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

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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?

I would be VERY interested to see attendance numbers since the strikes started. I'd say 80% of parents I've spoken to have become more lax about attendance due to the strikes.

All that is happening is parents are getting massively angry.

That's not been my experience. Our Head has had some lovely, supportive emails from parents about the strikes. Quite a few parents came out to join staff on the picket line last time, one parent showed up with a great big box of cakes she'd baked for the staff, and most of the students I've spoken to about it have shown a good understanding of why the strikes are happening suggesting they've had positive conversations at home. Some of our parents were interviewed at the school gates by the press, and most empathised with the striking Teachers position.

Parents are angry about GCSE and A level classes having no Teacher, and about kids with EHCP's who are entitled to TA support not getting it because we can't recruit. They're disappointed about the number of support staff who are leaving to work in retail or in call centres because they can't afford to work in a school anymore, which means vulnerable children aren't getting the support they need. But most of them are sensible enough to understand that those things aren't the fault of striking Teachers.

To be honest, the small minority of parents who are kicking off about the strikes are the parents who have a go at staff at every opportunity anyway, no doubt contributing to the retention crisis. Then they complain when residential trips and extracurriculars have to be scaled back, or when their child's lessons are being taught by an endless stream of supply Teachers because we don't have the staff.

I'm not in the NEU by the way, and I'm also going to be inconvenienced as my child's Teacher is striking and I have no childcare so I most likely end up having to take unpaid leave. But I'm reserving my anger for the Government, who have caused the crisis in Educstion, rather than Teachers who are exercising their right to strike.

This might be a bit David Icke of me... but "they" don't care about educating the poor masses. The elite will go to private schools and keep up the cycle and the poor will get thicker and thicker. The middle class will disappear as AI will take over most jobs they do. And the gap between the upper and lower classes will grow and grow. "They" don't care about your kids education because really they don't even want the masses educated at all.

Well it’s all about to get even worse as school support staff are currently being ballotted under NJC pay offer in most state schools.

I agree with PP. The only way out of this is a GE and get the Tory’s out.

Nasty is disruptiing the education of thousands of kids that have already suffered so much through Covid

There is a massive shortage of D&T teachers. Kids at my school have basically had to teach themselves their GCSE due to no qualified teacher being available.

Do you consider it nasty that you fucked off out of teaching and left those kids up shit creek for far longer than a few days?

I definitely think people are getting more lax about attendance due to the strikes. I used to be very much a 'you must never miss a day of school if you can help it' type of parent but the last strike that my kids' school was shut for coincided with my mum coming to visit and as I couldn't go out for lunch with her and expect my two slightly silly teenage boys to stay at home and get on with work by themselves I let them sack it off to come out with us. And I was a parent who enforced all of the online work over Covid. Next week my two are meant to be on a residential trip so my husband and I have booked a couple of nights away. I haven't heard yet if their school is shut and/or the residential cancelled but if it is I'm not cancelling my trip to enforce work at home - they'll be coming with us.

Attendance has been fucked since covid.

I joke that my youngest school might not even open come September. It’s got just under 20 known members of staff leaving. Apparently we shouldn’t worry. Aha

Thankfully my older two’s school/future school seem to be ok, one a specialist stem school.

I fully back that teachers should get a raise, that it should be fully funded, however as a parent who’s never taken her children out of school for a holiday because every day is so so important I have actually booked a holiday a because well if a strike can happen what feels like every month for a few days what’s a couple of days of me taking them out 😬

Fortunate I work from home.

You sound very privileged. Most people will have to work throughout the teacher strikes, which means the children are left to their own devices / get dumped in front of screens yet again.

The nastiness going on with my two neurodivergent then primary school aged sons was far more pressing. I'd go back now in a heartbeat as financially I'd be much better off plus I actually liked the job, but nobody wants to employ a 50 year old it would appear!

It is completely illogical for teachers on here to say that they are striking about pay only because that is all they are allowed to strike for, but actually the issue is not about pay….
And then they say the pay is not enough to recruit or retain decent teachers.
How can you resolve a dispute of you pretend it’s about something else?
No wonder people have lost patience and sympathy.

What will happen? The government will ignore it, knowing that, sooner or later, it will run out of steam. Like the nurses strike.

I think that the government are happy for the current situation to continue until the GE next year.

Come September the other teaching unions, support staff and heads may be joining the striking too. I don't think that people are angry enough for the government to act yet. Not everyone had kids in state schools so the private school educating people on power are happy to wait it out and increase the difference between the 2 sectors.

Well given that we've had to put anyone with a pulse in front of our DT classes, perhaps you should try again.

And then you'd be able to comment on the current situation in teaching from a position of experience.

Yes, it's not like I have two school age children and see what they put up with in terms of teacher quality, some of their teachers are as fit for for the job as you sound 🙄 Of course I can speak from experience, I didn't suddenly unlearn my training and 15 years in a classroom. I still know what makes a good teacher and playing cowboys and Indians with the education of the next generation isn't it, I'm afraid!

playing cowboys and Indians with the education of the next generation isn't it, I'm afraid!

Perhaps the education secretary should start actually talking to teachers and sorting the whole mess out then.

Yes, it's not like I have two school age children and see what they put up with in terms of teacher quality,

And you don't think that perhaps if you want better quality teachers perhaps we might need to pay more?

some of their teachers are as fit for for the job as you sound

I still know what makes a good teacher

Are you sure, because apparently you think that how someone posts on an internet forum in their free time is somehow an indicator of how they are in the classroom.

I didn't suddenly unlearn my training and 15 years in a classroom.

No but your experience of the classroom is hideously out of date.

Anyone who hasn't taught since covid can't really comment with any great insight, tbh.

I repeat, teachers are not badly paid. Therefore no, I don't think we need to pay more for teachers.

I'm amazed that you have any time to comment on an Internet forum actually, given how overworked you all claim to be these days.

The basics of teaching remain the same whatever. The basic principle of standing up in front of 30 kids and delivering a subject you're passionate about doesn't change. And yes, the assessment etc will have changed since I left but my experience as a parent of a Year 10 and a Year 8 is current and I know what I see isn't great.

Are you sure it's not your attitude causing you to struggle for staff?

I repeat, teachers are not badly paid. Therefore no, I don't think we need to pay more for teachers.

How do you propose tackling the extreme shortage of teachers and enticing the graduates who can earn lots more elsewhere into the classroom?

The basics of teaching remain the same whatever.

The fact that you don’t have a clue what I’m talking about when I say your experience is hideously out of date says it all.

Are you sure it's not your attitude causing you to struggle for staff?

Yes. There has been extensive research and a current parliamentary inquiry into why we, as a country, cannot recruit and retain teachers and my attitude has not come up once.

Bullying from leadership has come up plenty of times as an issue in teacher retention. Maybe take note?

If you're just there for the money, you're in the wrong job anyway. Graduates that don't consider teaching their vocation need to toddle off to banking or accountancy or wherever because it is bloody hard and you need to understand it to do it properly.

Education during Covid was an absolute shit show, lessons not put online when they were promised, work not assessed, teachers refusing to go into schools once they reopened etc and it has never recovered. Yet here you are making all sorts of demands on the government so by default me as a taxpayer, when the teaching profession didn't keep it's side of the deal during Covid and so many kids suffered long term consequences as a result. Your Unions are seriously having a laugh if they think that parents are supportive of you now!

Teachers are massively under paid for what is expected of them, in terms of hours but also responsibilities- with the decimation of social services they’ve become the safety net for so many vulnerable children. State schools are massively underfunded. I have 3 school aged children & of course the strikes are a massive pain but I don’t see what choice teachers have. I know lots of teachers (consequence of an English degree!) & so many have either left the profession or gone into teaching in private schools in the hope of better conditions. Genuinely worrying for the future of education. Roll on a general election & hopefully some kind of solution.

Nobody is pretending. The issue of pay is very much interlinked with the other issues in Education staff are concerned about. The problem is that any rise in pay that has been offered so far is expected to come out of schools existing budgets, which the Government have cut year on year for over a decade. Schools are skint, our business manager was in tears when we got the last electricity bill. They don't know how they're going to find the money for these pay rises, in my school TA's who are leaving aren't being replaced. But those that remain are struggling with the COL and this contributes to the crisis in recruitment and retention. So Teachers and Support staff are asking for a fully funded pay rise that will address genuine concerns about the COL crisis, and help to slow the tide of experienced staff that are leaving, without further decimating our already woefully inadequate budgets to the detriment of children.

Bullying from leadership has come up plenty of times as an issue in teacher retention. Maybe take note?

Why do you think I should take note?

If you're just there for the money, you're in the wrong job anyway.

This is such a lazy, inane argument. It is possible to care about two things simultaneously. Teachers can be passionate about the job and care about the kids, but still be worried about how they're going to cope with massive increases in their utility bills, childcare fees, rent or mortgage payments.

Education during Covid was an absolute shit show, lessons not put online when they were promised, work not assessed, teachers refusing to go into schools once they reopened etc

This is a massive generalisation. None of these things happened at my school, or the school my kids go to, or any my friends and family members kids schools. I'm sorry if your kids had a bad experience during that covid but that doesn't mean that all Teachers deserve to be shafted on pay and schools have their budgets decimated even further.