My child's school is striking next Wednesday

[Cherryblossom200]

Hi all,

Just found out my daughters school is striking next week. The email from the head tried explaining its not just about pay, but about cuts to education as a whole. I understand there are a huge amount of problems, however striking is the wrong way to go about it especially when it concerns children. They have lost so much time in school over covid this seems ridiculous. I'm a working parent, we all have our issues right now but I can't walk out and strike. To say I'm angry is an understatement.

I'm sure this will be an contentious issue and some might disagree, which is fair enough. But I'm fuming at the moment and needed to vent!

Some of my friends schools are staying open, it looks so far like only two schools in the area are striking.

@PorkingThread what you're talking about is the reason teachers are so important. Good teachers are gold dust, never mind the fact they also teach and care for 30+ pupils all days long, so parents can go to work.

Teaching is a professional job, it requires 3-4 years of university. In real terms, it's hardly worth it nowadays. Not to mention the fact that if you actually worked out what a teacher would take home as an hourly rate with all the extra hours they do, it's measly.

You are, as many have said in this thread already, failing to see the bigger picture.
If we can't recruit teachers, clearly there's something wrong, otherwise why don't more people want to do it?

You should spend a day in a school to see how awful things are at the moment. You’d soon change your opinion.

there’s no money in education.
we’re striking for your children! (And pay too)

we’re on our bloody knees.

@Cherryblossom200 teachers have been taking industrial action short of strike here in N Ireland for YEARS. They work to rule, that’s why parents meetings are in day time - though the work to rule is a joke as every single teacher I know works outside hours. Their industrial action short of strike has achieved precisely nothing. The teachers in England are correct to move to strike. Their working conditions are horrendous and they are being asked increasingly to deal with all the ills of society, rather than simply educating children. They are quasi social workers. The point of a strike is to cause disruption. If the government chooses to not engage in reasonable negotiations you should look to them. Not the workers who are being exploited in the education sector by a government which has cut social services and assistance for those that need it to the bare bones. You are angry at the wrong people.

I think one reason people don't want to do it, @DisneyChops, is that the job has become so politicised. For every union-card-waving teacher, there's another who likes their job, feels that the balance between job satisfaction and pay is ok, and doesn't want to go on strike. From the outside, though, it just looks as if every teacher is a sandal-wearing "lefty" with a political agenda. This alone is off-putting to anyone who doesn't see that there's another side to the job.

I personally think that education (and healthcare) should be taken out of politics entirely, as they both end up being political playthings rather than getting on with doing what they are supposed to be doing. One reason I left the job is that I was sick of being part of what felt like a political party which didn't represent anything I believed in.

@PorkingThread if you say so. I don't know that many happy teachers at the minute, and I'm working as one.

@PorkingThread

With all due respect, the parents of children who we teach not earning what a teacher earns isn't the problem of teachers.

Good for you that teaching wasn't too underpaid or strenuous for you - I do notice though that you speak in the past tense.

Many teachers work 50+ hr weeks while being paid for 32.5 hours. Divide the weekly pay by 50 rather than 32.5 and you'll soon realise to meet the requirements of the job many teachers are working way below minimum wage.

How long ago did you leave teaching?

Some of my friends schools are staying open, it looks so far like only two schools in the area are striking.

At the moment only one of the teaching unions are striking - NEU.
Clearly your child's school has enough teachers striking to make closing the school a better option.

Some schools are closing to children completely. Non striking teachers, TAs and other school staff are usually still going in or, at least working from home. Striking teachers won't be working but also won't be paid.

Some schools, like mine, are only closing the classes of striking teachers. So some classes are open and some are closed.

Some schools may not have any teachers in that union so are open as normal.

Lockdowns shouldn't be used as a reason why the strikes are wrong. No matter what the msm tried, and still try, to insulate teachers didn't decide to restrict in-school education to only key worker and/or vulnerable children; that was the government. Most teachers and school staff were still working.

We've had a number of emails of support sent into school from parents, both before and after they found out which, if any, classes were closing.

It probably helps that many of our parents are doctors, nurses, university staff, etc.

@Abraxan

True. I have to be honest all the educated school mums I know do know the reasons for it, and they are backing the teachers.

It’s the thick shits who are complaining mostly. The difference between these two groups I know is really quite astonishing.

I think a lot of the people who talk about the underfunding of schools and the failure to train/recruit teachers (not you necessarily) are to some extent spouting platitudes.

You say you were a teacher, Porking? How long ago? Because if it's longer than a couple of years then you might think you know about teaching but you have no idea how fucking bad it has got.

It's very silly to say that it's the "thick shits" who are complaining. In fact, it's a pretty thick thing to say. Most people who might object also know that to object to a strike publicly is on a par with criticising a nurse. So a lot of people who don't support a strike will simply keep their feelings to themselves.

A friend has just emailed me the letter sent to parents by the head of a school near to where I live regarding the strikes. He is clearly trying to find a balance between the legitimate claims and concerns of the teachers and those of parents. This is a one of the "outstanding" state schools in a catchment area where you pay well over a million pounds for a small house just in order to be in the catchment area (and even then, there's no guarantee). So the head is statistically unlikely to be taking about "thick shits" when he acknowledges the anger felt by the parent body regarding strikes (obviously, you can be rich and still be a thick shit - but most of the people where I live are middle class professionals, not footballers), and acknowledges that the disruption is the last thing children or their parents need. People fight tooth and nail to get a place at this school, and every missed school day counts for them.

I gave up teaching, for those who asked, because I wanted to be a SAHM and I couldn't see how I could do the job properly and look after my children properly. It is is some years ago now.

We've already had 3 in 2 weeks. Teachers have tried the nice way to be heard, striking makes an impact... It causes disruption because thats what it's designed for.

Didn't hear many people whining when the trains and NHS were striking..... Because it doesn't directly affect most people.... Funny that.

Absolutely this.

It is is some years ago now.

Right, so when you talk about teachers talking about the current state of education as 'spouting platitudes', you actually have no idea what you're talking about.

Not for everyone as so far we have 4 days that they will strike on!

With that, holidays and any other closures, I just don't know what job one is supposed to have or find that would cover it all, I am deeply concerned for the future how I will cope.

Fume away. Our essential services NHS, Education, Social Care have been stretched beyond enduring. If action is not taken now children will suffer far more. Pay is part of it but most teachers will tell you it’s the lack of funding, SEN support, teachers leaving the profession in the first few years after qualifying and ridiculous expectations about constant assessments and pointless paperwork.

@PorkingThread I know we are all entitled to have our own opinion. But what troubles me is that I feel I need to choose to believe either you who has left the field years back (maybe before Jeremy Hunt?) and our wonderful headteacher who I know cares about children/teachers/education working in the school through the hell in lockdowns and now facing up the draining money pot and the skyrocket energy bill to pay and maybe have to fetch money out from the existing pot to foot the Payrise in the end if it comes down to that.

Asserting you "know" the reality based on experience years back is no longer a personal opinion. It feels almost like an deliberate effort to ignore the opposite statement made by the people who actually have to face the situation everyday in the system. It's just not right. I choose to believe our headteacher and all the cries made by those wonderful teachers.

Amen @PorkingThread and @Bard6817. Everyone wants more money for what they do, teachers aren’t uniquely impacted by the cost of living. No one else is getting a pay rise, least of all private sector. If they did the cost of everything would go up and square one? They do throw in about wanting to improve the service but throwing money at it does shit all, as we’ve seen with the NHS which is a burning pile of tax payers billions and still fucked…

It's been all over the news you must have known it was possible?
The law states employees don't have to tell their employer if they are striking until the day of the strike. Not really the schools fault

teachers aren’t uniquely impacted by the cost of living.

No, but do you know who is impacted by the lack of teachers? Children.

And I'm not talking about strike days. I'm talking about the days when there aren't teacher strikes.

How many months were schools closed for lockdown? Why is a few days such a massive problem?

Teachers need to strike and be heard by the government. For all out childrens’ sakes.

So to be fair you don’t really have any firsthand knowledge about what teaching is like for most teachers now? Nice classism, who says footballers are thick?

You do realise that across unionised work forces there have been strikes? Even Amazon workers went on strike this week. And btw I know many people in the private sector who received pay rises or four figure cost of living bonuses. Otherwise they’d lose all their staff to a job paying more, wouldn’t they?
The NHS is being deliberately mismanaged in to the ground by a government ideologically opposed to its existence. I would focus my anger at its funders who are salivating at getting their mitts on it’s carcass and can’t wait to introduce a USA style insurance or bankruptcy system. Hope you’ve not got any pre-existing health conditions in the new order though, because then you will be screwed. But yeah f the NHS

Seems about right. You know what they say, those that can, do. Those that can’t teach.

We’ll make up the difference teaching ours at home on the strike days.