The government can get in the fucking bin pretending to care about education

[noblegiraffe]

The government have issued guidance for schools on strike days:

Prioritise vulnerable kids (now they care? After destroying SEN and mental health services?)

Provide lunch for kids on FSM (the ones they voted not to feed during covid school holidays? And if they care about hungry kids, why have they not raised the threshold for qualifying in line with inflation? Thousands of kids going hungry because they don’t qualify as family income is over £7400, same as in 2018).

Hire supply teachers to cover striking teachers (with what money? And fuck off)

Make sure tutoring happens (using the governments’ failed National Tutoring Programme it doesn’t happen at the best of times)

The government are apparently very worried that pupils might not have teachers on strike days although they don’t give a shit that they don’t have teachers on non-strike days.

The government are very concerned that children’s educational recovery from covid will be set back - while refusing to fund the covid catch-up package that their own advisor recommended, and they have basically left children to just get on with it.

If the government actually cared about education, about vulnerable kids, about hungry kids, they’d be funding these things.

Time they put their money where their mouth is.

And if anyone asks where this money is going to come from, ask Nadhim Zahawi.

Would you rather they issued no guidance?

I’d rather they addressed these issues every day, not just on strike days.

If it’s important on that day, then it’s always important, right?

they haven't issued any guidance. They have just issued a confirmation that they have never in their lives existed on the same planet as a state school

The Tories don't want a well educated general population. Occasionally they have to throw the plebs a bone which is all any of this is.

I was going off the guidance that OP said they had issued.

Think you missed the point there.

The government are apparently very worried that pupils might not have teachers on strike days although they don’t give a shit that they don’t have teachers on non-strike days.

This. Also true for ambulances.

so am I

Supply teachers?

Tutoring?

They are not talking about any education system that I recognise, and I have worked in the English state system for decades

NASUWT have told members not to increase their duties or workload to compensate for striking colleagues so a lot of what they're advising won't happen.

I do not work and pay tax to feed other people's kids.
I do not expect anyone else to feed my kids - they are my responsibility - not the tax payers.
I am sick of people who have no money having loads of kids then getting out the begging bowl to me as a taxpayer.
Everyone on the planet says they have mental health problems the taxpayers can only pay so much.
These days if someone has an argument at school its a mental health issue - whereas it is in fact just part of growing up and learning to deal with conflict.
The govt spend billions on covid - furlough kept millions in a job and hundreds of thousands of companies alive.
If you care so much just give a contribution from your own salary - do not expect me to pay more.

If they cared about children..

They would raise the eligibility for FSM and make it auto enrollment. Something like 100000 are not receiving them as you have to register.

They would make the SEND system accountable instead of stripping a child of a significant piece of provision and funding for that provision as they don't fancy offering it anymore. Leaves the family pursuing appeals processes for a year and usually needing to fund independent reports.

They would make sure the right adults want to be teachers.

They would fund the payrises they are boasting about so resources aren't being removed directly from the children.

They would ensure childcare is accessible and affordable for all.

They don't give a shit.

They are just quoting Tory policy.

somebody fed you when you were a child, you hadn't earnt it, but you were fed, or you wouldn't be here now

This.

The government haven't cared about state education for years. Instead of speaking to, and working with, education professionals to find out what's really needed, they pay lip service by declaring grand ideas about tutoring and paying NQTs 3 grand more. They refuse to see that schools are being stripped to the bone - programmes like ELSA and Lego Therapy and nurture services are being dumped, qualified teachers are leaving and not being replaced, schools have no budget for paper or to replace old/broken things. Not to mention the shit show that is SEN right now.

It makes me so angry. And yet all we can strike about is pay. Of course, that makes it look like that's all we care about when, for 99% of teachers, it is everything I listed above and more.

Also, as a parent of two "vulnerable" EHCP children who are expected to be offered a place and attend. If they cared about these children they would know that knowing until the day is detrimental. They would know attending a completely screwed up school day is detrimental. They would support the schools to support their vulnerable children in the most appropriate ways in the eyes of the schools. I'd much rather school say to me next week they aren't sure re staffing and allow me to make a decision to keep them home to home learn regardless so I can prepare them.

If you care so much just give a contribution from your own salary - do not expect me to pay more.

Are you Nadhim Zahawi? Have you dodged millions in tax that could suddenly be paid when you get caught?

It turns out there is a magic money tree and it involves making rich people pay the tax they owe.

The vulnerable kids need to be in school argument fucks me off. What are you doing to support those kids on the weekends or during the holidays? Fuck all. Let's just hide the mess of social care by pretending schools can do it all. But we won't give them any money to provide that care with, even though schools are doing more and more with less and less.

I hate to tell you this, but this govt. just doesn't give a shit about kids, let alone their education.

They fail on a very basic fundamental. If you do not invest in your young, your country is setting itself up to fail, 20 years down the line. This starts with prenatal care, maternity, early years, dental, and vaccinations (I mean, what kind of a backward country doesn't vaccinate against Chickenpox), school, mental health, college, apprenticeships, Uni and local community (volunteering, youth clubs, sports facilities.

I have lived in 4 other countries and I tell you, it is a shit show here. They just don't care about our children, or us. They just want to fleece you of taxes till you drop, and then get you to spend any you have left on expensive houses, cars, overpriced food and then in the shops till you are in debt. Hopefully, you will drop down dead before they have to pay you one of the lowest pensions in the EU.

What do the teachers who are not part of any union do on a strike day, do they just go in as normal and cover in as far as they can? Only 50% of teachers are actually in a union, so there must be some cover available??

"The vulnerable kids need to be in school argument fucks me off. What are you doing to support those kids on the weekends or during the holidays?"

Me too. My child is vulnerable ( through severe disability requiring 2:1 care ) and has a parent undergoing treatment for cancer. We have no support at home and health and social care are fighting amongst themselves about if anything should be provided because they have no money.

You’re a delight!

The government are apparently very worried that pupils might not have teachers on strike days although they don’t give a shit that they don’t have teachers on non-strike days.

Like they might not have ambulances on strike days as opposed to not having ambulances on non-strike days either. At least they’re consistent in their gaslighting.

No, they will be refusing to cover for striking colleagues so as not to undermine their strike action.