List of striking teachers

[Motherland2624]

Hi
one of my sons is in the upper sixth of the local grammar school
the headmistress has just sent a list of striking teachers (for our information)
to get a idea of what our child’s day is going to look like
do you think this is a power move by the head trying to name and shame the teachers
I think it’s totally unnecessary its a legal right to strike
strike or not I support all teachers in their choice
just wondering on peoples opinions ?

I genuinely don’t know what point you’re trying to make. You’ve repeatedly asked (very dumb) questions to try and justify actions by a head teacher that simply aren’t justifiable and your suggestions make no sense. Then, when that was pointed out, you’ve responded with unintelligible nonsense.

OP doesn’t need to know what her almost adult child’s school day looks like. I don’t know any school (for any age child) who contacts home when a staff member is being covered due to illness, childcare reasons, or being on a course etc so why does OP, in your view, need to know when they’re off due to strike action? Equally, if she needs to know what the day looks like, she should be told the teachers who are in and who are teaching her child - not the ones who aren’t.

It’s relevant whether the headteacher is openly in favour of or opposed to the strikes or silent on the matter because it indicates her motive for doing this. Clearly her behaviour was unprofessional and unacceptable but, if she were in favour of the strikes then it’s possible she had a genuine motive but made a poor judgement. It’s highly unlikely, given that she’s publicly outlined her opinion against the strikes, that this was an accidental error in judgement but is far more likely to be an intentional, malicious act.

Your repeated asking of inane questions and your faux ignorance is irritating, you’re not fooling anyone by pretending you don’t understand.

Even if you could justify telling parents which of their children's own teachers are striking - and I don't think that's ok to be honest - then there is absolutely no justification for sending the entire staff list to every parent. I think that's a gross invasion of privacy and I would think it's illegal.
There is no way that any parent needs this information. All that schools needed to share was which pupils needed to be in school today and which not. "To give you some idea of your child's day" is bollocks, especially for 6th formers. Who has their child's timetable etched in their brain, and private study periods are a normal part of 6th form life anyway so some extra ones aren't going to worry anyone.
The info our school gave out was along the lines of " For year groups in school, non striking teachers will deliver their classes as usual but will not be teaching in place of absent colleagues. Other periods will be supervised private study. Year groups not in school please check Google classroom at 9am to see if any of your teachers have set work. There will be no live online lessons". That is all anyone needs to know in my opinion.* *

That wouldn't satisfy legitmate interest under GDPR, on the basis that such info (i.e., Class X won't be in today) without disclosing the actual names of the teacher that is on strike.

I don’t see a problem with it. If they’re not ashamed to be striking (and they should be) then what’s the issue?

GDPR my arse 🙄

trade union membership is a protected characteristic, I think the headteacher is going to be in hot water for this and quite rightly!

This is an egregious GDPR violation. I hope the Head gets hauled over the coals for it.

They cannot be compelled to cover other people's classes, but schools can try it on and ask them to. That depends a lot on the SLT and their approach to staff. They can ask teachers to supervise only, or to actually teach. Members of other teaching unions (e.g. NASUWT) have been strongly advised to refuse to do anything outside their normal duties, including 'babysitting' type duties. They have also been advised to make sure they obtain a written instruction if they are asked to do any cover on strike days.

How is this any different to saying which classes in primary should go to school and which won't have a teacher ?

Well no, it doesn't tell you which teachers "to be disappointed in". There will be teachers who are in unions other than the NEU and it would be illegal for them to be striking if their union has not been balloted and voted for strike action - they may feel as strongly as their striking colleagues. Castigating non striking teachers is no fairer than the negative comments re those who are on strike really.

Absolutely atrocious behaviour there. I'd be making sure every single person on that list knew they had my full support.

Although I would still forward that to the NEU rep and assume they would take appropriate action in response, as well as emailling the Head directly as you've done, FYI it's possible that 'teachers absent due to strike-related action' (surely the Head could learn where to put a hyphen!) could cover more than teachers actually striking: non-striking teachers might be off having to care for their own children in that or other schools if the classes were cancelled at short notice. I am still outraged at the email and think it should be challenged nevertheless.

I can only imagine the trouble she's going to be in.

Knowing who's on strike by deduction because your primary school aged child has no teacher, is one thing.
A list of names is quite another, especially when there is no need for most parents to know who's on strike in a secondary school. Particularly when most of those people won't teach their child anyway.

Perhaps it would have been better for the Head to indicate which classes are happening e.g Mr Brown’s physics class etc.

Obviously, by process of elimination, you can still work out who’s striking, but it isn’t an obvious list of those who are.

The way HT's have dealt with the strikes has been very telling imo.

I've got three in different schools - one primary, one secondary and one SEN.

I'm giving serious consideration to not sending DD3 to the secondary that DS2 attends atm as the HT has been atrocious and I can only imagine staff retention is going to get even worse after this.

I am inclined to think though that teachers should be upfront about striking and why they are doing it. Presumably it's something they believe in strongly and are taking a stand for. While I can see that this seems slightly hung out to dry (although I am just not sure that was the motivation - I mean it could have been, but it could also just be lazy communication), I think I would just own it.

Both my kids' teachers were striking. DD knew and asked me why her teacher was striking, we talked a little about it and I encouraged her to ask her teacher about her personal motivation for it, which she did and they had a little chat about it. DS is younger and his teacher told they class they would be off today as she was striking. I feel quite happy that they were open and honest about it, and prepared to answer questions. Exercising the right to strike is something that kids should be aware of.

No. Still completely unnecessary. Children are not wandering in and out of school to just attend lessons which are running as normal. No sane headteacher would sanction that as it would be a logistical nightmare and a huge Safeguarding risk.
Every school in our area - and I assume nationally - had decided in advance which pupils will be in and which not. At my children's school it's years 11, 13 and vulnerable pupils/emergency workers' children only who are in school which seems to be a fairly standard approach round here at least. And if they are in, they are in for the whole day. Appropriate supervision will be provided for the day. There is absolutely no need for parents to be informed about the minutiae of their child's school day today any more than any other day - they can ask their child after school if they want that the detail.

I'm in another country, but when primary school teachers went on strike here they spent the week leading up to it doing related art & crafts projects - the kids were making signs and placards and learning all about unions and strike actions. My son was 4 and was painting big banners made by the older kids. We knew all teachers would be on strike, they sent out an invitation to all parents to join them in the playground, put the party tables out and families brought food / drinks / placards and joined the strike. Parents who couldn't make it because of work etc sent donations in. Just a very different atmosphere and way of garnering support - was fantastic! They should change the approach in the UK from maximum disruption to maximum support!

That's disgusting and probably illegal.
I would say so in no uncertain terms,
You see why teachers are striking?

The head is on dodgy ground here, even without releasing this to the parents (!). I should think the NEU (not to mention other unions) would take a very dim view of this indeed.

Not every school decided this in advance. They will have made plans based on different scenarios of how many staff will be striking, but without knowing until the day how many will actually be off, they wouldn't have known which of those plans to implement. Some schools assumed the maximum number would be off (the numbers of NEU members who are being called to strike, not names, are provided to the school in advance, but the school won't know how many will choose to actually strike, unless they foolishly told the school voluntarily) and so gave advance warning that they would implement X plan. Other schools waited to see how many staff they had in.

this is great! I guess they are scared to being political, but union activity, whether you agree or not, is a huge part of society and history. It's right the children should learn about it, and be helped to understand why they have the day off.

The conversation was triggered by another mum telling her DD and my DD that "Miss X wants a day off" 🙄

Ok, but I can't believe any schools will be saying to their kids "Mr Brown is in for physics period 2 so go to that lesson but then we dont want to see you until Mrs Green's french lesson in period 5". So parents knowing which lessons are on or off is not necessary. You need to know if your child is in school or not, not exactly what they are doing during the time.
And from the OP's description it sounds like her DS is in school for the day and the list of striking teachers has been sent after the school day has begun. So it's not information that is remotely useful to the parent. It's an invasion of the teachers'privacy dressed up as "oh we thought you might like to know what your child is doing today".

I agree that the information absolutely shouldn't have been shared with parents, or with pupils for that matter. But the son is in Upper Sixth, so it's completely normal to say 'come in for p2 and p5, but p3 and p4 are cancelled.' These are kids who are 17 and 18. I suspect the Head was being lazy and didn't want to send a personalised timetable around so just sent this list instead. They'll regret that when it comes back to bite them, hopefully.

I would be notifying the union and making sure that as many teachers as possible know that their names are on the list.

There is no earthly reason why the parents of young people who will be at university in a few months, some who may be legal adults, need to know this for any kind of reasonable purpose.

Obviously normal rules would apply about signing in and out of the school if the pupils are going off site.