Why are bloody teachers striking AGAIN?

[noblegiraffe]

Because, dear hearts, the government, when they offered us a pay rise of 4.5%, mostly unfunded for next September and all 4 teaching unions thoroughly rejected it, Gillian Keegan said that teachers would then have to take their chances with the independent pay review body and that there would be no further negotiations.

So teachers did. And the independent pay review body, who seem to have rather more of a handle on the current crisis in teaching than the government, recommended that teachers should get a 6.5% pay rise to introduce some stability into the system.

We only know this because the independent pay review body findings have not been published, but this figure was leaked.

Calls for the government to publish the report have been ignored. Most recently, a freedom of information act request to the DfE for the report was rejected, because the DfE says it's "not in the public interest".

Why is it not in the public interest to know what the independent pay review body has recommended? This report is published every year.

In the meantime, Rishi is briefing the press that he will reject the independent pay review body's recommendations, after making a huge fuss about how he always accepts independent pay review body recommendations.

Why should this matter to parents? Because headteachers are currently trying to write their budgets for September. The end of term is approaching. This job is currently impossible because headteachers don't know how much more they are expected to pay teachers next year, (6.5%? 5?% 4.5%?) and they have no idea how much extra money their school will be given to account for the pay rise (all? some? None??). This makes a massive difference as staffing costs account for the vast majority of school budgets. Should they be planning to cut GCSE subjects? Make staff redundant? Or will they actually be able to plan in some literacy support? That they don't know is intolerable.

A senior government advisor said that school budgets last year weren't worth the paper they were written on because of this same issue, and that it shouldn't be allowed to happen again.

Yet here we are.

The government are trying to drag this out to the summer before they make their pay announcement because then they'll be on their holidays and the 4 teaching unions' ballots will have closed.

And all teaching strikers.
Got to go to bed now but don't you dare give up.
We the general public are not going to.

Hang on there sweets!

I’m genuinely baffled by this.

You’re either trying to be too clever or you just don’t understand what I wrote.

I was born in, and have always lived in, England.

Our primary school used to run a free breakfast club for children from vulnerable homes, unfortunately from September they're going to have to start charging. Most schools around here charge quite a bit but it's £1.50 a session at our primary from September and additional costs will, for now, be absorbed by the school.
This government doesn't care, I'm not sure any other political party would make a difference either but somethings definitely need to change.

It was your fictional history presented as fact, I believe.

Parents don’t believe they can treat their children medically; but they do believe they can teach them English or maths or history as well as the average teacher can.

Bollocks do they, after lockdown.

Oh goodness. Thank the Goddess I'm Welsh!

Why do you suppose it’s fictional. Do you accuse anyone who disagrees you to be a liar? That is very unattractive. Shame on you.

And what does lockdown have to do with it? Are you suggesting that parents who had to try to teach their children during lockdown suddenly realised the skills of teachers?

Do you accuse anyone who disagrees you to be a liar? That is very unattractive. Shame on you.

Writing works of fiction isn't the same as being a liar. I haven't accused you of lying, merely of creative writing.

Are you suggesting that parents who had to try to teach their children during lockdown suddenly realised the skills of teachers?

There were plenty on MN posting to this effect at the time.

My apologies. Looking back I realise I misunderstood your post. I thought you were saying a later comment of mine - that I come from a family of teachers - was untrue.

I stand by the view I gave about the loss of reputation of teachers. And I’d add that I think the culture at universities, promoted by many lecturers, has done further damage to the perception of teaching.

TBH I think all the ‘gosh, I admire teachers’ comments during lockdown were a reflection of how tedious it is to try to teach younger children at home. I don’t believe anybody was surprised that they couldn’t teach older children if they didn’t know the subject. But whoever’s right about that, no one was clapping on the doorstep for teachers were they? (I didn’t clap for the NHS either: although I am very grateful for the work of those in the NHS, I thought the clapping was futile posturing.)

Largely because they decided they should become like any other public sector workers, not the special and respected professionals they should be and used to be. Strikes are the most obvious reason for the lack of public reputation.

"They decided"?

"become like any other public sector workers"

Like the medics who you still say are respected?

And medics and lawyers have also been on strike.

Government messaging and the right-wing press whipping up hate in the last decade have certainly meant that the more easily led have been turned against teachers.

Regardless, polling still shows significant public support for the teacher strikes, particularly among parents who aren't fucking stupid and can see the reality of what's happening to their kids' education.

Doctors and nurses striking is new. Teachers’ strikes are routine.

I think the doctors and nurses are also damaging their professions’ standing. But they have a lot in reserve. The barristers ‘picket lines’ looked comical, were widely ridiculed and did enormous damage to the reputation of their profession.

Teachers’ strikes are routine.

I think that's your perception rather than anything else.

Teachers have been quitting rather than striking. This series of strikes is nothing like I've seen in my long career.

I think the public have had enough.

The very same teachers campaigned on here relentlessly to keep our schools closed over the pandemic - now we find out the outrageous and heartbreaking statistics of child suicide and self harm that came from the schools closing and staying closed for far too long.

Now they are closing the schools because they want more money!! Causing even more harm to our poor children that have been through so much already.

I think they have been lucky so far that the public backlash hadn’t turned more ugly but it can only be a matter of time.

A six week holiday is clearly not enough for this lot.

And what’s the “hate” that’s been “whipped up”? The teacher-bashing that’s so prevalent and tiresome on here has nothing to do with the press. It’s what you get when a profession loses its specialness and dignity.

If you want to make comparisons with other professions, you’d have to admit that lawyers are widely despised, which has nothing to with the press, and that despite the general animosity towards lawyers parents approve strongly of their children going into law. That’s just not true of teaching, now.

£37billion allocated to test and trace app.... but nothing to educate our children. This government absolutely disgusts me. GE now!

Totally agree!

""If private schools become too expensive for anyone other than oligarchs, where are all the state school places going to come from?""

@FOTTFSOFTFOASM

If all the tory's little darlings went to normal schools, they'd improve the education system pretty damn fast.

And what’s the “hate” that’s been “whipped up”? The teacher-bashing that’s so prevalent and tiresome on here has nothing to do with the press.

😂😂😂 you haven’t been paying attention.

I’m not sure they would, actually. You’d just end up with a two tier comprehensive system with schools in affluent areas being sought after and schools in run down areas still having problems.

I used to be very ‘even it up’ but I don’t think there is an answer to this, tbh.

That's fairyland stuff.

You're also being very reductive to assume that all children at independent schools are the children of "tory's" (sic). My children were all at independent schools, and I am decidedly not a Tory.

What parents would do in that case is more of what many of them do anyway: move house to a megabucks catchment area that's out of the reach of most parents or suddenly find God.

The people who piss me off personally are the ones who buy million pound houses in the catchment areas of stonkingly good state schools, and then polish their halos for not "going private" - while their already expensive houses are increasing in value every month. School fees are sunk money, compared to a nice house close to an outstanding state school.

But the Tory MPs will be able to continue to send their DC to private schools even with the scrapping of VAT so all that will happen is that private schools eill become even more elitist and the inequality gap will widen.
Why is it always the responsibility of private school parents to raise the standards of state education ie scrap VAT and all the private school parents will force the government to improve state schools??? Er no they won't because a) why don't current state school parents try to do that and b) the government dont listen anyway!

This x 100!

Fee paying education is also a massive gamble. Dozens of thousands of pounds and you may well get no more academic achievement than a state primary or comp would. I’d never go private.

I agree about the hypocrisy of buying a pricey house in a good state school’s catchment area and then crowing about belief in state education though. That is very widespread. I’d bring back grammars TBH.

And as for lockdown... children were completely screwed by lockdown, especially children from more 'deprived' families. These children need school more than anyone (from the stability and routine point of view, just as much as from an educational point of view). All the strikes do is condemn them to fall even further behind their more privileged peers - just as lockdown did.

If education is so very important that families are fined for unauthorised absence, how can teachers possibly justify choosing to deprive them of this education?

My experience of the teachers' strikes is that town is swamped by "high spirited" young teenagers who are thoroughly enjoying a few free days off instead of being at school while their parents are at work. They're decidedly not sitting at home keeping up with whatever school work they're missing.

@twistyizzy makes a good point. Why would anyone think that "the private school parents" would make any difference to any government's education policies? There are plenty of sharp-elbowed, clever, influential people whose children are at state schools - they just play the system to make sure that their own children have every advantage. They don't spend time trying to make all schools better for all pupils.

When it boils down to it, most of us are concerned only about our own children, and will use every possibly means to try to ensure that they have every advantage we can give them. There are some genuinely altruistic people who would choose to disadvantage their own children in order to help other people's children - but most of us are entirely selfish when it comes to trying to secure what we believe to be the best for our own offspring. If I couldn't have afforded school fees, I'd have found another way to do it (e.g. get a job at an independent school - catering staff, grounds staff etc get good discounts; moved to a tiny house in a good catchment area; moved to an area with grammar schools; started going to church). There is no way I'd have sent them to a mediocre school (never mind a bad one) with the noble ambition of trying to improve the school for everyone. And what hubris, anyway, to imagine that my clever, marvellous, wonderful children would turn a crap school into a good one.

Really? You think stupid posts like “DD’s report has a spelling mistake in it!” or “DS is overlooked by his teacher who favours other kids” are whipped up by the press?

I read the complaints about teachers on here as symptomatic of a lack of respect and trust.