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 would absolutely support the strike. Offering a (much deserved) pay rise with no increase to budget is taking money off the students. That coupled with the rises in energy costs, and our children will not be receiving a decent education due to lack of funding.

There won't be enough support staff. There won't be enough resources. Classrooms will be freezing. School dinners will be of abysmal quality. SEN children will not receive 1-to-1 support. Behavioural issues will take over every class even more than it already has.

Strikes are chaotic, but it's the only way to get the attention needed by this abysmal government.

Why don't people want to be teachers then?

I'm NHS I fully support teachers
MacBooks are already so stretched so trying to give staff a pay rise out of the existing budgets is just crazy!

MacBooks

I mean "budgets" are already so stretched

And that's with the entry requirements lowering over time.

I am that teacher who was at the top of the payscale in 2010. So is my DH.

Support staff leaving promptly is what happens when their breaks are completely unpaid.

I am support staff. I go round different schools supporting children with dyslexia/severe literacy difficulties. I have work to do at home sometimes - it's either that our turn up to my schools unprepared - and it's a long day travelling to schools out of my own pocket. I also buy some resources for the children (eg fidget toys and phonics games) with my own money.

I work 5 days, the full school day.

I take home slightly over £1000 per month. I used to do the standard 1:1 support staff/pupil role, and my current role is more skilled. The pay is exactly the same.

Either way though, it's a modern day disgrace.

I'm a teacher on M6. I have voted to strike.
Yes because of the real term pay cut, but also (maybe just in my mind) because of the way schools have been severely underfunded these last few years.
My school is £70000 is deficit already this school year; our children are the ones losing out. Yet, out of that, my school is meant to fund the wage 'increase'.
It's disgusting what this government is doing to our education system. Children deserve better, especially after the last few years.

If schools are expected to pay for deserved teacher pay rises with no increase to school budgets to fund it then support staff will lose their jobs to pay for it. The money will have to come from somewhere and getting rid of support staff will be the solution in many cases because there isn't a lot of give in most state school budgets.

Yes, vulnerable children will suffer. Yes, teachers will become ever more stressed and stretched thin and ever less able to actually teach and educate.

There are so many things that schools are supposed to do: so many targets to achieve and procedures to follow. I wonder how they think schools will manage all this with fewer and fewer people to do it all.

School staff absolutely need to strike and I'll be there supporting them if they do.

I understand what you're saying But the modern day classroom absolutely could not function without support staff. There would be some children who'd run riot. Some are flight risks and a safety issue. 20 years ago, sure, a teacher flying solo could work. These days it's an impossibility for the majority of schools.

Then there's also the teachers' pension, worth up to £1 million.

Thing is so many different sectors are striking and are getting nowhere. What will you do if it doesn't work? I'm very sympathetic to the cause and the government only said it to shut people up, knowing they wouldn't fund it, the sly g*ts.

Royal Mail have striked that much any pay increase has been negated this year due to being on the picket line.

Also, I'm an adult skills teacher, audited by ofsted, and on £13,500 per year.

If you live up to 130, perhaps!

If schools are expected to pay for deserved teacher pay rises with no increase to school budgets to fund it then support staff will lose their jobs to pay for it. The money will have to come from somewhere and getting rid of support staff will be the solution in many cases because there isn't a lot of give in most state school budgets.

The interesting thing here is that people are cross that in order to give teachers a pay rise (which they really need and is in fact a real terms pay cut), education provision to children will need to be cut to pay for it.

Wait till they find out about the cuts to education provision for their children that are coming in order to pay for pay rises for bankers and hedge fund managers.

Yes I would support all teaching staff in any pay related strikes.

Worth keeping in mind, the strikes are necessarily just about wages, it’s about conditions of work and pensions. Also, as with most lines of work, the management (heads and deputy’s) get paid quite well, it’s the support staff that get shafted.

And legally, teachers aren't allowed to strike over anything other than pay and conditions.

I think for most of us, the funding situation and workload are far more important than the actual pay per se.

As for the £1m pension, who the actual f#@& gets that cos I sure as hell won't be as a standard classroom teacher 🤣

Come work in a care home or as a home carer.
Minimum wage, not a penny extra for bank Holidays, Xmas day, no sick pay...
There's no way we can strike over conditions because we have people to look after.
Sorry, but teachers have an obligation to their students.
It would also be concerning for people who need to work who are already on the breadline who would have to take time off during these strikes to look after their children.

We don’t make much difference to academic results because most of the pupils we work with struggle just to get through the school day and will never pas GCSEs no matter how much TAs or their teachers support them or want them to.
If we worked with pupils in middle sets instead of the lowest sets, I expect we could show more value added. However we still consider it a success if we help a pupil get through the school system without being too unhappy or dropping out, which many more would do without us.

No sick of teachers whinging

Absolutely!

No. Because teachers are not underpaid and children have suffered so much the last few years with lockdown (and still haven't caught up) that the last thing they need is more disruption.

Care homes are suffering the same problem as many public sector areas. People are leaving in droves leading to severe understaffing and an inability for organisations (care homes/schools) to provide a minimum service.

I'm fascinated with the premise that people should put up and shut up for the sake of the service user.

Sorry, but teachers have an obligation to their students.

Telling the few teachers who are left that are holding up the whole creaking edifice that the correct course of action is to just continue to suck up the shit that this government throws at them for the sake of the students is entirely missing the point, that ultimately, when teachers are treated like crap, it's the students who suffer.