to want to know if teachers are going to work until they are 65+

[SaynotoDaisyMeadows]

Asked on another thread if teachers are planning on striking again later this month and was told that the ATL union have accepted pension proposals Does this mean that teachers have accepted that they will need to pay more into their pension pot and work past the age of 60? Or as a compromise been reached?

Given there was so much disruption caused and a great deal of media coverage it would be helpful to know if they are going to be striking again.

My union is still fighting - I know that I am not happy at the thought of any of the government proposals; especially as this is not what I signed up to when I started teaching...

How long ago was that?

ATL have accepted the latest deal (this is my union and I am not very happy about that). The other unions have not. So many schools will still be disrupted as the other unions will be going on strike as far as I know.
I do not see how I can possibly continue teaching til I am 68, but we'll just have to see how we go. It is possible that once the children are a bit older we'll be able to pay more off the mortgage quicker so I can either go part time or change careers to tide us over until I can collect my pension.

I have been teaching now for 9 years. When I started, the Teachers pension scheme was set out in stone and it was sold as a pay off for the low in 'comparison' wages to other graduate jobs. I was promised one thing and now am facing something entirely different. Also the fact that as we have had a pay freeze for a few years now, and facing a far larger contribution to the pension we are in fact taking a huge pay cut.

Whilst I understand that we are in difficult circumstances, the basics of economics means that there has to be money in circulation in order for people to spend, therefore businesses begin to grow, employ more, more money in circulation etc it really seems to be a very short sighted plan which will only result in the government having to pay more in sickness payments (there is only going to be a small percentage of teachers who are physically and mentally able to teach a full time table), more and more will leave the profession and they will struggle to recruit with the benefits on offer

What graduate jobs jobs pay higher wages than teaching? How many of these jobs are there? Aren't there hundreds of thousands of unemployed graduates at the moment?

I think teachers have a very myopic view of the world if they think they are hard done by.

OP - you don't really want to know if teachers will be working until they're 65. What you really want to know is if they're going on strike again soon.

Personally I have no idea if I'll be teaching until 65. Sometimes I think I'll be lucky to make it through to the end of next week......

DebbiesD78 - when I graduated, I did so at the same time as my DH and many friends. As a teacher I was on a higher salary than DH. Two years later he earned more than me, and the professional salary wage just got larger and larger. Even if I was still teaching DH would earn way in excess than I ever could even at the top of the scale. This is the case for pretty much all my friends with degrees who are working in professional jobs. Teacher's salaries are generally low compared with other professional jobs with the same level of qualifications/training.

Plenty of people take jobs with all kinds of things "set out in stone", and then the firm goes bust and they get little or nothing of what they were promised. Teachers know that this isn't going to happen to the schools system, and IMO, take the piss. There pay and conditions should be based upon the pay and conditions of normal working people who pay taxes to pay their salaries and pensions. For teachers to have things far better than the parents of the kids they teach just leads to resentment and bitterness.

Gosh Debbie. If you could spell, I'd probably give your argument some credence.

Nothing stopping everyone else training up to be a teacher and getting themselves all the perks DebbieD78.

'normal working people who pay their taxes'

Does this not include teachers' then?

No I won`t be working until I am 65 but 67 or even more if this government has its way.

Debbie - I worked in industry before teaching so I do have a 'real life view'

Teachers do not believe that they hard done by, but the truth of the matter is that we have a difficult job in terms of kids (!), goal posts changing every year (Ofsted, specs, government ), parents, league tables (no matter what the kids ability) and everyone thinking that they are experts just because they went school once.

As Hulababy said - if you think we have a life full of perks - they do the job yourself....

"For teachers to have things far better than the parents of the kids they teach just leads to resentment and bitterness."

What are you suggesting?

In answer to the OP, I am in the ATL, so no, I won't be striking. I won't be teaching until I'm 65 though. For sure.

Debbie, us teachers also pay taxes you know?

When I started work my employer had a non-contributory final salary pension scheme. That is what I "signed up" for. After several changes of ownership and structure, the same organisation now offers a contributory money purchase scheme, with a very small contribution from the employer.

What I have now in no way resembles what I signed up for - and yes, I have had a pay freeze for the last 3 years (teachers are in year 1 of a 2 year freeze I believe).

The world has changed cricketballs, nobody can rely on signing up to a deal for life anymore.

"For teachers to have things far better than the parents of the kids they teach just leads to resentment and bitterness."

How so?

I'm a TA. Most parents of the children in the school "have things better" than me, even when they are on benefits. My pension is also at risk. Would you be happy for me to be a 68 year old TA?

And, I also pay taxes, and I am ,therefore,paying for my own wages.

"For teachers to have things far better than the parents of the kids they teach just leads to resentment and bitterness."

Really? From whom? Just you, I suspect, DebbieD

but littlehalfwit we signed up knowing our salary (there is only a very small proportion that are in SLT) was compensated through our pension.

We appreciate that the world has changed, but we seem to be bearing the brunt of it

I agree that most private sector pensions have been and are being downgraded.

Try joining a union and protesting/striking about that?

Would you be happy for me to be a 68 year old TA?

Why not?

What about roofers, scaffolders, cleaners, factory workers, etc, etc, who will have to work until 68?

What's so special about teachers and TAs?

My dad took early retirement, he did a bit of supply teaching for a while but had to give up. He is younger than 68 but I know that I wouldn't really be that impressed with a partially deaf, OAP, who's had a recent hip replacement teaching a class of 34 10 year olds.
Although to be fair I imagine the stress of teaching would probably have pretty much killed him off by now ....

I have to be frank here and say that I am getting really sick of teachers acting like they are the only profession affected by cuts, that they're the only people who work in the public sector, that they're the only work force who work under stressful conditions with members of the public and under constant monitoring and scrutiny. Newsflash. You're not. If you don't like your job pack it up and go and do something else.

They do seem to be the only profession that are consistently moaned about on this website, though.