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.

Exactly.

Thank you for the informative answer, it's genuinely very much appreciated. I simply wanted to know a little more about what teachers get paid and what kinds of responsibilities command what sort of pay. To me, the published information didn't mean much. Just as I'm sure the NHS agenda for change wouldn't mean a lot to you, despite the figures being published black and white, without you knowing what the bandings are, how you go from one banding to another and what responsibilities/additional qualifications mean for salaries.

I don't think the above information will help anyone decide what teachers 'deserve', it was simply to help my understanding of the current situation in regards to pay. I think what teachers 'deserve' is what they think, as a profession, will allow them to live comfortably and to work in well resourced and supported schools.

If you want your children taught by experienced well trained and educated professionals then the pay needs to reflect that. After tax and other considerations are taken into account I could earn almost as much working at Wetherspoons. Nothing wrong with working in low pay, low skilled jobs but the point is that teaching is a professional highly skilled job. Standards are just about being maintained at our school because the better teachers are plugging the gaps. That can't happen forever. Recruitment is getting harder and the candidates from my experience seem of a much poorer quality for most subjects than in the past.

Always good to be optimistic...!

Recruitment is getting harder and the candidates from my experience seem of a much poorer quality for most subjects than in the past.

The DfE have told teacher training providers to basically accept anyone onto teacher training courses, which creates massive workload for their (unpaid) teacher mentors when they are shit.

Headteachers are reporting having to appoint totally unsuitable candidates to positions because the alternative is no one in the classroom. This also creates massive workload for colleagues who have to 'support', or deal with parental complaints, or take over the class when it inevitably goes to shit.

I'm a primary school teacher and my son is about to start reception this year. I've been a teacher for 13 years and things have never been this bad. I'm really worried about my son's education and if you have child you should be too. The current approach to funding isn't viable. It makes so so sad because we simply cannot give our children the education they deserve.

All 4 teaching and headteaching unions are currently balloting for strike action in the Autumn. At the moment only one union is striking. If the other unions get past the threshold then there will be joint union action which would be far more disruptive than the current action.

Is classroom behaviour in primary schools a massive problem? I always think of bad behaviour as mainly a secondary school problem but I'm aware that things are getting worse at primary level also. Is behaviour among one of the main problems you face as a teacher?

A big part of the problem with current pay offers is that THEY ARE NOT fully funded which means that any pay rise is coming out of already stretched school budgets. I would have voted in favour of the previous pay offer if it had been funded. I think the problem is both pay and conditions as those in the public sector have had real terms pay cuts since 2008.

100% with you OP.... as I sit here with two school age children at home twice this week and two smaller children. I will gladly have them at home if it means the schools are better funded and my children get a proper education

Your defined benefit pension, part time or otherwise, is indeed off the charts good compared to any defined contribution pension out there. It’s fantastic.

I support the teachers but let’s not pretend that the pension isn’t amazing!

I work in the private sector before becoming a teacher. I was paid significantly more and was less stressed when working in the private sector.

From listening to primary colleagues, I'd say that they are facing worse behaviour than secondary (in general) because when secondary teachers are physically assaulted by their pupils it tends (not always) to be taken more seriously than the seemingly endless run of assaults on primary teachers by their pupils because those children are younger, even when those assaults result in serious injury.

Quite a few of those children then end up not in mainstream so aren't dealt with by secondary teachers.

I have primary colleagues who have been told that they should expect to be assaulted regularly if they want to work in the classroom and it's just part of the job. This horrifies me.

I'm a TA.. We've just had the vote for support staff striking. If it goes through strikes will be in September /October

And yet we can't get enough teachers.

Given that the people who generally train to be teachers are in their 20s and last fewer than 5 years in the job, telling them that the pension is great isn't that big enough of a draw.

One class in the school where I work this year sometimes has 5 or 6 adults in the room; class teacher, SEN teacher 1:1, and 4 1:1 TAs. This is for 8 year olds.

Another class, same school, usually has 4 adults; a class teacher, a support worker 1:1, and 2 1:1 TAs.

Another school is going from 3 form entry to 2, so they have done spare classrooms. These have been designated to individual pupils, so for example one lad will be able to go to "his" classroom with his 1:1 TA whenever class life gets too much (which is most of the time). No-one else is allowed to use the classrooms. Ever. And there are about 5 children who have this adjustment. They have basically all the TAs in the school for 1:1. God only knows what it would be like if they didn't have all this extra space.

That's just two primary schools I work in at the moment.

Brilliant! Well done OP

Adding my support. Our children deserve great teachers. Great teachers deserve just pay.

"Why are bloody teachers striking AGAIN?"

Because they're like sheep and don't know any better.

Is that the best you can come up with, @Efficaciou5 ?

🤣

With a response as bizarre as this, clearly you don't understand why teachers are striking! 🤣🤣

Behaviour can be very bad in some primaries. We’ve been bitten, hit, kicked, scratched, spat at and had furniture thrown at us-and other children.

We have increasing number of children sent to us where parents want special school and all professional advice suggest they won’t cope in mainstream but there no space
in special, so they come to us. We have had the LA consult with us about children with multiple needs eg a child who is blind, non-verbal, autistic, PEG-fed, in nappies, not able to stand or feed themself and distressed in a room with more than 4 people. These pupils are offered the equivalent of about 15 hours funding (including the funding that the school puts in). We can’t find anyone to do that job as a TA on minimum wage, even if the LA would find the cost of it for the full 32.5 hours a week.

Me.

Was very sneaky Nobel, very sneaky.

Another question for the teachers... if it's so terrible and awful. And you can't get people to do the job, is 6% really gonna cover it?

So again we come back to the conditions. How much would I need to be paid in order to go to work and get bitten every day? To be stressed? To work in a building with a leaking roof and mould? A bloody load more than 6% 🤣 I'd want at least £100k even then I'd still struggle.

The pay is good but the conditions are not. That's why they can't get young people in.

I think we need to focus on changing the conditions. Giving an extra few hundred to teachers won't solve this issue.

I’ll say. I have been a primary school teacher for over 30 years in the same school. However, this year has seen me rack up some horrible firsts:

First time I have been told to fuck off
First time I have been punched
First time I’ve had my car windscreen smashed.

etc. Not the same child, either.