Teachers and school support staff now eligible for a Blue Light card

[noblegiraffe]

In case any teachers don't follow Mr P and aren't aware, teachers and school support staff (including sixth form colleges) have been added to the list of people eligible for a Blue Light card. If you pay £4.99, you get two years of discounts at multiple places.

https://teachers.bluelightcard.co.uk

Because teachers love a bargain there's currently over an hour waiting time to sign up, but it was only announced yesterday so will hopefully calm down soon.

It feels nice to be recognised as essential community workers!

You can use teacher ID for discount at Ryman

We get 37 weeks paid over 52. It's not paid leave

Yes because you are still a state school

My old head teacher and a few staff once had a boy who couldn't go home because social services hadn't found him an emergency placement this was basically emergency unpaid overtime until 9pm.

When we were looking after vulnerable kids in lockdown (f2f) it felt very much like in line with what NHS were doing. I've had covid 4+ times and worked front line in schools since it started.

I agree with the original question. It’s not really about including people now that it’s been extended so far beyond the original group.

It becomes more of a question of excluding people who are also “key workers, supporting communities and making an impact”, but aren’t deemed eligible… to use the language on the website.

I imagine they will probably have to rebrand it pretty soon as it doesn’t do what it says on the tin, at which point they will have to ask themselves these questions in order to decide what they actually want to be / who they want to include and why… which in turn will determine the extent to which retailers will / will not stay on board.

This! I used to work in a special school with lots of children with trauma, anger and attachment issues.

We would hold/restrain children daily (didn't hurt them, only as a last resort when they were no longer in control and able to keep themselves or others safe, short as possible time, move them outside and let them go, before people start complaining). Also had a child bring a knife in.

I moved jobs as I didnt feel safe getting pregnant and working there!

Because staff can get into issues if a work issue comes up online, or a parent is a mutual friend etc. I've known someone had an issue at work when their friend was the one who said stuff in the wrong online on the staff member's profile. Sometimes easier not to bother.

@narwhalsarereal @SirChenjins yes i am a Scottish teacher, I did state that in one of my posts when I also corrected the poster who said we get paid 38K after 4 years. I do not know why Scottish teachers are paid more than their English counterparts.

I’ve not always been a teacher, I’ve worked in shops, a lab and offices and by far teaching is the hardest both physically and emotionally but all everyone bangs on about is the holidays. I usually say to these people if you think it’s so easy come and try it for yourself.

Sorry but I just get so fed up of the teacher bashing on here and in real-life too. I don’t think there’s another profession that gets as much vitriol. There’s positives and negatives to almost all jobs, some jobs are easier than teaching, some are much harder. We are also at an education crisis in Scotland hundreds of young probationer teachers cannot get jobs and in England it seems that teachers are leaving in droves (I’m not totally up to date on the educational system down South). Councils have cut and cut education budgets and it is really having an effect on children now.

And.....there we have it. People wonder why teachers get lots of bashing.
If one of your pupils reacted like that in the classroom to someone raising a valid point, I'm sure you'd pat them on the back.

But when you leave / retire from the police and NHS you have to pay for the card.

Some paces just give discounts to certain customers.

You’re right, there should be a similar card but just for teachers and school staff that provides even more extensive discounts. Then you’ll cry about that. And wonder why there’s a teaching retention crisis.

Independent schools massively subsidise the state sector. If discounts were being awarded based on economic value to society then Independent school employees would get twice the amount that state school staff received.

You are so wrong!

Independent schools do a lot for their local communities. Ours for example allows four local schools use our pool for free saving parents having to pay the local pool, a saving of over £50 a term per family. They also use our fields for sports days again for free. These schools are also invited in for sports sessions with our children. Teachers from local schools join us for cluster groups and visa versa. Local community groups use our hall for a nominal fee. We are involved in local groups to support them. We support two local charities that our on our doorstep every year.

Sweeping statements like this are frustrating, just because people pay for their children to attend a school doesn’t mean we don’t get involved or care about our community!

The teachers are still teachers, still caring, still have challenges and challenging children (granted maybe not as challenging as some state schools). The independent school bashing is unnecessary!

Don't be daft. Teachers got access to a discount card and this poster wrote several tediously long posts about why this was a bad thing. A flippant reply to this is entirely deserved because it wasn't 'raising a valid point', it was just being a dick to teachers. Same as you're doing.

In your own words, cry harder @noblegiraffe . I read the same discussion on several other sites and it seems to be a pretty widely held view that even the company has been drawn into responding to.

You really don't need to tell me that there are a lot of dickhead teacher bashers about.

@noblegiraffe you can’t just dismiss an opinion you disagree with as teacher bashing. The point being made is that it’s excluding other groups of key workers who also support the community and make an impact.

I work for the NHS and have always had to show my card. They need the code.

And the point there is that whinging about this to a bunch of teachers who are pleased at getting a crumb of recognition is supposed to achieve what?

Blue light cards are there to recognise the work provided to the communities by key personnel. They say this themselves when opening the discounts up to state education staff.

It has always fascinated me that friends of mine who have completely office based jobs (HR, finance, admin) in the blue light service have always qualified; I mean they are totally non-public facing and all WFH.

These 'bashers' should spend a week in a setting and then talk about how easy it is.

Better than that, do the job itself. There is a huge recruitment and retention crisis after all.

We had some boys who committed arson at my school. A huge event in the area. The police cautioned them , put various conditions on them , such as the idea that they couldn't mix together , or with certain other people whilst awaiting court dates and then handed them into our care to 'police ' these restraining orders , and to report any conditions they broke. We are often told about gang affiliations, anti social behaviour , criminal activity and have to keep these kids safe and learning stuff like algebra , poetry and the Tudors - we often get more out of them than anyone else can. We have (TW) attempted suicides on site, or reported to us, abuse, pregnancies, abortions, rapes reported, huge safeguarding, feeding kids who don't eat at home. More and more, teachers do pretty frontline stuff that the police, mental health services and social work don't any longer have the capacity for. I suspect this is why some people now see us as the 5th emergency service (can't remember what the 4th is but I know the term exists). And, as pointed out, people like opticians and dentists are on the scheme so it's not all about the 'blue lights' - it's just a catchy name.

That aside, as noble says, this hasn't come out of some clamouring from teachers for recognition. So perhaps find another thread to have a go at lazy, grasping teachers.

A C-level WFH exec on 135k for the home office might qualify for one of these cards while the refuse collector carting away his bins on 17k doesn't.

They're a business at the end of the day, don't treat them as moral arbiters.

OP, you could have saved yourself all this aggro by just posting this in the staffroom, for the teachers to see!

Now they just need to include the thousands of personal care assistants who are a forgotten and invisible workforce on minimum wage and directly employed by individuals on direct payments from social care and continuing health care