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.

Agree 👍

My response to this is can we afford to not improve school funding and teachers wages? At the moment we simply don't have enough teachers to provide students with the education we want to give them. If there really is no money at all then schools will have to increase class sizes or increase the use of unqualified teachers - the former being a particular challenge when the actual school buildings are in such a poor state for many schools. This will of course make teaching as a career even less attractive and so further reduce the number of teachers. You simply can't cut budgets for 13 years straight without it having a significant detrimental effect on education, and in term the economy.

I will leave it to others to work out where the money comes from, but it does need to come from somewhere because education is suffering and will only get worse unless something changes.

I do support teachers. And do hold the government responsible for this mess but....

Don't teachers have a pretty ok deal... my friend that is a teacher earns really good money, enjoys half term and summer off. She works part time too. She also has a pension that is off the charts good. She lives in a large house and has total job security.

Working in the private sector is not all roses and unicorns. I've been made redundant this year. I took a £10k pay cut to get my replacement job. And my new job is threatening redundancies. There is little payrise. And no bonus in recent years "because Covid". Holiday is limited to bare minimum. I often work well beyond 5:30, it's expected in my industry. My pension is not great, I contribute the minimum right now. And I'm in one of the fairly good sectors... STEM. I do get private healthcare and some nice little gifts if I do a good job. Teachers don't have it too bad in terms of finance surely? I mean the pension alone is amazing.

I do understand the difficulties of the job... more pupils needing 1:1, disrespectful parents, crumbling school buildings and lack of resources. That does need to be addressed. I don't doubt the tories are useless scumbags.

I do worry that teachers are losing a bit of backing from parents. Everyone is struggling right now.

It's like consultants in nhs... I was lucky enough to be treated at a private hospital the other day and the staff carpark was full of expensive super cars... I find it quite hard to understand that some doctors are struggling - I would like to see junior doctors early in the career and nurses etc. get a bit more money.

That's the other issue... where does all this cash come from??

Scrap the tax free status of 'public' schools (I've got my hard hat on)

Don't teachers have a pretty ok deal

So why is there a recruitment and retention crisis in teaching?

My part time pension certainly isn’t ‘off the charts’ good either.

I thought it would be noblegiraffe who started this.

I do not support the teachers' strikes, and my friends who are teachers don't support the strikes either. They tend to feel that their lives are pretty good, and that their pay and benefits aren't bad either. They're not all saying it's unicorns and rainbows, but they're basically contented with their lot. They're pissed off with teachers and teaching being used for political point-scoring, though.

All the stuff about striking and "kicking the Tories out" (whom I didn't vote for, and wouldn't vote for, btw) is problematic in that it puts middle-of-the-road people off either becoming teachers in the first place, or staying in the profession once they are in.

@SpringPop - Almost all of your points about the private sector are applicable to teaching. No bonuses, little pay rise, often having to accept a lower salary in a new post (the government took away our automatic pay portability some years ago), working until after 5:30pm. We don’t get perks like private health care.

Yes, the pension is good. Not as good as it used to be though. I also fully anticipate that I will have dropped dead through stress before I can claim it at 68 or will have been driven out of the profession for being too expensive or old.

I disagree with this, too.

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

Exactly how much do you think this will actually raise? An actual costed figure please.
You know that it isn't even up to the government to do this but the Charities Commission? It will probably cost more in legal fees (because private schools will 100% fight this) than it will bring in anyway.
All that will do is force more kids into the underfunded state sector.

Excellent post as ever @noblegiraffe I wish the teachers could/would go out in force on an ongoing basis, never mind a day here and a day there! Sustained strike action over an extended period for all. The country would be on its knees as working parents need the childcare and there’d be a change, quick smart. The odd day at the end of term isn’t the end of the world for most parents, more a minor inconvenience.

You say that but if you look at the policies of the other parties, who is there to vote for?

Not my job to figure out how to do it thanks!

Told you I'd put my hard hat on.

As for state school kids - well...vast swathes of the population have no choice!

I do not support the teachers' strikes, and my friends who are teachers don't support the strikes either. They tend to feel that their lives are pretty good, and that their pay and benefits aren't bad either.

Anecdote doesn't beat data. 9% of teachers quit the profession last year. The government is looking like it will recruit only about half its target for trainee secondary teachers for September despite increased bursaries. Teacher vacancies are roughly double what they were pre-pandemic which means an ever increasing number of kids in classes without teachers.

Here we go...next thing we know the next post will be..let my guess...

I don't bother voting any more as they are all as bad as each other...

My stock answer to that is what my own mother always also used to say...

'women died for that vote...get yourself to the polling station...'.

Or in other words...you've got to be in it to win it!

I too support the strikes. Just left education after working for 6 years as a TA. It is very hard to recruit now for TA posts due to poor pay. Higher needs funding doesn't cover their wages (schools pay majority of this)and there are increasing numbers needing a lot of support. Recruitment and retention of teachers is now also an issue. Schools can't afford to keep paying out of ever decreasing budgets (covid cost schools a lot of money) and certainly can't afford to fund teacher pay rises. Government needs to find the money from somewhere. Perhaps if they had properly funded education and health in the first place.....

I want the government to get back round the negotiating table not to string this out until the next election.

Up the workers! I'm on strike today, I was asked by the children yesterday why I am striking and I explained in slightly less eloquent terms to Noble and she has it spot on! It is regrettable that we are on strike and there is more to come if the Government don't sit around the table and talk to all the unions. I think that all the unions will be on strike in the Autumn even headteachers. So settle the dispute now and fully fund our pay rise.

I would imagine there's a recruitment crisis because of the actual job itself. The finances less so.

No teacher ever says "it's so great in my school" they complain about the job - ofsted, people leaving all the time, horrible parents, children that need what they can't give, lack of pritt-sticks, crumbling old buildings

It's kind of a vicious circle really. Nobody ever says "the hours are pretty good, I don't need to pay for summer holiday clubs for my kids" or "the pension is not bad" or "job security is decent and there's plenty of career opportunities" or "working part time is fabulous"

The private sector is hard work too and it's not all £100k jobs out there. I wish it was but it's scary out there and to be honest AI is already causing an issue... lots of jobs will go because of that in my sector.

How much do qualified teachers actually get paid? Bottom end, top end and average?

What are your biggest concerns; pay, conditions (and if so, what conditions?) classroom behaviour etc?

I think people often support or don't support without actually knowing what they are or aren't supporting.

How much do qualified teachers actually get paid?

Not enough to recruit anywhere near the number of teachers that we need to put a teacher in front of every class.

The actual figures are therefore irrelevant.

I support the teachers, nurses. They definitely deserve more. I have school age kids.

DH has been military for 22 years. My brother sits at a desk and earns more than he does.

If DH went on strike he could be arrested / sacked / fined.

What I'm trying to say is that the amount of money it brings in will be miniscule once they have taken private SEN schools out of the equation and the money won't even arrive in the coffers until the following election so in reality this will make pretty much zero contribution.
It is a complete red herring and a soundbite rather than a coherent plan.
Won't make a jot of difference to the funding of state schools which need massive injections of cash NOW.

But is it the pay that puts people off or the conditions? I think it's the conditions no?

We have two choices:

Pay teachers that extra 2% more but still shit conditions

Or

make the conditions nicer somehow (scrap ofsted and all the ridiculous planning, get more TAs and pay them better (their pay is shocking), fix buildings, supply resources and more glue sticks

Don't teachers have a pretty ok deal... my friend that is a teacher earns really good money, enjoys half term and summer off. She works part time too. She also has a pension that is off the charts good. She lives in a large house and has total job security.

I have two teacher friends and it is stressful beyond anything you'd know if you have never been a teacher yourself. One is secondary and the other is primary- both work long hours, including the holidays, and have to juggle childcare with nearly zero flexibility. The job security aspect is okay but you'll find that many teachers are quite anxious about the current trend in getting rid of expensive, well-experienced, teaching staff. I support all teachers because we all need our teachers to feel appreciated and valued. The teachers at DC's school are amazing. I feel incredibly grateful for them.

As a high rate tax payer, I would love to see more of our taxes funnelled into education, and more done to re-establish teaching as a stable, valued profession. Education and health will be my priority issues when I vote.

When the govt made their 4.5% pay offer they also said that they would set up a workload taskforce looking to reduce teacher workload by five hours per week.

That should still be happening, regardless of teacher pay rise, right?

Government teacher recruitment targets have been catastrophically missed. They should be throwing everything at the problem not saying "well if we give you another real terms pay cut but not as bad a real terms pay cut as we said we would, then reducing unnecessary workload is off the table because we're now clearly going to be swimming in teachers.

The government aren't planning on doing either of those though. They're planning on doing exactly fuck all. They've pretty much said as much in their responses to these strikes.
I'm on strike today. I've been on strike every time. The hit to my pay packet for all these strikes is making my life difficult, but I believe it's necessary, for all the reasons noble has eloquently described already. I'm not really asking for much, just to be able to afford the same things as I could afford 10 years ago.
I'd like conditions to be better, but until somebody in government is prepared to put measures in place for that to happen, they need to pay us better.