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!

The Staffroom gets very little traffic though, teachers would have missed it.

How do state teachers support the community any more than independent teachers exactly?

Funnily enough there is a thread in staffroom on this - had 9 replies.

I'm guessing because we are supporting children and families from all layers of society including the very most vulnerable, not just the 7% of the most wealthy? I am guessing this is reflecting that.

Stop whining. And your DW would have had plenty of opportunities to have moved up the bands in the NHS had she have wanted too. DS2 is a nurse, he’s been qualified 5yrs and earns more than your DW, as does DDIL who has been qualified the same amount of time. DS2 is, also, doing his masters in advanced practice because he doesn’t want to be a band 6 forever.

DH has a blue light card as a veteran. It comes in handy at times. DS1, also, has one because he’s in the army, I am pleased they have extended it to teachers, tbh, they always seemed to be the ones who were forgotten about especially during Covid

Independent schools are a massive cost to society, and a drain on it. They are a benefit only to the people using the business

Which they are paid to do.

Jeez, no one said they weren't. So are the police, ambulance staff and so on?

You may find it useful to read up and become a little more informed on matters before making such ridiculous comments.

I am enjoying this thread, all the pointless frothing from ignorant teacher-haters, so funny. You are so angry that state school teachers might get any benefits or recognition at all, but can't do anything about it.

Private school teachers are also more likely to get perks included in their jobs - gym use, private health etc whereas state teachers very rarely do.

That aside, I guess the Blue Light scheme supports the state sector and thinks maybe supporting private health , education might not be a look.

It really doesn't matter - private school teachers can access discounts for teachers. My LA also has a (very convoluted) scheme.

Does anyone know if this includes FE teachers who work for council?

I am MSA in Primary school ( midday supervisor assistant at lunchtime) I can’t see anywhere if I can register too.
I got school email address but we can’t be using it anywhere else for private stuff or give it to anyone.
Do I need to ask my Head?

God why are teachers so bloody paranoid? It’s not about teachers. It’s about the fact that the more and more people you add to a discount scheme, the less and less beneficial the discounts are going to be. I’ve already noticed that a few years ago, there were probably less retailers on there but the discounts were more significant.
What started as a perk for emergency workers has now been very diluted. You expect people to celebrate this?
All that is actually going to happen, is that it will allow
retailers to keep full prices high by justifying it by saying this huge group of people ( I doubt teachers will be the last group added) will get minor discounts.

Its a shame that public sector workers have been pitted against each other on this thread but long term none of us will be the winners.

Edit. I just wanted to add, we (public sector workers) are not even the only people to benefit from discount schemes. Loads of big corporate groups have their own employee benefit schemes along the same line.
If such a large part of the work force have access to discounts, full prices are always going to be artificially high to compensate.
Instead of moaning at each other, maybe we should moan more at the retailers for overpricing.

Teachers got access to a discount card that supposedly recognises the work they do as important and now they're not only responsible for destroying that discount card, but also responsible for fucking over shop prices for everyone else in the country,

Good job, teachers! 👍

Way to miss the point.

At this point it’s very clear, you are just trying to stoke unpleasantness.

How many children do you teach who are young carers, care experienced, homeless, refugees, have disabilities, ODD etc? Doesn't apply to every state school, but many are in areas of multiple deprivation and improving opportunities for those children is of massive benefit to the community as a whole.

I posted a thread telling teachers that for a fiver they can have access to a discount card. All the teachers I know are excited and talking about this and texting each other to make sure everyone has heard about it. The website has been inundated for days with applications. Teachers are delighted to have some good news and someone saying 'actually, you do an important job for the country and deserve some recognition'.

Stoking unpleasantness is coming onto that thread and whinging about how this is basically ruining the discount scheme for the people who really deserve it and for claiming that additionally it's not only going to screw over the people on the scheme, but also going to screw over the people who are not part of the scheme.

Now that is pitting people against each other.

As I’ve said, you missed my point then because the point I was trying to make is that instead of retailers overpricing then giving false discounts, maybe they should just price appropriately and then nobody would need a discount scheme.

I believe the civil service have been trying to get us included in this too. Can you imagine the frothing if they're successful??

I haven't missed the point that you have chosen to make this comment

What started as a perk for emergency workers has now been very diluted. You expect people to celebrate this?

Can't have teachers celebrating getting a perk, can we? How can we piss on their chips?

Some civil servants are included. But it's teachers that are ruining it for everyone...

Not just 38k after four years, but that is a pro rata salary as they don’t get paid for all the holidays. So in fact, that teacher’s FTE pay would be closer to £45k.

Great, now teachers don't even have a full time job...