Dame Allans Newcastle - Strikes

[Magpiefan]

Did any other DAS parents pick up a copy of the union leaflet about the strikes this morning. A lot more detail of the position than we have received from the school, and the deal being imposed on the teachers is terrible.

The school made out that teachers were asking for something extra when they just don’t want to be stuffed over by having their pension entitlement drastically cut – and fire and rehire, let’s see where that leads us. I’m paying them to give the best education possible to my children, by recruiting the best and well-motivated staff. If the school gets their way this will only end in teachers leaving.

Planning permission for the new sports facilities is readily available on the Newcastle planning portal – it looks like the teachers are going to be stuffed over to pay for it.

Can’t imagine what the atmosphere is like in staff room at the moment.
If you disagree with what is happening suggest you email the principal and governors to tell them. Seem like the teachers have reached the end of the line with negotiations, a bit of parent power might help.

Teaching pensions have always been good - it's one of the attractions of being a teacher - along with holidays- and certainly one of the reasons I became a teacher. In the past it has always been an essential recruitment and retention point. Not any more, it seems! 17% contribution to TPS, given what is required to stay in it is appalling, as staff eill have to foot thr bill of the difference in employer contributions. Is that even affordable?! My school, and all other similar schools in my part of England (admittedly very far from Newcastle!) are contributing in the twenties - many froze it where it was just before the increase. There was also a massive thread about RGS Guildford and pension issues last year - can't remember what the outcome was but way more than that. If you're a parent at DA, unless all schools in the area are treating their staff equally appallingly, you need to be aware that the quality of the teaching staff will most certainly be affected by this. Staff will walk for a better offer.

I suppose I am adding a bit of spin to call it a pay cut. It is the foregoing of future pay increases (for those remaining in the TPS), and a less-than-TPS pension in the future for those who move to the DC scheme.

17% employer contribution does sound a lot to most industries, and significantly higher than many of us are receiving. However, when you compare the teacher's salaries to other industries they are significantly behind. Most, if not all, of those teachers will have spent at least four years at university gaining professional qualifications and then worked as teachers for many years gaining professional experience. Their salaries just don't reflect that level of expertise. In other industries people with equivalent qualifications and experience would be earning two, three maybe four times the salary. Teachers go into teaching knowing that they will never be highly paid, but at least they have a good pension to look forward to when they retire. Well I assume that's what our DA teachers believed until recently.
Let's hope the school don't freeze their pay indefinitely (which is the rumour) and that our hard working teachers can at least keep their heads afloat as the cost of living is ever increasing. It would be such a terrible shame to lose them.

Exactly I have a PhD and, as a teachrt, earn way less than my friends with far fewer qualifications. But I love teaching, and I can get by financially now, with the knowledge of financial security in old age (and knowing I'll be able to support myself and help my kids out a bit). If that's going as well, retention and recruitment will get even worse. It's already a nightmare.

But if enployer TPS contributions are dropping to 17% and teachers have to make up the difference... isn't that effectively a massive pay cut? I could have misunderstood, in which case I apologise.

I had a look at employees benefits at RGS and at DAS based on published accounts with the Charity commission. At RGS, I'm assuming the recipients of £60-80K benefits are some of its senior teachers (accounting for 72 of its employees, out of 277, unless that's all management positions?) while at DAS, only 7 employees are within this range, which means majority of our teachers receive below £60k a year, is this about right? (The accounts only publish employees receiving above £60k worth of benefits).

https://register-of-charities.charitycommission.gov.uk/charity-search/-/charity-details/3973812

https://register-of-charities.charitycommission.gov.uk/charity-search/-/charity-details/4021051

I suppose my point is that, if we can't offer competitive enough salary and incentives i.e, good pension scheme, why would good, experienced teachers stay at DAS if they have an opportunity with another independent school.

This is one of the reasons why I find it hard to justify a hockey pitch. It feels dishonest saying we don't have money for the pensions meanwhile building a multi-million pound structure where only a few would benefit. 😕

Isn't that what the teachers have been saying all along. Why are the school prioritising building two huge new buildings, rowing coach (plus equipment and team) now a hockey pitch and massive car park extension over teachers? The new buildings are lovely for our children to learn in and I'm sure much nicer for the teachers to work in, but surely the school can't expect the teachers to prefer a nicer workspace over a sound financial future for their families?
I can only imagine the conversations going on in those staff rooms when all the parents got a letter asking us to write in support of the new planning application and convince the council to push it through despite local objections.

Semi name change Waitrose delivered the wrong fruit!!

Apologies for a bit of trumpet blowing but I did warn that this was going to happen and that this was all about a sports field. Funny how the hockey pitch issue has been resurrected now the pensions dispute is over.

There is a figure of £2m being bandied around for the hockey pitch, which looking at the accounts can only really come from a loan, debt which can probably only really be serviced by reducing costs, and this seems to have happened to the schools satisfaction which is why they are pushing ahead with this.

With the fees rise announcement do parents realise that the cost difference with RGS is only about £250 per year. Is this good value?? Only parents know this.

@StarshipNCC1701 is correct with the effective 10% pay cut due to pay freezes, if the state sector get a 2% pay rise then this will bring DA staff and state sector teachers to within about £200 of each other with no promise of any future pay rise at DA. Then watch the mass exodus, that started earlier in the year and seems to have calmed down while this was ‘sorted out’, start again. Fortunately, the teacher recruiting ‘season’ doesn’t really start until after Christmas. So expect a short period of stability.

The amazing parental support for the teachers was key in getting rid of fire and rehire and getting the school around the table for negotiations with the Union, now the school wants parental support for the hockey field. Instead of support for the hockey field, how about some letters to the Chair of Governors explaining how people feel misled about the school’s motives throughout.

Great facilities are one thing, great, well-motivated and adequately compensated teachers are more important. Remember, in the words of someone very senior in the school, ‘People not buildings’

Well said @BigOrangeBox I am left feeling rather confused by the sudden rapid push for the sports facilities again, so soon after the dispute calmed down. It almost feels like the school is trying to 'win back' parental support to prove a point to the teachers.
It also seems an incredible coincidence that the pensions dispute just happens to end right before the school begin a new big push for additional spending. One minute they're arguing that they can't afford the spiraling costs of teacher's pension contributions, and they're happy to speak to the media to explain this, then suddenly they can afford new facilities. Is the cost saving they forced (I am assuming here) teachers to make, the reason they can now afford the additional spending.
I wonder if teachers forced this expansion work to be stopped as part of their negotiations but now they're all signed up (again I'm assuming here) to whatever new pension agreement they have, school can happily resurrect their expansion plans.
It all feels far too devious and so far from the DA we all know and love. Surely this can't be going on behind those gates?

That is a valid way of looking at it. I was just making the point that for both cohorts (TPS and non-TPS) the pain is not immediate, it is in the future. For those remaining in the TPS, they will not get a pay rise for a few years (exactly how long is in the lap of the gods). This will also affect their pension (because the TPS annual accrual is a percentage of pay), although not by as much as being thrown out of the TPS, especially if they are late-career. For those moving out of the TPS to DC, they will get a pay rise, but their pain is in the more distant future. Their eventual pension will be much lower than it would otherwise have been.

@HappySpirit42 Thank you for the comparison. Are RGS teachers in TPS?

DAS definitely made a strategic mistake by trying to be the RGS. There is already an RGS. DAS should have chosen their own identity. Great teaching, significantly lower prices for aspiring parents who can't or won't pay for the RGS.

Just a small note, highly qualified graduates do not all earn very much in the North East.

If the teachers took a pay freeze and they were only 2% in front of the state sector what do people think will happen now that Rachel Reeves has just announced a 5.5% pay rise for state sector teachers from September
educationhub.blog.gov.uk/2024/07/29/teacher-pay-everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-2024-pay-award/

Another strike? Hopefully not.
Mass exodus of teachers away from DAS? Quite possibly but I sincerely hope not!
Hopefully school leaders will realise their absolute best asset - their amazing teachers (and TAs) - have to be looked after and kept. I know a lot of parents who wouldn't think twice about leaving if the teaching staff started heading for the door.

Yeh - great teachers is surely one of the main things they're paying for? It is in my school (where I'm both a parent and teacher). Without the teachers, it's just a building.