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

Schools didn’t close and if you work in children’s social work I wouldn’t be bragging about your stellar job in Covid, there were an awful lot of dead kids after lockdown. Appears that social work can’t even do their job when it’s a matter of life and death.

That’s really nasty.

Not bragging about the stellar job we did. Just saying we went into homes. Never stopped going in.

I don’t disagree with your aims. I’m asking what else teachers have tried to avoid this. Has there been mass agreement that stats won’t be reported to d of e for example? Has there been mass protests outside of term time?

Only on Mumsnet would it be considered nasty to suggest people look after and support their own children. 😂😂😂

And schools weren’t closed and teachers continued to work, many in fact carried out home visits in addition to what they were doing in school or remotely, so I am not sure what your point is.

And i never put my kids in ‘keyworker school’ though they were eligible as I too am a single mum. I didn’t do this because school repeatedly said your kids will get no learning, they’re doing the same sheets as everyone else without teacher support just in the school building.

so my kids would do their sheets at home, then a few extra bits i gave them, and then roblox ALL DAY LONG while I worked. 8am-7/8/9/10/11pm as social workers do too. Saturdays and Sundays as social workers do too.

your position is not uniquely awful as teachers. Nurses, doctors, in fact anyone in a public sector role is suffering because of this government.

what is uniquely awful is that teachers both closed down in covid, and now withdraw the thing the kids need most - education.

And a lot of teaching/TA staff carried on going into schools. I was still going in to be with the vulnerable children and run bubbles when that was allowed. I never stopped.

My kids school was closed. As we’re the vast majority of the schools I worked with.

keyworker school was not providing an education

what is uniquely awful is that teachers both closed down in covid, and now withdraw the thing the kids need most - education.

Teachers didn’t close schools for Covid that was a government decision.

@Dumbphone you should read about action short of strike action. That's what's been tried. It means working to rule. It made no difference.

Private schools were closed down too and offered full days virtual learning

I suspect most parents will be even more pissed off when they realise their children have giant classes on countless days and constant supply/TAs/Randoms 'teaching' them as WE CAN'T FINDTEACHERS OR EXPERIENCED TAs ANYMORE! They're not applying for our open jobs!

I suspect most parents will be furious when their secondary schools can't get science/maths/computer teachers because it's not worth the hassle or pay when they can work in industry.

I suspect most parents will be furious when they have very limited GCSE 'choices' (and I use the term choice loosely, as there's hardly any in many schools now) because they can't get the necessary specialists.

I suspect most parents will be furious when their Year 7, 8 and 9 children get an endless stream of supply/newly qualified/inexperienced/short timers/PE teachers teaching maths/science because any remaining appropriate subject qualified teachers have to work with the Year 10s and 11s to try to catch them up enough to sit exams ... an impossibility in and of itself.

Parents have to support teachers and schools and focus on the gutting of them by the government. Their short term complaints and resulting fury is ignoring the real problems that teachers have been shouting about for years, and the mess is accelerating. There was plenty of alarm ... parents just didn't listen because they were still able to drop their children off at 8:30 and have them collected by someone at 3:30, so they didn't give a fuck.

Savvy21, Belinda and Scrabblegirl, as a PP said:
"...it is not about the payrise but the funding of it. Schools need to be able to afford to pay their staff!

This is the problem. The government could award teachers a 20% rise, but unless they also give schools the increase in funding for budgets, schools are not going to be able to afford to pay their staff.

Teachers are not centrally paid from government funds. Schools are allocated their funds based on pupil numbers and have to manage budgets based on this amount: this includes teacher salaries.

Our salaries come out of our schools' budgets (the same budgets that also have to pay out for support staff, resources, school catering, utility bills, a portion of SEN provision, building maintenance etc), not from the local authority or central government. This is why teachers are insisting on a fully funded pay increase ‐an increase in school budgets to actually match whatever pay offer the government seeks to settle on.

@Dumbphone I wonder what resources private schools may have that understaffed state schools might not have?

Many private school staff are striking due to their schools removing them from tps

You have literally just said that your kids school wasn't closed, that you chose not to access the key worker provision. Do try and keep your story straight, you are looking a little bit foolish.

Slagging off teachers who are still in the job, still supporting the kids, still teaching them despite the absolute dumpster fire that is the state of education right now is a really fucking stupid approach.

What have they done? They've continued teaching when 40,000 teachers quit last year.

Keep slagging them off though, we'll soon have none left. 👍

I have just emailed my MP and asked her to send a copy to Gillian Keegan.
thank you for the suggestion and contact details, @noblegiraffe

Well said!!

@Buyyouflowers
*
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*

I wonder if the people who are irate on here understand the argument properly?

"They" need to accept that they have loads of holidays so shouldn't moan.
Yet the basic fact is that there are no longer enough of "them" prepared to do the job (which is clearly essential or you wouldn't be creating quite so much)

So, if you can't recruit, train and retain enough teachers then something needs to be done.
It's utterly irrelevant whether you think teachers SHOULD be grateful because they have long holidays. If people are not attracted to a job and the job needs doing then either you make it more attractive or you stop offering free education to every child 🤷🏽‍♀️

@noblegiraffe if I write to my (useless and invisible to her constituents) MP and ask for the email to be forwarded to Gillian Keegan, is she obliged to do so and provide proof that she has?

She's way too busy fighting for her place in the HOL right now, and her office staff (her daughters?) seem to be equally useless, so I'd want to know that it's worth my time emailing.

Whilst I don't know the answer re obligation to reply, it might be worth seeing if the unions have a template email you can send, which may take less time to put together.

I think the office staff would be happy to have an email that they can just send to someone else to deal with instead of having to respond themselves.

I've done it with two different MPs and got responses from the DfE each time, I guess it's worth a shot?

How about not engaging with d of e?

how about mass protests stirring up parent involvement?

how about anything else that doesn’t affect the children?