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.

But they're not disrupting the government. They're disrupting children. The government won't care.

@noblegiraffe I have emailed my MP, he's Labour and I have met him a number of times, he actually kindly said he would pass it forward and said he totally got my feeling that I have total empathy for them but obviously am in a terrible position as the parent of a teen imminently taking extremely important exams.

Strike days are the least of your worries. Pretty soon schools won't be able to open because they won't have the staff.

This is already happening I think. Last year my son's school had to close to some year groups due to staff (or children of staff) sickness and there simply not being enough cover available to open safely. Even if there were enough supply teachers around, school budgets don't allow endless use of supply teachers.

And just recently we have had another letter to say that the school might have to close to some year groups again.

This didn't used to happen, but in my experience there are far less support staff than there used to be, and therefore no slack in the system when teachers (or there children) are predictably ill in the winter.

obviously am in a terrible position as the parent of a teen imminently taking extremely important exams.

There are parents out there in the terrible position of their teen imminently taking extremely important exams and their teen not having a teacher.

Strikes are disruptive, yes, but in a far less destructive way than this government's approach to education.

Someone (Barclay?) was on the radio about ambulance strikes saying that people needed to know that if they had a heart attack on a strike day that they would be able to phone 999 and get an ambulance.

Like, how do they have the fucking gall to come out in public and say these things?

Kind of ironic. Openly admitting that kids would go hungry without schools because of the dire levels of poverty their government has created.

"Prioritise vulnerable kids" doesn't work in special schools where all the kids are vulnerable. Meaningless guidelines, just like they had during lockdowns 🙄

@noblegiraffe You forgot to add two things in your OP:

• Teachers expected to provide online learning in the event of year group/ school closures.
• Ofsted still doing inspections if they deem a school to have sufficient numbers.

The former easily gets around the refusal to cover - just get a HOD to set work for all students in the event of year group closures.

The Ofsted thing is just a joke. They were on strike themselves not long ago, how on Earth could anyone take an inspection even halfway seriously if you have, say, a third of your staff off and they decide to waltz in.

I've been saving this up since before Christmas for the 'the public sector have it so easy' brigade. One for the social workers out there, too!

www.theguardian.com/education/2022/dec/21/teachers-and-social-workers-suffer-most-from-lost-decade-for-pay-growth-in-uk

I'm a bit confused as Gillian Keegan seems to be making entirely different noises about guidelines from what is being said more widely

^After Rishi Sunak’s minimum service levels bill that would restrict strikes passed its first stage in the Commons overnight, Keegan suggested that legislation would not be used to keep all schools open during stoppages.
She said the focus on minimum service levels was initially designed for “health and transport” but suggested it could be used in future disputes “to keep schools open for vulnerable children, in particular. That is something we very much learned during the pandemic,” she told LBC. “So yes, we are part of the bill, but at the moment, the focus initially will be on health and rail and then when we get to that stage, obviously, we’ll consider what is reasonable.”^

^ agree with all of this

Here here. It's all just PR spin for the media to try and hide how they are actually treating children in state education. People will probably be fooled by them again though.

My dd school can't get teachers on a non strike day. I'd love to know where they are all going to come from?

As for the poster that thinks dc should starve- that's an attitude that in Britain went out with the Victorians, I think it's disgusting to read it in this day. How fucking backwards are you?

@Piggywaspushed thanks for that - it doesn’t remotely surprise me that social workers are at the bottom of that list, the only time the media is interested in social work is when somethings gone wrong. Standing with my teaching colleagues at the bottom of this particular list is no surprise whatsoever.

Fully support the teachers’ strike. The Toris treat teachers like slaves and have destroyed a decent education system for no reason other than they only cared about Brexit, immigration, and grandstanding foreign policy.

They have no idea what governing a country is supposed to involve.

Parents don’t have a clue what it’s actually like in schools now. Hence the “strikes are worse for my kids’ education than a continuation of the current situation” arguments. If they knew the quality of the schooling that their children were actually receiving they would be appalled. Or the conditions that teachers and TAs are working under.

You've worked in state schools for decades and never heard of a supply teacher? Pull the other one.

My DH is a teacher and HOY. DB also a NQT…each in different countries of the UK…This is accurate.

Lost count of the times he’s come home at his wits end with hours worked, feral kids, absolute lack of respect from parents and their children alike, no funding, no support.

DB was ready to bin it off after his first year. DH is now under occupational health after being assaulted by a kid.

The number of parents that think schools exist as free childcare, free meals or to basically parent their kids for them is staggering.

I wholeheartedly support all teachers and support staff

Honestly this country is going to be a complete mess in 20 years time when all these kids are adults. Flagrantly neglected by the government and stuck on ipads as childcare because their parents are working 70 hours a week just to stay alive. I dread to think what that's going to look like as a society.

Lots of us have dc sitting exams this year. The government needs to pull its finger out and negotiate a settlement. This isn't the fault of the teachers.
It's not a good example to children to put up with shit forever.

They are clearly meaning that these generally are like hens teeth these days

@Forfrigz

Frightening isn’t it?

The govt only cares about passengers when rail workers strike, only cares about patients when us nurses strike, and only cares about state school pupils when teachers do.

They can very much get in the fucking bin

I laughed so hard when they complained about the unions respecting the 'very close vote'. Ok, tell that to first past the post and Brexit...

Thanks @noblegiraffe - are you in the NEU?
I still have one DC in state primary. Support staff are not striking and neither are headteachers. I have no idea if any of the actual teachers are actually in the NEU. I am sure our head will let us know in due course if it impacts our school - in any event we have enough TAs to cover the days. Is that actually legal though?