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Original poster

Why are bloody teachers striking AGAIN?

632 replies

noblegiraffe · 05/07/2023 09:18

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.

OP posts:
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26
BlockbusterVideoCard · 05/07/2023 15:51

I think a big part of the problem is conditions. Not just conditions set by the government of the day (which need a lot of improvement). But also conditions as determined by the attitudes of colleagues and leaders.

It's no secret at all that there is a haemorrhage in the newly-qualified years and I don't think that can be just due to pay or even workload. Trainee and newly-qualified teachers are too often treated like dirt by those that should be mentoring and nurturing them so that they can become confident autonomous members of the profession. You only had to read the TES forum pages on this subject for years and years (before TES changed what it allowed to be posted) to see how widespread this problem was and I doubt it has miraculously changed recently. Universities are often powerless to assist their trainees because schools and individual teachers control access to placement availability. School-based trainees and newly qualified staff often have nowhere to turn at all.

CorvusPurpureus · 05/07/2023 16:01

For comparison, I did Fuck Off To Forn Parts nearly a decade ago, after teaching in the UK for 15 years.

The other day my old HOD (now a Deputy Head) called me to tell me that, sadly, a mutual friend & colleague had abruptly dropped dead in her 50s.

She went on after we'd chatted & caught up a bit, to ask if I was...considering a return to the UK? If so, she'd love to put a word in...well, actually, she could pretty much promise me a HOD job over the phone.

Sure, I said. I'll be straight to the airport. My requirements to match my current job are modest. All I need is £50k tax free, plus the rent paid on a 6 bedroom house with a pool. No classes over 20 - mostly single figures - & an 18/30 period timetable. Oh & those lovely small class sizes & happy teachers for my dc, please, along with the full size theatre, specialist music teachers, the Olympic pool & multiple sports pitches...& another few weeks holiday a year...

When we recruit, we do so 90% of the time from the UK. That's where some of your 9% a year are going - to where we're valued, well renumerated, & teaching rather than doing crowd control.

I fully support UK teachers. The government is just taking the piss at this point.

Isitthathardtobekind · 05/07/2023 16:07

I was scared to open this post but well said!

I am striking today (first time) because I’m fed up. Teachers working part-time are having to cut their hours back because the schools can’t afford them; maternity leave isn’t being covered because there isn’t enough money - just shared out between existing staff who already have their own jobs to do; TAs are leaving, but can’t be replaced because there isn’t enough money despite needs being higher than ever since covid. Yet I overheard a conversation between two ladies today who were complaining that their grandchildren couldn’t go to school and that teachers were ruining their education just to get a bit more money. Still so many have no idea.

Interested in this thread?

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General money
Forestfriendlygarden · 05/07/2023 16:12

Redlocks30 · 05/07/2023 15:39

Well, I’m quite prepared to give anyone else a shot. The years I spent teaching under Labour were ten times better than the last 13 years have been.

Show quote history

Me too.

Forestfriendlygarden · 05/07/2023 16:14

1dayatatime · 05/07/2023 14:44

@wonderstuff

"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."

++++

But you absolutely do need to figure out where the money comes from. I mean I would like a bigger house but realise I cant afford it.

You could raise the money by cutting spending on the two largest expense items namely the NHS and state / public sector pensions. But any political party that has as its policies a) restructuring the NHS with less money or b) increasing more rapidly the state and public sector pension age is pretty much guaranteed not to get elected.

The sad truth is that children and young people don't vote, older generations and pensioners do. So spending on education is always going to be a lower priority.

And as per your post the result of this will be worse education impacting the economy but in short termist politics they just won't care.

That is the whole point of political parties publishing their policies before an election. We are supposed to read them!

Yes, they will go back on the odd one but broadly that is what they are for.

You are not required to publish a household policy publicly!

Isitthathardtobekind · 05/07/2023 16:19

luter · 05/07/2023 13:59

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?*

I've been in class for almost 30 years.
I've had children lash out before, but very rarely.
This year I was attacked by a Y6 pupil, had bruising for a few weeks, the largest was bigger than my hand. I am not the only member of staff who has been hurt this year, what was once a rare occurrence has become almost weekly in someone's class.
I teach in an outstanding school in what is regarded as a 'nice middle class area'.
It is not uncommon for parents to challenge staff on what they did to cause these scenario's. Often these children do have additional needs and we are accused of not accommodating these needs. The reality is often that a busy primary school can be very triggering for these children and we have neither the space nor the staff to give these children the specialised environment that they need.
It is also very difficult to find alternative provision. Last June we were able to get our LEA to agree we were unable to meet a child's needs in our mainstream setting. It has taken just over a year to get a space in a specialist provision.
Add in to this an increase in parents who believe their children over staff (I recently had a parent barge into my class to inform me her child didn't swear at a member of staff - when I pointed out that I and the deputy head witnessed it, the parent said we were all lying!) it becomes almost impossible.

I can second this. You speak to a parent about their child’s behaviour and they turn it back on the school or the other children. It’s relentless now more than ever.

Over 20 years, we’ve been sworn at, kicked, hit, bitten, tables thrown over, chairs thrown, rocks thrown, big furniture pushed over, persistently ignored, shouted at. More so over the past 5 years or so. I’m not inner city any more either.

It’s part of the job now. It’s the way it is and that’s fine really (not fine, but hopefully you get what I mean!). Children grow up in such chaos at times, they can’t cope - in the past they would have TA support, but less likely now. Especially when recruiting experienced TAs is so hard. Or they have such high needs and should really be in specialist provision, but it’s just not there so schools have to try and provide it themselves with no extra funding.

Isitthathardtobekind · 05/07/2023 16:24

GCalltheway · 05/07/2023 14:43

Op was trying to lure us with a misleading title

Beyond caring springs to mind 🥱🥱

We should probably all care about the state of children’s education. But if it bores you, move on!

lifeissweet · 05/07/2023 16:34

This is brilliant! Anyone else seen good ones from today?

Why are bloody teachers striking AGAIN?
Gruffling · 05/07/2023 16:47

I support the teachers all the way

They are not just striking for better pay, but for a better standard of education for our children.

Forestfriendlygarden · 05/07/2023 17:08

There's also a quote in the article

'we are striking to save comprehensive education'.

BlissedOutCat · 05/07/2023 17:11

Thanks as always for writing so often and so well about this.

It must be funded.

Theonlyreason · 05/07/2023 17:17

I’ve worked in education for ages. I’d love to teach sociology/health and social care as a qualified teacher. First class OU degree plus a lot of classroom experience. Even in this current shit show I would still do it but I have no maths GCSE. I looked at the equivalency test last night and I just can’t put myself through that. I have dyscalculia and the stress of a Maths GCSE would be too much.

Snorklette · 05/07/2023 17:23

Mojitosaremyfavourite · 05/07/2023 10:20

Agree 👍

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Totally
👍.

Theimpossiblegirl · 05/07/2023 17:24

I'm a primary school teacher and behaviour has definitely taken a big dive in the last few years.

Some of it is children who should be in specialist provision, hitting adults and children, running amok, throwing furniture, making weapons out of sticks. Nothing is done. It's not fair on anybody, including those children and their classmates. These are 7 year olds.

We also have a lot of cases where parents complain if their children are told off. There's so much pandering it's exhausting and won't help the children long term. They only want other people's children to be told off.

I'm amazed we get any teaching done some days. But I'm still hanging in there hoping for change and trying to be the teacher they need while balancing the workload and trying to have some kind of home life.

Sherrystrull · 05/07/2023 17:26

Theimpossiblegirl · 05/07/2023 17:24

I'm a primary school teacher and behaviour has definitely taken a big dive in the last few years.

Some of it is children who should be in specialist provision, hitting adults and children, running amok, throwing furniture, making weapons out of sticks. Nothing is done. It's not fair on anybody, including those children and their classmates. These are 7 year olds.

We also have a lot of cases where parents complain if their children are told off. There's so much pandering it's exhausting and won't help the children long term. They only want other people's children to be told off.

I'm amazed we get any teaching done some days. But I'm still hanging in there hoping for change and trying to be the teacher they need while balancing the workload and trying to have some kind of home life.

This is exactly my experience too.

RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie · 05/07/2023 17:31

Somebody from NASUWT has just phoned me to ask if I’ve sent my ballot in. He said there’s been a much better ‘turn out’ for this one, thank goodness! I was horrified how many people failed to vote last time.

TheCrystalPalace · 05/07/2023 17:35

Can't tell you how glad I am to be leaving at the end of this term.

Saucery · 05/07/2023 17:36

Unison have done a big push to get support staff members to vote too. Although some support staff where I work are a little worried that if they don’t choose to strike but the school closes they will be forced to lose pay. I’ve told them this can’t happen but the logistics of all SLT and teaching staff striking while the lowest paid can’t or won’t is worrying them.

MsAwesomeDragon · 05/07/2023 17:37

RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie · 05/07/2023 17:31

Somebody from NASUWT has just phoned me to ask if I’ve sent my ballot in. He said there’s been a much better ‘turn out’ for this one, thank goodness! I was horrified how many people failed to vote last time.

I really do think a lot of the people who "failed to vote" did vote but with the wrong coloured ballot paper (there was some confusion and a lot of people were sent 2 ballot papers of different colours but only one of them counted in the actual vote), or their vote may have been held up with the massive backlog of post after the postal strikes at the time and will have arrived after the deadline.
We had a joint union meeting with both unions at my school last week and the nasuwt rep said our region had met the threshold and would have been on strike, but it wasn't met at a national level.

Forestfriendlygarden · 05/07/2023 17:38

RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie · 05/07/2023 17:31

Somebody from NASUWT has just phoned me to ask if I’ve sent my ballot in. He said there’s been a much better ‘turn out’ for this one, thank goodness! I was horrified how many people failed to vote last time.

Fab. Well done them and you.

MeThinksTime · 05/07/2023 17:41

Fully support. Conservative government is a joke.

LadyMary50 · 05/07/2023 17:50

Sillysop92 · 05/07/2023 10:49

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 fully back you,I hope the unions keeping striking until the Government start listening.👏👏

GCalltheway · 05/07/2023 17:58

LadyMary50 · 05/07/2023 17:50

I fully back you,I hope the unions keeping striking until the Government start listening.👏👏

Show quote history

They won’t, it’s a waste of time. Even Labour can’t and won’t commit to it.

avocadotofu · 05/07/2023 18:05

Theimpossiblegirl · 05/07/2023 17:24

I'm a primary school teacher and behaviour has definitely taken a big dive in the last few years.

Some of it is children who should be in specialist provision, hitting adults and children, running amok, throwing furniture, making weapons out of sticks. Nothing is done. It's not fair on anybody, including those children and their classmates. These are 7 year olds.

We also have a lot of cases where parents complain if their children are told off. There's so much pandering it's exhausting and won't help the children long term. They only want other people's children to be told off.

I'm amazed we get any teaching done some days. But I'm still hanging in there hoping for change and trying to be the teacher they need while balancing the workload and trying to have some kind of home life.

This is my experience too!

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