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.

This with bells on.

and clinically vulnerable kids are even more disadvantaged.

what a shitshow we are trying to live in. Kids deserve so much better.

Hopefully TAs will not be covering the work of striking teachers.

'Hire supply teachers to cover striking teachers'
What the fuck??? Do they know what a strike is? If I were NASUWT this would be the straw the sent me to NEU (if the governments introduction of totally undemocratic turnout thresholds hadn't already).

It's really telling that they haven't told any other striking professions to get cover and break strike. They really do show their utter contempt for school staff.

Headteachers have been instructed to keep schools as open as possible by:

• asking other teachers to cover classes,
• asking support staff to cover classes,
• getting in supply,
• preparing a bank of potential people who can cover and be paid a day rate (not teachers or school staff),
• ask anyone will a valid DBS to volunteer to be a warm body in front of the class.

They have also been reminded that no staff to pupil ratios exist above the age of seven so one person (teacher, support, volunteer, anyone!) can supervise on their own with as many children as can fit in one room or the hall. The Department for Education has also suspended the curriculum so no actual lessons need to take place on any strike days even if the school is fully open. It can all be films and colouring.

So compassionate ❤

I will not be covering for striking teachers. My SLT wouldn’t even ask.

The Department for Education has also suspended the curriculum so no actual lessons need to take place on any strike days even if the school is fully open. It can all be films and colouring.

There's their valuing of education shining through. Kids in a school building therefore everything is fine.

A sign of things to come then... although it'll be every day not strike days.

Hopefully all HTs have a moral compass and won't play ball.

are you in the NEU?

No, I am NASUWT (don't get me started).

@ilovesooty - I volunteer in our state primary at least twice a week cooking, reading, IT that kind of thing. So do lots of the other parents. There are often TAs covering for a few hours here and there… With lesson plans it is doable. Depends on how many of our teachers are in the applicable unions. Would not be surprised if the school ask parents with DBS checks to go in and volunteer too if this becomes an ongoing issue. Feel sorry for the TAs though … stuck between a rock and hard place if their teacher in the relevant union and the head telling them to cover!

Aren't both the DfE and Ofsted on strike on 1st Feb anyway?

You can sign up for the NEU too can't you?

I did see something that other unions can strike alongside NEU anyway but I'm not sure of the truth of this.

Totally with you @noblegiraffe. I am so angry that my own kids are having to deal with the current shitty system. I'm only staying in it because I seem to be in some kind of co-dependent relationship with teaching, whereby retraining to do anything else will take up lots of time that I don't have because I teach, and will cost lots of money that I don't have because I teach.

Honestly, a Head that puts staff in that position really doesn't deserve to retain staff - they clearly don't value them.

Indeed, the problem there is I don't want to sign up for the NEU, I have some fairly fundamental ideological disagreements with them and I don't want them to speak for me.

NAS are planning to reballot.

Excellent - fingers crossed for smashing that undemocratic threshold - the irony of that being upheald by a PM with an election turnout of.... 0%

I've seen a couple of replies that are very obviously aimed at my post.

To reiterate, I fully understand why they wish to strike, Iam aware it goes much further than pay, as with Nurses, Paramedics and railway workers.

However, in the immediate time frame, with exams very close by, and a child already struggling with severe mental health issues after lockdowns and disruption, I would rather they didn't strike now.

My child is my immediate priority. Their education has been very good for a state school because the Head is wonderful and goes out looking for opportunity for the school fund. That is not a dog at other schools merely an observation.

I've had quite literally had them hysterical on the phone to me because they've opened their mock exam of the day, 4 times now over two days, and have been so scared, anxious and crying they haven't answered more than a few, if any, answers. They know the answers. Their teachers have been great. But that disconnect between sitting in a regular classroom and at a desk, in silence, with a test in front of them is huge. They're exhausting by it all, to the point they have just gone to bed now. They're depressed as hell, we cannot get help from our GP because his answer was firstly "Camhs has a 3 year wait just for triage" and "which teen isn't anxious after lockdowns, I hear it daily, you should take them swimming or for a day out to cheer them up". And our GP surgery is considered the best here.

I am now selfish for worrying more about the immediate few months for my kid than teachers. Strikes will do nothing, the Tories don't care, they are already banning protests and next will be sacking people. What good will that do? When they are sacked? There will be even less staff then.

I don't believe they have it easy, never said anything of the sort, I imagine it's a bloody thankless task.

But right here, right now, my main concern is the affect any more disruption will have my child.

OK reading the above government guidance which our head always follows to the tea… there will be no school closure! Even if all the teachers are in the NEU. We also have too many lawyers in the parent group who will be right on the ball and call the teacher out and put pressure on the governors too. So if heads and support staff are not striking this isn’t going to have the impact the NEU might be hoping for. Government should at least give schools an extra supply budgets!!

Until last term I was doing supply and had been for a few years as my main gig. I'm in the NEU. So are most other supply staff I know/have encountered and discussed this with. So who's going to be doing the supply?! Absolute nonsense.

But is the government guidance legal? Doesn't sound it! The lawyer parents could turn their attention to that!

It's not just the children with a household income of over 7400 who miss out on free school meals. If you receive working tax credit and have an income below the (ridiculously low) threshold then your children don't get free school meals or pupil premium either. Threshold for free school meals should be the same income as the one for free prescriptions (which is about £16k I think).

Headteachers are also stuck in the middle between parental demands/ governors vs striking teachers. Most parents will be against this just as many opposed Covid closures.

The poll at the top suggests otherwise.

@HerReputationMadeItDifficultToProceed - “preparing a bank of potential people who can cover and be paid a day rate (not teachers or school staff),” - that will be the army of retired teachers?!!