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.

The Tory policy carried on from the collision government is every child from years R - 2 get free school meals and children above that get a free meal to the poorest families (although the threshold isn't high enough). But they can't access that if they aren't in school!

News out today to help put it all in context: Latest data shows teacher vacancies last year were up 66 per cent from the last pre-pandemic year, and the highest on record. Last year the government missed its secondary trainee recruitment target for the ninth time in a decade, and also recruited fewer primary trainees than needed.

schoolsweek.co.uk/school-vacancies-up-two-thirds-on-pre-pandemic-2019-data-suggests/

Based on the huge amount of work DD (Y11) had to do over the Christmas break I assume she will be set additional work to do at home and it will be looked at the next day.

She was off sick with a nasty stomach bug mid December and survived.

Not all teachers are striking and schools will look at what staff they have available to see what provision can be made – the most vulnerable children WILL be made priority, just as they were in lockdown when schools remained open for them.

Coalition (stupid phone)

@ArseInTheCoOpWindow what I'm asking is, is pay performance related or does everyone get the same in terms of % pay increase?

I realise that @ArseInTheCoOpWindow . I’m not sure why you are being arsey with me - I don’t want or hope that it happens at all but I am a little bit - cynical is the wrong word but probably pessimistic is fair - about how successful these strikes are likely to be.

NEU is the biggest union but not everyone in it is a teacher is the first ‘problem’ and schools can limp on for a day or so without support staff.

The second problem is that not everyone in the NEU voted - only just over 50% - which could be down to missing ballots but could also suggest apathy which is harder to deal with.

If you (say) work in a smallish primary school with only seven teachers and Year 3 and Year 2 are NASUWT and the others aren’t union members apart from Year 1 who has decided nobly not to strike ‘because of the children’ then it’s a very brave soul who does strike if it puts a target on their back with the HT. especially if you’re over fifty. Just saying. ☹️

My DF was a teacher for over 25 years but has taken early retirement and a big financial hit just to escape the job he used to love

The unpaid over time was unreal and lack of proper SEN provision meant that he often had to put up with disrupted classes and even being physically attacked by students who were being forced into schools that couldn't meet there needs.

He also had to cope with such increased gov and parental pressure that by the end he felt that actually helping the students learn and grow was no longer a priority

Please support teachers and realise that these are people working incredibly tough jobs because they want what is best for our children

No one will be taking strike action lightly

"I am not a teacher, however run a company and c.70% of staff will not be able to work during random school strikes due to lack of planned childcare."

You want to have a word with your staff then because they've got weeks and weeks to plan their childcare. If 70% of staff can't figure something out with their family members etc with so much notice and the result will be you laying off staff they're idiots and also taking you for an absolute mug.

🤣

It's only a few days- children probably have that many days a month with no teach now in primary as no supply teachers available/ no money.

It wasn’t that long ago people were calling for lockdowns and school closures…

Actually if you look at many of those type of threads it's often teachers, especially at primary and lower secondary, who say that the odd holiday won't affect most children.
It's usually parents who are not teaching staff who have most issues with someone daring to miss school for a holiday,

Teacher pensions are great. Retail workers believe get one.

My son is in year 11. I’m not going to worry unless there is something to worry about. It will only add more pressure to the children. I’m confident that with lessons learned from covid, provisions will be made if necessary.

I wonder what happened to all those parents who decried in lockdown that it was an easy job? Presumably their applications got lost in the postal strike...

Did the unions not accept a pay rise not long ago, so what are they complaining about this time? Seriously

@PattyPices yed, all pay is performance related.

Retail workers can have one, but they won't be anything like the public sector!

I taught myself many whole subjects using revision guides due to awful teaching and got straight As. My English teacher went off long term sick a few months before my GCSE and we had a different supply teacher every lesson. These things happen.

A couple of strike days isn't going to be the be all and end all. And if it did happen to make a difference to grades, then grade boundaries would be adjusted accordingly. You're being a bit over the top. There's no suggestion they're about to go on strike for a month.

No, the teachers will be on STRIKE and therefore will NOT be setting work or looking at it afterwards.

You want to have a word with your staff then because they've got weeks and weeks to plan their childcare

It doesn’t matter how much notice I get, I can’t magic up childcare from nowhere. I don’t have family nearby, parents of my kids friends are having the same scramble I am and, due to additional support needs, my kids can’t access ad hoc childcare, it needs to be someone they know and are familiar with particularly given their usual school routine is disrupted. So it falls to me and the flexibility of my employer. Many people don’t have multiple childcare options for the odd day here or there.

Last year, I taught a Y11 class who did not have a consistent qualified science teacher for half their science lessons (for the other half they had me). That really did have an impact on their grades.

And before you ask, I did ask to change my timetable so I could teach them full time, but that would have just left another Y11 class in the same position.

I've known A-level classes left without a teacher mid year.

I'm striking in the hope that won't happen to classes in the future. A few days is nothing compared to that.

Yep. Meant to finish off the post "but it isn't very good"!

Is it all schools are just the schools who have signed up to that particular union?

If it helps @Jellycatspyjamas i think that I’ve heard schools are going to be open for vulnerable students, not sure if yours fall into that category (I mean because you mentioned additional needs, not any other reason!)