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.

Some parents are shit, hence the bashing. Most aren't.

Some teachers are parents.

Some parents are teachers.

Some teachers are shit. Hence the bashing. Most aren't.

Some parents are teachers.

Some parents are teachers.

A united front on this entails speaking to people where they are.

I hope NEU press dept is reviewing this thread. Perhaps necessary to spell this message out - that in fact, parents, teachers, Tas are supposed to be a team and often are, but this fact needs supporting and nurturing.

Parents are the primary educators of children.

Working together on this is the name of the game...

Third line should have read

Some teachers are parents.

Works both ways that one, does it not?

Some teachers are shit. Hence the bashing.

I'm a great teacher. It doesn't render one immune from teacher bashing. See thread for details...

@Efficaciou5 - ooh we have missed you! 😆🤣

I'm a great parent. Doesn't render one immune from parent bashing...we're an easy target.

BBC have covered the strikes.

Teachers' strike: Pay 'very difficult choice' says minister as NEU walks out in England https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-66130783

The last paragraph is interesting. It’s very much area and subject dependent though.

BBC not doing so badly today on strikes.

BBC Radio 4 okay coverage.

Not sure about the rest of media outlets.

Any summaries/verdicts?

Jeremy vine had some shite about a parent fining striking teachers, forgetting we don't get paid.

BBC article by Hazel Shearing on Wednesday was shit, v biased. Didn't even mention the unpublished independent pay review document.

Andrea Jenkyns solidified her reputation as a particularly dim MP by tweeting that teachers should strike in their holidays.

Parent bashing exists too.
Please remember you are working with a team and parents are the primary educators of children.

We're better together!

24 hours in politics is a very long time.

Keep the faith strikers.

That dad was reported by the BBC too.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hereford-worcester-66125511

Why the fuck are they giving this shit airtime?

Tomorrow is another day.

This moment/these moments have gone down in history as a marker for education.

Get some rest strikers, well done. Tomorrow is another day.

Honestly most teachers are committed to this.

Sadly after receiving endless moaning emails, abuse to my face and witnessing the results of awful parenting while supporting children day in day out it's hard to always remain positive.

Parents are widely supportive of teachers’ strikes, despite concerns about the impact on their child’s education. | Mumsnet

our very own poll sixty two percent in favour.

Mumsnet is a big lobby, don't need to tell you that teachers and support staff, but highlights the importance of providing info on here - in a way that mere mortals like me can understand...

keep on keeping on...

I wasn't thinking two tier so much as making full Science an option like other subjects with a smaller core science compulsory. So students could choose whether to go for a one gcse in science route or use an option block to choose to do the double award or triple. Everyone would still study Science but how much of it would be students choice.

Well for those of us who are teachers and parents we get a double bashing right?

We also get a double concern - concern for our own children's education and concern for the state of our profession and all other children and colleagues.

I hope I don't parent bash in general terms - I do point out that we are dealing with increasingly challenging family issues but I largely blame that on the closure of SureStarts that were helping struggling families and supporting parenting skills, lack of social services (in my own town they have totally failed ofsted and provision has been labelled dangerous and seriously failing to keep children safe), lack of mental health services for parents and children alike and rising poverty levels and housing insecurity.

As a woman, a single mother and a teacher the bashing comes from all directions lol. I absolutely agree we need to be in this together.

I can't remember the figure off the top of my head but I was horrified to hear how many thousands of children are known to be living in houses with ongoing domestic abuse in my safeguarding training this year. These are kids left in households where they know abuse is taking place - witnessing domestic violence is counted as actual child abuse yet they're being left in those households with SS fully aware and able to offer very little support or intervention.

Again half of the problems schools are facing come from other services and professions crumbling under 13 years of cuts and cuts and therefore schools being expected to pick up the pieces without funding or professionals in those areas or time to do so.

I've been a parent governor of a primary school - I'm also a trained teacher though due to health reasons switched to a different profession.

I can't disagree with you. It's tough on the ground. Let's try to stay positive and whatever the naysayers think - change is possible - and this strike is a significant moment in history. Historical fact that it happened and a signal that some of us want change. And we want it now.

A month as you will know is a long time in a child's life. So the government need to get their arse in gear. NOW. Excuse the swearing, there is a time and a place for it.

but highlights the importance of providing info on here - in a way that mere mortals like me can understand...

Someone ought to get onto that.

Really pleasing to hear that nearly two thirds of MNetters support the strikes and blame the government for the disruption - unlike the poster upthread who claimed that the strikes had ZERO support!

And that a third put education as their highest political priority. Excellent news.

Nice interview with Justine here: https://twitter.com/mumsnettowers/status/1677344140751765506?s=61&t=U9XrcF693-JpMxeIueYG7g and she mentions the 6.5% and the independent pay review. Good to hear she is up to date with the issues!

Posted this re media coverage - https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/jul/07/pay-rise-stop-teaching-strikes-england-union-boss

Quote from that article:
When asked by BBC Radio 4’s Today programme if the government had backtracked on the concept of accepting independent advice on pay, Halfon said: “I’m not quite clear why you’re saying there is a backtrack. I’m saying that the prime minister, the chancellor and my boss, secretary of state for education, Gillian Keegan, will be looking at that report and once that report has been published, then they will make a decision.
“That has always been the way in the past. It is nothing different to what has happened in the past, but they’ve got to go through the report properly.”

Two months isn't long enough to look through a report? They definitely wouldn't cope with a teacher's workload.

Excellent point. sounds like they have been forced by strike and media attention plus public opinion to backtrack, though they call it by another name and won't admit it.