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.

I don't think it's a pretty bloody good salary for someone with post graduate qualifications and years of teaching experience tbh.

But it doesn't matter what the pay is. It's the fact that it is being eroded by pay freezes and below inflation pay rises. Like all other public sector pay.

For as long as there's enough money to give to Tory cronies through back door contracts, I support them striking. And all the other public sector strikes too.

A pay rise won’t help teachers being managed out due to being too expensive, will it?

It wouldn't be a problem if the government would fund pay rises fairly.

So if the government gave more money, you think that would put an end to expensive teachers being managed out? I wish I could agree!

No. The money is perfectly decent when you reach the top of the scales.

I am a teacher.

People aren't staying in teaching to reach the top of the scales

I'm 23 years in - there are very, very few NQTs staying more than a couple of years

Schools have been chronically underfunded for years and covid showed all those cracks. There is literally nothing left to cut. There is no money to pay this pay rise out of existing budgets.

Recruitment targets are not being met. 1 in 3 teachers leaves the profession in 8 years and 1 in 5 in three years.

I live and work in London. I’ve seen too many colleagues have to leave and work elsewhere because two classrooms teachers earn nowhere near enough to live, especially if they want children.

children across the country are being let down every day by the lack of funding and thought for education. It is not an attractive job and something drastic needs to change. I hope the strikes will help to bring some of the issues to the forefront for the public in general.

I support the teachers. If they need to strike to be heard then strike they must.

Just for comparison I work in the US in a city with a similar cost of living to London.We got a payrise during the lockdown of 5% to cover the cost of having to use our homes to teach from. We also each got 2500 that year to cover the extra expenses that year involved.This is in a
school district where new teachers start on 56k and rise up to 93k with zero extra responsibility.

Our union just negotiated for a 20% payrise.

The district are offering 8% and our union have rejected that as it is not enough to keep up with infation. So we shall see what they come back with but hopefully it will be more than 8% so far offered. Grocery bills have gone up, fuel bills have gone up, wages need to go up in line with these rises.

Teachers over here are out the door ten minutes after the students and if they cover a lesson for an absent colleague they get paid for it.We get a daily'free period' to prep up and mark. If teachers run an after-school club, they get paid for it. We get smart young graduates entering the profession because they can make over 100k (after ten years or so) if they are willing to do some extra tutoring and stick around for the long run for a 38 hour week. Any extra work is paid. Teachers expect to simply work their 30 contracted hours 182 days a year.

These salaries are in line with other careers with a degree in this city paid from the public purse so it is an appropriate wage. The point is that the compensation is much fairer and I notice that teachers stick around and are happier over here.I know I am. Actually, they still complain when they get asked to cover even though they are picking up $75 an hour to sit at their colleague's desk such is human nature but they would be so shocked if they had to work under the conditions that British teachers are under.
Then the pension over here...wait for it...the teachers retire on 100% of their pay after 40 years and that is the highest pay for the last 3 years of their working life so many retired teachers here in California are on 100k plus a year.I still cannot wrap my head around that one.

I much prefer teaching here to the UK and would never return because of the hours I was forced to work in the UK to do my job.
30-40k is not a lot in the UK for the hours that people put in. No wonder people are leaving the profession.
British teachers only have my support, they do a thankless stressful job day in day out for not enough money.

I've cast my ballot in favour of striking. We need to stand up and say enough is enough.

Not sure who are asking this to but if it was me- no certainly not.

And once you are at the top of the scale, you then receive pay cut after pay cut, year after year. If you were at the top of the upper pay scale when the Tories came in, your pay packet is now worth around £10k less than it was.

Right, so all your writing about how well teachers are paid is totally irrelevant then, isn't it? Because they will get a pay cut under current government proposals.

Just to be clear, you're happy to be paid less this year than last year, when inflation is accounted for?

If teachers don't start receiving better pay and conditions there won't be any left soon to reach. There is a massive recruitment and retention crisis in education.

The amount of unqualified teachers in classrooms will increase and the whole profession will become devalued.

It's about way more than money.

My comment is based on all the research that has been done on the impact of TAs on children's progress. I recognise in the comment that they are often put upon by schools and do a great job supporting vulnerable children and deserve much more than they ate paid. Not sure what you are so offended by.

How large is your primary? I’m a head in Scotland and earn 60k for a school of 80.
I support the strikes fully.

I fully support teachers striking. The ts snd Cs have changed s lot. Teaching used to be such a valued profession.

TA's need to be paid a hell of a lot more too.

300 pupils

Yes I support them.

Just worked out DP earns £12.67 per hour, based on m3 and working 12 hour days as he currently does - so 60 hour weeks 39 weeks of the year.

My eldest has been working in Asda for 2 years. So he started there aged 18. He started on over £12 ph doing night shifts due to the night pay supplement . He could actually out earn my DP if he was full time (he's a student). He literally stacks shelves for 8 hours overnight. No responsibility. Has his headphones in listening to music, sending messages on his phone when he likes... not that I begrudge my son this pay, but it just goes to show how a teachers salary starts too low, and stays too low for too long. DP is in his 3rd year of teaching for goodness sake 🙄.

My mum, a recently retired primary head of a one form entry school started her headship around 20 years ago. She was on around 40k. I saw her pay slips as she was going to be guarantor for me for something. 17 years later she retired on £62k, so barely a 1k rise for each year. I never saw her either. Ridiculously long hours. She is much happier now she is retired, and yet she loved teaching and put it over and above everything else in her life - including me. She could have earned so much more elsewhere.

Points of comparison. Over the last 10 years a main scale teachers salary has increased by between 6-8 thousand approx in total.
Over the same period an MPs basic salary has increased by almost £20,000 plus perks. They all start on the same salary £84,144- no graduation.
Teachers don't get perks.

See tables below

With the possible exception of MP's although it'd be hard to spot if half of them went on strike anyway. Since 2010 they have voted themselves 28% payrise. Hands up anyone else who got that.

No, I wouldn’t support it, I think teachers get a pretty good deal already.

What would you say makes up that pretty good deal?