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.

@Forestfriendlygarden

"Also untrue because the schools were NOT closed."

+++

Hmmm nice try to rewrite history and whilst there were a few exceptions, I think that if you surveyed the parents on MN you would find that for the vast majority their children did not attend schools during the school closures.

I have no intention of 'rewriting' history.

I home schooled for more than ten months, but as I said our comprehensive was STILL open for the kids of NHS employees and so called 'vulnerable' kids. But not for our family as we were neither 'vulnerable' nor NHS staff. I assumed this was the same arrangement across the country.

Which I think it was. Reps from teaching unions? Was this the case or wasn't it? I can't think our school was the exception? Maybe it was - I was too wrapped up in getting DD through her G.C.S.Es and staying alive at the time - and plus it wasn't in the news, so I assumed this was the case all across the country?

Quote from a BBC article
Covid: Was Matt Hancock right to push for schools to close?

My comment - so much for 'rewriting history'. As with many things it seems some people had no idea how the reality of Covid was for others...and I wrote that because I lived it.

Copy follows:

Schools never fully closed during lockdowns. They remained open for vulnerable children and key workers - accounting for between 11% and 20% of children in England from January to early March 2021.
The cost to pupils
With teachers switching to remote learning for those out of school, education continued during national lockdowns for most pupils.
But not everyone had the same access to laptops and other technology to help them learn from home.
Research by the University of Sussex found that nearly one in five less advantaged parents said they struggled with home-learning during the first lockdown.
The Department for Education announced it was rolling out extra laptops to help disadvantaged children in mid-January 2021 - nine months into the pandemic.

"

...when in fact they didn't roll out the help at ALL.

And I know. I was there. We were refused a lap top from the school and had no access in any other place at the time.

What is absolutely hilarious is seeing people trying to pretend that the teaching unions had any power over the government during covid while looking at how exactly the government are treating the teaching unions now.

Like, the unions were forcing the government to close schools or whatever when they can't even get the government to publish a report.

The right wing press were pushing the line heavily that the teaching unions were doing this that and the other in relation to schools, while actual members of those unions wondered why government decisions were being blamed on teaching staff, and teaching staff themselves were being forced to work in utterly shit conditions.

I will never forget being on the phone to my dad while he was telling me all the stuff he'd read the teaching unions were doing in the Telegraph, while I was telling him that it was a load of bollocks. "I heard the unions are saying you're not allowed to do x" "I spent yesterday afternoon doing x". "Oh".

Schools didn’t close, some small ones may have, by linking up with a larger primary to form a hub in the first lockdown, but apart from that they didn’t close.

And even if pupils were not in an actual building school staff were still working and being in contact with pupils.

Admittedly, in the first lockdown education provision differed across the country, but that was down to the Government not giving clear guidance to schools. They initially said the curriculum was suspended and that pupils going into school would be for childcare purposes not education as didn’t want two tier provision for pupils not in school. Remember Government thought it would all be over in a couple of weeks! Bet they thought everyone would be back in school after the Easter holidays but as we know that didn’t happen

Which I think it was. Reps from teaching unions? Was this the case or wasn't it?

You actually believe teaching unions shut schools?

I'm going to say it again, because I was misunderstood last time.

Yes, Covid is relevant to this conversation in as far as it had an economic impact on the country.

However, it has no relevance whatsoever to the question of whether teachers are right to strike. Covid was not down to the teachers, the handling of school closures was not down to the teachers, the whole situation was as stressful, unknown and scary as it was for every single other person in the country.

That government mismanaged it, some parents wanted children in school, some wanted them to be nowhere near a school and were angry at the suggestion, some schools managed home learning well, some less well... all of that. Irrelevant to whether teachers deserve a pay increase.

That's what I meant by 'draw a line'. It's not what this conversation is about. Just like local authorities fining families for absences is not relevant either.

I home schooled for more than ten months

Why? Schools were ‘closed’, as you choose to call them, for six months over two lockdowns.

You weren't misunderstood. They say that no matter how many times something is repeated it doesn't mean that it is the truth, or accurate.

Nor that for that matter others have to accept it.

So in a democratic society, there are a great MANY of us who believe it is and was relevant.

You can repeat yourself as much as you like, but that doesn't mean you are right!

You are not making any sense whatsoever.

I said I homeschooled during this time. That is what I did. I was there!

Cent decide if you're wilfully stupid or not understanding. Teaching unions had no influence over schools closing. Schools were open throughout the pandemic and students and teachers returned to full time face to face schooling far quicker than most other sectors.

However the pandemic is irrelevant to the strikes.

The strikes are about pay and conditions. School funding is inadequate, buildings are crumbling, supply costs are spiraling due to lack of staff, teachers are leaving in droves due to increasing demands from the job, less support services and less pay. Another 5 years of this and there will be no staff left.

https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/teaching-union-steps-up-campaign-19219205.amp

remember this???

Does this prick your memory?

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/education-news/teachers-neu-shut-schools-england-lockdown-b1537611.html

I have never said that teaching unions had any influence over schools closing . Look back at the thread, no idea at all where you go that from! Unless which I assume you are stupid yourself, stop projecting that one onto others!

Schools, as I have posted information were not universally open during the pandemic. The BBC article confirmed by my own and others experience details how as I have already said NHS workers' kids and so called 'vulnerable' kids where allowed to attend schools. The rest weren't.

We don't live yet in a dictatorship thanks, and I don't appreciate being called stupid.

My opinion is that the way the pandemic was handled by the government meant that teachers and also incidentally parents had to do two jobs, maintain in person teaching and also online teaching.

Of course that is relevant to the way teachers have been treated and are being treated now. Similar to the ways in which the NHS staff who went above and beyond are being treated by the government now.

I can keep posting the evidence if you like. We all remember what you did

clarify the 'you' so that the 'you' can respond to the accusation.

Sorry I'm not stirring the pot because I agree with the poster below that a line needs to be drawn and it's irrelevant. Many schools were closed during covid though and the hubs that opened were for the key workers children to attend.

@Forestfriendlygarden sorry that post wasn't aimed at you, cross posted in the time it took me to type.

https://socialistworker.co.uk/news/education-workers-demand-schools-close-during-lockdown-and-discuss-how-to-make-it-happen/

You guys actually wrote this!!
You might well be distancing yourselves now - given the horrendous harm they have caused to millions of children but back then you were all for it!

And now you have the brass neck audacity to do it all over again. This time for cash!

And you wonder why there is so little respect for the teaching profession? A worrying percentage of teachers have no principles or morals that is why.

Many on here supported the closure of our schools repeatedly - that harmed children so much - and now they see doing it all over again. The teaching union refused to allow the schools to reopen.

All of our schools were closed for six months plus and no available to anyone but key workers. And now you are doing it again!

Beggars belief