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.

How many pupils attending unsafe school buildings is an acceptable number to you, @Philomenafoggy ?

I'm not in disagreement with the need for new schools.

Great. Who is responsible for sorting that out? Who has fucked up with underfunding them and letting them get to the state that they are?

A Department for Education spokesperson said: “Nothing is more important than the safety of pupils and teachers which is why we have been significantly investing in transforming schools up and down the country.
“We are investing in 500 projects for new and refurbished school buildings through our school rebuilding programme. On top of this, we have allocated over £15bn since 2015 for keeping schools safe and operational, including £1.8bn committed for 2023-24.
“It is the responsibility of those who run our schools: academy trusts, local authorities, and voluntary-aided school bodies; who speak to their schools’ day-to-day to manage the maintenance of their schools and to alert us if there is a concern with a building.

😂 omg you're actually seriously quoting the DfE 😂

Totally normal, we have a disability group who come in to do awareness with year 8, the main speaker is blind, the marina dalgleish centre come in to do cancer awareness, the Sophie Lancaster trust to talk about prejudice and hate crime - what’s your point ?

The finally drops.

Look @Philomenafoggy it is obvious that you would rather it be a turn else’s fault but the government’s. But I would like you to explain how the DfE aren’t responsible for the teacher shortage. It is part of the remit of that department.

I would understand it if this was a new government and there was a plan to sort it out. However they have been in power for 13 years. How can it be the fault of anyone else?

I would also point out that teachers would love to see-politicise education. That would be great. Perhaps then the pay rises would not be a political issue. In any other industry a shortage of staff would lead to a review of pay offers to attract more interest. How is it not political to deliberately suppress wages because of an ideological belief that public sector workers are too well paid or don’t deserve pay rises?

And before anyone says anything about the national budget- they found all those hundreds of millions to pay Michelle Mone for PPE that was never actually delivered.

I obviously mean depoliticise

How much does it cost?
And what is the point?

It is part of the PSHE curriculum mandated by the DfE and is compulsory for all schools to complete in full. Failure to do so is an automatic RI at Ofsted.

These often don't cost anything at all, particularly if they're often run by charitable organisations.

So clueless I am starting to think it’s the Ed sec.

We’ll quite @Lostinalibrary but heaven forbid we hold the people in charge of education responsible for the curriculum. Because we might be guilty of politicising education.

Are you actually serious ? Sophie Lancaster’s family talking about hate crime and the impact of her murder ? You really need to ask what the point of that is ?

I'm quite serious that's why I'm asking the questions so I can garner more information with which to make a judgement.
So far despite the insightful replies I'm finding the passive-aggressiveness is destroying my support for the teachers.

Well, exactly. We have young people learning hate in their family. There needs to be a counterweight somewhere. The day after the Brexit referendum, my DC were told by fellow students to fuck off back to where they were born (that would be the UK). Those students learned that crap from their parents.

But @Philomenafoggy you sound like the typical Tory who knows the cost of everything and the value of nothing.

It’s pretty obvious why outside agencies come in

@Philomenafoggy

Let’s not pretend that you ever supported teachers. My first clue was when you called your daughter’s head of year a twit.

My next clue was that you genuinely don’t seem to understand why it is a good thing for children to learn tolerance and understanding of people who might be different to them. You know full well the point of outside speakers. And you probably know that they are almost always charities that come in for free.

Nothing you have said so far indicates even the slightest support for teacher or education.

‘So far despite the insightful replies I'm finding the passive-aggressiveness is destroying my support for the teachers.’

What support?! All your comments have been around your lack of support (you even called one teacher a twit) and honestly I can’t get my head around how outside agencies working with your child on one specific day has anything to do with teachers striking?!? It’s just bizarre!

The amount of misinformation here is staggering.

Yes teachers move up the payscale- this is no longer automatic - lots of secondary schools make pay performance-related so that if pupils don't reach their "target grades" in Y11 (extrapolated from their primary English and Maths scores at KS2 that primaries are under immense pressure to achieve), you don't move up the payscale.

After 6 years you can APPLY to be on the upper pay scale (40k plus), but academy trusts are all about cost-saving and often try to find excuses for not granting progression.

The amount of people saying "if they don't like it, they don't have to do it" is laughable- don't you get it?!

That's exactly the problem.

Teachers are leaving in droves, the government misses its recruitment targets year after year, they are vilified by the right-wing press and their profession is generally held in low regard.

Teachers in the UK are paid considerably lower than in other comparative countries. Class sizes are huge and the demands of the job can be ridiculous. Hope that doesn't sound martyrish but it's the truth.

Do those people quoting the DfE on here realise they were also on strike on some of the same days that teachers were? While putting out news about how terrible we all are?

You couldn’t make it up…
https://feweek.co.uk/dfe-and-ofsted-staff-will-strike-again-on-budget-day/

I don't support any sectors getting 12 percent. 5 or 6 percent is a decent pay rise. If sectors get 12 percent it just means inflation stays high or goes even higher and then BoE raise mortgage rates.

Public sector pay does not have an effect on inflation.

We haven't been offered 5 or 6%. At the moment we are offered nothing, there's no offer on the table.

The independent pay review body recommended that we get 6.5% to stabilise some of the crisis in teacher recruitment and retention.

The government are now staring at their shoes and pretending they didn't ever tell teachers that we would have to wait for the independent pay review recommendation to see what we would get.

If more people have more money to spend of course it affects inflation. They look at how much is being spent.

Inflation is about the cost of goods.
If a private company increases pay, they usually have to put up prices to cover it, so inflation goes up.

No product, no price hike, no inflation.

@noblegiraffe, as I said I don't support any sector getting 12 percent. I think 5-6 percent is perfectly reasonable and I certainly know teachers have a lot to deal with. I was a secondary teacher for almost 25 years until I just burned out 4 years before I was supposed to retire. I became a Foster Carer instead. The government is making a huge mistake ignoring Independent review bodies.