To be really worried about proposed teacher strikes.

[katedan]

In England not Scotland for context. My twin daughters are year 11 and I am terrified about the impact of teacher strikes on their GCSEs. They have not yet covered the curriculum and every day counts to get them exam ready so strike days will be disastrous for year 11 and 13 pupils ( and lots of other children especially those who are vulnerable) these kids have had their education impacted by covid and now strikes. This will make the divide between state and private schools even bigger. Do you think they will go ahead or if a safety net will be put around exam years if it does.

For who?

No. Teachers in their first year teaching are on £28,00. It goes up to £43,685, outside of London.

Yanbu to be worried. It is going to affect more working people and therefore more businesses than the ambulance/nurse/rail strikes.

Just wondered if any teachers/TAs on here know what would happen re TAs' pay if school closes due to teachers striking?

Support staff will still go in (with non-striking teachers) and do their normal hours and do admin/tidying/filing clearing/displays etc

Teachers? Who aren't newly qualified

It's so shit that it's come to this.

Is that the FTE?

Did you have consistent maths teaching when you were at school? How many terms were you taught maths solely by supply staff or non-specialists?

I suspect there are quite a few government social media workers on the thread!

Let’s be clear - it is the GOVERNMENT who are having a serious detrimental effect on children’s education. The government have under funded schools for years.

Schools are having to fundraise not just for extras but for things like glue sticks and soap. SEN children are struggling in mainstream when they and schools can’t cope as they don’t have the support in place. There is a massive shortage of teachers as no one wants to be one - the pay isn’t worth the long hours, stress, threat of violence and lack of respect. Classes are being supervised by non qualified office staff or taught long term by TAs with no support.

What is FTE, sorry?

Sorry, missed her other posts.

I work in a small business of 10 people. All but 3 of us have primary school age children. It will not be possible for quite a lot to work through strikes (wfh not at all possible). People will be complaining on Mumsnet how it's not possible to get tradesmen to do work on their houses.

Most teachers on M1 are not getting the £28,000. Most academies can't afford it so they are still paying £25,714- to teachers who have budgeted to be on the higher salary.

This is why any pay offer is meaningless unless it is funded and MATs are forced to honour it.

Shame they couldn’t have done it in the autumn.

It’s going to be perfect fodder for little Oli, Amelia and their parents to cry and say this is why they got a D in their English exam.

It’s going to be unbearable.

Sorry, Full Time Equivalent. As in that would be the salary if they worked full time as opposed to term time pro rata?

No, that’s the salary they should be paid, but I do think you’re just being deliberately provocative now.

However referrals will go through the roof when schools close due to strikes and the safeguarding of vulnerable children will be difficult as kids will be in homes where they are not safe

Schools are part of a network to safeguard children - some children spend a high proportion of time in homes where they are not safe, over night, weekends and holidays and social services manage to safeguard children during those times. It’s a particularly shit form of emotional blackmail to effectively blame teachers exercising their legal right to withdraw labour for children being unsafe.

Besides which if social services were resourced properly, teachers wouldn’t have seen a huge increase in their safeguarding duties (which they are barely trained for, not paid for and don’t have time for), which would mean they could focus on actually teaching children which is their area of training and expertise.

This

Sorry what's the salary they should be paid? Is the £28k the Full time equivalent or the pay pro rata?

Like what? What mathematical concepts are you referring to?

May not be that the pace of learning is 'slow' in comparison to your generation or previous ones but rather that there is a lot more to teach due the National Curriculum which was not created until 1988 and has only become increasingly extensive.

I agree that pay is not the only reason to strike - conditions are terrible too for both teachers and pupils.
I’m interested to know how you came up with £30 per hour. Primary school teachers work an average of 48 hours a week. Even at the top of the pay scale (which takes over a decade to reach) that works out as about £24. For a new teacher it’s about £15. Over 25% or teachers work more than 60 hours a week so their hourly rate is even less.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-49728831.amp

Thank you for this. Weird these issues didn't come up when the two bank holidays were announced too?

I've read what you've said about social workers on this thread, and it's such a shame you don't have a dedicated union to fight on your behalf. Underfunding of social work is a major issue in this country, and harms vulnerable children (and others) so much.

'Supply teachers' hardly exist anymore. They are too expensive. When teachers are off, or there is a shortage in a subject area, the kids are taught by 'cover supervisors' who have little or no qualifications. I know because my husband was one, in an outstanding school! He taught Y7,8,9 Maths. He had no teacher training and had not even been a TA for a number of years. He's luckily quite good at it, but this is what you are getting.

They are paid the £30 per hour in the classroom. They aren’t paid for all the prep and marking. This takes it down to £10 per hour.

Always maths teachers. Not that the material is tricky at age 12 or whatever. It's at the level of a literal child.

My dad was an electrical engineer, so he filled in the gaps between teacher incompetence and what a person might need to know if they want to get somewhere in life. My general memory of school is that most of the time I'd have been better off reading a book. I could have had the syllabus cracked in a year then done things more relevant to my development