GDST Trustees

[Common]

How has the GDST Board of Trustees managed to create the first strike by staff in 149 years?

Cheryl Giovannoni and her board have treated a unique educational institution in the UK based on values, ideals and morals like a business because they fundamentally fail to comprehend the ethos of service that powers the GDST.

@prh47bridge , management consultancy companies have teams dedicated to advising private school HR depts re this issue. It's standard for all teachers to be given new contracts or leave.
1 of the first big schools to withdraw was St Edwards in Oxford and you can Google the press reports.

What is happening in many schools is that a consultation date is set and at the last minute the school mgmt team makes a U turn to allow all current staff to remain in TPS.

Just to add for completeness the option for current staff to remain in TPS wasn't originally possible but bought in during 2021.

I have researched DC schemes in some detail (to the point that I appear to know things school finance bods don't ) and while it is possible to purchase ones that include e.g. ill health retirement, this is with schemes that are at the expensive end of the market and therefore GDST and other schools would not save the money they wish to.

Make no mistake - these schools generally wish to save on staff to spend on buildings (and exec salaries of course; let's not forget those).

The £10,000 a year less pension for a typical mid career mid earner teacher was worked out carefully and with conservative assumptions by a colleague and their partner, a senior lawyer.

They would hardly be doing this if they didn't expect to save money!

The difference between these and private sector roles are that these employees are in the classroom every day trying to do a good job of educating the next generation and being good role models. There's a gigantic cognitive dissonance.

(Private sector roles not in education).

@prh47bridge Sadly yes those calculations are correct and from the GDST’s own calculator that does consider in TPS payments to date. I didn’t believe it at first so repeated it several times, including once with the pensions expert that the GDST employed to advise us. He confirmed that they were correct.

For completeness of picture, I am a mid-career teacher near the top of the scale (I’ll never reach the top as there is no pay progression unlike in state where I would be on £2k a year more).

[quote Surelyitscoffeetime]@prh47bridge Sadly yes those calculations are correct and from the GDST’s own calculator that does consider in TPS payments to date. I didn’t believe it at first so repeated it several times, including once with the pensions expert that the GDST employed to advise us. He confirmed that they were correct.[/quote]
If that is what GDST are telling you, I'm happy to accept it. It still seems on the high side to me but I'm not a pensions expert.

It is correct that contributions already made to TPS stay in the scheme if someone leaves and continue to accrue (although without the inflation plus 2% uplift applied to continuing members).

The other thing I discovered is that teachers will need to look into fees charged for the new scheme (these vary, are higher than the minimal scheme fee charged by TPS and are for admin AND arranging the scheme AND annual advice) - TPS doesn't require teachers to decide what funds their pot will be invested in because there's no pot.

Tbh I am beginning to feel this is a new PPI scandal in the making .

@Phineyj, it is not a scam, it is how defined contribution schemes work in the private sector. There is actually a lot of legislation already in place to protect DC scheme members, including a cap on charges and extensive annual statements that Trustees of DC schemes have to make to members to explain everything. Plenty of information on this and other aspects available eg. on The Pension Regulators website.

Also, your benefits already in the TPS will be treated as a deferred pension payable at retirement. By law this will increase by at least CPI capped at 2.5% pa (but depending on the scheme rules and when the pension accrued it may be more) between now and when you reach normal retirement age.

I have spent my whole career working in and championing DB schemes, in the last year even engaging directly with the DWP to try to persuade them not to make legislative changes which will make it even harder for the last few private sector open DB schemes to stay open. But the reality is for most employers the economic rationale for closing the DB schemes is compelling, and so almost all have.

Royal Mail went through this in 2017/18, when they proposed closing their DB scheme and forcing all employees into a DC scheme, which as I recall also lead to strike action. It’s worth researching what happened there. As I said earlier, the outcome in that case, agreeing a new way - a CDC scheme - could well be a compromise option that works better than DB for employers, but also better than DC for members.

[quote Ericaequites]@SeasonFinale- At American independent schools, textbooks and school supplies are extras, often quite expensive. My old school was charging £450 for an Art History textbook five years ago.[/quote]
This is predominantly a UK site and text books would be included in standard fees at most indies here.

Textbooks ARE included in standard fees at our GDST.

In fact very little is extra other than trips and specific workshop days.

I have seen our school change beyond recognition in the past 18 months. New head who has bulldozed (literally) through the school.

[quote sunshineclouds24]@prh47bridge , management consultancy companies have teams dedicated to advising private school HR depts re this issue. It's standard for all teachers to be given new contracts or leave.
1 of the first big schools to withdraw was St Edwards in Oxford and you can Google the press reports.

What is happening in many schools is that a consultation date is set and at the last minute the school mgmt team makes a U turn to allow all current staff to remain in TPS. [/quote]
It happens a lot in the private sector. The employer wants to change terms, employees don't agree so the employer sacks them and rehires them. It is a risky thing for the employer to do as they can be sued for unfair dismissal by any employee with 2 years service. And, even though it happens a lot, that doesn't mean I have to agree with it.

@dalrympy in a good way or a bad way? We are looking at a London GDST for our daughter.

I didn't say it was a scam -- I know what the rules are (to the extent that a layperson can understand this very complex area of financial services). I was implying that there could easily be mis-selling because teaching staff are often not sufficiently clued up to ask the right questions.

If school budgets get tighter, schools may start to charge for items now included in tuition. I realize I’m talking about the American experience, but have seen things change over years of austerity.

Parents don’t pay extra for textbooks, parents pay extra for trips abroad and food. Schools are nothing without teachers and parents pay for good teaching. Without the TPS the GDST will bleed their best teachers and that will undermine the reason parents choose the schools. I hope the trustees see that. Buildings don’t educate, teachers do.

I highly recommend anyone who wants to understand more about this situation watches:

Egtimes thanks for the video.

Our school stayed open during the pandemic - literally for key worker and vulnerable DC and virtually for everyone else. We delivered the whole curriculum and even some extra classes in summer 2020 (we were of course v lucky to have no DC without personal device/Internet access). If the school was open when the buildings weren't open (to most) then the "school" must be the teachers, because it can't be the buildings.

Precisely! If Covid has left us with one takeaway it is that whether a teacher is in the same room or across a screen they can continue to provide a good standard of education. The buildings need to be considered as being of secondary importance to the teachers. Unfortunately it seems as though the Trust have lost sight of this.

They have also seemed to misunderstood how inadequate a teacher’s salary is compared to their fellow graduate counterparts (if you think about the number of hours they put into their jobs). The pension should make up for this and it does with the TPS, but not with the AVIVA scheme on offer to teachers at the GDST.

I really just hope the input staff, students and parents alike asking for them to reconsider has an impact. The future of all teachers’ pensions is at threat if they don’t.

I don't think the big academy chains can legally take their teachers out of TPS but I bet their lawyers are following these cases closely. Because laws can be changed and although in theory the state schools are refunded for extra employment costs, in practice I bet it's not easy or simple.

I am saying that because sympathy for GDST will be limited as only a small percentage of the population can afford to pay for their children's education. But the chain is big enough to affect payments in to TPS.

That is what I mean! The TPS works because of chains such as the GDST paying into it. The security of the TPS is at threat.

Yes, but I think the independent sector contribution is only around 10% of TPS revenues isn't it? Would that actually threaten the scheme or just widen the deficit?

I don't think the big academy chains can legally take their teachers out of TPS

Yes they can. However, the government provided academies with additional funding to cover the increase in employer contributions to TPS, so there is no financial incentive for them to do so.

That is what I mean! The TPS works because of chains such as the GDST paying into it. The security of the TPS is at threat.

No it doesn't and no it isn't. The TPS, like all public sector pension schemes, is backed by the government. Loss of independent schools may help TPS - it would reduce income but it would also reduce projected outgoings, so it may actually reduce the size of the black hole. But regardless, there is no way any government would allow TPS or any other public sector pension scheme to go under.

My understanding is that the government subsidy that currently helps states schools and academies to bridge the gap caused by the rise in employer contributions expires at the end of the current tax year, and that nothing has yet been announced for April onwards.
The NEU has stated that if the independent sector is allowed to withdraw en masse, then it will embolden academies when and if their subsidies dry up or are reduced. If that is the case what you are saying is perhaps about to become redundant?

They would be unlikely to allow a public sector scheme to go under because of the electoral fallout but they could make it less generous or (as the previous poster points out) reduce the subsidy.

Although after the McCloud bosh-up I'm guessing they'd wait a bit!