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.

@YardleyX

They fought to close schools, knowing that this was the alternative 🤷‍♀️

No. They fought for schools not to re-open until they were safe for both staff and pupils. They never asked for them to close. They just wanted the re-opening after the summer to be pushed back for a couple of weeks so that schools were prepared and safe.

Seriously, so many people are either wilfully making things up, or simply weren't actually reading the news.

@longandwide

Btw teachers - I know many of you think you are wonderfully clever and superior, but we aren't as daft as you all think.

We can see through your transparent lies about how many hours you have been working through 2020. It isn't hard to do.

No way on god's clean earth was having 20% of kids in school (being taught nothing) and sending round a few downloaded worksheets and doing a token 20 min internet session every other day a full time job for all teachers across the UK.

You make yourselves look silly by peddling such obvious lies - and it means we are less inclined to believe genuine gripes you might have.

I think it has become a habit for teachers to peddle lies about the 80 hour weeks they reckon they work - been going on for years

Someone else with 'issues'.

Dammit! Unions exist to protect and advocate for workers.

What is it with teachers and their union that brings out all the crazy?

It's like a dog whistle for the deranged.

@YardleyX

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.

That sounds like a local authority issue, not a union issue. We were in teaching from June 1st.

I don't think the mitigations some unions are asking for is too much. If the government put their money where their mouth is, schools could easily have been open sooner.

So why would the local authority be making such decisions, to the detriment of their pupils?

@0gfhty

I feel like there needs to be a union that fights for the rights of children and parents that has as much sway and respect as teaching unions. I feel like there is zero representation for children and parents

In the nicest possible way, be careful what you wish for, on the evidence of some of the posts on this thread.

Longandwide you are hilarious.

I understand that parents are worried about their kids, and sick of home learning.

But instead of blaming the unions (who didn't close the schools), or blaming the teachers (who have done what was asked of them at every turn), can't you at least try to accept that it's an absolutely shit time, through nobody's fault really, that everyone is struggling for various reasons, that minimising community transmission and hospitalisation is the only viable course of action, and just get on with it without thrashing about for someone to blame.

BertNErnie Isn't it? It just ... puts it all out there, like a market stall of madness.
And makes explicit what is slightly veiled in the OP.

And it's given me my first real laugh of the day.

Which is good. 😁

@LastStarFighter

I am a parent, no connections to a teacher. I support the teachers unions.

Same.

Think the government don't give a shit about kids, and don't care if parents or teachers get sick.

Teachers have been scapegoated.

"The unions", as I keep hearing them called are actually Teachers' unions. They support teachers as workers.

It goes without saying that teachers themselves and, therefore their unions, are interested in and want the best for pupils.

However, elements of what's best for children on a personal level aren't always what's best for a safe workplace. They aren't always what's best for the whole community or the profession.

Teachers' unions are supposed to fight for the workforce, so it's not really relevant what parents think about them or want.

@YardleyX

So why would the local authority be making such decisions, to the detriment of their pupils?

I doubt that they did. They probably relocated several schools to one central hub to share resources, staffed it with school staff, and planned/supervised activities all day.

The teachers at home, not taking their turn at the hub, were calling SEN and other vulnerable children and families, hand delivering the much-maligned worksheets to those without sufficient tech at home, responding to calls and emails, planning stuff for the hub and the home-learners, marking work submitted and having millions of meetings (with each other, parents, other professionals).

I will absolutely blame the unions who (in Scotland anyway) have been objecting to live learning and even recorded lessons and advising their members not to do them. Some teachers have agreed to do it but this seems to be against union guidance. The unions genuinely don’t seem to give a shit about the pupils who have to learn via PowerPoint slides.

we aren't as daft as you all think

Well it’s possible we taught you, so you might be.

@Monkeytennis97

Has there been a call out?🎺

🦇 💩 brigade.

We know who the OP is mates with as she said so on the other thread. The one she created this thread for in an attempt to win an argument on.

inquietant, I think you've nailed it.

Nothing like a useful scapegoat to distract people from the absolutely shameful way we've been let down.

The pandemic has been handled so badly, at best, and at worst, it's been used as an opportunity to privatise and squeeze money from despair by government cronies.

And yet teachers are being scapegoated?

It's not logical.

(And if you do find yourself thinking teachers are to blame, you're being played.)

My MAT in a Tory council area also created a central hub for supervising keyworker kids. It made far more sense than opening up every school building for a few kids each.

You’d have thought maximising use of resources would be applauded.

@YardleyX

So why would the local authority be making such decisions, to the detriment of their pupils?

One authority doing their own thing. Certainly not representative of what was happening everywhere else. Maybe write to your mp and ask why they chose to do their own thing.

@borntobequiet

we aren't as daft as you all think

Well it’s possible we taught you, so you might be.

😂😂

@borntobequiet

we aren't as daft as you all think

Well it’s possible we taught you, so you might be.

Absolutely

@Bartlet

I will absolutely blame the unions who (in Scotland anyway) have been objecting to live learning and even recorded lessons and advising their members not to do them. Some teachers have agreed to do it but this seems to be against union guidance. The unions genuinely don’t seem to give a shit about the pupils who have to learn via PowerPoint slides.

Yes, because they represent teachers and so they are responding to their members' concerns about having lessons observed and recorded by families, about the inherent difficulty of teaching to a class whilst simultaneously responding to the questions and needs of those watching online.

Lots of schools are doing live lessons now but how many of you would truly relish the idea of 20 families watching you do your job, recording you doing it, emailing in their comments and opinions afterwards.

starrynight19 - I can only wish that all that took place in this area. I can categorically confirm that it did not.

Understandable that if experiences were different in other areas then this may lead to confusion as to why some people are so angry (with education in general, not specifically unions).

Think the government don't give a shit about kids

Ooh remember this thread? www.mumsnet.com/Talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/4001279-This-government-don-t-give-a-shit-about-schools-or-your-kids

There’s so much that could be added to the list since August.

The recent cut to Pupil premium funding to schools, for example.

There’s a certain parenting group who apparently care about kids who haven’t said a word about this.

'God's clean earth'

Cheered me right up!

Not a teacher. Unions attempting to protect their members? Who'd of thunk it? If they had any actual power schools wouldn't have opened in September with no effective mitigation measures.

@YardleyX

starrynight19 - I can only wish that all that took place in this area. I can categorically confirm that it did not.

Understandable that if experiences were different in other areas then this may lead to confusion as to why some people are so angry (with education in general, not specifically unions).

With the greatest respect your anger is misplaced with teachers and their unions. I cannot say what every local authority chose to do. I know many used hubs rather than opening all Schools . My school didn’t and we had a rota until we opened full time in June. We haven’t closed since and all staff remain in school during this lockdown as we did the last. I know this isn’t unusual. But none of these decisions were made by teachers or their unions.