So is your DC school open on October 1st?

[JakeBullet]

Just had a txt to say our school will be open and that there will be no industrial action by the staff.
Relieved about this despite supporting the teachers.

Wondering how many schools thos will affect.

Both primary and secondary closed here.
We have had a fair amount of notice about it.
The dc are happy!

I have 3 school aged dc. The school for the 2 older ones is closed but the school youngest dc goes to hasn't announced if it's closing yet.

I understand Primary School haven't made a decision yet and I've heard nothing from Secondary.

For the strike purposes does Gloucestershire fall in the Midlands (sometimes) on 1 Oct, or South West (sometimes) and 17th Oct??

Today's parentmail said ours is at the moment. They will let us know if that changes.

I don't feel qualified to have a view on the strike itself, but I will be pretty pissed off if they do decide to close at a day's notice.

oh ok found it - if anyone wants to know which day by county there is an article with it in here scroll down...

Ours is open. I fully support the right of the teachers to strike though.

Just had email from school - years 5 and 6 are in and everyone else is off.

DS is in year 5; DD in year 3. I suspect he may not be best pleased (although could be interesting in school that day....)

Primary school is shut - not sure about ds secondary. DH's work (CSI) have all been told they need to have sorted out childcare as no-one will allowed time off. Nice.

I think the way it has been reported had me thinking that it would affect all schools so was quite surprised to get the text.

My friend who is a NQT in a senior school will be in work too. She says she understands why some teaches are striking, she estimates that she does a 60 hour week by the time she takes into account lesson planning, marking etc....it has really shocked her. Despite this she absolutely love her job.

Primary not affected, high school only open to yr 7,11,12&13

DS school is closed.

Had a newsletter from ds2 school, they are open. I now have 2 out of 3 dc off.

Our school is open, but only to key stage 1 classes.

Quenelle: "but I will be pretty pissed off if they do decide to close at a day's notice."

Well, it won't be just a day's notice, will it? You know perfectly well that there's a strike planned, so you need to have a back-up plan in case your dc's are affected.

Clam. Some parents don't have family near by and may have to book holiday in advance or change shifts so some people will need more than one day or lose a day's holiday/pay for no reason.

Bear in mind that with 25 days plus bank holidays being the norm all of these are needed to cover the school holidays one day unnecessarily used is a real waste. Employers need notice to plan cover.

If parents are in a real jam finding child care then surely they can ask their children's classmate's parents. With 30 childrne in a class there will be some who's parents are SAHP and willing to look after a few mire kids for the day. As a last resort most people would understand and help each other out wouldn't they?

Agree losingtrust. Except some people don't even get 25 days holiday. Even mine and DH holidays combined don't cover all the school holidays/inset/snow days in a year.

Thanks for pointing out the bleeding obvious clam.

After six weeks of summer holidays, the first ten days of term when DS's Reception class wasn't open at all due to home visits followed by one week of mornings only, then one week of afternoons only, half term coming up, immediately followed by a teacher training day, and Christmas holidays to think about, I'm not keen to spunk a day's annual leave on the possibility that the school will be closed.

It's a Reception class that has barely started functioning yet, most of the parents and children haven't got to know each other yet. The only other parent I know well enough to share childcare with also works, she'll be scratching around for help the same as me.

Forgive me if I'm not excited at the prospect of having to make more childcare arrangements and ask my employer for more flexibility in the week when DS is finally meant to be settling into a normal, full time school routine.

With 75% of women now working the days of the SAHPs in many schools are very limited. There is one in my DDs class.

It is insanely hard to manage work and childcare around schools. However, the teachers have to do something. Michael Gove seems hellbent on destroying education in this country:

• Unqualified teachers in Academies and Free Schools
• Free Schools where there are surplus school places
• Messing about with grade boundaries mid year for GCSEs
• Constantly slating the professionalism of teachers and devaluing what they do
• Destroying teacher training
• Creating a divisive National Curriculum which is good enough for some, but not for all

And many, many more. It's far too long until the next election, someone has to stand up and speak out. As a parent, I completely support this strike. If it weren't for the fact that I have to work, I'd be out there handing out cakes and hot chocolate.

Gove is setting out to destroy the education system for our children. It is going to become divisive and my 8 year will not have the same choices that children have today. If your child isn't academic they will struggle more under Gove's policy than ever. Already certain subjects are being removed from schools because they are not deemed 'profitable enough'. Schools will be run by shareholders, wanting to see a profit, by deregulating teachers, many classes will have an unqualified teacher teaching them, because it will be cheaper.

Most teachers know they are screwed on pay and pensions. This strike is about standing up for a free and inclusive educational system that is fair to all.

The topic of the strike hasn't come up at my school. I haven't heard a single person mentioning it.