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?

Thr pay is fine as long as other elements are addressed. If there is enough funding so schools can afford experienced teachers, if they can afford support staff so it's less stressful, if they can afford to lesson the workload and whatever other they've promised then yes. I'm not under any illusion that they'll effectively address any other issues, but if they did pay would be fair for the training and the job yes.

Sorry you're right. I meant the unions have suggested to their members to accept. Is that correct? Do you think most will?

I don’t know, there are some NEU members who are trying to organise a no vote, but the NEU are having a webinar on Monday to explain why they’re recommending to accept.

A campaign to reject may fizzle out if the strong message is ‘you’re not going to get anything better, this is reasonable all things considered and you’d be losing money on strike days for nothing’.

I don’t know. If we reject it will still be the pay rise for September anyway.

@noblegiraffe I see. How come this pay rise will go ahead if they reject it, but the one from March didn't? Sorry if this is a stupid question!

Because that’s what happened last year. The pay award process trundles on.

March wasn’t part of the pay award process.

Here you go.

Jeeeze. I'm glad my grandchildren aren't going to be going to school in Cornwall or the north west @noblegiraffe

Really surprised at that map, I’m in Hampshire and it’s really a struggle here. Although I think we do worse than Surrey/Berkshire and possibly Sussex so maybe SW is actually similar to my experience locally.

@wonderstuff Struggle to recruit? Or get a job? Looks like Hampshire is around -20% which is significant. It's not a cheap place to live by any means so I'm not surprised.

Really interesting, thanks!

Hampshire doesn’t surprise me or any of the surrounding counties to London. You’ve still got the breakdown of individual subjects and the primary/secondary divide too. I know where I am it’s easy enough to get a short term position but not always as straightforward to get a permanent one (in primary at any rate.)

@Hereinthismoment I think many jobs are advertised as temporary because schools are hedging their bets on the candidate and because budgets are never guaranteed so there's flexibility. The demand is definitely there though and growing.

Equally though you aren’t going to attract quality candidates with temporary positions.

@Perfect28 The demand for what? Teaching jobs? Or teachers?

When will members vote on the offer?

From today I think, there are meetings this evening

The meeting suggested that if members choose to reject then we'd be looking at 10 days of strike action (with associated lost pay) over 2-4 weeks in the Autumn, that it would probably achieve nothing, and that it would most likely be the NEU on their own rather than joint union action.

Ballot opens tomorrow.

I forgot about this, thanks for the summary @noblegiraffe it’s a tough one, it is a crap offer, but when have teacher strikes ever resulted in action from government? I can’t remember it happening before. But it is a crap offer and I don’t remember recruitment being this bad before either. We’re struggling to timetable because we are so short of science teachers.

Goodness, 10 days is a lot. I can see why they accepted it. I wonder what the headteachers unions will decide when their ballots close.

The suggestion was that having more strike action in the Autumn, bashing our heads against a brick wall and running out of steam would be a bad idea, compared to 'banking the 6.5% this year', continuing to campaign on funding, workload and Ofsted, and then considering potential further strike action next pay round, feeling fresh rather than worn out.

What happens with HT pay, as assume on a different pay scale?

@noblegiraffe I can completely understand that.

And possibly a fight with Ofsted too...with the appointment of Mr ‘Zero Tolerance’ as the new Chief Inspector of Schools....🤔https://schoolsweek.co.uk/ogat-boss-martyn-oliver-set-for-ofsted-chief-inspector-role/

That appointment did make me think what’s the point in fighting the government, they’ve no interest in supporting teachers. Which I’m sure was part of his appeal.

To be fair some teachers might prefer the job if more pupils were in isolation or were excluded if they were disruptive? Im not a teacher, so I dont know.

I don't think isolation or exclusion are overly beneficial, but if there are large amounts of children are disruptive it's obvious something in the system isn't working (not anything to do with teachers themselves). I suppose smaller class sizes would be the dream but sadly never going to happen!