Teachers strike... what will actually happen in end?!

[SpringPop]

My school is striking again next week with others that have teachers from the particular union.

All that is happening is parents are getting massively angry. Kids are missing out. I've used so much holiday on strike days as I have multiple children. I know my anger should not be directed to school but exactly where can I direct it to? I'm pretty sure my MP wouldn't care. He's completely useless.

The government don't seem to care.

I personally think something needs to change in that profession and funding in my area is shocking! It's probably not attracting the best people to the profession and certainly is driving people away.

However, am I right in thinking rishi and co don't care?! Teachers could do 5, 10, 100 days and it seems they won't budge right?

Parents don't seem to care or get angry enough, short of tweeting about it or writing to MP. It isn't really enough to get this resolved.

How do you think this situation will end?

If you left in 2014 on £45k, it's no wonder you think teacher pay is just fine.

Indeed. Teacher pay has been seriously eroded since then due to austerity and so a teacher doing the same job now wouldn't be on much than that despite the huge increase in cost of living.

The latest post just shows contempt for the profession. However a poster with kids at an outstanding single sex grammar school will likely be more protected from the shocking shortage of teachers than many other schools and probably doesn't realise just how good her kids actually have it.

I was on 45k when I left and was nowhere near the top of the tree!

I have been teaching for 25+ years and top of UPS and earn £43k now, 9 years later. There are no TLRs, no SEN allowance and I am the oldest/highest paid teacher in my school barring the H/DH. This is primary, so maybe things are a bit different in secondary.

No, she just understands that if it's bad in said school then an inner city comp in Newcastle/Liverpool/Hull probably has no chance with engaging parents properly therefore improving attendance and behaviour. I don't think good is the word used by my sons on a daily basis 🙄 Stop making excuses, yes education is in crisis but school leaders collectively need to look at their part in that. The irony of teachers striking over something they had a part in causing is actually incredible.

And by the way @noblegiraffe, I don't know if you've noticed but the cost of living has increased for the whole of society, not just the teaching profession.

Here's a graph for you.

The irony of teachers striking over something they had a part in causing is actually incredible

Are you thinking I'm leadership again? You keep promoting me.

I have no idea and care even less tbh. I'm not sure what you're trying to prove with your graph but it does prove that we all need a pay rise, not just the teaching profession 🙄

I'm not sure what you're trying to prove with your graph

Really? When you say that the cost of living has risen for everyone and I present a graph showing that pay growth has been worse for teachers than the UK average and similar graduates, you don't understand what I'm trying to show?

But there's only been a discernable difference between teaching and other graduates for the past 24 months. That's hardly long enough to call it a crisis and I'm assuming you've not had an actual pay cut in that time? I don't think it's me that needs lessons on deciphering graphs...let's bring the entire education system of a country to a halt because of a 24 month old phenomenon. Yep, very professional 🙄

Here's another graph for you. Teacher trainees for September.

About 9% of teachers quit the profession last year. They need replacing. The govt sets targets for how many trainees it needs to recruit to fill the gaps.

It is projected to only meet 52% of that target for secondary teachers for September. You'll note that it is only going to meet 29% of its target for D&T teachers.

The govt has failed to meet its recruitment targets for most of the time it has been in power, but things were disastrous last year and look even worse for next year.

We have people stood in front of classes "teaching" subjects that they know fuck-all about and the situation is getting worse and worse.

How do you propose solving the problem of kids not actually having teachers? You can moan about leadership causing retention issues, but people are not being attracted into the profession, and in that case, my graph above is extremely relevant.

I'm assuming you've not had an actual pay cut in that time?

Do you understand that a below inflation pay rise is a real terms pay cut? And that teacher pay has been affected by real terms pay cuts for over a decade? And that your pay in 2014 was way better than teacher pay is now?

Teachers get paid enough, get back to work, oh hang on 6 weeks holiday soon. I work in a school as support staff, without a TA who is paid peanuts alot wouldnt be able to control or teach the kids.

If you think teaching assistants should be paid more, please contribute to this parliamentary request for information.

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/_chat/4834739-if-you-think-that-teaching-assistants-should-be-paid-more

What exactly have school leaders and teachers done to cause education being in crisis? Do enlighten us.

These being the independent reviews that had to be listened to last year (because they said what the government wanted).

Happy to ignore them this year though. Funny how that works.

I was on almost 45k in 2014 too. It was a pretty decent salary at that point. I worked hard, long hours & so on with additional responsibilities but it was in the main manageable.

9 years later I’m still on around 45k. I have infinitely more responsibility, work much longer hours and my day to day job is more complex because of the extra needs I’m balancing in my class, additional curriculum pressures, ofsted subject leader expectations, fewer outside agencies to support to name a few.

I’m sorry you have at times felt your DC with SEND have been unsupported by the current system. Believe me, people with current teaching experience feel it too. We would all (or at least, in the main - you always get the odd outlier) like to do better for each child in our classes. Not having the resources we need to meet needs - following a decade + of real term cuts - is just one of the additional challenges we face currently and why teaching now is a different ball game from 10 years ago.

Teachers get paid enough, get back to work, oh hang on 6 weeks holiday soon.

Yes.

I don't know of any teacher who wasn't able to find other employment -also, the teachers who I know had jobs secured before they handed in their notice for teaching (and in some cases, refused to work the entire notice period).

I'm a teacher working on an exit strategy to leave at the end of the next academic year, but I would only hand in my notice if I manage to get a job offer.

I agree with posters saying it's not going to have an easy end - I don't want to think about how it's going to go to be honest, as the teacher retention crisis is already causing lots of problems in our school.

Why can't the government recruit enough teachers then?

They're basically now telling teacher training providers to accept anyone who applies. Desperate.

But so much of this stems from what the DoE dictates about expected behaviour management in schools. God forbid Ofsted comes in and you're not handing out enough detentions to meet their draconian criteria or letting kids are going round losing important stuff with no consequences (you say it's a bit of card, but I'm guessing it was a pass or something). Yes it sounds like the SLT at your school are militant, but the pressure comes from above.

Argh, typo! Meant letting kids go around.

@samsam123 what's a teaching assistant. Seriously there is no money.
Even 15 years ago I'd have teaching assistants in some of my lessons.
I have none now. Loads more students with send Few of which have an ehcp as the waits for assessment are years
Redundancy because funds are low. Which will make class sizes much bigger and compound the problem.

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/4839390-school-budget-cuts-is-this-normal

They're basically now telling teacher training providers to accept anyone who applies. Desperate.
This is just going to exacerbate anti teacher feeling as some of them will be great, I'm sure, but a significant number won't.

Yes, and headteachers are having to appoint teachers that they really rather wouldn't because of a lack of anyone else to do the job.

https://www.tes.com/magazine/news/general/teacher-recruitment-crisis-intensifies-schools-make-reluctant-job-appointments

And then we have people moaning that teachers don't deserve a pay rise because there are teachers who are shit at their job 🤦‍♀️