AIBU to expect teachers to strike in the school holidays and not in term time.

[NotSuchASmugMarriedNow]

Well am I?

Considering that teachers are always insisting that they work during the school holidays, how come they never strike during the school holidays and always wait until term time to do so?

Odd that!

I think people simply value having jobs so are far too busy to whine.

Can I charge my school for costs incurred in childcare seeing as they charge me if I take the kids out in term time?

Yes. Yes, you absolutely definitely can.

There's a special form for it, & you have to ask Michael Gove personally for it. He'll pretend there isn't, so you'd better keep pestering him for it. Tell all your mates!

Said pensions are still waaaaay better than the maj.

Sorry I'd rather have more teachers instead of less on unrealistic t&c.

There is no more money.

sourstone most teachers don't work for the local authority anymore - so no - they don't have the best T+C of us local Gov workers

They work for private little fiefdoms run by private companies who can pay them what they like and treat them like shit - thanks to Gove and his mates

You can't have less teachers, Retrospear. You could have fewer.

Or better buildings(the one my dc will go to is shite).

Fewer

I've just read this short blogpost about the strikes.

"I’ve yet to find a teacher who has anything positive to say about Michael Gove. He seems hell-bent on attacking the “foot soldiers” of the profession — the ordinary classroom teachers — while enabling the “fat cats” who run the academy and free school chains to grab the cash."

I can see that the teachers are protecting themselves too but as a parent with children who have years of education left I am really grateful that they are losing a day's pay and suffering a lot of flack to demonstrate their wish to stop state education being crushed.

Retropear - what would you suggest teachers do?
The issues are very complex, and pay and pensions is one aspect.

Do you know Gove has made just changes to exam rules, five weeks before some children's exams?

If I'm paid for my holidays, why do I get docked 1/195th of my pay when I go on strike?

Pensions are really not gold plated anymore. I pay almost 10% of my salary into mine. My friend who works in HMRC pays about £50 a month!

I've had friends who work in the private sector tell me they 'can't afford' to pay into a pension despite earning as much as or more than me.

school is not child care by any stretch of the imagination, but the government has made it seem that way by pushing for single parents to return to work when their children go to school and by so doing this have yet again diminished the the value of educating a child.

I can't quite see how poorer t+c will help to recruit teachers (and therefore provide more for less money) especially in shortage subjects. It is v. difficult to find physics, maths and MFL teachers as it is. Retropear.

We all fear losing our jobs. We're not immune to it anywhere. The private sector has really suffered in recent years and the public sector started shedding people a year or two later. It is terrifying in the private sector and you have all been scared into keeping quiet because you'll get outsourced or sacked with no come back. Forgive the rest of us for wanting to put that off for as long as possible.

Anyway, I'm off so have a good night all wherever you work and however you feel about the issue.

Do you honestly think people will say 'Hmmm, we've saved money on pensions, so let's put it back into mending crumbling schools?'. Of course they won't - they will simply say 'We've saved x amount by cutting pensions.'
Last time the Tories were in the money they assigned my mum's school didn't cover basic running costs so they were forced to fundraise for pencils and new reading books. Mum says she really didn't agree with a lot of what Blair did but at least the schools by and large had the money to do what they needed to do.
Now, we have Gove trying to further his own career and not thinking about the actual subject at all. As one example, where my mum had been involved in setting up several cross-profession groups, including social workers etc, to ensure that these different departments could work better together to safeguard children, Gove axed it. Saved money but has meant kids are slipping through a net when they could have been caught, if the people involved had been allowed to carry on.

My children attend a lovely state school and I can see how it has benefited them to have excellent teachers who are also prepared to go the extra mile, providing all manner of after school and weekend activities and booster classes

I hate what is happening in education though and the thought of my grandchildren not getting such good provision scares me. We need excellent, committed teachers in our schools and govt policy is working against that

I think moaning about t&c is the wrong thing to do.Sorry.

They are going to have to change whether you like it or not.

I'm not sure what the answer is but I think your unions are shite and could bring attention to all the other stuff far better.

That said there is plenty Gove has brought in I agree with- not academies or free schools though.

Said pensions are still waaaaay better than the maj.

so you want everyone to be paid less rather than more - I find this a strange concept, rather than everyone else strive to achieve a better wage and t&c you think those with better should wave goodbye to a decent standard of living.

If there is not enough money then where is the 50billion going to come from to build a brand new train line? That is on top of the billions they have already spent - money we don't supposedly have - to plan the train line. Where is the 7billion going to come from to put into europe? Where does the money come from to pay for all these second home expenses?

This governemnt and the last never ever put money away from pensions - that is why we are in the shit, this country lives literally from week to week on pensions - there is no pot. But that doesn't mean money couldn't go in the pot now from other white elephant schemes

Donki get a decent degree in any of those subjects and you'd earn far more in the private sector than you ever could teaching.

The problem is teaching is not nor ever has been paid at the going rate for the skills and qualifications needed its always been under market rate but was offset by the pension. 10 years ago I might have seen teaching as a viable career for my dc but not any more.

Sorry Janey some of us have kids in schools that aren't great and that have benefited hugely from some of the changes.

Schools and teachers can differ - hugely!

Retropear Pensions - other people do not pay extra for teachers pensions - they are/were entirely self funding. The exchequer just wants to get its hands on the surplus it generates.

Strike - teachers in general are against the myriad ways in which education is being used to promote one persons political agenda - but we can only strike about our pay and conditions. We aren't able to strike about other stuff but just read what any teacher says and pretty much the changes, lack of consultation, acadamisation, messing with gcse's, messing with grade boundaries, messing with controlled assessment, this week messing with entries, messing with term times, messing with parents taking kids out in term time etc etc is something we'd like to shout about but its out of bounds and entirely in one man's hands.

The Australia comparison is a silly one. In my prof I could double my salary (in pounds) down under. However I have family out there and we visit a fair bit. I know that with housing costs and other things I would be worse off. It means nothing.

I can't believe someone is seriously suggesting that we should be so pathetically grateful for our jobs that we should meekly accept any conditions.

My children attend a lovely state school and I can see how it has benefited them to have excellent teachers who are also prepared to go the extra mile, providing all manner of after school and weekend activities and booster classes

Well you are very lucky, but please do not assume this is true everywhere, it certainly isn't anywhere around where we live. None of the teachers at our school run any extracurricular activities of any sort, for example, let alone at weekends!!!

Believe it or not the majority of teachers striking tomorrow and on the 17th are doing it for your children not for themselves because, as teachers, we fucking care about their education.

Also, to be fair, because I care quite a lot about my children.