in their outrage at the lack of respect for your child's education and teaching staff things may improve.

Unison have balloted support staff too.

The result won't be known for a few weeks yet but will be interesting to see and also be interesting to know (if it's agreed to strike) if they join the national strike or add other days.

Thrilled, as support staff, it is close enough to the end of term that I can do the jobs I usually have to come in to do over summer.
Buzzing 😁

I think it's ok to be annoyed at the state of education and support the need to do something whilst also be annoyed at the disruption of the strikes.

What is the "something" that we can do that isn't striking?

In 40 years of working in education, nearly 20 of those as a head, I can honestly say things have never been as bad as they are now. Budgets are cut to the bone, there is minimal support for growing issues around safeguarding and mental health, costs are spiralling and recruiting staff is extremely difficult. Schools are barely surviving. My staff give their all and are completely dedicated to the children - striking is a last resort but we cannot go on like this. No one has taken industrial action yet but I fully support them if they choose to do so in July.

This is the thing- teachers are the most important thing in the classroom, they're the most important factor in a child's educational success.

Less teachers means larger class sizes, it means less timetable time for some subjects, it means instability throughout the year. It means your child, in Y11, being taught by supply teachers, and getting a lower GCSE grade than they otherwise might.

To be honest, I think this just highlights how many people still don't get how bad things are in schools right now, and how much worse they will be in September.

I really hope, @Butteredtoast55 that you have also voted with your union for strike action. We need a joint effort in the Autumn.

You're not worried because you don't think staff shortages are a problem? Or you're not worried because you don't think it matters if she has teachers in secondary or not?

I understand. I’ve written to my MP, to Gillian Keegan, to anyone and everyone who gets suggested. I’ve never voted conservative in my life. What exactly am I supposed to do? Keep smiling and losing day after day of my precious annual leave allocation? I can have sympathy with the teachers and be incredibly worried about the situation in schools (how can I not be, I’ve a child in Reception with many years of schooling ahead of her) while also being absolutely fucking sick of it. Tell me what I’m supposed to do, please.

Oh and stop patronising me as well please, “please take some time to understand” - how dare you.

I think it gets said because white often on these threads teachers say it isn't about pay, but conditions. So I think querying whether if conditions improved pay wouldn't be such an issue seems reasonable.

Those of us who had children who started Reception in September 2020 had absolutely zero transition days or any kind of lead into school life.

It'll be fine.

@Postapocalypticcowgirl I didn't say the something shouldn't be striking?

https://teaching-vacancies.service.gov.uk/jobs?job_roles%5B%5D=&job_roles%5B%5D=teacher&phases%5B%5D=&subjects%5B%5D=&ect_statuses%5B%5D=&organisation_types%5B%5D=&working_patterns%5B%5D=&previous_keyword=&organisation_slug=&keyword=&location=England&radius=0&sort_by=publish_on

Nearly 3000 teacher vacancies in England, and we're halfway through June.

I think some people outside of teaching may think the majority of these will be filled, but the things is that teachers in permanent roles cannot give their notice in now, to leave for August.

The only people who can fill these roles are first year teachers who haven't found a job yet (which is probably a pretty small number in a lot of areas) and returning teachers or those who don't have a permanent job. My experience is that a lot of these roles- especially in schools where it is harder to recruit, or shortage subjects won't be filled.

There will also be roles that schools already know will be unfilled for September, where they don't see the point in advertising this late in the year because they are almost certain no-one will apply.

Normally, at this time of year, you see the number of vacancies drop, but in my local area, it's actually gone up by nearly 20 jobs since the start of June. I'm seeing new jobs in my TES alerts almost daily.

This year was pretty bad, but most schools locally just about held things together. I genuinely don't know what will happen next academic year. Teacher training recruitment was also low this year, which means things will continue to get worse. I don't have high hopes for Labour, but maybe an election in 2024 will change things?

The suggestion that perhaps teachers could forgo a pay rise has annoyed me. Woukd you suggest doctors and nurses forgo a pay rise so equipment can be bought

People do say this all the time about doctors and nurses, yes. It’s “a vocation”, and our minds should be on higher things than paying the mortgage, apparently.

I fully support your strike.

Please don’t think the majority of normal people support you. We don’t.

But you said it's okay to be annoyed with the strikes causing disruption.

Strikes that don't cause disruption are pointless. If people are concerned about the future of education, they need to be supporting the strikes, or at least suggesting other ideas.

Venting about their annoyance does put people off striking, but this will just make things drag on for longer.