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.

You must be paying a large amount of student loan if you are only taking home 1250 on 25k. But so do lots of professionals who went to university.

Also, Asda warehouse pay was not made clear. The average wage for an Asda shop worker is nothing like 11.92ph.

I am a TA in EYFS.

Of course I think that teachers deserve regular and fair pay rises but I don’t actually think teaching is that poorly paid. Of course due to current inflation, a lot of people aren’t earning enough. And we shouldn’t be in this situation.

I don’t have any experience of working in a secondary school but it does seem to me (as the parent of 3 teens) that it is a much harder job. Certainly in terms of staying late and marking etc.

I also think most teachers are in it for more than just the salary. Yes it’s hard, we are so short staffed it’s ridiculous and I know as just a TA I don’t have the same stress and work expectations but I love working in a school, I really don’t think I would get the job satisfaction from working in a shop.

I know I have probably pissed off all the primary teachers, sorry!

WE ARE NOT PAID FOR SUMMER HOLIDAYS. Are you listening? We get 6 weeks' paid leave.

Have you looked into those professions I listed and their pay and conditions? Nah, thought you wouldn't.

I think you probably have as well @Tulipvase

Nurses are NOT well paid!

I would prefer work to rule!

Have you actually looked at your contract to see what the rules are? You'd still have to do all your planning, marking, teaching, duties and any additional hours required to discharge your professional duties.

You could say no to doing clubs and trips.

I would prefer work to rule! I’m just not sure how it would work for newer, less confident staff that are scared to say no

Work to rule can be very effective, though the clause in the UK of attendance about teachers doing all other necessary work to complete the job outside the designated hours makes it a bugger to sort out. I imagine that's why the unions haven't gone down this road.

As a comparison, when teaching in Victoria, the contract is 38 hours week on the premises term time, 7.6 hours per day. That's it. Work to rule very easy to do and very effective.

Listen. What exactly is the point you are trying to make here? It’s hard to tell because this is so bloody ham fisted.

Of course I think that teachers deserve regular and fair pay rises but I don’t actually think teaching is that poorly paid

It doesn't matter what you think if the reality is it isn't enough to recruit and retain teachers.

Even the Tories acknowledge that teacher pay is too low to attract people into the profession, it was in their manifesto to raise NQT pay to £30k (a promise not yet met and a raise that has now been completely wiped by inflation so they are back where they started).

Sorry about the random "attendance".

I know, that's what I just said. You have 13 weeks holiday entitlement but are only paid for the normal amount like everyone else (usually either 20 days plus bank holidays or 28 days plus bank holidays depending on contract.)

For Roseberry getintoteaching.education.gov.uk

If not, why not?

I'd far rather there was a working hours expectations.

I currently do 40+hrs a week and I am part time.

On the up side I am looking forward to all the know alls on here trading in their jobs to join the great holidays, 9-3 easy street of teaching. Mumsnet will solve the crisis on its own eh?!

You have 13 weeks holiday entitlement but are only paid for the normal amount like everyone else (usually either 20 days plus bank holidays or 28 days plus bank holidays depending on contract.)

Teachers do not have 13 weeks holiday entitlement. The school is closed, that's all. If they had entitlement they'd be able to vary their holidays during the year like everyone else.

I agree about the job satisfaction- I get way more job satisfaction working in a school than working in a lab (for example), even if the latter (with the qualifications I have) would be significantly better paid.

However, I do know young single teachers who are making difficult decisions- I used to live in Bristol, but I couldn't afford it on a NQT salary. Many of my teacher friends in that area have moved out, and our former schools are struggling for staff. Equally, some have moved into other industries because they would rather stay in the city.

The thing is, maybe teachers aren't struggling to pay their bills (although everyone's situation is different, and some are) but we are struggling to recruit teachers because the pay is low in comparison to other professions which require similar qualifications (degree plus post grad in most cases). The holidays aren't enough to attract people anymore, and certainly early career there is not so much spare money that people can e.g. go travelling all summer when they are an ECT.

So, I think we either pay more or accept a lower standard of education for our young people. I believe really strongly in high quality education for everyone, therefore I think a pay increase is needed.

(or a workload reduction, maybe, but that is much harder to quantify and enforce).

5 more weeks working hours is quite a lot. The point in the holiday entitlement is most stressful jobs don't get that time to recover.

Its not £1.2k worth a week more though. And no my profession don’t get long holidays to recover and the job is very very hard work, that doesn’t mean I can’t see teaching - when you take everything into account - is a tough gig. I’m usually the first to challenge teachers on some of their more unreasonable complaints but - despite significant disruption to me personally- I fully support them striking.

Because I like the job I'm in 🤷🏼‍♀️ Even though I earn the same as a teacher but working full time.

…

Every teacher I know, really every teacher I know is rooting for their kids. They are also almost all significantly worse off than they were ifs.org.uk/articles/long-long-squeeze-teacher-pay. Not this year, but over significant parts of a career. The strikes are partly about pay, but they are also about valuing teachers which the present government plainly doesn't (and neither do voters really). So yes, there will be adjustments to ensure exams work and teachers miss out.

P.S. I have 3 kids, All of them have had either exams or Uni messed up by COVID No-one complained about the teachers delivering teaching in frankly dangerous conditions then.

Legally, it would be action short of a strike, and in theory you could make that action whatever you wanted (e.g. no marking- I think no planning would be difficult because then you also couldn't teach lessons).

But it would have to go on for a long time to be effective and IMO would genuinely be more detrimental to students than individual days of strike action.

At my school and all our local ones non striking teachers went in as normal, as did TAs and all support staff.

Our school closed the classes of striking teachers but classes with non striking teachers were in as normal.

TAs who supported classes who's teachers were closed did other tasks in school. There's always plenty too so after all.

Right, so the extra holidays and fewer holidays that you keep waxing lyrical about aren't enough to tempt you away from your job.

So perhaps we need to be offering more pay too.

Yes this! I will do one or the other, but both is so draining, especially when there is no end in sight, rather it gets worse every year.

In the past year alone, I was asked by a line manager why I wasn’t working at 9pm once I’d got my baby to bed (knowing that I stayed at work until from 7.30 am-6pm every day and also worked weekends.) I mean, I need to shower and eat and spending just a little bit of time with my family would be nice too. Before I went on my second mat leave in the summer, a pupil threw something on purpose at my 8 month baby bump; he didn’t receive a punishment and I didn’t even get an apology. I’m not naive, these things happen in schools but I expect an apology at the very very least and the fact that I didn’t get one shows the state of management in a lot of our schools. This and numerous other reasons combined with the fact that after 12 years or so, I am just plain tired of being paid for 50% of the hours I work mean that it’s my New Year’s resolution to be out of teaching by 2024. I know many jobs have some unpaid hours but 50% on a very regular basis takes it toll. It makes me sad as I love the kids and the teaching bit of my job but now I have my own family, I’ve realised how difficult it is to balance the constant expectations that you’ll work evenings and weekends whilst simultaneously trying to spend time with your own children and ensure they flourish too!

Extra holidays and fewer hours that should be.

Not enough people want to teach so it's that or no one!

Yes, if any teacher in that school are part of the striking union and chose to strike.