to think Gavin Williamsons views on teachers have been found out and he is trying to back pedal

[cakeorwine]

Leaked WhatsApp messages about schools during Covid and re-opening.

www.theguardian.com/world/2023/mar/01/leaked-messages-boris-johnson-bemoaning-face-masks-u-turn

In October 2020, Williamson said publicly the following year’s exams would be postponed for a few weeks to make up teaching time. According to the leaked messages, Hancock then got in touch with his cabinet colleague to say “what a bunch of absolute arses the teaching unions are”.

Williamson replied: “I know they really really do just hate work.” Hancock then responded with a laughing emoji and a bullseye.

Dr Mary Bousted, joint general secretary of the National Education Union, said in response to the leak: “Why am I utterly unsurprised to now have it absolutely confirmed that Gavin Williamson was unfit to be secretary of state for education?”

According to Williamson, these comments were about "some unions" and he has the utmost respect for teachers who went above and beyond during the pandemic.

Yet it's the teachers who would be doing the work, not the Unions. So who was he saying who "really really just hate work"

@herewegoroundthebastardbush it's not about child care but the kids education. When asked to guarantee that they wouldn't strike over the exam period to protect children's education the EIS refused! They are targeting our kids and fucking up our kids futures over fucking money and please remember that teachers salaries are higher in Scotland than England already.

This is bringing back memories of how shit my kids schools were during covid.

My A level child was given a printed handout of the science curriculum and then ignored from March to September. Left to teach himself. No online class. No online tutorial. No contact with the teacher. I wrote to ask for more materials and help and got a fairly curt reply and no help or materials.

I'd forgotten how angry I was. That minister was right!

I felt that the whole part about handing in the thing that said teachers shouldn’t have to work in the conditions was extremely frustrating and I was against that as a teacher. We literally had to get on with it. That was before the second lockdown and I just felt that with so, so many other professions (not just the nhs - think about factories etc) carrying on, and how vital it was for the children, we should be going in too.

Equally I feel that just because some jobs were carrying on, it doesn’t mean everyone should. I just felt that in the situation, I didn’t support the second closure of schools. We then had 450 kids in anyway. I’m vulnerable to covid so it wasn’t straightforward but I didn’t support the unions. I don’t think it was about “hating work”, though, and that’s typical Tory shit.

How can strikes both be about protecting and improving our children's educations whilst simultaneously disrupting their education. It's our children who will have to pay for this.

All I have heard is the union refusing the payrise offers, I haven't heard anything about discussing extra school funding with the government and what plans the unions or the govt have put on the table. (Happy and would be very interested to be corrected).

That's still happening even though schools are open. There are A-level students who do not have a teacher because the school cannot hire a teacher who are being told that they have to teach themselves.

People keep assuming that kids going back to school means that everything is now fine. It's not fine at all, it's just less visible to parents.

This.

Some people are giving the unions credit for having much more power than they actually have. Clearly the government propaganda campaign worked.

The unions didn’t close schools or keep them closed it was government incompetence and an inability to take covid seriously.

The unions are apparently both incredibly powerful during covid and completely unable to get even a minor pay rise for teachers after covid. Weird.

Is it new news that the tories think of anyone but themselves as plebs? We are just all peasants and we should do as we are told by the Tory Elite.

They are absolute wankers and this just shows the disdain they have for us all.

It just gives further proof that Williamson, Hancock and the rest of them are unfit for purpose.

If they’d had the power to get the government to make schools safer workplaces then the government might not have had to shut schools the second time.

Where do you live? Because the opposite is true in my town. I don't know anyone who DOESN'T support the teachers.

How he got an award for selling fireplaces is a mystery.

Just heard Hancock quoted "I have been the victim of a massive betrayal" said the man without any trace of self-awareness. I expect his ex wife and children could tell him just how that feels. What a bunch of arrogant tossers they are. Isobel Oakeshott too, also a disgrace. Shameful behaviour from all concerned.

@ladygindiva

As I've said before I'm in Scotland in 1 of the 4 areas that have been specifically and cynically targeted by the EIS for extra strikes to get parents to put pressure on our MSPs over pay NOT conditions and it has backfired because all we see is the teachers using our kids as a weapon with no regard for their mental health or education. There's a lot of very angry parents up here and it's the teachers who we are angry with they have over played their hand

How can people be so entitled and blind as to drop their kids off at the school gate each morning, FOR FREE, and be utterly indifferent to the conditions of those who are there every day for your children

I must be imagining the significant amount of tax that comes off my salary every month (at a higher rate too because I’m in Scotland), which pay for schools amongst other things. Free at the point of delivery does not mean free.

I too have lost now 9 days since August to strike days, and in Scotland the unions are clear the strikes are purely about pay. I’d support industrial action over kids learning conditions or workload, or resourcing but the level of disruption to children to hold out for an unrealistic rise is ridiculous. They’ve knocked back a perfectly reasonable offer which is more than most public sector workers will see. I don’t know many folk in my circle supporting Scottish teachers striking purely for pay.

The unions are apparently both incredibly powerful during covid...

Apparently - article from May 2020;
The UK’s biggest teaching union, the National Education Union (NEU), has told its members that online lessons should be kept to “a minimum” and that they “cannot be expected to carry out routine marking or grading” of pupils’ work while schools are closed.

One headteacher from Brighton told The Telegraph that he had hoped that teachers would produce a couple of online lessons each week, either live or pre-recorded videos, to keep children motivated and engaged.

“Some teachers say that they are not willing to do it and that you can’t make them because the unions say they don’t have to,” he said.

Marking and grading work is also important to keep children motivated, the headteacher said, adding: “I don’t really understand what the unions have against that. If you are not marking the work, children won’t see the point of doing it.

“I know a lot of other heads in Brighton have been up against [the unions]...^

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/05/09/teachers-accused-obstructing-online-study/

This is Gavin Williamson we’re talking about. Sorry, Sir Gavin. Not exactly known for being a competent or smart guy.

By the way, why was he knighted?

I think you mean SIR Gavin Williamson!

SIR Gavin. Why? Only Boris and SIR Gavin know the answer. Let's hope they didn't share a conversation about it on WhatsApp.

I am in awe of teachers and of medical staff - essential jobs that I could never be capable of doing myself.

Genuine question, if you think teachers/or the unions hate work and are you are unhappy with you local school - do you homeschool your child?

Also, school is not childcare - it's a free education. I do feel for working parents (I am one) but this is a fact.

I think we should all be more supportive and understanding of each other - there's so much mud slinging in all areas - it's sad. And there seems little input from the slingers to help/make things better.

I believe that teachers do not get paid on strike days. They are not striking because of pay - this is about the shocking way that schools are being left to deal with the enormous amount of work and not enough money or support to deal with it.

Because there is a long term benefit to improving conditions in schools that is worth the temporary disruption. Maybe not at the individual level but in aggregate and over time. Which sucks for those caught in the wheels. But its not the case that unions are frivolously striking all the time is it? It's taken YEARS of Tory misrule and a pandemic for it to come to this.

Strikes are the absolute last resort of a workforce who have been under siege for years. If every profession where there will be a negative impact on the vulnerable is morally precluded from striking (teachers, nurses, care workers etc) what resort do these employees have when their employers underpay, under-recruit and overwork? Why should they have to ensure the destruction of their professions because it causes short term harm if they strike, when if they don't they have to accept a slow death by a thousand cuts destroying the quality and integrity of the work they do?

The reason pay is important is because staffing levels are important. Only with enough staff is there a chance of delivering an effective and high quality service. An recruiting teachers is currently a nightmare as the level of pay Vs the inflexibility of the work, the level of responsibility and the hours required during term time make it unapealing to intelligent graduates who could make the same money working 9-5 and never having to worry (e.g) that a child might die if they drop the ball on health and safety or on safeguarding, never have to wipe a shitty arse or counsel a suicidal teenager, never having to get the hairdryer treatment from a parent because they need to discipline their child...seriously do you have any idea what teachers have to put up with, the rates of those leaving the profession either during or shortly after the gruelling training? We need to pay them WELL and recruit and retain a lot more of them if we want an education system that excels for our children. Our govt don't understand that (or more likely don't care as their children do not attend state schools) so the teachers are forced to strike to make themselves heard.

Also, school is not childcare - it's a free education. I do feel for working parents (I am one) but this is a fact.

It's not free though, it's paid for through tax revenues which the vast majority of people contribute to through their salary.

And while it might not be childcare, most of working life is constructed around the knowledge that for significant periods of each day children will be in school. The government emphasise this point by placing expectations on adults that they will work or be looking for work once children reach statutory school age. You can't then blame parents for being disgruntled that their working life is interrupted when statutory school provision isn't in fact being provided.

Please check your PAYE for last year and tell me if it would cover private school fees and associated costs for all your children for a year, before you even consider everything else it pays for e.g. healthcare and road maintenance, rubbish collection, local and national govt services etc If it would, then frankly you're well off enough that the inconvenience of a strike for a couple of days is not going to be beyond your resources to deal with is it.

Anyway I'm not in Scotland, the strikes are not restricted to Scotland, and th unions and teachers Williamson was traducing via WhatsApp were also not in Scotland so not at all sure why you keep banging on about "well in SCOTLAND..."

By the way, why was he knighted?

For this?
In 2017, [Gavin Williamson] was a member of the Conservative team who played a part in securing the DUP confidence-and-supply support for a Tory minority government led by Theresa May.

www.irishnews.com/news/northernirelandnews/2022/11/10/news/former_cabinet_minister_gavin_williamson_previously_involved_in_political_negotiations_in_ni-2900328/