Teachers

[kirinm]

I have and always will support the strikes but have a couple of questions since the announcement that the government will accept the recommendations re pay rises but will not increase funding.

Will you still strike in light of the fact the pay rises are not being funded?

What sort of impact is this going to have in schools do you think?

And that looked so snarky written down and inside my head it really didn’t. I’m so sorry! It was meant as a joke.

I actually don’t think there is anything wrong with standing up and effectively saying, you know what, the cost of living has soared and there aren’t enough of us, so give us more money you gits. But I don’t necessarily have a lot of time for the view that the answer to everything lies in there must be more money, more support, more funding.

I do wonder if some of us may run into problems with enormous class sizes and with experienced teachers struggling to find work though. Possibly, possibly not: time will tell.

And thank fuck for that

No more teaching strikes, assuming unions usually go the way they recommend

Not sure why higher than other public sector increases but if it means dc get no interruption then great

Think it’s Drs who are still unhappy

Don’t worry @Hereinthismoment I laughed when I read your comment 😁

@StefanosHill This graphic from the ONS shows how teacher’s pay has fallen behind the rest of the public sector (as a way of possibly explaining why teacher pay was recommended to be 6.5%)

Most of the teachers I know striking are doing it because of the lack of funding!

“The government says it will give schools extra funding for the 6.5% pay rise, so it doesn't have to come out of head teachers' budgets.” BBC says

I wonder what reprioritisation means.

Teachers on Mumsnet and IRL have been drumming up awareness and support in droves by highlighting this was not a call to action because of salaries but because of funding and school conditions. If they accept an unfunded offer and call off the strike, I'll be so disappointed in them. And I won't be able to trust anything they say next time around. I hope they keep striking, for funding, recruitment, retention, like they said.

This is how I feel.

But the strikes were about pay. I don’t know if individual teachers felt they were striking for some worthier action, but the ballots that were put out clearly asked if we were willing to strike for more pay. To me, claiming it was about something other than money doesn’t look very sincere. I know that won’t be a popular view and I know everyone will come back at me insisting that ‘but teachers can ONLY strike about pay’ but it’s a circular argument as then the strike is about pay, it always was!

My search function doesn't work for some reason but the threads on this website ALWAYS made reference to things other than pay.

It may be that they will argue that these issues will be resolved by a below inflation partially funded pay rise but that isn't what they were saying before.

But time and again on Mumsnet teachers stated that was because the only reason they can call a strike is pay - they're not allowed to strike for funding and conditions. So was that not the truth? Were parents duped into supporting the teachers based on lies?

Search any of the many threads by NobleGriaffe to see what I'm referring to.

It will be very short-sighted if they accept an unfunded pay rise, as they will have very little support next time they make a call to action. We'll know for certain that it's actually not all about our kids being taught be TAs, multiple classes being taught in the hall etc as was stated.

Teachers Unions appear to have accepted the offer, along with other unions:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/uk-politics-66187330

They appear to be accepting it, so it was about pay.

It seems its half funded and much better funded than the previous offer lower offer.
I dont know if unions have achieved their job if they get half what they asked for. Maybe its a bit of realism.

This will go to a members vote and I think it will be rejected. I'm so angry, and offended

Teachers on MN don’t speak for all teachers though @GoblinAeroplane . I can’t speak for every individual but I think when a union send you a ballot ‘would you be willing to strike for more pay’ it’s disingenuous IMO to claim you are not striking over pay!

Even if this pay rise is fully funded (and I'm not sure it is) I am sure they will just take money from somewhere else, and even if they don't do that, funding is still dire for schools, retention and recruitment is still dire, condition of many school buildings is still dire, funding for SEN is still dire and the list goes on

If unions recommend voters accept how often do they not?

Parents/communities etc need to start lobbying their MPs over the crisis in education, you can't just expect teachers to do something.

Why did the government let last week’s strikes play out if they knew that they were going to honour the 6.5%?

Do they have any interest in education or children? Or is it only about politics, divisiveness and discrediting public sector workers?

Taking what the teachers of Mumsnet were saying at face value is what garnered my support for the teacher strikes. If it turns out that it was only about pay, not about school conditions, overall funding, and making sure children get a quality education, as they were saying, then I won't be supporting them next time. I hope some of them keep the fight going for better recruitment, retention, school repairs, specialist subjects taught by specialist teachers, SEN funding, resources, etc. like they said they were. Or I guess some will take the 6.5%, but I hope they have a sense of shame for having lied.

Why? I really doubt it'll be rejected.

More concerned about the proposed indefinite doctors strike to be honest, not surprised they're offended by their offer. Shame the armed forces can't strike as well, lowest staffing levels since the 1800s at a precarious time and the lowest pay rise has been offered.

Potentially because NASUWT passed the threshold for strike action yesterday and the headteachers / leadership union vote results are due next week. Until now, they’ve just been dealing with one union. Dealing with multiple must have piled on the pressure.

Imo it was because pay review day was today and they’ll just accept it each year rather than deal with strikes