Teacher pay rise/strike

[Nix32]

AIBU to want people to realise that the potential teacher strikes are NOT about the percentage payrise?

They are about the fact that this payrise would be unfunded, which means they would have to come out of already stretched budgets. This would mean redundancies and even fewer resources. This has a direct effect on the children.

Please remember this when you are slating teachers.

Teachers should be paid more. Thats what I want my taxes going towards!

You can try and explain this but a lot of people unfortunately don’t want to listen to the actual reality of the situation and just think teachers are greedy and lazy. The impact of unfunded pay rises on their children’s education won’t even register.

Totally agree!
People do not realise what it is like at the chalk face.

Exactly, I suspect many teachers would probably forgo the payrise if it meant there was enough funding for proper TA support in schools and proper resources. Not that they should have to! I know many teachers who just buy everything they need for the class now as there isn't any money - glue sticks, books, pencils,, board pens etc.

Teachers need to stop whinging and strike already rather than watch as the education system crumbles beneath them. Currently they are totally complicit.

They're not, as they're not technically allowed to strike for the reasons you're stating.

Unfortunately striking just causes the public to hate us more. They can't see the big picture if they need childcare to work etc.

My DH is a primary school teacher, worth his blooming weight in gold.

I always tell my own children’s teachers I am behind them 100% should they choose to strike, they are fantastic!

Schools aren’t childcare, they are there to educate.

YANBU - everyone I hear talking about this says 'Really? But they got a big rise not long ago".

People need to know it's about school budgets.

100% support the teachers. This is a Labour government. They should be ploughing money into education, not forcing existing school budgets even lower. It'll end up meaning less teachers and bigger classes.

But that's my point. It's a really wet attitude

Agreed. People aren't going to want to take this on board.

Have I missed something?

I can’t see anything about a strike on any of the news outlets.

Teacher here. Leaving early this year after 30 years. Awarding an unfunded payrise is absolutely pointless.

I think teachers should be paid properly, but have you looked at current salary scales? Loads of work has been done over the last few years and I think they're quite respectable now (I am a teacher). Good salary for graduate entrants and fast progression.

The retention crisis is not about pay. I don't know anyone who's left to earn more money elsewhere.

I'm actually all in favour of teachers taken some kind of action purely based on the fact that it seems now they're expected to do so much more than just teach and put up with disruptive/abusive behaviour to boot, and not just from their pupils.

Equally I think like hospitals/other establishments schools should have signs up stating abuse in any form will not be tolerated and will get you removed from the grounds just so there's no mistaking in thinking it'll be acceptable.

I think pay rises are just a sticking plaster. Teaching is not particularly badly paid - if teachers are able to simply be teachers. But they can’t be, many are finding themselves also having to be social workers, carers, to accommodate children with increasingly challenging needs - many of which are completely unsuited to mainstream provision - and work in environments where pupils are undisciplined, uninterested, and sometimes aggressive. The whole education system needs an overhaul.

A friend of mine teaches primary. Except the actual teaching part sounds like it comes second to what she does sorting out social problems because parents have sent their kid to school dirty, unfed, and without the right kit; trying to engage a class where at least half the kids in it have some sort of diagnosis or behavioural problem; and trying to support the handful of new kids every year who barely speak any English.

There a many school closing due to fall in pupil numbers and budget challenges. This means many staff without a job. The cull is already happening, in fact in full swing (perhaps location dependent).

Well, I was wondering this.

It has only just started in primary schools but if the trajectory continues there will be a lot of redundancies in years to come.

Perhaps location dependent, but this has been happening for quite a few years now. As you say @tappingatthewindow will continue in years to come.

Direct quote from BBC "The NEU wants a higher pay rise for teachers, and for the government to announce more money so that schools do not have to pay for it from their existing budgets."
.....so it is about the amount. It is not just about where it comes from.

Support staff don't even have an offer on the table......how is that fair?

To be fair, it isn’t the responsibility of teachers to strike on behalf of support staff.

And the contracts (and their timescales) are very different despite having the same workplace. The STPCD applies to school teachers and it's the STRB whose recommendations have been put to the government just now.

After 20 years of teaching I saw education decimated. It went from having all of the basics and being able to choose a few nice to have items for your class to be struggling for basics and often having to fight to get new textbooks when an exam board makes major changes to specification. Cuts always mean less TA's and higher teacher workload. KS can give away billions for Chargos Islands and renting them back yet can't find money for schools and teachers. This is Labour. Tory's also did their share to cut funding to education. It's so depressing no government wants to invest in our DC.