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.

I think they hoped that technology would take over and that classes in multiple schools could be taught by one teacher via zoom. Lockdown and remote learning showed that was bobbins, really.

(this was a serious suggestion that had been doing the rounds for a few years about how to deal with the lack of maths teachers).

I’m surprised that didn’t work out. What with kids these days being digital natives.

Tech can’t replace teachers but it can certainly assist. There are so many amazing websites now from White Rose Maths all the way to Dr Frost Maths etc One of my DC has also just discovered Crash Course Chemistry. Can’t replace a teacher but can certainly help a pupil. Plus the free sites are great when teaching is lacking, which it certainly can be sometimes due to staff shortages, disruption by other pupils. At least there is some information online now if a pupil is driven.

Nadhim Zahawi has just paid back millions that he owed in taxes (and which a less Tory person would have gone to prison for dodging)

How odd then that the Independent newspaper have covered themselves by adding this statement to their article...
There is no suggestion of any wrongdoing by Mr Zahawi,

I do find it interesting that some are so upset about the strikes and concerned that children will miss vital education when last week there was a thread about taking a child on a skiing holiday in term time and nearly everyone encouraged it suggesting that a week off wouldn't make much difference.

Either way people really do need to open their eyes, the Tories are once again pulling a fast one and relying on people to get riled up about the one things. The tories only care about children when there's something in it for them.

I'm sure the litigious Mr Zahawi made sure of that.

If he hadn't done anything wrong, he wouldn't suddenly be paying millions in back taxes, would he?

Can’t replace a teacher

No, you can't.

I assure you we have no supply teachers

Sure you don't

noblegiraffe
(a less Tory person would have gone to prison for dodging)

Why can't 'a less Tory' person do this?

What happens after the HMRC investigation process?

After the check, HMRC will write directly to you or your accountant about your results. You may be eligible for a refund if you have paid too much tax and may also get interest on the amount you’re owed. You may, however, be asked to pay additional tax within 30 days if you owe more and you’ll normally have to pay interest from the date the tax was due. You may also have to pay a penalty. If you do experience any problems in paying back, inform the officer who is dealing with the check.

and as for the money made available for catch up tutoring after the pandemic, headlined as £40 for an hour....

£40 for an hour tutoring up to 6 students, plus and hour writing out plans and submitting them, plus half an hour photocopying, setting up, clearing away, plus half and hour to an hour assessing, plus half an hour to an hour reporting back to parents.... = under the minimum wage..... then you get taxed....

then add to that the fact that NONE of this can be done in normal school opening hours, that it is done outside of those hours, and you need premises, and at least two teaching staff present......

and then add to that the fact that you might volunteer for this extra work BUT you might not actually know which subject you will be allocated to teach, and it might not be a subject you have ever taught before, or have any qualifications in....

and of course, schools have not exactly been overrun with volunteers for this

so you can see why I raise my eyebrows at the suggestion of schools ensuring that tutoring continues during strikes, when they cant make it happen on the government terms in the first place

Clav, it wasn't an admin error, he owed millions.

Clav, it wasn't an admin error, he owed millions

It has been described as a "dispute" - clearly some tax disputes go to court - others settle;

Feb 2021
HMRC shells out millions in legal costs after losing tens of cases

www.cityam.com/exclusive-hmrc-shells-out-millions-in-legal-costs-after-losing-tens-of-cases/

Hmmm.

For the record I wasn't on that thread and I deploy people who take their children out of vital education for a jolly.

So no, not everyone on this thread would agree with a sneaky holiday.

HTH

@ReformedWaywardTeen Thank you but no help required, I clearly said 'some' rather than 'all'.

I’m with you OP. I’m in a union (not NEU) and absolutely will not be covering for striking staff.

My two nearest secondaries (one my niece will attend) don’t have a single physics specialist on staff. Round here you can only get physics teachers in grammars or private, and even then it’s incredibly difficult to get someone good. I’ve seen Head of Physics be advertised multiple times by some very good schools, because they find it so hard to get anyone decent.

I’m a physics specialist. I’d rather chew my own arm off than go back to the shitshow of state education. I couldn’t hack the feeling of failing all the time - trying to plug gaps in social services and mental health, supporting SEN with little help or training, managing poor behaviour with neither parental backup nor support staff, having great ideas about teaching but being unable to use them because the school can’t afford the extra fucking paper.

It has now gone too far. Either educating children is important (so needs to be funded properly) or it isn’t (so let’s just get rid of the damn whole system). Obviously I’m very pro option 1 - proper funding. But I wish the government would just come out and admit they’d prefer the second option.

But what does it become? All private? How on earth does that work?

I don't think they want private education, I think they're just chill with shit state education.

School buildings are falling down too....they'll worry about that later.

I suspect they’d happily let schooling descend into nothing more than childcare. No actual education for the kids, but something to keep them out of the way so parents can keep working (for poverty wages) whilst business owners (them and their mates) get richer.

My kids often have a maths lesson which involves them sitting in the gym with another class, being supervised by someone from the school office whilst they do homework/play games on their computer.
I am a TA, we are 2 TAs short in my school as no one wants to be one. It’s hard work. We have SEN children who are not best served by being in mainstream as there isn’t the support for them. Today I went out and bought a snack for a child with my own money. I also bought glue sticks a few weeks ago. Neither the teacher or I can afford to be buying equipment and food from our own pockets but we do. Bloody MPs have subsidised food, second homes, expenses, a lot more holidays than teachers and we pay for their Christmas parties too!
The government have run schools and the NHS into the ground. There isn’t enough staff for either of them and no wonder given the atrocious working conditions.

Transferring all schools into academy trusts would allow them to reduce fundings to councils (potentially) and to claim that all teachers were now employees of the trusts not public servants. As such, they could get rid of the teacher pension service and have each trust replace it with their own much less secure system. Privatisation by the back door and under a different guise.

Just off the top of my head.