to ask if you agree with the teacher's strike upcoming

[AuntiePickleBottom]

i am on the fence about it, due to not understanding pensions.

WHY WHY WHY IS THERE ALWAYS THE ASSUMPTION THAT PEOPLE BECOME TEACHERS BECAUSE ThEY CAN'T THINK WHAY ELSE TO DO??????
WHY???

You would sure as hell change your mind smartish, not muddle along for thirty years or so.

It is so insulting!

Justonmorethan I would like it to be much more difficult to become a teacher. As part of my job I give careers advice to students. I rarely hear our brightest and best students saying they want to go into teaching, that concerns me.

Jonnyfan there are peopel who are teachers because they cannot think of anything else to do, sadly they often end up in schools in our most deprived communities as they struggle to attract staff.

If we increased pay I think more people would be attracted to teaching which would enable us to weed out the mediocre and drifters.

Those people are the 50% who feck off within 5 years when they realise it isn't a job you can coast in if you don't want to work hard, though.

I agree with your second point, twinkly.

How much money do you want ffs? It's not fucking rocket science teaching kids GCSE and A Levels...!

Go and do it then!

Unless I am mistaken; it was not public sector workers who caused the financial ruin of the country but we are the ones being held accountable. I pay a large percentage of my salary into the fund on the basis of the pension I was promised when I joined the profession. I am now being asked to pay more, work for longer and receive less.......

all this proposal is going to do is cost a fortune in sickness pay as many 60+ teachers will have to go on long term sickness as they are not capable of controlling 16 year old shits students all day everyday whilst marking coursework, planning lessons, filling in countless forms etc.

mdowdall - what do you do then that is so bloody brilliant?

The Teaching profession will gain more respect when it bites a couple of bullets
which stem from the disastrous decision when primary school class sizes were restricted in the early 1990's to allow people to take a BEd with only 2 E's at A level. Friends of mine taught teachers Maths GCSE ....

CPD : I have to do 40 hours a year of which 20 hours is verifiable by my institute
Competence : there are regular disciplinary panels that fine and expel bad accountants. And we just play with taxes, not Children's futures
Increments : Pay is related to competence not how many years you have been in post

Deal with those and we other professions will be more relaxed about yours

Mdowdall - how do you come to that conclusion? What experience of what's involved in teaching do you have?

Bollocks cricketballs - the whole country is suffering for the reckless behaviour of the banking sector. WE ARENT ALL BANKERS! Do you not understand that? Do expect us all to pay higher taxes just so you can get your cosy pensions promised by your precious bloody labour party? Wise up for god's sake!! You are either stupid or deliberately not understanding what is going on or both.

But surely people wont recieve less? They live longer so its just spread more thinly over more years?

Cricketballs
The pensions crisis predated the financial crisis by around 6 years
but Broon chickened out of dealing with either so sadly they are being sorted at the same time and conflated by too many lazy journalists
Pensions crisis and Debt crisis are unconnected

It's not rocket science looking up articles of law and applying them to the case you are being paid a big fat salary for.

CPD - right back at you
Increments - the 3 points on the upper pay spine depend on performance.
Competence - the GTC have the power to, and regularly do, suspend/expel teachers.

Drumroll is still going, mdowdall.........

Feenie, where in my posts did I lead you to believe that I thought teaching was so fantastic? I am merely pointing out that a sense of the world outside wouldn't go amiss.
I would have loved to be a teacher, I have almost done so 3 times. Jeez, if I could have afforded to take the time off to get the necesssary experience and then done PGCE, it was my dream job!

I know it is a hard job, but it is not an underpaid job and I think striking about pensions when people with similar quals are unemployed and prepared to work for free is crass and shortsighted.

cricketballs - the pensions crisis would be happening anyhow. In the private sector, the changes to the taxation regime (introduced in 97/98) raided billions out of the funds. In the (unfunded) public sector, the problem is increasing longevity of pensioners increasing the liabilities. The reforms in the 90s were a step in the right direction, but did not go far enough.

Feenie
Competence :How many have the GTC actually suspended the licences of?

CPD : not sure what you mean - I know of heads who regard curriculum CPD as an insult to their teachers so only book management type courses
how many hours a year do you have to do personally?

Here, Lizzylou:

Seriously, at the moment, you don't know you're born. That is not always the case, I'll grant you. But at the moment? Teaching is a bloody good gig!

Oh great. School has just announved an extra insed day for next friday. A weeks fucking notice. Theres one the followingmonday we knew about.
So if they strike too, extra two days off work/payimg for a carer. :(

Feenie
Competence :How many have the GTC actually suspended the licences of?

No idea. Google 'GTC suspended'. Reported almost daily in the media though. Probably not enough, but it happens - contrary to your opinion of there being no such thing.

CPD - we have five training days per year. In our school, and in every other I know, we use them to train. In addition to extra courses we may go on throughout the year - depends on the School Development Plan/new national initiatives/budget, etc.

Staff meetings are usually for staff training - they are weekly.

Feenie, I think it was Mdowdall on another thread who said (s)he was self-employed, advising companies on their media strategies or something like that.

Not, therefore, rocket science.

(Apologies if I have the wrong poster.)

Ah OK Feenie!
BUT at the moment, teaching is not a low paying profession, it's not. Believe me. And it hasn't been for a long while.