Bloody teacher strike!

[NoSchoolYesSchool]

Got a message last week saying class was closed because of strike. Not thrilled, but I support the teachers so took a day off work, booked to take kids to a soft play, let them stay up later last night because there’s no school. Just got a message from the teachers saying that the full school will be open today and looking forward to seeing the children! Are they taking the absolute piss? The strike I can support, but this is just fucking around the parents who’ve had to make an effort to sort childcare for the day? It won’t affect their cause at all, but completely screws me over! I’ve messaged and said kids won’t be in today because 30 minutes isn’t enough warning and I have things planned. Am I being unreasonable? Should I be sending them in? Just to avoid drip feeding, one child is neurodiverse and won’t manage a change like this after I’ve spent days gearing him up to being off

If you say I support the strikes as the op does then really that includes the disruption.

I agree the school is just trying to offer time to students if they can. Some will be pleased

Apart from the economy would die if everyone who has children in school didn’t work. Our elderly would die in their thousands as that workforce is almost entirely made up of women with school aged children.
Also don’t start with the why don’t you have back up childcare because circumstances change parents get old and infirm (or die), partners/husbands leave and friends back out at the last minute.
I fully support the strike but pretending school isn’t a form of childcare is utter bollocks.

*it does cause all sorts of shrapnel (including possible impact on education) which isn't the purpose, but sadly happens as part of the action.

Of course it’s the purpose to cause disruption and inconvenience - if it didn’t there would be no point in striking. Striking shows what happens when services aren’t available as normal, reinforcing the need and importance of those services and the need to negotiate with staff to improve terms and conditions. If there was no fall out strikes would be ineffective.

But the strikes are going ahead, so this is a last minute change in plans by the school to not support it surely? ,

And they're not childcare but they are the place they're legally obliged to be ordinarily so of course people work around that. It's ridiculous to think parents would get evening jobs so they can care for their children all week just in case school cancels

Well if that's the case how come thousands of other schools seem to have managed it so much better? I have kids at three different schools, and every one of them has been extremely clear about the closure ahead of time, what work is set, what isn't etc. It is the school's poor communication and management that the OP is annoying about and rightly so.

I never ever want to hear the phrase ‘schools are not childcare ever again.’

I’m a child of two teachers, I support the strikes fully, I think ALL workers should have the right to strike and that it should be disruptive - that’s the point. I care deeply about education and I think teachers do a uniquely challenging job that non-teachers (with their own uniquely challenging jobs!) don’t necessarily understand well but think they do, based on being schoolchildren themselves and then parents.

But the phrase ‘schools are not childcare’ is so fucking irritating.

And, in fact, the pandemic showed otherwise.

No support from me
If they think are are not paid enough just get another job ffs

Well you made alternative provision so I'd just email them later on and say due to the previous comms you planned the day accordingly and trust that due to the ridiculously late notice of changes trust that their absence won't count against their record.

But they are.

Kids go to school, parents can work. If schools weren't childcare millions of parents couldn't do that.

Part of the responsibility of a school is child safety and welfare.

No support from me
If they think are are not paid enough just get another job ffs

You do realise that pay is the only thing they’re allowed to strike over? Just about ever teacher I know is much more concerned about lack of resources, reduction in additional support for kids, unmanageable workloads, extension of duties away from actually teaching kids. But they can’t strike over those issues, so pay it is.

The government literally assumes schools are childcare and expects parents of school age children to be actively seeking work. It's tedious seeking the "schools are not childcare" phrase be trotted out.

Exactly. Many families have both parents working because they need both incomes - of course they rely on school also being a childcare provider. What would the alternative be - one parent always at home ready to pick up? A nanny on standby?

Which is fine but then communicate yo parents "we won't know until 8am*"

Op I think it's fine. I'm a SAHP and we only live a mile from school. If ours were in the striking years (half the school is our) I wouldn't have been checking my phone this morning.

It's disruptive. It's SUPPOSED to be disruptive. If teachers gave notice, the school arranges cover and the strike would have no impact.

Take your children to school and do something useful with your frustration: contact your MP, support the teachers on the picket line or marching outside parliament.

It's not just your kids that are being messed around for a couple of days - it's our children's future.

Booking soft play is only a tenner for two kids I don’t think that’s the end of the world.

If you’ve booked a day of leave and want to spend it with your kids/think it’s too late
to tell your ND kid that plans have changed, then do it.

You’re not the main protagonist of the story here.

So all these teacher friends would happily come off the line, if they had their resources increased, duties reduced etc

BUT

Their pay stayed the same...

I don't think so, i think the main reason is pay, everything else is a PR smokescreen

YANBU for being annoyed at the schools (not the teachers) poor communication of their plans. The strike potential has been known for ages, the teachers unions have communicated that. The school should have said they may possibly close if it was not clear if they would or would not.

That schools are not childcare is something I only evet see on mumsnet. In the real world everyone knows that is not the pupose of schools but they do act in loco parentis during the school day, which is communicated at the start of the school year so people can plan around it. Of course the unexpected can happen, and they close but that does not take from the fact that children are considered the responsibility of the school while they are there.

How many schools have picket lines? Ours certainly doesn't.

And yeah OP, just run down to London between 9 and 3, no idea where you live but surely you can go and protest at Parliament with 30 minutes notice

And you can’t see that causing any problems? Already schools are reporting struggling to fill vacancies as too many teachers are leaving.

Ex teacher here. I did get a different job! Statistically a lot of my ex colleagues have joined me and teaching has become a lot worse in various ways since I left the profession. Be careful what you wish for.

Don’t be ridiculous

Educate yourself

Plus many are getting other jobs! Not great for kids is it…

Who would be doing the teaching if all the teachers just got themselves “another job”?

I would send them in, cancel the soft play, and have an impromptu day off on your own. Utter bliss! You’re cutting your nose off to spite your face, the teachers won’t care if your kids are in or not. They’ll have an unauthorised absence and it’ll look like you care more about a soft play booking than your children’s education. Wouldn’t you just rather have the day to yourself?