Private school parents - why don’t you take collective action?

[Rocketspam]

Lots of private school staff are striking.

Head teachers are enjoying extraordinary hikes in their salaries. And there appears to be some kind of arms race over who can spend the most on facilities. Even bursary programmes rarely assist children where families have below average income or who might be eligible for free school meals.

The VAT increases bother parents on MN, but why don’t you take collective action as fee payers and challenge the HMC, GSA, ISBA or ISA on where your money has gone up to this point? Are you comfortable with so many independent schools using ‘fire / rehire’ for example. Is the level of stress this incurs conducive to the wellbeing of your children?

What do you think is going on inside a school when you see that teachers are taking industrial action against their employer?

Don't say anything, I don't need you to, but don't accuse others of something you do yourself.

It’s a myth that parents at independent schools feel empowered. If a school is selective - even if not academically so - they can soon ditch your child if they don’t like you or the child. So parents aren’t powerful because they pay

Yes actually lower than the state sector. The exodus has already started. but it means the ethos of recruiting the "brightest and best" teachers goes out of the window. The brightest and best will realise that this is a crap deal.

Your second para nails it. Downward spiral.

Good teachers won't leave the independent sector over the TPS.

They won't even leave over pay cuts.

We know on what side our bread is buttered.

The main benefit of working in an independent school has never really been pay. In many parts of the country, independent schools don't pay as well as state schools in the first place.

The reason teachers teach in independent schools, and stay in them, even when the pay is lower than in state, is because they have fewer students to teach, in an environment that is far more conducive to being able to teach them. In short, we can do the job we trained to do with students who (mostly) want to learn, and we have a higher proportion of free periods than in state, so we have time to plan our lessons properly and do our marking during the school day, so we don't need to do another 3 or 4 hours of work at home every night. We also get longer holidays. Independent schools largely offer teachers a far better work-life balance during term time than you get in state. Now this isn't always true of course - colleagues in boarding schools, for example, will have very intense terms, but then they also have longer holidays and often a better pay package to compensate. In my personal experience, my work load is half that of my state school colleagues. I am also paid considerably more than I would be in a state school, and I get about 5 more weeks of holiday per year. I don't get the TPS, but I don't care - the other benefits I have are worth the trade off.

I think many people don't understand how utterly shit it is to work in a state school. Honestly, I'd happily take a pay cut and lose the TPS to work in an independent school over a state school, any day of the week.

why are you gaslighting twistyizzy?

I think because they aren't getting the responses they want

Are you ok?

@EnidSpyton employee contribution rates haven't changed since 2015. I think this was when career average was introduced.

I know that the contributions haven't increased on paper, but in real terms, the pressure this contribution is increasingly putting on teachers when salaries haven't moved with inflation and everything costs more is a real issue that seems to be overlooked in the debates around TPS. Paying 10% of your salary was ok back in 2015 when your gas bill was £50 a month. Now your gas bill is £150 a month, but you're still forced to contribute 10% to your pension with a salary that's hardly gone up in a decade, the TPS contributions are becoming more and more unaffordable for many.

My friend's school had a small faction of older teachers wanting to go on strike to protect their access to the TPS when the school said they were withdrawing, but they were overruled by younger staff who are squeezed too tightly to keep paying 10% every month. For a lot of teachers, it's simply too big a contribution, and having flexibility in how much you pay rather than it being mandated based on your salary band, is actually a huge positive for many teachers whose schools are moving to private pensions.

The TPS is an amazing pension. But the reality is, it's not affordable - for schools, or teachers. Young teachers are paying through the nose to support their older colleagues' gold-plated pensions, when they won't receive anywhere near the same benefits when they retire. It's not a fair system and it can't pay for itself anymore. It's not unreasonable that private schools want to look into other options and teachers who refuse to accept that are living in cloud cuckoo land.

Same, 5 daughters 3 different schools no striking teachers in any and lots of long term teachers, other than some of the sports trainers I can't think of any leavers.

Mine are in prep. Like others our school is not striking. It has closed TPS for new entrants which seems reasonable. No fire/rehire contracts.

Also we have no expensive leadership salaries according to school accounts online.
I don’t know about consultants and price fixing on fees.

our local senior was striking and it didn’t look good. I will think very carefully before sending mine there if staff morale is low. They also have an expensive SLT. Clearly I’m not engaging in collective action as a mere prospective parent.

I do think private schools need to be more commercial in the current climate. How does anyone sign up for a 5-14 year cost commitment without any reassurance around the level of increase of future fees given the level of current fees? In practice no parent wants to yank their kids out if they are settled and happy. (We are almost done in prep now).

Parents are not cash cows and if schools keep increasing fees and class sizes then most parents will vote with their feet at the next natural break in the child’s education and won’t be invested in the school in the interim.

I do see that OP and perhaps other teachers are concerned for the future of the sector even if they are not parents of the school.
VAT + TPS + striking teachers is not an attractive proposition for future parents. Even if we can afford it we are not idiots with our money.
Equally parents are not going to engage in collective action. That’s not realistic.
Challenging times ahead for the sector and only time will tell which schools survive

I can see that TPS is a big draw for teachers. But final salary pension schemes were shut in most private sector jobs more than a decade ago so I'm not sure how much more sympathy can be garnered on this issue.

It's a very worthwhile job but I don't think teachers are badly off, all things considered. Provided my fee increase is reasonable, that's about the extent of my involvement.

As a parent governor at a small independent school I am entirely happy with the accounts and that fee increases are consistently kept to a minimum so I see no need!

My DC are very happy at their school. The teachers and the facilities are important to us and they are great at both private schools.

I don’t think it’s true that private schools are currently building lots of expensive facilities. This was something being talked about 10 years ago, but I doubt they are building a lot now. It will be the general COL stuff that is pushing up fees, and especially stuff like heating - it’s all very well having a school in a “lovely old building,” but yikes, the buildings housing the private schools I saw in Oxford last time I took a trip up that way all looked like they would absolutely leak heat in winter.

The OP is a teacher at a private school currently being taken off her final salary pension scheme.

The really weird thing about the OP is that if she doesn’t like her current deal, she should just leave and teach somewhere else!

OP: why don’t you come and teach with me and stop posting weird threads asking parents to strike on mumsnet? I teach at a state school in Bucks and have great conditions and love my job! Not striking here!

Just for info Newcastle High School for girls is part of GDST.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cj56mgr126no

I teach at another independent school in the NE. The proposed Dame Allan's pension scheme is now significantly worse than the offer from other regional schools (including what GDST ended up with after strikes). Fire/Rehire into a DC scheme with around 14% employer contribution. Plenty of Dame Allan's teachers applying for vacancies at our place, this recruitment season...

Tbh with VAT heading out way our prep school will do well to stay open so I'd be amazed if the teachers went on strike.

We are moving DD2 to the state sector to avoid VAT.

I sympathise with the teachers if the value of their pensions is being eroded but tbh the introduction of VAT is a bigger threat..

@MrPickles73 schools are trying to use VAT as an excuse to withdraw from TPS. VAT is a tax on consumers which is yet (if ever) to be imposed on school fees, TPS is a current contractual obligation between the school and its staff.

If schools feel they need to make savings to cushion parents from VAT, every other expense should be cut to the bone before attacks are made on staff packages. If the school is still spending like a lottery winner, you may find staff are more willing to strike than you believe.

I get that but with the addition of vat some of the middle class less wealthy parents will pull out of schools. The big famous schools will be fine as they fill up.on Chinese and Russians but smaller schools will go under.. with or without TPA and strikes.

@Sewingmachine1 schools have been withdrawing from TPS (or seriously discussing it) since before Labour’s latest VAT threats. There are real problems with TPS, and funding it is increasingly unsustainable without the added financial complications VAT introduction would bring. Not all teachers value TPS in the same way either - if the trade off is higher salaries, many (especially If not near retirement) would happily move to a more standard pension arrangement.

some schools certainly handle the change better than others - allowing individuals a choice between salary and pension for example- though I appreciate that might be unworkable in some situations.

@Labraradabrador you've hit the nail on the head saying some schools handle the change better than others. We're in the middle of a particularly difficult consultation where, surprisingly, younger staff are amongst the most resistant.

I disagree that there are real problems with TPS. Schools knew in 2019 that contributions were only going one way. Some prepared, and some didn't. If the trade off is accept a lesser deal or leave, then there is really only one option for staff.

@MrPickles73 if the school is going under, pulling out of TPS isn't going to change that and the school should have bigger concerns than running a consultation which will upset/alienate staff.

It is also my experience that younger staff value the TPS and are among the most vocal in defending it.