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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to ask WHY in the name of Gove are teachers striking again?

792 replies

loftyclopflop · 17/09/2013 18:17

DD's school is closing on 1st October because they have chosen to strike. Is it over pay, pensions and conditions? Did they achieve anything by striking a couple of years ago other than massively inconveniencing a lot of parents?

I know Gove is a twat but do they really expect to change anything by taking the day off?

OP posts:
ilovesooty · 22/09/2013 11:40

Retropearare you trying to provoke or are you just ignorant and ill informed? Go back and get some up to date information about the changes to teachers ' pay and conditions before you state such inaccurate tripe in future.
May I suggest you start by bringing yourself up to speed on annual increments?

sleepdodger · 22/09/2013 11:41

Why can teachers disrupt my child's education for a day but I can't take them out of school for a day for a family occasion despite good attendance and notice?
Double standards....
As an aside I'm not allowed to strike in my role, in my contract. Not even public service so v bizzare!
If its that bad why wouldn't you just leave?

englishteacher78 · 22/09/2013 11:42

Teachers didn't change the rules on absence. Gove did!

clam · 22/09/2013 11:43

Where are these schools where teachers leave by 4pm? Our car park is full by 8am and still full at 5.30pm.
If ever I needed to leave before 5, I would make my apologies to the Head - not mandatory but polite, I feel.

chicaguapa · 22/09/2013 11:44

Why can teachers disrupt my child's education for a day but I can't take them out of school for a day for a family occasion despite good attendance and notice?
Double standards....

That's a question for the people who came up with the rule that you can't take your DC out of school and aren't doing anything to avoid a strike. Ie. the government. It's their double standards.

chibi · 22/09/2013 11:44

if teachers are that awful, why don't you just homeschool? then you could take your children anywhere,anytime!

let me know if you have any other problems that need facile halfassed solutions, happy to help

clam · 22/09/2013 11:47

And sleepdodger, you'd better hope that the thousands and thousands of teachers who are SO hacked off, demoralised and worried about the future of your children^ don't all "just leave" at the same time!

chicaguapa · 22/09/2013 11:50

If its that bad why wouldn't you just leave?

That's a good idea! Everyone can leave teaching, including the really good inspirational teachers. Then our DC can be taught by the demoralised ones that are left and we won't complain about the mess that our state education is. Hmm

Or maybe teachers could say, "Hey it's bad, but I want to carry on teaching, so I'm going to improve the working conditions." Confused

ilovesooty · 22/09/2013 11:54

sleepdodger did you really think that teachers are responsible for the policy on absence?
Are you actually in the habit of advising people to abandon their livelihoods?

ilovesooty · 22/09/2013 11:57

And what job do you have that forbids you to strike?

chicaguapa · 22/09/2013 12:10

When I see half-arsed comments trotted out like this, I often wonder what kind of education they themselves had and if this is why they think teachers are just crap. Grin

You'd think if they were so uneducated to be able to make a proper argument that they'd support a better education for their DC. But then this is one of the hurdles that most teachers come across every day.

ilovesooty · 22/09/2013 12:13

Yes it really is depressing to see how much monumental stupidity and lack of coherent thought there is out there

soverylucky · 22/09/2013 12:28

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Arisbottle · 22/09/2013 12:53

We will just have to agree to disagree noble. But if you are insistent in planning your own lessons each year from scratch your hours are going to be unbearable. I would not do it and would feel unethical asking our staff to .

They are not centralised schemes of work from an anonymous source but schemes created by either teachers in your department or in smaller departments local schools.

That does not mean you have to teach them exactly as they are, but at the very least the resources are there ready for you to put your own spin on. Sometimes when I have the time or energy or something inspires me I will create my own lesson and add that to the scheme of work to be reviewed and used by others . But importantly I am never say at my desk knackered thinking I have nothing to teach 9 set 3 tomorrow .

There have been huge issues with workload and addressing those means that sometimes we need to be prepared to make compromises or adapt our practise .

I take a lot of short cuts and so little planning and an artillery doing a minimum of a 12 hour day. Even if I wanted to, I could not do any more.

Arisbottle · 22/09/2013 12:57

I am not sure wat happened to my last paragraph, I am certain I did not mean to type artillery .

EverybodysGoneSurfing · 22/09/2013 12:57

retro, I wasn't making a point, I was answering a question... My original point was that I work lots of hours but not more than some other professions.

NewNameforNewTerm · 22/09/2013 12:58

That idea may have some mileage for some teachers, but in my class all my Year 2s came in as 1b, 1a or 2c mathematicians last year; clear and similar spread of strengths and areas to develop next to move them up the three plus sub-levels. This year I have several at P5/6, quite a few at P8, most at 1C and a few at 2B. How can a maths curriculum that I used last year move this year's children forward?

Branleuse · 22/09/2013 13:05

Havent read the 12 pages, but I fully support the teachers strike, and think its pretty shitty that some parents take our teachers and our childrens education so much for granted, that they worry more about their own inconvenience for ONE DAY, than to get behind and support our precious educators

ilovesooty · 22/09/2013 13:06

In my current job we have a new project which will involve my delivering various interventions to groups. Since my project manager seems to think the material will be written by the planning fairy I will gladly take advantage of the plans of a colleague on another site. Of course I'll be tweaking them but no way would I write them from scratch at home.
I think there has to be a balance between personalised planning and co operative work but the trouble is that often people are just unaware of how long planning can take and only see the classroom hours and have a vague idea that marking takes place

Arisbottle · 22/09/2013 13:16

I teach secondary, am not sure how it would work at a primary level. One thing I certain of is that I would never teach primary, sounds far too much work

NewNameforNewTerm · 22/09/2013 13:20

I think that is one of the misconceptions non-teachers make. Education varies SO widely from Early Years to A Levels and all points between. The job is so different in different phases that it can't all be lumped together under the heading "work of a teacher".

EverybodysGoneSurfing · 22/09/2013 13:22

I was just thinking the same. Primary teachers seem to work many more unavoidable hours.

noblegiraffe · 22/09/2013 13:41

I think planning Ofsted-style lessons all the time is unsustainable. However, I don't believe that Ofsted-style lessons every day are necessary, or even desirable.

ParkerTheThief · 22/09/2013 14:01

The Primary/Secondary thing is interesting.

The local secondary is practically on the same site as our primary and while it's true that the majority of Primary Staff are in earlier and leave considerably later I don't think that means we work harder, it is just a different role.

Last year I made a concious decision not to carry marking home, I was fed up of lugging boxes and bags of books bag and forth.

Now I stay in school until it is done. I aim never to leave more than one set of books (which I can mark before school the next day) unmarked.
This means my marking is nearly always uptodate and the pupils are getting feedback the next day.
For me, this has worked well. I have no children so don't need to organise pickups or after school activities.

I certainly don't think colleagues who leave berfore me are taking the piss because they are usually taking stuff with them.

Arisbottle · 22/09/2013 14:03

I agree and to be honest I don't think we are even sure what an OFSTED lesson is.

We had a team of ofsted inspectors come in go advise us before our inspection. The staff who most closely put their advice into practice were criticized during the actual inspection. Those who taught as they normal would were the ones who received an putstanding grading. We have recently had advice from Oftsed which said that there is such thing as an OFSTED lesson - just great teaching and learning - which is difficult to describe - but you know it when you see it!

The one thing we