Govt declares war on teachers again. Fucksake.

[noblegiraffe]

The Telegraph front page tomorrow is reporting that the DfE is preparing an 'army of supply teachers' to keep schools open in the event of a teacher strike.

Is that like the army of volunteers they failed to raise to keep schools open during the covid surge in January?

Changing the law to allow agency staff to cover for striking colleagues is a shitty move, an opportunity I can't imagine agency staff in general would be leaping at; but using it as some sort of trump card against teachers?

1. supply teachers would most likely be in a teaching union (they'd be mad if not)

2. WE CAN'T GET SUPPLY TEACHERS NOW BECAUSE THERE'S A CRITICAL SHORTAGE OF TEACHERS

If they've got an army of supply teachers, where are they fucking hiding them?

If the government think children have 'suffered enough' during the pandemic then:

1. fund schools properly

2. stop haemorrhaging teachers by e.g. not treating them like shit in the national press

3. improve working conditions and reduce workload by e.g. funding children's services like CAMHS, SEN services, social services so that schools aren't picking up ALL the slack.

That would improve the situation far more for children than shitty headlines in the Telegraph deliberately antagonising the few teachers the country has left.

twitter.com/samfr/status/1539717032043859968?s=21&t=uLvLET4xftQW31sTEKBaLg

I've popped up on all of these threads because there is always a 'teachers are leaving for the private sector' post.
For those parents sighing in relief that their child is at private school, don't.
I've worked in multiple private schools. Pay is on average the same (sometimes worse, sometimes better than state), and hours are even longer. Pay and conditions just as shit as the state sector.
All the teachers I have known who have moved from the state sector at secondary level because they thought it would be a better work life balance etc with less paperwork and monitoring lasted no more than a term and then left teaching altogether. Those who were struggling and got out of state before they were pushed and thought it would be easy in the independent sector were performance managed out by the first halfterm.
Independents also can't magic up supply teachers and private school teachers are as fed up as state teachers. Don't think your school is protected from this.

I think I have a fairly realistic view of the nation's children.
Supply teaching is hard enough.

Same as the magic nurse cupboard where all the qualified nurses are hiding and waiting to train now they have the privilege of paying for it.

If Boris looks across his 91,000 surplus civil servants (on flexi and a very regulated week) I am sure that there are thousands of ex teachers
Maybe they could volunteer to be the army? Of course no building up flexi time, having a lunch break etc

It's terrible. Starting pay once you've qualified is less than 26k. That's after a three year degree and a one year post-graduate qualification.

There is zero incentive for people who are established in other careers to consider teaching. Few can afford to take the enormous pay cut, but actually those who have had other careers and real life experience have a lot to contribute as teachers.

All of this^

I sincerely hope thst this "them and us" strategy will backfire on the government. I think there is generally a better understanding among the public of the shitty way teachers are often treated.

A teaching recruiter rang me the other day. I explained I wasn't looking for any teaching jobs and would not be returning to teaching. They asked why - I was surprised they even asked!

How are they going to recruit an army of teachers, when they can't recruit/retain enough teachers anyway?

Sounds like one of Baldrick's cunning plans.....

Porcupineintherough
I have to admit I think teacher's pay/pension is pretty good. I think their working conditions and workload stink though.

Try living in London on a main scale teachers salary. Fine if your young and happy to flat share, but if you want more than that, forget it.

There is going to be a battle over pay rises in the public sector. This is only the start

There's zero point in increasing funding for CAHMS and social services as there aren't enough qualified staff or people who want to train to expand services. They have been trying to throw money at them but its too late, they should have addressed issues with recruitment and retention long ago- the same is true across the public sector to be honest.

Bring back free training!! The government can make it conditional of they have to (e.g. you have to work for the NHS for three years, or pay back the cost of your training). It's a sensible fix, I don't understand why they won't do this.

I am established in a different career, but would strongly consider retraining as a nurse if I didn't have to pay to do so. I've been looking for apprenticeships, but they're few and far between.

Well that doesn't really add up then, does it? Either you think their pay and pension is good for the job they do, or you don't. The two are inextricably linked.

I disagree, more money doesn't make the ridiculous workload more manageable. Sure a payrise (which is coming) is nice, but for those burnt out who have zero work life balance it's not enough to keep them.

Especially as a student you essentially work full time for the NHS and pay for the privilege to do so. Although students should be supernumerary on many placements they are being utilised at HCA levels which is outrageous. There are more apprenticeships starting to emerge but due to how short staffed everywhere is it depends if there are enough mentors etc to go round. I agree though, for all public sector core jobs like teaching, nursing (especially where there are placements) paying fees but with a fixed return of service would be brilliant. Perhaps everyone would apply for a loan and it'd be wiped out after x years, otherwise I guess might get people trapped but unable to pay to leave.

I love my job. I adore being in a classroom, teaching kids. I am really good at it.

I am also exhausted. 2 years of working through COVID, including teaching my own kids which simultaneously teaching online (which I was doing by April 2020) and going in for key worker kids etc then "catch up" for last school year whilst doing all the things we do in a normal year too. It's utterly unsustainable.

If I felt appreciated it'd be better. But I feel like the government and general public have no idea about the sheer intensity of a schoolteachers day. I can go from 8:20-1:10 without time for a break if I am on duty on a full teaching day. And all the admin that builds up during the day to do before one even starts marking and prep. Yesterday I dealt with an SEN child having a meltdown in a corridor as a supply teacher had pushed all the wrong buttons. Another misbehaving had to come to my room to be "parked" out of their lesson. A kid made a MH disclosure I had to log. Add on putting all those on systems, admin for the trips I am running over the next few weeks. Oh and I have reports to write, exams to mark etc. It's never ending!!

The appreciation of a profession partly comes in the form of a salary commensurate with a degree, postgrad and masters. And partly from the respect for the job I do.

I am not sure we get either right now.

Those on checkouts, shopfloor, online shopping pickers and online customer delivery drivers at Tesco do NOT earn close to this figure you quoted for a teacher:

"£25,714 a year for 39 weeks @ 70 hours a week for an ECT..."

Managers at Tesco get about that figure.

Is It a bad wage? No, not really. I'd be earning that upon qualifying as an audiologist after two years study. I'd certainly be happy with a wage of £25k a year which I don't get at Tesco as a driver.

Army of supply teachers 😂😂😂

Im genuinely worried about the future of education if something doesn’t change soon. We just can’t recruit good people, not to teaching vacancies, not to TA positions, not to middle management. I work in a lovely school which gets great results and has mostly supportive parents. If we’re struggling I dread to think what it’s like elsewhere. Behaviour has dipped because of a combination of pandemic recovery and having fewer experienced teachers in certain subjects.

I won’t be happy with anything below 8%, if it’s below 5% we absolutely need to strike, pay has fallen by 20% in real terms already since 2007, it can’t keep dropping.

Don’t believe anything you read in the gutter press, by which I refer to the Mail, the Express, the Sun, the Telegraph, the Times, and the Guardian.

It doesn’t matter whether you think it’s a good salary compared to x job, what matters is that we can’t recruit and retain teachers. We need a salary that is attractive enough to attract people into the profession. It’s a great career, but people with the skills to teach have choices and they aren’t choosing to teach.

The only way we can ever be free of this Government and Media’s Populist us against them bullshit is by implementing a system of PR.

There was an excellent interview with the head of the agency industry body yesterday. He said they are telling government they have no interest in a law change and won't supply workers, it isn't reputationally worth it and they couldn't find them if they tried.

It was general rather than teaching specific but on the nail.

I teach supply. I would never cover for striking teachers. I am completely on board with striking due to pay and conditions. One of the reasons I work supply is so I can actually go home at the end of the day!

Yeah also as others have said....good luck finding enough supply teachers! Thin on the ground round here, I could work everyday if I wished. I don't because kids are arseholes tbh. (Obv not all kids etc etc before anyone has a go at me!)

@Itisasecret what has it got to do with train drivers? How is it even a comparison?

Train drivers aren't on strike or asking for anything?

The media and the government are anti the rail strikes not because they are wrong but because they are right. The constant downward pressure on living standards and wages for the majority, while profits for a tiny elite have continued to soar the last few years and still continue to soar is unsustainable. This economic model is broken. But rather than try to fix it or at least address it, the government and media instead try to demonise those who point out that it’s broken and stand up for their rights. The government is terrified that the penny will soon drop for millions and millions more. That’s what they’re most scared of.