Parents - how do you feel about teaching unions?

[Musicaldilemma]

Following various exchanges in real life and on here, I was wondering what other parents currently feel and think of teaching unions? Do you know a lot about them? What do you feel their role is and should be in this pandemic? If you are able to, please clarify if you are a parent married to a teacher or teacher parent. Or just a parent like myself with a few friends who are teachers. I was interested to see that teaching unions in Switzerland, for example, really pushed the message that schools must be and stay open for children’s mental health.

@noblegiraffe I stand corrected. Like I said, maybe unfair. It hasn't exactly been headline news (afaik).

I have absolutely no complaints about the effort teachers are going to. I have three kids in three different schools and they have all been great so far.

And I don't read the Daily Mail!! How very dare you!!

@saraclara

My opinion on any professional union is utterly irrelevant. Unions exist to support their members in safer working conditions and practices. And I would support this for anyone in any area of work.

Exactly that. They advocated to keep their members safe. That's what their members pay for.

I would hope that the shop workers union and the police union were/are doing the same for them.

This. Always this.

In general I'm a massive supporter of teaching unions. I am a former teacher, I've worked closely with them in the UK and elsewhere and in general they're strong advocates for the profession and teachers AND children. I've also worked with teaching unions through another pandemic (HIV/AIDS) and through conflicts where schools and teachers are often direct targets.

I think their intentions were good this time.

But- their comms have been beyond awful. They've managed to message to parents that need to send children to school that they're teacher killers. They've pushed a concept of 'safety' in schools which has sounded a lot like Zero Covid, which is unrealistic (and especially when the very worst outbreaks have been in care homes, hospitals, factories and call centres, usually impacting people much poorer than them). They haven't been clear at all what they're asking for.

I'm not sure any of this was intentional. One of my worries as well is that they've unintentionally contributed to a deprofessionalisation of teaching - we know DFE is keen on this and it plays into their hands. Why do you need that PE teacher when you have Joe Wicks? Why don't you just use that app instead of teaching maths?

A much more targeted set of asks would have worked better- that protected vulnerable teachers and showed them doing what they do best, which is putting kids at the centre. They did not demonstrate that. What is teaching as a profession if it's not about children?

Education International, who are the global teacher union, had a really good set of asks and I think more constructive given they work with teachers who face other risks in schools every day.

Also, someone needs to get on their media training.

[quote LostFrog]@noblegiraffe I stand corrected. Like I said, maybe unfair. It hasn't exactly been headline news (afaik).

I have absolutely no complaints about the effort teachers are going to. I have three kids in three different schools and they have all been great so far.

And I don't read the Daily Mail!! How very dare you!! [/quote]
Of course it hasn't been headline news. Can you imagine the newspaper headline?

TEACHERS UNIONS ASK FOR PERFECTLY REASONABLE SAFETY MEASURES IN SCHOOLS

That would really grab their readers' attention

@cyclingtowardsbethlehem

In general I'm a massive supporter of teaching unions. I am a former teacher, I've worked closely with them in the UK and elsewhere and in general they're strong advocates for the profession and teachers AND children. I've also worked with teaching unions through another pandemic (HIV/AIDS) and through conflicts where schools and teachers are often direct targets.

I think their intentions were good this time.

But- their comms have been beyond awful. They've managed to message to parents that need to send children to school that they're teacher killers. They've pushed a concept of 'safety' in schools which has sounded a lot like Zero Covid, which is unrealistic (and especially when the very worst outbreaks have been in care homes, hospitals, factories and call centres, usually impacting people much poorer than them). They haven't been clear at all what they're asking for.

I'm not sure any of this was intentional. One of my worries as well is that they've unintentionally contributed to a deprofessionalisation of teaching - we know DFE is keen on this and it plays into their hands. Why do you need that PE teacher when you have Joe Wicks? Why don't you just use that app instead of teaching maths?

A much more targeted set of asks would have worked better- that protected vulnerable teachers and showed them doing what they do best, which is putting kids at the centre. They did not demonstrate that. What is teaching as a profession if it's not about children?

Education International, who are the global teacher union, had a really good set of asks and I think more constructive given they work with teachers who face other risks in schools every day.

Also, someone needs to get on their media training.

Strange post??

@Randomschoolworker19

I'm not sure you can compare Switzerland's schools to schools in the UK. Scandinavian schools are notorious for being better than ours, having better funding, facilities and smaller classroom sizes etc just to name a few. Children there often don't start school until they are around 7 years of age and I'd wager that people in Switzerland are far more socially responsible than they are here.

Switzerland isn't in Scandinavia.

Why so? What's strange about saying their intentions were good but badly communicated?

teachers have continued to claim their salary
Well yes.... because we've been teaching.

@alwaysraining123

Absolute disgrace. When everyone else has pulled together they’ve refused to allow teachers do their jobs, set unreasonable and unachievable demands, down played the risk to others, manipulated the presentation of data, become arm chair epidemiologists/medical experts (I don’t set myself up as a teaching expert unless I’m forced to ), and put the lives of children and their education on hold. Teachers have continued to claim their salary whilst people have been forced to give up their own job to look after or home school their children. Crazy times.

A number of blatant untruths supported by unevidenced claims. What is the world coming to? I suppose we have to blame the teachers.

I am pleased that the unions stepped in to protect their members, because it is very difficult for teachers to openly question school safety without being criticised as workshy layabouts who want to be paid for staying at home.

The unions asked their members for their views and represented them, as they should.

When they said that schools weren't safe enough to open after Christmas there was uproar, but ultimately they were right.

@CountessFrog

I’m a parent. We are both NHS. I have friends who are teachers.

I think the unions have given teachers a bad name. I think teaching has come off very badly.

Me too

Not a positive impression

My general experience is that unions are great in theory but terrible in practice

The unions have made the teaching profession a laughing stock.

In my area, ALL the primary teachers clocked off from March to Sept.

All were still paid in full.

I support teachers but have a very low opinion of how the teaching union has conducted itself throughout the virus. My impression is that the teaching union has prioritised political positioning above the interests and needs of students. I really detest them.

@YardleyX

The unions have made the teaching profession a laughing stock.

In my area, ALL the primary teachers clocked off from March to Sept.

All were still paid in full.

You are aware, I assume, that the government suspended the curriculum from March, and not the unions.

@YardleyX

The unions have made the teaching profession a laughing stock.

In my area, ALL the primary teachers clocked off from March to Sept.

All were still paid in full.

What happened to the keyworker / vulnerable children. And in June when they should have opened to other year groups ? And how was that down to the unions ?

NotFrozen unions exist to represent the interests of their members. Children cannot be members of the education unions, so of course the unions don't represent their interests.

@YardleyX

The unions have made the teaching profession a laughing stock.

In my area, ALL the primary teachers clocked off from March to Sept.

All were still paid in full.

Hmm really? So no keyworker childcare? No prioritised return in the summer? No checking up on the vulnerable?

@longandwide

If everyone refused to work until their workplace could be guaranteed covid-free, there would be no food on the shelves for all the teachers to eat while they do 8 hours a day on Zoom mainly watch Netflix

The sheer entitlement of their demands - and they still expect full pay and pensions. All in it together my a r se

@longandwide

If everyone refused to work until their workplace could be guaranteed covid-free, there would be no food on the shelves for all the teachers to eat while they do 8 hours a day on Zoom mainly watch Netflix

The sheer entitlement of their demands - and they still expect full pay and pensions. All in it together my a r se

Who is refusing to work. I am in school all day everyday no Netflix here.

@cyclingtowardsbethlehem

Why so? What's strange about saying their intentions were good but badly communicated?

Unions communicate to their members. Can you tell me what measures they were asking for that was so different to Education international? If anything I would have thought you would be more interested in highlighting the misrepresentation of the the unions in our media.

Key worker’s children were cared for in a central hub. It was staffed on a rota basis by various council employees. They were instructed to ensure that absolutely no teaching took place in those hubs.

In this area, all children were invited to spend one 4hr day in their school between June - July. No teaching was allowed to take place in this day.

The unions are doing exactly what their purpose is - to push for better conditions for their members and gain more teachers. Where it has fallen down is that their members interests are in contrast to the needs to pupils to get an education. They have shown (in Scotland anyway - don’t know about England) that they don’t really care about educating young people and are more interested in using the crisis for their politically ends. Which is totally in keeping with the unionist movement. It’s the hypocrisy of pretending they have the kids best interests in mind that is unedifying. No criticism of individual teachers who are mostly doing their best and are caught up in the political posturing of their union leaders.

@MrsHamlet I don’t think the two issues are severable. I work in a profession where I owe duties to clients. When seeking to protect my interests, I would ALWAYS factor in the needs and interests of my clients. No one operates in a vacuum. Ignoring the interests of students is the very reason I have no respect for the teaching union. This is even more essential in a profession such as teaching when so many children are vulnerable. The teaching unions are behaving as though they don’t operate in the real world and frankly have no credibility with joe public.