Striking teachers eroding good will?

[bloodyeverlastinghell]

I’ve had to take unpaid leave to cover strike days. So my wages will be down £170
or so this month. Im not well off and that money means going without for a couple of months to make it back up.

I do normally donate time when I can for sports day/ Christmas fair/ bottle for raffle/ baking/ buy school calendar/ bag/ mug with childrens art on.

I got an email to do something for the PPG and is it unreasonable to think that really the school have used up the discretionary time/ money budget for the foreseeable future.

IABU - Suck it up and support the school

YANBU - Parents are having a tough enough time, PPG should delay fundraising, requesting volunteers for stuff.

Calm down.

I value high quality children's education, as we all should.

100% support for the teachers. You should be directing this anger at the tory shit show

The education system already runs on goodwill from school staff. The clubs, planning and supervising residential trips for no extra money or time in lieu, evening productions, many of the nice resources and extras in class come from the goodwill of school staff because they care about the children. There comes a point when enough is enough.

The government should have funded the 5% pay rise (not sure what teachers in other UK countries have been awarded or TAs) rather than requiring schools to fund this from existing budgets. This government has let down the children, parents and staff by not giving a properly funded pay rise hence the strike ballots. A strike is less damaging than school staff working to rule long term.

I don't think there is a strike.

There is in Scotland @converseandjeans 2 days so far with a further day next week and then who knows. Kids were back one day after Christmas holidays and off again because of strike action. While I support the right for anyone to withdraw labour in dispute with employers, the disruption to kids isn’t great.

Ha! What bloody goodwill?

I'd fully support a teacher's strike.
I also donate and help organise and run events to fundraise for the school.
Teaching is a crappy profession to be in atm and if they're at the point of needing to strike I'm only surprised it has taken this long.

I'll be offering to look after extra children in my home on strike days if I'm not working to make it easier for other parents to work. If nobody needs help I'll take my own children down to the school to support their teachers. It's important that my children understand why it is happening.

Also- money that we raise for the school doesn't go towards the teachers' salaries, it's two separate issues!
Teachers are underpaid and schools are under funded for equipment!

I do normally donate time when I can for sports day/ Christmas fair/ bottle for raffle/ baking/ buy school calendar/ bag/ mug with childrens art on.

You are contributing to your child's experience of school. Sorry, but that's got nothing whatsoever to do with teachers' working conditions.

@ScreamingInfidelities

Well for starters, we provide afterschool clubs to support children/working parents. They are completely voluntary and unpaid.

This week alone I have:

*Bought fruit in for my children.
*Gone to the resource store and bought my own supplies because the school are so limited on providing them (I am talking basic supplies such as paper and pencils)
*paid for a school subscription to said resource store

• taken home and washed several pe kits for children
• ran 3 clubs unpaid *attended a school movie night so that a child with extra needs had a friendly face.

Our "experienced" teachers are only 3 years into their careers which leaves most of the subject lead and mentoring duties to a staff largely populated by ECT's to just 3 of us.

I would say goodwill is an understatement. But then nobody notices until you stop and work to rule.

You’re misunderstanding - it’s not teachers’ goodwill being called into question! It’s goodwill towards teachers.

I am a teacher. Have been for 16 years. Im sick and tired of running myself into the ground while Joe Public slates us for being lazy/greedy/part-timers etc.

I was on the picket line with my union yesterday ✊

When still teaching, I had a conversation with a friend about an upcoming day of action which meant she was having to organise childcare; she was genuinely not having a personal go at me, but understandably annoyed.
I remember saying to her then; "It's not the ones who are staying and kicking up a fuss you should be worried about, it's the ones quietly packing their bags and leaving."
They are graduates; they have other options open to them. Even then, there were 9 teachers in the PIT (Pool of Inactive Teachers) for every one still at the chalkface. Some perfectly legitimate reasons, such as retirement, ill health, parental leave etc., but many more moving on to other things.
By the time I retired, I'd been to many a leaving do, and in all that time, only one former colleague had seen it through to full retirement age in the state sector.
When I began my career, there was always an "old stager" to offer support and advice. They were also the ones who spotted the same crackpot schemes being recycled by ministers who hadn't been around long enough to know that it didn't work last time.
Me? I priced myself out of the market by getting too experienced and well-qualified, so ratted out to the independent sector. By then, I had some experience of how unsettling it can be for the children who have been at the school longer than any member of staff.
The sad thing is, given decent conditions, it can be the best job in the world, but I look at conditions now and thank my lucky stars that I'm out of it.

I think this one is on the SNP.

Why? Are they responsible for the NHS? Border Force? Privatised railways in England? The Royal Mail?

And all the other strikes in the pipeline?

YABU- support the teachers and every other striking worker.

FFS! Do you really think the proceeds of the Christmas tea towel sale or whatever goes to line the teachers' pockets? That the teachers somehow benefit from Sports Day? Or do you think it possible that all these things mean extra work for the teachers, coming in on days off to support the PTA events ( as we were recently asked to do) , staying late to plan events and trips? How do you think the children's art gets on the tea towel/mug/card? Who do you think has to deal with reminders and missing forms and finding extra ones for the children who were off that day and missed the deadline but still want to do it? Who misses lunch and the chance of going to the loo or getting coffee in order help your child?
Quite honesty it would be more cost effective and a lot less hassle for the school staff if you were just to cough up a set amount of money a year. But no, we have to jump through hoops just to run the school and provide fun, engaging educational activities for your child.
OP, Your post is quite frankly insulting.
If we don't strike, I think we should have a work to rule. That would make it clearer how much unpaid extra effort teachers and school staff put in.

SNP shit show.

As an aside, they have put taxes up so much in Scotland that any pay deal will be mostly lost in tax.

I pay £1500 a year more tax in Scotland (middle ranking teacher) than I would in the rest of the UK.

Donating doesn’t benefit the teachers. It benefits the children. Stop donating time/money if you want to but it’ll only impact on the children. Btw I’m sure the teachers don’t want to be on strike and lose money themselves, just like all the other sectors on strike at the moment. Direct your anger towards the tragic Tory government. It’s not the teachers who have caused this mess.

Children are being failed by the government. Their education is suffering due to the government.
Teachers are trying to do something about this in the only way they can.

Yes. Work to rule is a much better idea. Although it would probably cause more disruption.

Lolol at PTA.

thst doesn’t pay my bills sucker

Teachers in many schools go way beyond. DH is a Head. In his school, lots of staff:
Make up bags of hygiene goods for the teenagers (80+ bags last term): Shampoo, body wash, facecloths, deodorant, toothpaste, mouth wash, tooth brushes and so on. At almost 70% FSM they have many children who have no access to them.
They run breakfast clubs and the staff subsidize them- bringing extras that they pay for- fruit, bread, butter, jams, cheese to add to the cereals and milk and juice.
Buy sweets and pizzas at the end of term.
They donate uniform items and PE kits- which are all then washed and ironed.
Wash sports team kit
Mend uniforms- textile dept.
Wash clothes and kit when children turn up dirty
Have bought prom clothes for Y11 when there are kids who haven't been going because they can't afford an outfit.
Run lots of lunchtime and after school clubs.
Run holiday revision classes and catch-up.
Provide writing stuff- pens, pencils, coloured pencils, rulers, highlighters etc that they buy themselves- I think most teachers do this. It's in addition to the dept resources because it's easier to have your own spares.

They are not paid for any of it although the school often refunds the prom stuff and, if they get some funding will pay for the breakfast stuff.

Schools rely on teachers doing much more than they are paid for. They work with challenges every day like nurses/doctors/police, of behaviour if children and parents, pressure of examination/test results- it's pretty relentless.

Teachers at the top end of the salary scales are well-paid but younger teachers are poorly paid.

I’m sure lots of teachers do work hard. So do I, to provide the best I can for my dc. Apparently it’s going to be another four days of striking in February and March. Dc don’t get homework on strike weeks so I do think it’s negatively impacting their education as well as making me skint.

I’d be interested to come back to this thread if schools in England/ Wales/NI strike for seven school days and see if people still feel the same way.