This government has actually achieved something in education!

[noblegiraffe]

It has managed to unite all the teaching unions.

There are 4 teaching unions, the NEU (the main one for teachers), the NASUWT (for teachers, less militant than the NEU), the ASCL (headteachers, SLT and college leaders) and the NAHT (headteachers, mainly primary).

That there are 4 teaching unions shows that there isn't much agreement between teachers.....UNTIL NOW.

All 4 of them voted overwhelmingly to reject the government offer of a funded £1000 one-off payment and 4.5% pay rise next year, only 0.5% of which would be funded with new money.

The NEU have already announced 5 more days of strikes, the NAHT and NASUWT have said they will be balloting for strike action for the summer, and the ASCL have said they're thinking about balloting.

The government, on the other hand, have said that the offer was final, they've now taken it off the table and have said there will be no further talks.

So the disruption will rumble on until the government actually get off their arses and engage in sensible negotiation.

I've been told many times on here that 'it's only on MN that teachers moan, in real life they all say everything is fine'. This doesn't seem to be something that can be claimed anymore.

I do think it's time the other unions pitched in on the strike action. If the members were able to vote to reject a deal that the NEU got for them through strike action, they definitely should put their money where their mouth is and also walk out.

’Fizzled out’ is a very good description!

As for the rest of your post, yes please. I am £140 down after just two days, have the other two down the line and the latest two after that. Saving for anything is tricky (dh is FE and his pay is much worse. UCU are also balloting).

Many can't afford to but another way to do this would be withdrawal of school facilities and pupils working at home from Google Classroom so staff still being paid but a large amount of disruption still being caused.

Totally this.

For the Ed Sec at the last strike to send a message to parents saying the teachers are the ones that don’t want to negotiate and don’t care for kids education is just a joke.

As a parent of primary aged kids and as someone who had lots of teachers in education at secondary level I am appalled at this governments lack of value for kids education and respect for teachers.

Well here’s the answer - if a resource is scarce it attracts a higher price

in a supply context, yes. Still within teaching pay scale parameters. And many schools have insurance to help cover supply costs for sick staff.

Schools don’t have any budget slack to be able to individually negotiate a starting point on the salary scale for new staff. They just need cheaper and cheaper staff.

It is this government that has made teachers' lives even more difficult than they were before: taking them away from their primary role and making them endlessly tat around with data and testing; turning them into pawns in the multi academy trust game; forcing inspection without follow-up support, when the teachers know that their school would be better if they had the right resources; forcing the LEAs to dwindle so that any support that was there is now a mere shadow of its former self.

So ..... they load teachers up with all this and then refuse to remunerate them for all the extra work. Our education system runs on the goodwill of the teachers who do massive amounts of unpaid overtime. This is no way to run an education system.

All teachers need to strike continuously and not for the odd day here and there. It’d be a pain for a few weeks but would ultimately reap rewards. The odd day here and there in only some schools doesn’t work.

This. The strikes aren't having enough impact as they are. My DC's school it is only 4 of the 14 classes that are closed. Bloody annoying for those of us with children in those classes but not much impact overall as school is predominantly open.

The Other schools nearby are similar I believe. There is nothing on local Facebook groups about the strikes. They aren't having enough impact to be effective

As much as I've grumbled at having to juggle things when DC is off school for the strikes, I think they need to be bigger and across the board before the government will take notice.

Schools don’t have any budget slack to be able to individually negotiate a starting point on the salary scale for new staff. They just need cheaper and cheaper staff.

Absolutely this.

The strikes aren't having enough impact as they are.

The utterly batshit thing in all of this is that teachers shouldn't need to be striking at all.

The 'impact' that should be needed to spur the government into action is already there - the absolutely horrendous recruitment figures for this year and next.

The Education Select Committee has issued a call for evidence to try to get to the bottom of why we don't have anywhere near enough teachers https://committees.parliament.uk/committee/203/education-committee/news/194283/education-committee-launches-new-inquiry-into-teacher-recruitment-training-and-retention/

And yet, at the same time, Gillian Keegan is snubbing teachers, taking even the pathetic pay deal off the table and saying they'll get nothing.

I mean, is the Education Select Committee not in any contact with the Education Secretary? Can they not tell her to stop being such a bellend to teachers as we desperately need to keep the ones we've got?

And I'm pretty sure the Committee are going to conclude that pay is an issue.

Been in to school today to get marking done which I ignored so I could spend the last few days of term completely with my class and colleagues. I am also busy packing stuff away as I want to change jobs. I have so much teaching stuff I have had to buy that my classroom will be depleted when I leave and my spare room will be very full. There are jobs out there which is good.
I want to stay in education but really need things to change. Hopefully if all the unions join in it will make a difference.

Just looking at what others are doing, and noting that the vast majority of public very much support the teachers, what about setting up a strike fund that could be accessed via the unions.
Then go on indefinite strike, like the criminal barristers. It wouldn’t take long for the government to change their time when the country is at a standstill.
Of course none of this should be necessary, but over in the NHS we’re experiencing the same thing.
The government is too busy building HS2 or handing similar nonsense contracts to their mates to spend our funds on what the public actually need.

Change their tune

It’s batshit.

There are not enough teachers and there will be even more not enough next year. This means that trainees and ECTs aren’t as well supported so they leave because it’s too hard. That means even fewer teachers.

How few do there need to be before they listen?

Not to mention their own workload survey which came out this month that they tried to bury. Why isn’t she discussing it? Why even commission it only to completely ignore it?

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1148571/Working_lives_of_teachers_and_leaders_-wave_1-_core_report.pdf

This is well worth a read! Though not at all surprising.

^Future plans, including intentions to leave5

A quarter (25%) of teachers and leaders reported that they were considering leaving the
state school sector in the next 12 months for reasons other than retirement. This was
higher for teachers and leaders working in secondary settings (28%) and for non-ECT
classroom teachers (26%). The most commonly cited reasons for considering leaving
were high workload (92%), government initiatives or policy changes (76%), and other
pressures relating to pupil outcomes or inspection (69%).^

So 25% less teachers come September, plus 40 something % less ECTs (I can't remember the figure so someone please help me out!). In all honesty, do we need to strike? September sounds like it's going to be worse than striking or working to rule! Then, how many are going to survive the 23-24 year with all the cover needed to manage the reduced workforce?

I think I'm leaning towards a 'burn it all down and rebuild from scratch' approach now.

So… what will everyone be retraining as!?

Ballerina. Saw The Nutcracker at Christmas, can easily take it up at 51…

Am on a training course tomorrow to learn how to write decodable books.

One of the above is happening 😁

I’ve been teaching for 15 years and I’ve never seen so many vacancies advertised at this point in the academic year.

I am genuinely concerned for what the 2023-24 academic year is going to hold.

Oooo, whose that through? I'm a big Charlotte Raby fan! I don't have the ideas to be an author, but decodable books or ghostwriting I'd be good at.

And because the government only met 59% of its target for secondary trainees last September, who exactly is going to be filling those vacancies?

So more far vacancies, and far fewer potential candidates.

Yet the government thinks it can piss teachers about? Utterly baffling.

It’s Abigail Steel 😊

https://www.abigailsteeltraining.com/authorworkshop.html