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/

Great, we should be swimming in teachers then, shouldn't we?

What else would you suggest?

No teachers for your child? No reports? No logging of behaviour so no noticing of patterns including bullying? No marking so minimal progress for your child? No reports so no updates on your child's progress? No parents evenings? No support for children with additional needs?

No direct contact between parents/teachers except formal meetings so the batshit moaning parents can deal with their own shit rather than projecting their parenting fails onto me? That would be brilliant! And easily shave 5+ hours of my workload a week.

Greed? If you’re one of those that think teachers’ pay and raises are so great then look at the chart of teachers leaving the profession and think how shit must the job be? Some people really are thick as mince. I saw elsewhere 40% of schools don’t have a physics teacher with a relevant degree, I wonder how’s that going to pan out for us as a country in an increasingly technological world?

Teachers need to work to rule, no working outside hours, no setting up classrooms in holidays, no marking, walk in as school starts & out as it ends. They put up with too much crap from badly behaved kids & complaining parents, let the Heads & overpaid executive Heads do all the work. No homework set, no after school classes, a few months of that & the government will change their tune.

No-one has said that.

Those that can DO. Those that can't TEACH.

There's always one.

Teaching is doing.

Gosh, so original!

Trains will be self driving in the next decade or so. With salaries like that train drivers will be the first jobs to go.

Get rid of parental/teacher meetings
Abolish parents' evenings-any concerns can be channelled through SLT
Never return parental phone calls in your own time -see above
Set verbal homework
Verbal feedback and stamps, not handwritten comments
Ditch statement banks
Start and finish on time

We are contractually obliged to report to parents.

Yes, but it is the how that's relevant, don't you think?

Considering you want to ban statement banks, the simplest way of writing EOT reports, which should contain nothing that hasn't been reported to parents already, not sure how they could be simplified.

Thanks @noblegiraffe it's a big step in to being broke but the last straw was norovirus spreading through the school, classes being joined up and still most of SLT didn't teach or help out. There is such a divide these days and it's the basic classroom teacher who gets the blame.

Verbal feedback stamps... Give me strength. What a waste of life doing that.

Do you have children?
Are you not interested in speaking with their teachers, to find out if they are progressing/mucking about/need more support in some areas?
Do you think gcse and A level feedback can be condensed into a stamp??

I sympathise with teachers and see that more and more responsibility is being added to their workload (without suitable pay or support) ....but I'm not sure cutting out communication with parents is the answer!

@JackSleepskin if a teacher earns £30k p.a. (as you say), and works 52 hours per week, they’re working for £12 per hour. Before tax.
Minimum wage in England will be £11.44 per hour from next month, so they’d be far less stressed and not really any worse off if they worked at Tesco instead. Do you honestly not see that teachers are underpaid for the work they do? Or am I just whistling in the wind here?

Yes, yes and yes again.
I'd take a pay cut if it meant the issues in the post I've quoted were dealt with appropriately and effectively.
Throwing more money at us won't keep them- it won't alleviate the ridiculous pressures or targets or cunting Ofsted.

I don't know know many jobs that have the pensions, holidays and pay rises teachers get. Many jobs are worse for less benefits. Leave if you don't like it.

If all those things are so good, why are both recruitment and retention in crisis?

Your kid is now teaching themselves A-level out of a textbook. Well done.

The job was very different back then. Do you even understand what working 60 hours a week feels like? I was working 80-90 hours a week when I gave up teaching last year after over 20. The hours teachers put in equates to less than minimum wage per hour. You clearly have no idea about teaching. Just because you have been to school, it doesn’t mean you know all about what the job entails.

@echt there's a recruitment and retention crisis in many roles, not just teaching. Perhaps there are better industries to move to

This thread is about teaching, not a job fair.

Plus, you think teachers don’t work during their so-called ‘holidays’ 🤣 Oh yeah and they rock up at 9 and go home at 3. 🙄