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.

What do you mean in this context by working to rule? If you mean "working to the letter of the contract" then unfortunately there is a clause in STPCD which states "a teacher must work such reasonable additional hours as
may be necessary to enable the effective discharge of the teacher’s professional
duties, including in particular planning and preparing courses and lessons; and
assessing, monitoring, recording and reporting on the learning needs, progress
and achievements of assigned pupils". I.e. the work takes as long as it takes.

In terms of action short of a strike e.g. not running clubs, trips, maybe not completing marking etc- I think this would have minimal impact on wider society and so not be impactful, whilst being really detrimental to students. A few short sharp strikes will hurt students less, but hopefully be noticed by wider society more.

Is that term time positions?

We did action short of strike action in 2011. It was shit. We still had to do all the crappy bits of teaching because they're in our contract but weren't supposed to do trips and clubs.

Perhaps you are right. I don't think so, but let's imagine you are. There are plenty of post in teaching, and a real shortage, so we have to assume, don't we, that those who would have previously considered a career in teaching are, in fact, earning more elsewhere doing other things. Otherwise how do you explain the lack of teachers? That being so, it's not a good package is it, because otherwise people would take it.

I'm sick of being a two teacher household and being broke. See you on the picket line!

Parents should be worried about this:

£25 k for working term time is not a low salary!

Most of us spend a considerable amount of time working/planning during the holidays. It took me a week just to move classrooms after not being allowed to take down a display on the last day of term.

@noblegiraffe

I’m not worried.

I just hope the strikes have some sort of desired effects. What’s happening on a day to day basis is much more worrying than a few days strikes. The conditions need to improve. Are you hopeful?

As an NQT I earned more than the majority of my graduate friends.

Now, 20 years later they all earn way way more than me.

The starting wage is quite good I think to try and draw new teachers in.

The wage does not increase at the rate it should to retain experienced teachers and reflect their skills and commitment.

Can you give me some examples?

Especially for science and maths and language grads, where it is especially hard to recruit qualified teachers.

You're really out to object to teacher's right to strike no matter what their pay. I get the feeling that if we were paid half our salary you'd think it was enough.

There are many jobs poorly paid, yes, it's not a race to the bottom.

With my skills, experience and the impact I have on young people I should be able to run a household and not worry about paying the gas bill. Here in Scotland we need a degree in what we teach, plus a PGCE, so 5 years for me, then 28 years' experience. I'm seriously thinking about applying to be a train driver- after 5 years I'd be on £55,000.

I made a comparison to Asda on page 1 because I would be equally well off working a similar number of hours in Asda as I am working as a fully qualified teacher.

My salary would be vastly different, but the money in my bank account wouldn’t.

I support the teachers 100%

All these stupid comparisons to Asda are just that..stupid. someone working at Asda ..how often do they stay on after shift and work unpaid?

Infact all of those moaning who earns what teachers do and still do huge numbers of unpaid hours like they do?

Why don't you go teach if you think they have it so good compared to you.

You sit and moan about your children's education and blame teachers, and Bury your head in the sand when the government has messed up their education by stripping funding.

How dare people demand to be paid appropriately oh no lets just race to the bottom eh. Meanwhile the elite get richer whilst you fight amongst yourselves.

Teacher recruitment and retention indicates otherwise.

someone working at Asda ..how often do they stay on after shift and work unpaid?

Actually - and this does not in any way shape or form denigrate the excellent work teachers do - but this is fairly common even in very low paid work: it is appalling.

Teachers' - stupid predictive.

Is that term time positions?

Its a full time post with 6 weeks annual leave plus public holidays, so in reality close to 8 weeks holiday. Based on a 39 week teaching year it’s just 5 weeks more actual work.

Why?

I assume things like pension contributions? But then, you get the benefit of a much better pension than someone who works in Asda.

If strikes happen they will only be a few days. If it helps when I was in year 11 I had a really crummy geography teacher I received terrible grades in the mock exams. A couple months before the real exam I bought the revision guides and started really revising hard at home. Got an a in the real thing. They can teach themselves it may even be better than going to school 😳

Only if you manage to work in teaching long term- those who quit teaching after 5-10 years won't get much of a pension, but have still lost that money from their pay packet.

It's also stuff like student loan repayments etc.

I wonder if the schools will be handing out fines this summer to parents taking kids on holiday during term time, quoting that is vitally important to not miss any days of education....

Well, somehow, it's become a thought that someone who has qualifications, like a lot of people nowadays, particularly since the Blair years where every Tom, dic, and Harry went to Uni, is earning 25k as a starting salary working 39 weeks a year with a good pension and full sick pay is somehow on a rubbish deal.
In the real world, plenty of hard-working, qualified people are working in stressful full-time positions where they don't get 13 weeks to recover from their shit stressful jobs, and they are earning £25 k too, but that's not a term time salary in their starting year.

I'm genuinely shocked at this pay. I thought it was 24/25 k as a FTE pay.

Teachers used to be willing to accept a lower salary relative to other similarly-educated professionals because the working conditions and holidays made it worthwhile. They are no longer accepting the workload that goes with that salary and the holidays are not enough of a carrot.

Schools don’t fine parents, the LEA does.

Well, that policy crossed over to complete and total piss take at some point during covid. The strikes can't make it any more ridiculous!