Work set for strike but kids told by teachers not to bother

[WellyBoot12345]

My children’s secondary school is closed tomorrow and some very generic work has been set by, I guess, someone in the senior leadership team. I quite get it that it’s generic stuff and won’t be marked, but children have both said that their teachers have told them they’d rather they didn’t do the work. I’m not happy about this - I don’t have a problem with the strike but school is closed, that’s causing the disruption that the unions need for things to get better … but suggesting to the children not to bother with the work impacts on my children’s learning and attitude to homework. Also seems pretty disrespectful to the person who has gone to the effort of setting it. I’m out at work tomorrow and there was only a slim chance that they would do anything anyway … but now they feel they have permission to do absolutely nothing at all tomorrow and future strike days and I’m the evil mum for saying that they should. AIBU for being peeved about this, and would you say anything to the school? (Or AIBU to believe my pesky kids that the teachers said this??!!)

Yeah, I mean something like that sounds really valuable, but finances are an issue, and I do feel certain subjects get valued more than others =/

My DS had work set but didn’t do it as his teachers said similar.

he went to the park with friends and played football for hours instead. Better than a school day!

Dd had a mixture of online live lessons and 'set' work today. I told her to do any work her teacher was live online for but to ignore the rest. Teachers were told not to take registers so it doesn't reflect on their attendance percentages (for the school not the individual student!!) I support the strikes and won't undermine them by making dd do work set by other teachers or SLT live lessons by her non-striking teacher I had no issue with...but told her if a cover teacher appeared she was to log straight off!

@Postapocalypticcowgirl The real value in it was that it would have delivered fully developed SoW and individual lesson plans, with objectives, resources, tasks across the age/ability range and assessments/marks that could be confidently delivered by non-specialists. With a fixed pricing structure based on school roll sizes. I thought it was a good idea, but there was a complete lack of interest...

Possibly because it would still require a fairly large amount of adaptation before it gets put to the pupils.

WellyBoot12345

It may well be the case that your DC have been told that the striking teachers won't be marking any work.

But TBH various pupils at my school have already said that their parents have said that they don't need to do any work set by any teacher, even those that are doing online lessons.

I actually think more and more schools were buying into this sort of thing for PSHE say, 3-4 years ago. Now these are being cut back on again due to budgets.

I agree it sounds good and like a real time saver for staff!

Out of interest, @FrippEnos, why the not invented here objection?

I already explained that this would have been suites of SoW, pre-levelled, with resources including video and music, and with a two minute briefing read for cover teachers. I couldn't hope to plan anything useful for maths or physics but within KS3 and 4, you could accommodate the gifted and less gifted just by using all the tasks from 11 -16 to cater for differing abilities, provide the opportunity for stimulating discussion, and vote on and analyse the results, mathmatically. Talk about gang warefare; show the Montague-Capulet battles from Romeo and Juliet, and deal with young love and vendettas too, from Shakespeare. Or use Noughts and Crosses, if R&J/West Side Story is insufficiently diverse. I spent a long time thinking it through.

I already explained that this would have been suites of SoW, pre-levelled, with resources

This exists for maths, it is called Complete Maths, set up by Mark McCourt and is designed so that non specialists can teach maths.

It costs an absolute bomb though and schools aren’t rolling in cash.

I did actually teach like this, in my second PGCE placement, and it usually went pretty well with Y8 and above. Vanishingly few took Citizenship at even half a GCSE, and most thought the class was a doss, but I tried to make it stimulating, and usually got a decent debate going, with particular commendation for finding interesting, balanced resource material and starters. But I was at least 10 years older than the head and SLT, and (i think) my background in corporate financial communication in London and NY felt outwith their comfort zone. I had a lot to learn, I know, but I thought I did a decent job.

Thanks, @noblegiraffe . I hadn't got as far as the pricing, because I would not have had the tech skills to deliver it without backup, so pricing would probably never have been my bailiwick. At the time, a decade ago, I was quite passionate about it. I went back to the corporate world, and have been better rewarded.

I’m in Scotland and kids at primary school. We’ve had a couple of strikes already.

My kids were not set learning because (I was told) it was found to be against the whole principle of the strike and the union. The whole point in the strike is to cause disruptions to families and disruption to children’s learning. I also heard setting work for kids was like crossing the picket line.

Not sure what is right or wrong but it’s Shocking really!

We never had work set for school strike days when I was a child. The mere idea is bizarre.

I don't have much sympathy for anyone on a public sector nationally based salary -- unless they are living in London. In Cornwall, anyone in the public sector earns much more than the average local wage, and is among the best paid. Increase London weighting massively so public sector employees can afford a home close enough to have a 30 minute commute.

I assume you mean "why the invented here objection"

Because it doesn't work for all subjects.
From your follow up I assume that you would do this for the mainly academic subjects or the academic areas of practical subjects.

We had homeschooling all day with work set for my youngest and a normal day for my yr 11.

The striking teachers are free to chose what they do but I wont ignore work set by other teachers. Their education has suffered enough the last few years.

Wow, thanks for your solidarity....

Average wage in Cornwall (not average graduate wage, certainly not average post grad wage) is £25,000. An ECT who has not had the pay rise (which many MATs here have refused for the first time as they can't afford it) will be on about £700 more than that and their take home may be less due to deductions.

I actually know of cases where ECTs have turned down jobs in the county because they can't find anywhere to rent that they can afford.

I know schools in Cornwall that are struggling to recruit, I know there literally aren't enough maths teachers in the county for every child to have a qualified maths teacher.

But also, it isn't London Vs the rest - there are lots of expensive cities outside of London where teacher recruitment has been an issue for a long time. Oxford, Bristol, places in the SE outside "the fringe".

Cornish property prices are a disgrace! Too many second homes and AirBnB being the main issues. But it's mainly STEM subjects that struggle to recruit. Advertise a primary job, and I think it's quite competitive, although the applications may all be from teachers already working here. The pandemic turbo-charged property values in the county, and my post probably exaggerated and is a bit out of date. However, there does seem to be an imbalance between the North and South, or leafy affluence and deprived inner cities, so there's probably multiple factors making teaching less appealing -- as well as pay.

this made me laugh.

STEM, MFL, Geography, RE- All subjects where schools are struggling to recruit in Cornwall right now.

Maybe primary is more competitive, but Cornwall has shortages in secondary, just like everywhere else.

Maybe pay should be tied to local rents?