Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Protection built in.

Meet the Other Phone.
Protection built in.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Education

Join the discussion on our Education forum.

Original poster

GDST Trustees

309 replies

Common · 02/02/2022 04:40

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.

OP posts:
prh47bridge · 06/02/2022 16:38

@Egtimestwo17 - Since September 2021 it has been rolled into the NFF allocations.

@Phineyj - The government doesn't subsidise it. They underwrite it. Yes, they could make it less generous but that is unlikely to be driven by independent schools or academies leaving. When a school leaves the scheme it reduces the scheme's income a little but reduces the future liability considerably more, so overall it actually improves the scheme's position when schools leave.

NottMum · 06/02/2022 17:46

This - from an organisation that claims to be at the forefront of women’s issues. The vast majority of teachers affected by this cost-cutting exercise will be women who are working hard to remain independent in retirement.
It’s a question of spending priorities - nothing lasts forever, but there are schools with much less in the bank than the GDST who are remaining in the scheme. If push ever comes to shove, an organisation of their size and calibre should be one of the LAST to leave, not one of the first.
The very least they should do is honour the terms of existing employees and allow those already in the scheme the option to stay. After all, if their alternative is so attractive then surely they will be inundated with requests to leave the TPS?
Play fairly, GDST trustees - parents are watching how you handle this affair that is entirely of your own making.

Phineyj · 06/02/2022 18:34

Surely the govt subsidise TPS employers' contributions to zero for state schools in the sense that state schools' bills are paid by their grant from DFES, a government department, and pension contributions go to HMRC, another government department?

Yes of course they underwrite the giant Ponzi scheme it.

prh47bridge · 06/02/2022 18:55

overall it actually - sorry - that should have been "overall it may actually".

Surely the govt subsidise TPS employers' contributions to zero for state schools in the sense that state schools' bills are paid by their grant from DFES, a government department, and pension contributions go to HMRC, another government department?

Almost. The pension contributions are paid by their grant from DfE and go to the TPS which is operated by Teachers' on behalf of the DfE. I wouldn't personally describe that as a subsidy. The rate of employer contributions is set by the Secretary of State for Education based on advice from the actuaries. If the government chose to cut the employer contribution rate, it would simply result in the scheme's black hole getting bigger and TPS would therefore require more direct support from government in its role underwriting the scheme.

prh47bridge · 06/02/2022 19:13

Lots of typos today! "operated by Teachers'" should be "operated by Teachers' Pensions".

Takeachance18 · 06/02/2022 19:44

The problem with the tps, like many public sector (except local government) schemes is that it is an unfunded pension scheme, so it is a "pay as you go " scheme, so current members are paying for the already retired.

There is nothing to crash as such as government will pick it up. However, no government would want to be seen supporting ex independent school staff with public money.

timestheyarechanging · 07/02/2022 13:31

As a side note. I used to work in a successful oversubscribed GDST school with a fantastic reputation, for several years. 10yrs ago there was one marketing person FT, with a part time assistant.
Roll on to 2017 once Cheryl G became established in her CEO position (her background entirely in marketing/PR not education), there were three FT 'marketeers' and one PT. No additional teaching positions were created. Also the new marketing person was on a director's salary of £60+k (I saw the advert) when previous 'manager' earned half that.

I took my two out of Juniors when I left.

Bedtimefornow · 07/02/2022 19:46

This is definite propaganda! If I were a betting person I would put a hefty sum on the fact that this person works for the GDST!

Bedtimefornow · 07/02/2022 19:49

This is definite propaganda! If I were a betting person I would put a hefty sum on the fact that this person @prh47bridge works for the GDST!

Joy93notme · 07/02/2022 19:56

Oh it's rife on these boards. So obvious when accounts come on to defend schools or a very specific issue which 'has nothing to do with them'.

My favourite ever is a NW London prep head who spent 2 years posting about how amazing she is using several different accounts.

Bedtimefornow · 07/02/2022 20:16

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

littlemisslozza · 07/02/2022 20:40

@MrPickles73 us too! We must be local to each other.

I certainly believe that our local GDST school is struggling financially, otherwise they wouldn't have merged their junior site onto the seniors. Unfortunately for them, they did it in such a shoddy fashion, with the most appalling and insensitive communication, and ended up losing approximately half the children in the juniors and the loyalty of many local families. This is in a rural area with a reasonably low population density so not the applications for places that you would get at other GDST schools. Some junior years with literally a handful of girls left. It's tiny compared to many of the 'sister' schools in London and can't be compared at all. It's thought that they aren't even particularly selective anymore as they can't afford to be. The co-ed independent schools in the area are thriving and oversubscribed however, although that's another conversation....

I currently work at another independent school as a teacher and my pension is good. Not quite TPS but I do get paid more than I did in the state sector. I totally support the GDST teachers in their cause, they do not deserve this treatment and my experience of Cheryl and co only reinforces my thoughts on this.

Sweetnhappy1 · 07/02/2022 21:13

@Bedtimefornow

This is definite propaganda! If I were a betting person I would put a hefty sum on the fact that this person *@prh47bridge* works for the GDST!
Just lurking on this thread because my DD attends a GDST school and I'm interested in understanding more about the strike action.

I've been on Mumsnet for years and often see prh47bridge give advice on admissions appeals for state schools. You can look up previous posts, she's helped many people with their appeals. It seems unlikely that she works for GDST.

Egtimestwo17 · 07/02/2022 21:24

If you want to learn more, I highly recommend you watch:

MrPickles73 · 07/02/2022 21:33

littlemisslozza yes indeed the prep/junior school is now 1/3rd of the size when we joined only 4 years ago. Certainly a marketing success there! It's really heart breaking and when they announced the 'exciting news' I did go and see both heads and told them exactly what would happen and they told me not to worry or listen to 'tittle tattle' from other parents... see how well that went for them. I also wrote to Cheryl and got a very brief response that GDST fully supported the changes.
The school is not at all selective and tbh we were disappointed by the academic level in the prep school. We left before seniors as we struggled to imagine things would get better..

prh47bridge · 07/02/2022 21:37

@Bedtimefornow

This is definite propaganda! If I were a betting person I would put a hefty sum on the fact that this person *@prh47bridge* works for the GDST!
You would lose. I have no association with GDST at all. Never even heard of them before this thread. And I would love to know which of my comments you class as propaganda.
littlemisslozza · 07/02/2022 22:02

@MrPickles73 My email to Cheryl went ignored! I think they underestimated the impact of their 'exciting news' and will be seeing the repercussions for a long time.

We were happy with the academic level, (our eldest won an academic scholarship to SS), but the girl bias was increasingly apparent despite the prep originally being very separate to the senior school when we joined, with a healthy mix of genders. New head came in at the senior school and it deteriorated from there as far as I can see!

Hope yours are happy and settled now.

littlemisslozza · 07/02/2022 22:03

I mean healthy mix of sexes..

MrPickles73 · 07/02/2022 22:10

littlemisslozza a friend of mine speculates that they want to close the prep down entirely but I just don't understand the business case unless they plan to sell the school off? Closing the nursery also seemed to be cutting off their own arm??
I think the boys leaving ironically pulled the academic level down as there was no common entrance to chase and the exam to the seniors is no longer compulsory...
My daughter's year the teaching of latin was dropped before it started in the prep and no one even mentioned it. Teaching of maths was poor (maths teacher always doing 'other management stuff' and no differentiation between pupils). My son I was told was doing really well in maths and a term later he was 'average' because the rest of the class had caught up?? I was baffled..
Moved our daughter to a new prep school and she was behind in latin (!) and french.
I'm still not sure what the school was trying to achieve - surely you want as wide a customer base as possible?

littlemisslozza · 07/02/2022 22:24

@MrPickles73 wow, I hadn't realised about the Latin and that's not great about the other standards too. A great shame as it was a lovely school, the boys regularly won sought after scholarships so things were clearly ok before, and I think it was upsetting to the teachers as well as us. They've dug themselves a big hole, although I suspect the whole plan came from HQ and not the school itself!

mafsfan · 07/02/2022 22:59

@MrPickles73 @littlemisslozza Local too 👋 No links to SHS but I previously had to the other big prep school. I didn't realise they'd closed the nursery - did they just not bother to move it over? Another stupid decision! I've thought that they're trying to close the prep school down but then also wondered why they'd spend all that money refurbishing the town walls site. Very bizarre decision making all round.

hupfpferd · 08/02/2022 20:58

Our GDST also merged the prep into the senior site. It's been awful for the seniors. Most of their space has gone, no green space at all now.

Building work has been going on for nearly a year, seniors on half their usual space.

Wouldn't go there now.

New head is just on a power trip.

Sad as it was really good before.

Lunaverde · 09/02/2022 15:13

My company stopped defined benefits at least 15 years ago, and like the GDST teachers we were given no choice. I think anyone still on defined benefits is a very very lucky employee ! I really sympathise with the teachers but it’s unfortunately what most private sector companies had to do many years ago, given the hike in contribution costs. As a charitable trust I am surprised the GDST kept it going this long! I am sorry that the trust and the teachers could not come to a compromised

Egtimestwo17 · 09/02/2022 15:30

Unfortunately there is no real compromise. As long as they can afford it, they should. They can and so it shouldn’t be questioned.

meditrina · 09/02/2022 16:07

@Bedtimefornow

This is definite propaganda! If I were a betting person I would put a hefty sum on the fact that this person *@prh47bridge* works for the GDST!
Try Advanced Search to see how wrong you are

BTW - what proportion of teachers in GDST schools are NEU? It's much more common for teachers in private schools to be in NASUWUT (because IIRC, their strike votes are non-binding)