Govt planning to screw over teachers again

[noblegiraffe]

The government have recommended to the independent pay review body (late, they missed the deadline) that teacher pay rises should be 'more sustainable' this year. They haven't suggested a figure but looking at budget this would be 1-2% (i.e. another below inflation pay-cut.)

In the meantime, their commitment to reduce teacher working hours by 5 hours per week has been a complete failure as teacher working hours have actually increased in the last year:

"The latest wave of the working lives of teachers and leaders survey shows full-time leaders’ average working week in 2023 was 58.2 hours – over 11 hours a day – up from 57.5 in 2022.
The survey polled more than 10,000 workers, and found full-time teachers’ average hours were 52.4 per week, up from 51.9 in 2022......Teachers and leaders’ job satisfaction has also plummeted. Only 46 per cent were satisfied “most of the time”, compared to 58 per cent last year.

At the same time, the number of teachers quitting is increasing, and recruitment is becoming an even bigger issue due to the lack of people starting a PGCE last September who should now be applying for jobs.

The government gearing up for another war with teachers is clearly something they see as a vote-winner in an election year.

However, many voters are parents and can see the impact of the state of education on their children's experience at school.

NEU and NASUWT are currently consulting members to see if they want another ballot for strike action.

https://schoolsweek.co.uk/keegan-calls-for-return-to-more-sustainable-teacher-pay-rises/
https://schoolsweek.co.uk/heads-and-teachers-working-longer-despite-workload-push/

Want more money, leave, find something more financially rewarding.

And now your child doesn't have a teacher. Well done.

@JackSleepskin I am sure you usually post under a different name - your style is very similar to another teacher hater.

Nasty.

Oh and most teachers love teaching - if you tried it you would realise that you couldn't do the job without loving it. It's actually everything else that ruins the job. But then you have told that before. You just choose to ignore experience for the sake of being a presence online.

The government also don't seem to have joined the dots between the shitshow that is teacher recruitment and retention and their inability to get kids to go to school.

Why bother turning up if it's going to be cover lessons in the hall?

?

And when the curriculum has been squeezed to death and has become all about results. The fun and flair has been removed

@JackSleepskin

Just remind me when someone forced you to take the job?

I think it's younger staff that only stay 3-4 years. So they are voting with their feet and going elsewhere. It's a genuine concern that many schools can't recruit. So it's going to be a bigger issue in 10 years time when those of us in our 50s finally pack it in.

I enjoy teaching - no two days are ever the same. But @bridgetjonesmassivepants has hit the nail on the head. It's just exhausting trying to keep a load of teenagers who would rather be scrolling TikTok on task. Then do that 5 x day plus a break duty & an after school CPD. But unless you're in the job you can't understand.

The holidays are great but if it's that great why aren't more young teachers staying in the job? By the time your DS gets to secondary he might have a few subjects with no actual teacher. Just continual supply. That's not great 🤷🏻‍♀️

Not because of pay. I don’t know a single teacher who has left because of pay. I know loads ….including me! The pay is very good. Almost 30K on entry and up to 45K as a UPS teacher which basically means being good at your job and having a few years experience. If you choose to go into leadership, a 1FE primary head is on 60k and senior school heads routinely achieve 80K + with many over 100K.
The money isn’t the problem and frankly claiming it is, is stupidly counterproductive. The issues that teachers are leaving in droves are:
1/. Exponential rise of children with severe and complex mental health, behavioural and communication needs being dumped into mainstream schools with no support / expertise or money leading to intolerable stress and frankly dangerous classrooms where children routinely attack each other and staff
2/. Exponential rise in poorly parented entitled children with no boundaries who don’t give a shit and make school miserable for staff and other pupils (& routinely attack children and staff)
3/. Exponential rise in fucking awful parents who relentless complain about everything whilst refusing to parent their children or accept any responsibility for their behaviour
4/. The complete lack of any other service to take even the smallest amount of responsibility or to help - medical and social care doing all they can to dump the problem back in schools as “they don’t meet the threshold” for their service
5/. ofsted - who do nothing about any of it. You are in a local authority where children services is in inadequate - doesn’t matter we will still judge you on your non existent provision for these children. National epidemic of absenteeism? - nope poor attendance is schools fault. You’re in a deprived area where there are no services at all and 25% of kids are living in abject poverty - it’s schools fault they don’t get 5 GCSE passes. School leaders are now so fucking terrified they end up putting insane pressure in teachers because they are terrified of “letting the community down” (RIP Ruth) based on a subjective judgement made in two frantic days.

And utterly useless unions. Who have no idea at all how to tackle any of this so just do a half hearted job of whinging about pay. And before anyone says “we aren’t allowed to strike about the above” BOLLOCKS. Yes you can. You can strike about conditions. The train drivers almost always do.

Pay is not the issue!!

Wow!

@Pieceofpurplesky

And when the curriculum has been squeezed to death and has become all about results. The fun and flair has been removed

I blame Gove & Cummings with their 'robust' curriculum overhaul. My GCSE classes are having to do what used to be AS level standard work.

@converseandjeans the 15 poems they have to learn for English kills all joy for students! BTEC Drama component 1 is the same as the A Level theatre studies piece - and includes no actual drama!

The money isn’t the problem and frankly claiming it is, is stupidly counterproductive.

Money is absolutely a problem if it means that we can't actually get people to train to be teachers because the pay is below that of other graduate jobs and you have to work out of the home every day.

Lack of people training to be teachers means shortages which put a massive workload on the remaining teachers who have to fill in the gaps and prop up the failing system.

Teaching is a female dominated profession - if the pay wasn't so crap it might attract more men (and not just the ones who dodge the crap pay with rapid promotion to SLT).

5 years ago (pre covid) I was on £33,000 (m3) and worked 45-50 hours a week x 39 weeks a year so 1,755 hours a year = £18.80ph effectively.

Now, (post covid) I work 60+ hours a week and m3 is £38,000 so £16.23ph.

Is that not a pay cut?

Just for the fact finders, I am using outer London figures ad that's where I'm based.

I’m sorry but I absolutely disagree. While recruitment is an issue no doubt, what’s killing the profession is retention. Everyone is leaving and mostly taking a cut in pay to do so. I can’t remember where the poll was or I’d link it but someone did a survey and asked teachers who were leaving if they would stay if they were immediately given a 10K payrise and something like 90% said no.

And when all the teachers leave through having shit pay what would your solution be?

Teaching is one of the toughest jobs there is. Why shouldn’t our teachers be paid well? They literally have the future of our country in their hands

While recruitment is an issue no doubt, what’s killing the profession is retention

Recruitment and retention are inextricably linked. The workload created by the inability to recruit teachers is huge. As a secondary maths teacher it is a massive burden on my department which is getting worse year on year.

Actually, just to add to that, pre covid I was leading a subject where as I am not currently so in theory my work load should be reduced. But it's not because I have to do things like spend half an hour on the phone to parents being argued at for giving their child a sanction for bullying. Or yesterday, another 30min+ phone call because I phoned to let parents know another child had done something spontaneous, random and completely out of character and injured their child but it was apparently all my fault nd I'm useless. And I hadn't phoned soon enough because I was teaching all day, no frees, but that's not good enough. I should have left 30+ kids unsupervised just to phone about a small red mark, not exactly a serious injury.

Sorry, I am in a foul mood today after a really crappy day (parents not kids) but just going to add this. Its not just teachers moaning. Actual evidence that teachers, as a whole, are the profession that work the most unpaid overtime. And reported in multiple news sources.

www.theguardian.com/education/2024/feb/23/daylight-robbery-two-in-five-uk-teachers-work-26-hours-for-free-each-week

Just to say....shit. You'll be a loss to the profession.

So many good teacher names I recognise on MN have said they are quitting or have quit. It's really depressing.

I mean, even the Government adjust for Inflation before making claims about levels of school funding. It's not rocket science, @JackSleepskin and to argue a below I flatiin cash terms pay rise represents a meaningful pay rise is a bit embarrassing to be honest.

I presume you've looked at eg the IFS reports on teacher salary trends, by experience level ??

Below *inflation, sorry,

So stop being a martyr.

And strike for more pay?

Ok. 👍

That's certainly one option😴

Teachers do receive scale point uplifts as well as the 5% / 6.5% national uplifts, until top of scale... some will have had a pay increase of potentially 15%+ over two years...