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.

What bollocks

And conditions ? Funding ? Recruitment ? Retention ? Work life balance ?

If you say so @FrodisCapering

And when I say that the education system has crashed into a wall, post-covid, do you know what I'm talking about?

@MrWhippersnapper thanks for your comments. Not sure why you can't accept that I have encountered mainly left-wing views and ideology within the State system? I respect other people's views but it's not for.me.

And my second comment ?

I came to the conclusion last year that I should not care what uk society thinks of teachers - I’m well paid. I do my job well and will happily accept the payrise and strike if I choose too. I used to get really annoyed by the teacher bashing now it doesn’t bother me.

It’s just people’s opinions and to be honest it would take a major overhaul of people’s and the governments attitude towards to teachers to massively change. But I don’t think it will. The respect towards teachers in Europe and other countries I’ve taught in is vastly different to the UK. I think the main issue is that we are still seen as childcare/Nannie type providers instead of actually being responsible for educating and that is why many are so upset.

@MrWhippersnapper well, as I've said, I work with teachers every day so I'd say I have a fair idea of what's going on.

I agree @Hoppingroo and don't forget that so many people believe themselves to be experts in what teachers should do because they themselves also once went to school.

And when I ask you "when I say that the education system has crashed into a wall, post-covid, do you know what I'm talking about?"

What's your answer, @FrodisCapering ?

Surely if you work for a TT provider you work with trainee teachers on a daily basis. Not actual teachers in the job. Slightly disingenuous.

Most teachers I know are apolitical. Or do you mean you consider them lefties because they're now striking?

I'm really interested in this left-wing teacher accusation.

I was a primary teacher. I didn't teach left wing phonics or left-wing maths. I didn't teach political anything. I taught the National Curriculum, which is set by the Government. If you have a problem with the content, then maybe write to your MP?

What are teachers doing that is overtly left-wing in a classroom?

Baffling that not enough people can be recruited to do the job then....

No, you work with trainees and you haven’t answered the questions about funding, workload, retention etc. You haven’t worked in actual schools in 5 years

None of the training provider staff who work with the trainees in my school have taught in a classroom since covid, some of them for decades. They have no idea of what it's like day after day after day in the classroom.

Surely the question to ask is, not do we support strikes, but are we happy to live with the consequences of being unable to recruit and retain teachers, and the necessary support staff? Are we, as a country, happy to live with the following for our children: Online learning for students in school, classes of 60 taught by one teacher in the hall, multiple cover supervisors (not teachers, supply teachers are impossible to find) with no actual teaching in some subjects all year, cancellation of all trips and extra-curricular activities etc, cancellation of certain A Level courses, zero support for SEN students, employment of highly unsuitable candidates, as there's noone in else to stand in front of classes every day. Some version of this is happening in pretty much every school in England, at least at secondary level. Some will be more severely affected than others, but it's got to the point now that no school is untouched by it, and September is going to be interesting. It's demonstrably worse this year than last, very many schools have no idea how they're going to manage to staff their timetables in September, there just aren't the people, qualified or otherwise, to do it. I just can't see how schools will manage, unless the government relax the rules on how many days a week, or part days, that schools need to stay open per week. I think some have already started closing for Friday afternoons. Surely that's more impactful than a few days of strike action?

I've been a teacher for 8 years, I changed careers after two years on an grad programme in industry.

For those saying people knew what they were getting into when they became a teacher - actually no we didn't, or at least we didn't realise how much things would change.

I knew that I wouldn't earn as much as I would if I stayed in accounting, but I did think i would still earn enough to have a reasonably comfortable life without having to worry about money. I was willing to earn slightly less if it meant I would work in a job which I would find genuinely interesting, have more autonomy in my day to day work, feel I was doing something worthwhile rather than helping rich people get richer.

Expect, now, 8 years in, I can't lead a comfortable life in my salary. I am constantly worrying about money, while watching friends in a wide variety of other jobs have far more disposable income than me. I have zero autonomy. to the extent that I have to use centralised resources which I am not allowed change in any way. I don't feel I am making any different in the lives of young people, as the school doesn't seem to care that much about young people, just about how they can use the young people to get an outstanding Ofsted report. I've watched 4 colleagues leave just at Easter, two Computing teachers leaving for positions in industry, one ECT leave for a grad scheme in insurance and 1 to set up their own tuition business.

So I've enrolled in an accountancy qualification which I can do the initial study at home until I get a entry level job in this area. I'm lucky that I speak fluent French and German which I'm hoping will get me an entry level accounting position as there are lots of job adverts like that in my area. Any annoyingly, the salaries being advertised for entry level positions isn't a whole lot off what my current teaching salary is with 8 years experience.

So even if teaching was an amazing job, there's no way I could justify staying in the profession when I look at what my salary could be in 3-5 years time compared to if I stayed in teaching. And at this stage, I don't care about working in a job where the sole purpose is helping rich people get richer, as long as I myself can afford a reasonably decent lifestyle in the future.

@FrodisCapering what would be better about more right wing culture in teaching? How do you think it would benefit the students? Specifically which bits of left wing politics do you object to? What would your solution to the crisis in state education be, and do you think that all children irrespective of family wealth have the right to a good education?

Do you believe there’s a retention and recruitment crisis @FrodisCapering? And if so, why is that happening if pay and conditions are so good?

I mean, I can’t speak for everyone, but I definitely teach left wing Shakespeare, left wing poetry, left wing creative writing, left wing grammar… 😉

@Zonder teachers teaching pretty much a full timetable from the get go.

I don't necessarily mean left -wing in the classroom, although I have seen that on occasion. I mean left wing in general. The environment isn't for me. Of course I am not speaking for everyone, but from what I've experienced working in quite a few different schools, the pervasive environment is rather left-leaning.

I don't support any political slant being expressed in schools, left or right, but that's not been my experience. Also, the NEU is to the left, nobody could argue.

As for state/private, I am all for parental choice.

Anyway, I don't support the strikes. As I said, I think pay is fair and pensions and holiday time is more than fair.

Anyway, I don't support the strikes. As I said, I think pay is fair and pensions and holiday time is more than fair.

Well, that rather suggests that despite working in schools you haven't actually learned a great deal about what a teacher's workload is really like.

Unions are by their nature left leaning. The right isn't known for its support for workers' rights.

Unfortunately, @FrodisCapering, the statistics are saying you're wrong. If teachers are so well-remunerated, how come the recruitment and retention figures are so dire.
It's market forces. If no one wants to do the job with the current salary (and pension), then the bottom line is, that salary is insufficient.

Yes.
<repeats mantra to self ‘don’t feed the trolls, don’t feed the trolls’>