Does anyone NOT support teachers’ strikes?

[Notbeinggoadybut]

I’ve got mixed views. Support that they, as all public sector workers, need a pay rise. And schools need more funding (but the NEU hasn’t badged this as a public reason which is a mistake IMP).

But 12% is a lot when you’re on a £40k salary. The TA’s deserve 12%, the nurses and ambulance drivers with dire conditions and worse salaries deserve 12%. But not from a starting salary of £40k.

Also public services can be dire. I work in one, it can be bordering on a joke and in so many ways such a waste of money. I will be striking on the 1st of February. But I don’t think it’s right - I voted against the strike. I want a pay rise, but don’t feel like it’s right to ask for 10% and strike if I don’t get it.

In 1999, if I'd been called a "fucking cunt" I'd have been shocked and the parents probably would have sided with the school over a sanction.
Meanwhile in 2023, I'm not shocked and the parents often don't care.

That is not what she said. She's since changed her tune.

Op is also striking but complaining about teachers doing the exact same thing

All grades receive inflationary increases?

No they bloody don't, and they haven't for over a decade. That's the point of this strike. Pay has deteriorated significantly due to the lack of inflationary increases.

There should be nothing difficult about teaching at secondary-school level the syllabus content of a subject you love and that you’ve got a degree in, and have been trained to teach

"Teaching", and doing it well, is actually surprisingly complex. It's not just making a PowerPoint and reading it out.

They get peanuts considering the workload outside of teaching. The standards are so high that most non teachers will not understand the pressure. Also those famous holidays that teachers get is unpaid.

I think all of us who know OP has stated incorrect salaries/% increases should report this thread.

You have been corrected numerous times and have chosen not to do so so are wilfully propagating fake news.

Reported.

Starting salary in inner London is £34.5k. £10k is quite a difference when you're talking those kind of figures. No teacher, anywhere, in a state school, starts on £40k. Not even someone with oodles of previously experience doing something related. And some teachers will never earn £40k, if their school has decided to do away with the upper pay scale for anyone who doesn't take on
management responsibility.

"Not much in it, as far as I can see. Why are people supporting nurses but not teachers?"

Because they think nursing looks hard but teaching is easy. They went to school and have kids at school so know exactly what teaching entails. Lazy teachers work 9-3:30 and have lots of holidays. Don't tell them any different because that's just insufferable moaning.

And also because they'll have to arrange childcare for strike days, which is a PITA.

Essentially, the plan is three-fold:

• they want the increase in pay to be funded by the government which frees up funding in schools for other areas. That means more support staff, printers that work, wifi so we don’t have to use our phone data which runs out etc, coloured paper for children with dyslexia, a3 paper for children with vision problems etc etc etc
• increasing the pay makes teaching a more desirable profession so people might actually join and might actually stay. This more time for planning because you’re not permanently covering, more time to plan, fewer duties over lunch, more staff to run clubs so you don’t need to do 5 by yourself, more staff covering detentions so you’re not doing every lunch time, it means getting someone in the science prep room so you don’t have to come in at 6am to prep your chemicals, it means not having to go to Tesco yourself after work to buy pig hearts… it means free time to attend a course on EAL or SEN or Prevent so students are supported and safe.
• being a desirable profession means better people choose to do it and stay in it. It means children get better education from people who know the subject. It means specialists for each child’s needs and for each subject.

It means children get what they deserve.

Why are people supporting nurses but not teachers?

I think it's because nurses have more responsibility in terms of life & death. And the physicality of the role eg shift work plus their pension isn't as good & less time off.

Unfortunately you can't compare the private sector to the public one. Public sector workers (in most cases) won't earn the private sector equivalent because they are paid from the public purse. Private sector is a whole other ball game.

You really have no idea of the financial position this country is in, do you.

and based on perception & personal experience in that most people have gone to a hospital at some point & attending school.

@donttellmehesalive or it could be because nurses went to work during the pandemic and teachers did nothing but moan about how they shouldn't go to work during the pandemic but were quiet happy for the support staff to go in and look after the vulnerable children while they did a shit zoom lesson from home.

Well the parents would say it was your fault. What did you do to provoke him? You've never liked him. Revoke the detention or I'll slag you off on the local fb group maybe even local press.

Except that many of us were in

Wow, I am glad you're not in charge!

And yet it found £7 billion in November alone to hand to energy companies to subsidise bills.

Schools have been told there's no money, very sad since the Tories came in, and yet there is always money found for other stuff. It is a political choice to not invest in education.

It's a vocation

No it isn't.
It's a job.
It's a professional job which required a degree, a post graduate year (in many cases) and two additional years of training on the job to be fully qualified.

We need to get away from the idea that teaching is a vocation.
It's gaslighting from the government and the media and used as an excuse to not fund proper pay rises or the system.

yes I know - thats the maximum according to the Gov - not reality
teachers daughter and grandaughter here - fully supporting the strike

I thinking 'teaching' is actually a bit of a misnomer these days. I work roughly 9-10 hours a day. About 4 or 5 of those are actually teaching. The rest is:
Sorting cover for absent colleagues. Every day.
Photocopying.
Answering emails.
Forwarding emails.
Chasing up data entry/checking
Mindless admin.
Telling kids to follow one way system/remove non uniform etc
Get ignored/ told to fuck off/ shrieked at/ told to stop staring
Break duty
Seeing kids with concerns
Form time
Intervention/guidance
Phoning parents/supervising detentions
Planning lessons/ longer term material/ revision material
Making
Tweaking feedback etc
Setting remote work for absent kids
Professional development.

Tell own kids to go to bed.
Go to bed myself.
Repeat.

No it can't be that because, outside of the Daily Mail, that didn't happen.

Teachers worked through the pandemic. I certainly did and that included school holidays - in school, not on zoom. I wasn't in my school, we were based elsewhere with the vulnerable and keyworker children.

@donttellmehesalive not in the school by house they didn't.
The support staff were in. The teachers were at home

@donttellmehesalive I think unfortunately you’re right to be cautious - I work with people who are generally lovely but talk about their kids’ teachers like they’re The Help. It’s vile.

@TheMoth That’s how I’d describe it for my friends, yes. I’m doing my best to convince them to leave (as are their lovely spouses).