Would you support a teaching strike?

[Strictly1]

Unions are currently talking to teachers regarding the proposed pay rise and government funding.
I do not want to strike but also know changes are needed for our children’s sake. With dwindling external support from agencies - schools are being expected to do more and more on limited resources that I predict will reduce due to squeezed budgets. The proposed pay rises are not funded. None of it is sustainable.

I honestly do not know what the realistic solution is.

YABU - you do not support teachers striking
YANBU - you do support teachers striking.

In the secondary school where I was Deputy Head we had 120 teachers. If they each had even a 1000 pay rise, plus the 22.5% on-costs that the school pays on staff salaries for every teacher, the school would have to find £122,500 (with no additional monies) to fund that pay rise. For small schools it is impossible. For large schools it might be possible but at the expense of people losing jobs- you don't save £122,500 by buying fewer stamps.

I'd support a teaching assistants strike as they get nothing compared to teachers.

How many support staff earn anything close to £38,690?

Sorry, but nearly £40k for a primary school teacher is pretty bloody good.

Yes

It is very true that support staff like LSAs or classroom assistants, in schools are very poorly paid. They are often put-upon by schools too.

However, and I am being provocative I know, whilst they do a great job supporting vulnerable children, all the research shows they make little difference in improving achievement and are a very expensive way for a school to make tiny gains.

This makes them very vulnerable when schools have to lose staff.

We're not allowed to strike about the massive issue which is that the government isn't funding the pay rise that we have been offered. If we do get the (real terms pay cut) of 5%, that's got to come out of money schools had budgeted for other things - so cuts to education provision.

We're also not allowed to strike about how school funding has been cut to the absolute bone over the past 12 years and how we are now facing further funding cuts (what is there left to cut?) in order to fund tax cuts for the rich.

We're not allowed to strike about how the government has destroyed education provision, SEN provision, child mental health provision and the burden this has placed on schools.

We are not allowed to strike about them, but the anger this has created against the government by education professionals will certainly be in our minds when we fill out their ballot papers.

And a 5% pay rise is a pay cut. When energy costs, petrol costs, food cost, mortgage payments are increasing, teachers, along with other workers, will be worried about household finances. If there is money available to give the richest a pay rise so that they can increase their spending, then the govt can go fuck themselves telling everyone else that sadly there's no magic money tree, or that it 'might' fuel inflation. Had enough of it.

Support staff are fantastic, do a vital role in schools and should earn more. This should not mean that experienced teaching staff shouldn’t earn a decent wage after a degree and post grad qualification?
My support staff leave as the children do (quite rightly) but the teaching staff continue to work long after.
Let’s not make this a battle between support staff and teachers!

Let’s not make this a battle between support staff and teachers!

I sincerely hope that support staff are gearing up for their own strike.

Join a union, folks.

The situation for NQT here is dire though @LuluBlakey1. Dp qualified sept 2019, no job to start (NW england). Managed to get a mat leave cover Jan 2020. Covid hit, so guess what? Bye bye job. He completed term one of his NQT. He carried on applying and applying, but once again, he couldn't get a job. 60-100 applicants per job. He did well just getting some interviews. There was very little in the way of supply, and what there was was mostly TA cover for dreadful pay. It was Jan 21 before he finally got another job. Again it was another mat leave cover. He completed his NQT there. So finally Sept 21 he made it to m2. So that was 3 years after he left his job earning the same as an NQT at the time (24k). He has since managed to stay in work, going to another mat leave cover. He is finally in a fixed term job, with a view to permanent. He has always been well thought of, and all the schools have wanted to keep him on but not been able to (apart from one who could do it, but was 36 hours before he was due to leave and he had already committed to a new job). So I'm hopeful that this will finally lead to a perm job. Because we have taken such a massive financial hit to get this far. We are finally debt free (apart from all the student loans after!) after getting in to such difficulties with the job situation in his first 18 months. And now the cost of living once again threatens our stability.

He will one day earn a better wage, but right now it doesn't feel that way. And now is when we need more help than ever.

THIS!!

The amount of staff in schools who aren't in a union is shocking.

DH and I both have QTS. We're striking in the way many teachers are - leaving. I've left the profession and DH is leaving in the near future. So is my best friend. In fact, from my class of 73 for my PGCE, only 36 ever got QTS and now (just a few years later) only four are still teaching, we were discussing it just the other day in the group chat.

It is not enough money for the difficulties and stresses of the job.

There have been next to no pay increases for experienced teachers in a decade. All focus has been on recruitment. There is no progression for the vast majority of staff. Some staff will be paid SLT rates. Most will be main scale, UPS if the school pay it, taking on more and more work, larger roles and more stress for no extra money or time.

the govt is aiming for a £30k starting salary. So, after forty years in the job, there’s what? a £13k increase in wages?

I completely agree. Did someone say they don't deserve decent pay?

I’m sympathetic to that on a personal level @Cocokitty but from the governments POV if lots of teachers are chasing jobs it puts us in quite a weak position.

bettbburg · Today 18:37
I'd support a teaching assistants strike as they get nothing compared to teachers.

Apologies Lulublakey1. It was a response to bettburg

To be fair my biggest concern is any payrise coming from current budgets, not the rise itself. I set my budget in April - I don’t have the funds and I know it will hit the school hard. I am constantly teaching to avoid paying for cover (I don’t ask TAs to as children miss out on interventions) but it’s not going to save the amount needed and it’s not sustainable.

I don't believe the issue is the same in southern areas though.

Yes and I hope it would include support staff.

Teachers get paid an annual salary all year round. It's too low.

BUT support staff get paid a pittance and they don't get paid for the holiday. So whilst some people think the low salary is warranted due to term time only working, it really isn't considering you get paid nothing for the holidays.

An office manager, who looks after the premises, school recruitment and HR, events, schools comms, census and data submissions, liaising with other schools and organisations, training etc. earns anywhere from £20-23k where I live. A basic admin job can pay anywhere between £26-30k.

It's ridiculous to be honest.

I should add, that's FTE. In reality they get 80% of that due to term time working.

True. We advertise and I feel lucky if I get 5 applicants. This is reflective of all local schools so it is not reputation that kills it!

Not a teacher, but support the strike.

I would definitely support a teachers' strike. They don't earn nearly enough for the work involved.

This is a really good point. It's not only the pay that makes people leave. It's the appalling conditions, impossible work load and expectations that is causing the mass exodus and recruitment crisis.

Well, that depends on how you measure achievement doesn't it.

They are keeping lots of children in school, that's a huge achievement. To the kids and the school. Let's not forget that bums on seats generates school income.

I'm a primary school teacher. My pay has barely increased in the last ten years. I have always accepted having a lower salary than similarly-educated professionals because I have longer holidays. However, the holidays are no longer sufficient to encourage people into teaching alongside the comparatively low pay and crappy working conditions. My DH at secondary school cannot recruit science, computing, maths, business, economics teachers because the salary is not competitive with other industries where they can use their qualifications. I really worry about who is teaching my DC these days.

I also strongly object to the use of existing school budgets, which are already decimated, to find salary increases. I spend hundreds on resources for my class otherwise they wouldn't have them. I have numerous children with SEND in my class unsupported due to a lack of funding and ridiculous pressure and expectations (from SLT, in fear of Ofsted) of what I can achieve in my classroom without support.

So I will be voting to strike for the first time in my 20-year career.