2 emails within an hour of each other re strikes and holidays

[OhIdoLike2bBesideTheSeaside]

So my kids school have sent 2 emails out this morning, 1 regarding closure dates for strikes

Fair enough I get it

Then in the next email less than an hour later - the importance of not taking your kids out during term time for holidays and them getting behind!!!

I mean the mums wattsapp is going wild

I think they have a cheek to say that!!

I don’t take term time holidays and prefer not to miss more school after pandemic and strikes anyway so it wouldn’t bother me re the holiday email.

Yes i would be annoyed too. Strikes are unauthorised absence. Why dont they get fined like the parents do.

There is far more parent bashing in this thread than teacher bashing.

The strikes will cause massive headaches and financial cost to many parents. Most will still be supportive of the strikes.

I was sat with a couple of teacher friends last night, pleased with the disruption it will cause, safe in the knowledge they will be free to look after their own kids. I’m tempted to dump mine on them tbh.

These WhatsApp groups sound toxic

If I have to tell her the teachers have now decided not to go to school I think it's going to cause massive issues with her ongoing attendance

If you are worried about her response, perhaps you need to think more carefully about your use of language then. ‘The school is closed due to industrial action’ would probably be more appropriate .

WhatsApp groups for parents are more boring than toxic. There’s a flurry of outrage about one issues or another every so often but mostly it’s about lost property, what day the kids go back after a holiday, non-uniform days and PTA stuff.

In fact I’ve seen far more chat on them about collections for teachers for Xmas/end of year than I have bitching about teachers.

Ya! Cos them fighting for their rights (to a non-toxic work environment), fighting for your child's rights (to a well resourced education), is EXACTLY the same as you going on your hollibobs!

I mean... the idiocy!

The strikes are to try to improve the current diabolical state of the education system.

So parents who are saying their child has had lessons cancelled etc - this is shit. It should not be happening. Teachers are striking to stop this.

Parents talking about their child’s needs not being supported by school - this is shit. It should not be happening. Teachers are striking to stop these children being left to struggle.

Parents who complain that teachers at their child’s school are stupid etc. Apart from the fact that this shows why teaching is such a thankless and depressing job to be in these days. If you want top flight graduates to become teachers, we need to attract them with PAY and CONDITIONS. Teachers are striking to improve PAY and CONDITIONS.

Don’t people want the absolute best for their kids? I don’t get it. If the system is shit now shouldn’t we all be petitioning the government to see it improve? Shouldn’t we all be supporting teachers in saying we want better for our children?

The government fine you for absence.

The teachers are striking to get the government’s attention.

There’s no irony here.

I couldn't do a teaching job, and most definitely since home schooling since the pandemic I really hold the upmost respect for teachers.
They deserve more simple.

This argument gets trotted out time and again. The fact is though that most parents who take their kids out during term time do this either just before or after the actual holidays, so what the kids are missing is golden (play) time, watching a movie or settling back in after the break rather than "learning".

I fully support the teachers. After lockdown showed me I most definitely DO NOT have the skills to teach, I think they deserve whatever they want!

I took my 7yo out of school for 4 days in December. Their attendance is currently 95% (inc those 4 days). My stupid council decided to send out the letter notifying us of the fine during the postal strike. We never received any notification, until we received a final notice warning last week telling us because we didn't pay the fine, we were being prosecuted and legal action would commence! I ended up phoning the council to sort it out and they said they had been inundated with people saying the same thing. Luckily its now been sorted.

What irritates me is the money from fines doesn't even go to the schools. Instead, it's used by councils to fund prosecutions against parents for unauthorised absences. Even 1 day unauthorised is the same fine as 2 weeks out of school.

You can see a black market emerging, where you could suggest to a school to make a "donation" if an absence is marked as authorised haha!

More likely that they know all the pressure on attendance is a load of rubbish and have been happy to take the opportunity to show exactly why.

YANBU they're CF's!

Can we form a 'parents union'? Sorry can't bring my kids in because I'm on strike that day

I bet you are one of those bright sparks who thinks that teachers should also wear uniform.
That said, your ignorance is fairly shocking, so presumably you would say you didn't have good teachers.

Because it’s a strike, not pulling a sickie. Engage your brain.

Exactly this ^

Fortunately none of the teachers where I work are striking but it is a big difference between a whole class missing a day and and having it taught to them the following week and a single child missing a a day and not having it taught to them at all because the rest of the class already had those lessons….

Don’t get me started on letters from the Director of Education about the importance of regular school attendance, whilst the LA simultaneously not identifying suitable SEN provision.

Almost a terms missed schooling here and seemingly no sense of urgency from the LA but I’d have been (quite rightly) prosecuted for failing to ensure school attendance (if one was available).

teachers have no respect for parents and some of them aren’t very bright.
Some people aren’t very bright but it’s not the teachers in your case.

Oh how lovely, another teacher bashing thread.

Haha why don't you become a teacher then if you think it's so well paid! They are crying out for teachers!!

By the way, teachers don't earn anywhere near what you think and put in an enormous amount of extra unpaid hours. All for looking after your little brats darlings. You and your mummy friends in the WhatsApp group chat might want to do some research around the strikes and working conditions, before making statements and MN posts that make you look silly.

Well they don’t get paid on any days they strike…..

yabu

schools don't have a choice about either of these things. school attendance policy is set by government and sanctions against term time holidays have been in place for years, long before the current government. there's solid research showing that kids taken out of school for an annual holiday are measurably behind their peers. they school's ofsted rating will suffer if attendance drops, of course they need to enforce this.

schools also don't have much choice about their staff pay and conditions or the hopeless underfunding from a government that doesn't care. teachers generally only strike if they genuinely think that's in the best interests of the kids in the long run. the alternative isx keeping quiet and leaving the profession asap, and things only get worse.

Do you not think that taking your kids out during term time could lead to them being behind? Bearing in mind other kids are being taught the days yours are off? Do you not think it might be disruptive if lots of parents were taking their kids out at different times?

Strikes are disruptive, they are meant to be. Why not minimize disruption for your own kids by sending them in the rest of the time?
Perhaps some of the disruption might cause parents to vote differently next time. It's the only way out of this mess.