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

i would love to take this seriously and then I saw your username

but if they are not paid for that day, there can be knock on effects resulting from that.

Being pro strike doesn’t mean being completely dismissive and arsey about the difficulties faced by working parents, any more than being anti strike means being in favour of everything that’s being done in education at the moment.

I’m not being dismissive or arsey. This whole bloody thread is full of people wailing about how hard it is because teachers dared to stop putting up with this bullshit.

“if they are not paid for that day. There can be knock on effects”

Teachers are underpaid. there are knock on effects from that too.

Oh I forgot - when you’re in the public sector, you have to lash yourself to the mast in order that all private sector workers can keep their jobs going without ever being interrupted.

Yes, it's a massive disruption but it really isn't the school's fault. How are they meant to plan whether to open or close the school when they have no prior notice of who is striking?

My friend is a Head and she was in tears this morning. She'd planned for non-union teachers and TAs to cover today and then people started ringing in sick...

repeat after me:

schools are not childcare

schools are not childcare

that is both dismissive and arsey

No wonder they phoned in sick, your friend was asking them to break the rules of unions by covering for striking workers. Good gosh.

@SavoirFlair

I realise it's one day. I'm not against the strikes at all. I support them. I was just responding to your "school's aren't childcare" comments.

Well she should have done what every other school did and either close, or part close. We have year 2, 4-6 out today and a handful of kids on EHCPs etc.

Why on earth did she expect her staff to overstretch themselves and break a strike by covering the missing teachers?

The one day bit isn't the point tho. Yes it's one day, they have the right to strike, and schools have the right or may have no choice but to tell everyone to come and then turn people away at the gate.

If you can't just not turn up to work then you need to have sorted something for the well publicised dates.

But your comment seems to be more of the "school isn't childcare, they should never be relied upon to have your kids from 9-3 five days a week, so what's the alt? Every family has a SAHP because school had no obligations?

Perhaps we should have them all picked up for lunch time and dropped off afterwards, after all that's not education that's straying into childcare as its food and fresh air

Perhaps the obligation to look for work should go up from 5 to 15?

Why leave this type of comment? She said she supports the strike but it's the school's last minute, lack of communication which has affected her. What's wrong with that?

People who are for or against strikes for the one day, or the four, are agreeing the line isn’t right.

Personally strikes haven’t impacted us much at all tg and I wouldn’t be annoyed with the school in this case as the op can just carry on with plans. But the ‘school isn’t childcare’ was overused in pandemic and wasn’t the case at all then, or now

@123rd It is about her though. This post. It's about how she, and her children, are impacted. Yes the strike is about teachers and you may or may not agree, but OF COURSE it impacts other people.

Oh I forgot - when you’re in the public sector, you have to lash yourself to the mast in order that all private sector workers can keep their jobs going without ever being interrupted.

I’m a public sector worker, by Easter I’ll have lost 7 working days to teachers strikes. I can’t lash myself to the mast, because my kids need childcare when not at school. It’s possible to care about an issue (teachers pay and conditions), while also acknowledging the adverse impact on me personally and being concerned about that too.

Soon teacher strikes won’t be a problem because there won’t be any qualified teachers left. Your child will be taught by someone on minimum wage with no experience and there will be a high turnover over staff as wage won’t reflect work needed.
18 year old teaching y9 maths literally paid minimum wage in local secondary. Just because you have a gcse doesn’t mean you can teach.
don’t plan any big trips for the next strike days.

as an aside, how annoying none are adjoining a weekend so we can do something with it now we have to take leave!

what does that have to do with the op's school rubbish planning/communication?

I'd love to take you seriously but parrots are funny creatures.

Not the finest moment from your school.
In the meantime they do not count it as an absence it "just" a holiday day lost to it.
Ours was closed as they could not forsee numbers in attendance, even they had some teachers in they have not changed the plan.

Teachers always bang on about how school is not childcare, but the very existence of schools means that no childcare settings have sprung up to cover term time school hours for school age children because it would be the world worst business model on account of the fact that all school age children are at school during those hours or their parents get fined! So if school does close for strikes or covid or whatever it causes a massive childcare issue for parents.

That’s exactly!

Probably choose a secondary that is willing to exclude disruptive children - not one that uses restorative behaviour policies. Teachers don't want to work in a school that has crap behaviour policies.

We were once very explicitly told by someone important that they did not believe there should be any division between childcare and education!
Poor kids.