To be annoyed about teacher strikes days

[Strikedays]

Dates of strikes:
2nd March - Thursday
15th March - Wednesday
16th March - Thursday

Proposed dates:
27th April - Thursday
2nd May - Tuesday

Am I BU to be annoyed that 3/5 of the strike days land on a Thursday?

Why couldn’t they be on different days each time?

I fully support teacher strikes.
The amount of work they do out of teaching hours is massive and if you added up all of the hours they do they’re on a very crap wage.
They also have to deal with crap from students, parents, Ofstead and often other staff members.
It is very stressful, lonely and one of the few jobs where you have to stress about having done work before you get to work.

But it is really annoying me that most of the strike days have landed on a Thursday.

This must make it very difficult to find childcare if Thursday is the one day you don’t have anyone to look after them.

My own DD is in year 10 and I don’t need childcare but she has a lesson once a week on a Thursday which she needs for her GCSEs.
Missing 3 lessons is equivalent to missing half a terms amount of lessons.
This is massively impacting her but it must also be stressful for the teacher too.

YABU - it doesn’t matter that they keep landing on a Thursday.
YANBU - it does matter and they should make sure it lands on different days.

I'm annoyed too.

I'm annoyed that the Government have chronically underfunded education for years

I'm annoyed that budgets have been cut in real terms meaning I can't do my job effectively

I'm annoyed that we've had to cut staff year on year leading to our children not being supported (particularly SEND)

I'm annoyed that colleagues in Wales and Scotland are paid more than me for the same job

I'm annoyed that the constant threat of OFSTED looming has led to hideous stress and burnout among my colleagues

I'm annoyed that the only thing we are allowed to strike about are pay and conditions meaning the media portray us as grasping rather than reporting on the absolute scandal that are chronic underfunding and forced academisation

I'm annoyed that I barely see my own kids during term-time

I'm annoyed that my kids don't have qualified staff for all subjects (secondary)

I'm annoyed that the job I used to love has become more and more impossible every year

And yes, I'm also annoyed that we're having to strike again which pisses everyone off, teachers included!!!

The students having that subject on that day is either going to be massively disadvantaged compared to other students or the teachers are going to have to put in extra work to try and cover the required content needed for the exams.

I do understand and sympathise OP but the point is, if the govt don't do something real in terms of treating teachers and schools properly (and I'm not really talking about money) then all students will be "massively disadvantaged" by the teachers leaving in droves and the govt replacing them with computer programs and any warm body they can find to keep order 🤷🏽‍♀️

When does this end, though? The more strike days that occur, the more public support will be lost. The Education Secretary is aware of this, so I feel that this could be a massive own goal. I'm not entirely sure that mass public opinion was with teachers in the first place. There's a fine line between making a point and punishing children and families and I think the NEU is hovering dangerously close to that line

The majority of people support the strike. If the NEU don’t take action there will be no teachers left. It is THAT bad.

And it’s not like booking a holiday where you try and choose a day that fits in. It’s meant to be disruptive, not at the parents request of a specific day.

That’s from IPSOS by the way.

"There's a fine line between making a point and punishing children and families and I think the NEU is hovering dangerously close to that line."

Why are teachers supposed to care about children and families whilst the DofE isn't?

We are supposed to take another below inflation pay offer - after 13 years of it - out of consideration for the children are we?

Have a look at the reasons for the strike or talk to a teacher. This isn't just about pay.

By refusing the pay rise we have increased schools budgets.

Is it acceptable the pay rise was on the whole to be taken out of schools budgets.

Not for my child it isn't. You should be more angry at this.

I agree.

I know it’s meant to be disruptive but I think it’s having a massive impact on teachers.

I definitely think the strikes should go ahead because they do deserve more money and we haven’t done all of this just to back down now. We do have to keep standing our ground until the government listens.

I understand why they can’t be on Monday or Fridays but I just wish it was more evenly spread over the other 3 days.

Slightly straying but I would be interested to know how supportive others find the leading Union in general?

I completely agree.

Strikes are meant to be disruptive, no?

When does this end, though? The more strike days that occur, the more public support will be lost. The Education Secretary is aware of this, so I feel that this could be a massive own goal. I'm not entirely sure that mass public opinion was with teachers in the first place. There's a fine line between making a point and punishing children and families and I think the NEU is hovering dangerously close to that line.

I agree.

This is why I’m annoyed because I feel having it on the same day is going to negatively impact students and teachers and I know parents who’ve said that childcare on certain days are issue.

I would support regular strikes if they were on different days but I know that this would cause a lot of parents to go against the teacher strikes all together.

As a PP said many parents believe that this is solely about money grabbing as it is and people already go on about how many days off teachers get and so more days off for strike days is going to get less support from the public.

I don’t know what the right answer is.

Well those families better get writing to their MP and to Gillian Keegan and demand the government stop playing stupid games with their children's education.

I didn't say it was more disruptive, I said it was disruptive. I teach exam classes every day of the week.

If teaching unions are expected to arrange strike dates to best suit everybody, then weekends it is.

The government are punishing children by not making the job attractive enough to recruit staff. Teacher recruitment is dire! My own DC are constantly having cover lessons or being taught by non-specialists. NEU also tried to negotiate on workload agreements but the government refused anything useful (other than restating an already existing condition that teachers should not have to do lunch duties and are entitled to PPA, and setting up a 'workload task force' which has already been agreed to and knowing the DfE will result in zero changes).

Like nurses, teachers are expected to do their jobs based on nothing more than goodwill and many are voting with their feet.

You need to be better informed about why we’re striking.

I am in precarious financial straits currently and CANNOT afford to lose a day’s pay. But I have to, because we CANNOT carry on like this and our children deserve better.

The “offer” was largely unfunded and thus not at all serious.

Schools can’t physically staff classes. They’re imploding.

None of us WANT to do this. It impacts us negatively as well. I worked from home fully through the last two strike days, while paying childcare, just to keep my head above water. And I’ve been teaching twenty years.

Something has to change. Your daughter’s classes are unfortunate but children will suffer SO much more when there are NO teachers.

Oh, and EVERY class I teach is an exam class. And they’re currently sitting practical exams which I spent circa six hours rearranging after the last lot of strike days were introduced. And since I can’t pull time out of my arse, yes lots of them were rearranged into “unpaid” lunch “hour”.

Exactly. The more disruptive strikes are for parents and pupils; the more effective the strikes are.

Also, teachers won’t be obliged to make up the work they don’t get done during strike days. Some might; but it certainly won’t be universal. I did zero of the work from the days I missed. I withdrew my labour.

Why bother striking at weekends? You have the full summer off! Strike then!

Not sure you fully understand the point of strikes if you want them not to impact.

Start emailing your local MP if they are a Tory and say you want a better proposal and an effort to settle the strikes.

The government made a shit offer in England.

I agree with other posters. The whole point of these strikes is to be disruptive - they will inconvenienceeveryone involved for a reason.
I'm a striking teacher in the NEU and more of the strike days fall on a Wednesday where I am. My PPA and TLR all fall on a Wednesday so it's a really light day where I only teach 2x 45 min lessons In the afternoon. My striking has minimum disruption to the school as a result, I lose pay for those days AND my planning time for those weeks.
However, it's not about me and I will still strike as I'm part of a union taking collective action. Some of my NEU colleagues are cherry picking and not striking on PPA days but I don't believe it works like that. We have to keep going to protect our livelihoods, the funding of schools and the standard of kids' education going forward.

If strikes generally avoid Mondays and Fridays, why are we having a strike on a Tueaday following a bank holiday monday??

It annoys me it is only a minority actually striking so it's the same kids impacted the whole way through. I wish every teacher was striking and therefore child was being impacted. Instead my kids will now have lost 6 days whilst the neighbouring school kids have lost 0. It would have more of an impact.

I'm assuming attendance on the 28th will be low as if you can make the most of a 6 day weekend you'd be a fool not to.

Which GCSE is your school attempting to cover in one lesson per fortnight?! That seems a recipe for disaster to me regardless of srikes.

I'm annoyed as for the second time it is hitting an A level class I have twice in one day - 2 out of their 5 lessons per fortnight with me. They have 4 lessons per fortnight with another teacher, who is also NEU and will also have them once on that Thursday. It's shit, but what else can we do? The 'offer' was a total insult.

I thought I caught MAry Bousted saying this morning that they were asking members to protect Y11 and Y13 classes on the strike days. Does anyone know what this will mean in practice?

But then for students sake it is better to do it on different days, else only certain students will have completed the topic whilst the ones who have had strike days fall on their lessons will have massive gaps in their knowledge.

Having the strikes on different days is still disruptive and sends a message to the government but it doesn’t disadvantage a certain students.

Because with teaching being a female dominated profession, many teachers are part time.

Typically, part time teachers take their days on days adjoining the weekend (so 0.6 fte usually work Mon-We’d, Wed-Fri, or Tue-Thu, 0.8 usually work Tue-Fri or Mon-Thu)

Monday and Friday therefore have more staff off, plus those days are usually lost to bank holidays too.