to say this to all the teachers who are striking next week

[Memoo]

As a parent I am 100 % behind you.

I really appreciate that you put your life and soul into your job and im sorry more people don't get just how hard you work for the benefit of our children.

Don't let the bastards grind you down!

So in effect performance management. Which is what we have (3x observations across the year, specific targets relating to professional development etc)

Plus Ofsted, HMI, LA observations when needed.

I look forward to my bonuses marriedinwhite

teacherwith2kids I'm sure you don't consider yourself a 'typical' teacher, though, as far as your background?

If you had a starting salary 20 years ago, equivalent to your teacher's salary today, it would have to be the equivalent of around a £70k+ starting wage today, wouldn't it?

You can't honestly believe someone capable of attracting a starting salary in industry of £70k is typical of the teaching profession?

(By the way, I'm in no way saying I think teachers are normally thick. I only know a couple, but they are both well qualified)

teacherwith, I am sure you are aware that pupil progress over a single year is quite difficult to measure accurately. Credit for pupil success at GCSE should not only go to the teacher who taught them for GCSE as the foundations are laid at KS3. Pupil progress at A-level relies on a high level of independent learning.

I teach maths. If I know my pay rise depends on pupil progress, where is my incentive to move my best students up a set to benefit another teacher? Why will I not just be sure to drop the weaker ones down to a lower set?

Performance management is also affected by the class with whom you Re observed. I always ask if I can be observed with one of my toughest classes so I can improve. If not a tough class certainly a class with whom I think I can do better .

I know most other colleagues try to do the opposite

But at present Norfolk the incremental payscales are not linked to performance. I have said before Grade 3 = satisfactory is a poor use of terms. I do not want my children taught grade 3 lessons - they not in fact satisfactory, they are mediocre. Two grade 3s should be the starting point for capability. This is the only way to drive up standards.

Twinkly I'm the same, I had to repeatedly request to not be seen with one of my easier classes in Oct but rather a trickier class with a wide range of SEN as my one of targets is to implement better differentiation for the non-subject specialists teaching my subject.

I don't know what the legal position is but if I was given two 3s I would be expected to explain myself at the very least.

Marriedinwhite I agree with you about the MPS (I'm currently on UPS) and that it should come under the same rigour as threshold (now it is decided on PM targets)

Noble, apologies, I didn't intend what I said to be taken quite so literally. Do you have annual performance reviews, and annual personal targets? Performance would be in relation to those targets - the examples I gave were the 'headings' under which teachers in my school are each given a target, not the specific target.

Yes teacher, we do. And luckily in my school we get to pick which class we can use for our pupil progress target, so I always pick the one most likely to make progress, which I can tell before I've even met them. I work in an outstanding maths department with excellent results. Yet every year the bottom set GCSE group gets negative value added. Every year a different teacher takes that hit without being slated as a poor teacher because we all know that's the group with kids most likely to be disaffected, excluded or out at college for 2/3s of the week. I'd hate to work in a school where I didn't get to pick the group I was assessed on (there are plenty out there) and know that the year I got bottom set, I wouldn't get a pay rise. If I were a devious HOD, I'd make sure it was never me.

I don't want to see pupil progress being brought in as a stick with which to beat teachers. The government already 'expects' three levels of progress from every student. Teachers know that that is ridiculous.

Do you trust the government to decide what performance management for teachers means?

MrsHeffley

from personal experience i would say that all programmers produce satisfactory coding, because if they didn't they would have no work to repair.

and would be a good area to look at re saving money alongside reducing PPA time particularly as it does kids no favours

Do you know what happens during PPA time? Do you think that the teachers sit and drink tea and have a natter? This is the time that I spend to MAKE A START on all of the marking, feedback, data inputting, lessons planning, scheme of work planning, checklist writing (for students), resource gathering. No you are right NONE of that does the kids any favours!!

So talking about the private/public sector divide in salary terms, there is an article in the Sunday Times today about people paying for private nurses to look after them on NHS wards post operation. The going rate for a private nurse is £200 per day.

Any nurses out there who are on the equivalent of £52k per annum basic pay?

Hmmmm in my dp's job with millions of pounds at stake from said code if you consistently produce code with bugs that screw up release dates you'd be out pronto.Excellent quality code produced quickly so the coder can go onto the next project on schedule in order for it to be released on time is what is required.

But that doesn't mean that the code is any better than satisfactory, is just means that it does the job.

I know whole companies whose work is to repair, replace and make code work correctly due to code that was "produced quickly so the coder can go onto the next project on schedule in order for it to be released on time"

teacherwith Do you have annual performance reviews, and annual personal targets? Performance would be in relation to those targets - the examples I gave were the 'headings' under which teachers in my school are each given a target, not the specific target.

This is known as performance management, which happens yearly. Some of the ones set by the school (that become our personal target) e.g. 100% of all pupils reaching their target lessons sounds great on paper, except when you start to consider the number of kids who have been placed into my class, halfway thorugh the year, from a totally different subject because said subject was having behaviour issues. They will not get their target for a subject that is 60% coursework. Especially if their behaviour issues continue. So, should I not get a pay increase because of that one student? Or the Autistic student who tries his hardest, but doesn't actually have the motor skills to enable him to do the subject (art and graphic design)

Or how about my targets that are linked to me getting to go out on training - which i'm not alowed to do because there is no training budget?

The going rate for a private nurse is £200 per day.

Any nurses out there who are on the equivalent of £52k per annum basic pay?

That's a red herring, as just about anyone will tell you.

Day rates for anyone 'contracting' are often double the 'employed' rate. As an example the business I work for employs an IT systems analyst, we pay him circa £40k as an FTE. He started with us as a contractor on a day rate of £350. I know this for a fact as he asked my opinion when he was considering the offer of the permanent position.

The salary and the day rate are both typical for his position.

There are loads of jobs out there with similar ratios for pay between contractors and FTEs.

Indeed, the fact alone that I have 2 Autistic boys in one class with no TA or any other help makes a mockery of inclusive education.

Hmm. Can't get the £70k figure to come out of the inflation calculator... suspect that you might be hugely inflating my current salary, which is just over 0.7 x an out of London M2 .....

Is my level of education typical? The Oxbridge PhD is probably not, as a primary teacher, though I suspect I would not be unusual in a secondary context.

I am 100% behind you all as well. x

Font, just under half of my current class is on the SEN register... which with a single part-time TA (in for two lessons per day) does get a little exciting, I agree..

mala,
is the private nurse self employed and getting the £200 directly, or is that going to an agency. If the nurse gets that herself, she has to pay tax, NI, penison contributions, parental leave herself (public sector workers normally get 6 months fully paid, plus six weeks fully paid holiday, and their ten days bank holidays added to the maternity pay), may not get fully paid sick leave, holiday etc. They also may not work every day. I am a public sector worker, and my wage is only slightly lower than in the private sector, but I get a huge amount more benefits that I would in the private sector, which is why I am not joining the strike action.

It's fucking madness is what it is. I'd like to say that this has only happened since the TA's all had their hours cut by a third, but it has been the case for the last three years.

Part of being a good/excellent coder is the ability to work under pressure with unrealistic release dates plucked out of the air,less colleagues(due to cuts),shorter time to produce and more projects making a good/excellent bug free product first time.Bugs cost time and money neither of which companies have much of these days.

My dp is snowed under with work and everybody takes a hit if there are bugs ie the whole dept has to fix them themselves which puts release dates back and thus your arse is on the line.He's had to fix other people's bugs alongside writing his own stuff.

Surely a satisfactory coder is somebody taking ages to write stuff that has bugs in and an excellent one who consistently does the above.

Seriously as his partner I could rant for hours re IT in this climate(the stress,lack of training,lack of pay rises etc,etc) at the moment,let's not bore everybody.