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.

Yes I have kids in school. I missed that question

And you are totally unconcerned that they may not currently have a teacher, or certainly be faced with that prospect in the near future?

I don't understand why you are stuck on this "part-time, term-time" vs people like you in a full time job thing. Unless you have averaged 70 hours a week for 6 straight weeks you don't know what it is like.
It’s like when the doctor says “everything in moderation”. You can drink a shot of vodka but 30 of them in one go will kill you.

It’s much easier to work 40 hours a week for 48 weeks, than it is to work 60-70 hours a week for 39 weeks then collapse with exhaustion during the holidays. If you work 40 hours you can keep everything ticking over, you get a bit of sleep and exercise and relaxation and family time every week. Compared to working 70 hours where you can barely function because of the workload and you have a nervous breakdown long before you reach the holidays.

I think, genuinely, the government haven't got their heads around the idea that there is a bit of a labour shortage in the UK right now. That means that people with lots of transferable skills (like experienced teachers) are being snapped up by other industries AND it means new grads have a lot of options open to them.

But then, they're also hurting the supply of new teachers from 2024. So it must be partly ideological- the tories must, on some level, want to reduce the standard of teaching in state schools.

Just checking in on this thread to see if it has descended into a slanderous bunfight about whether teachers are a bunch of low brain capacity, lazy-ass dickwads ✅

I think parents genuinely don't believe it will happen until it happens to their children, unfortunately.

I was going to ask about social workers because a social worker friend of mine was only saying the other day about her backdated pay from April in her December pay packet and seemed happy with the whole situation.

Fortunately we don’t have performance related pay here. Yet.

I generally perform really well, so it isn’t about my earnings before someone else hops on that. It’s about the kids.

It's really not the same, and I've done both (just not in teaching, i did heavy manual work, which is a whole other ballgame and a brand new debate.) But I think we will agree to disagree.

They're nearly left school

Is this what it resorts to when someone disagrees.

@Roseberry1 pretty normal on my last 2 schools. Both large city centre ones. My DH is a teacher of nearly 20 years too, it was normal for him before covid nearly killed him. Now he gets to be a school's only physics teacher on a 2 days a week timetable.

I was going to ask about social workers because a social worker friend of mine was only saying the other day about her backdated pay from April in her December pay packet and seemed happy with the whole situation.

None of my colleagues are happy about it - apart from anything else, waiting 9 months for a salary increase is ridiculous, mind you getting 9 months in a lump sum does mean we at least see the benefit of it. That raise was agreed for April 22, before the cost of living sky rocketed, the next round of negotiations are about to start for April 23, which again will end up actually being paid in December. I suspect things will look quite different this time around.

Because social workers are balloted alongside other workers in a similar grade (most of whom aren’t social workers and have different challenges in their work, workloads etc) it’s hard to get a unified “social work” vote for strike action. Particularly given different unions operate in different local authorities so you’d never get a national strike by social workers.

If social workers were unionised in the way teachers and nurses were, I think we’d be on strike by now.

I am an experienced teacher with over 25 years experience. I will not be striking. The pandemic has caused so much disruption and uncertainty for children, particularly the vulnerable children I teach. They need to be in school.
I would rather the TA's and support staff have a pay rise. TA's have so much responsibility for so little pay.

Do you not get hammered by tax getting 9 months as a lump sum?

Having to wait 9 months for a pay rise seems insane!

I genuinely sympathise as I imagine working in a large city centre school is very difficult all round. However, it's not the reality for a majority of teaching staff who work really hard but don't have your reality.

And you know this how?

I’m alright Jack.

Well, unfortunately, they didn't reach the ballot threshold. They won't magically get a pay rise if teachers put up and shut up.

The vulnerable children I teach still face disruption and uncertainty every day due to staff shortages. They would be much better served by a fully staffed school.

*Do you not get hammered by tax getting 9 months as a lump sum?

Having to wait 9 months for a pay rise seems insane!*

We do indeed, NI is something to behold and folk on universal credit only see about half their patties because of the reductions made against increased earnings. It’s a bloody nonsense but has been that way for the past 3 years, before which we weren’t getting a rise anyway so I guess we should be thankful 🙄

What's that reality?

Your classism is starting to show.

It's become the norm over the past 5/6 years to get your April payrise later on. Admittedly, December 22 was the latest it's been, but I've come to expect it in my September/October pay as standard now.

My job is similar. Senior position in financial services, paid much more than my teacher friend and much better benefits.
Completely different culture, we brought 2000 employees home with full kit, stripped our offices of all required IT, within 48 hours of the first lockdown. Business as usual or we wouldn't have had jobs to come back to.
My teacher friend was still waiting to be told what to do weeks later.
Teaching leadership is no comparison to leadership in the private sector. There will be no decent deal until this is resolved, and it won't be.

I mean, that sounds like a right mess.

It's a real shame you don't have a proper union to fight for you.