Teachers' strike

[purits]

Considering that teachers are constantly moaning about the National Curriculum, teaching to the test, Ofsted, targets, league tables, disruption in the classroom, etc etc etc: why is the first strike for ages about pay (for them) instead of about conditions (for the kids)?

morningpaper on Thu 24-Apr-08 10:13:08
"They also have long holidays and one of the best pension schemes in the country"

How many people do you know that spend their holidays decorating their workplace (and paying for the paint and materials out of their own pocket) or attending training or attending meetings. I've done all three so far this year ...

I've not long ago paid £50 for a decent A level text book. One year I spent around £200 on resources, because the A level class didn't have text books

Can I also just add to Mrz's post by stating that no teacher who has qualified in the last 10years has access to this best in the country pension scheme.
So teachers who have joined the profession since then have to put up with the bog standard money purchase schemes seen in the private sector.

purits, your post at 17:40:52 shows a deep ignorance of how work relations operate in the education system. no one on this board has the time to educate you about it.

MB it is totally wrong that you should even have to do that.
BB I take it that you will be taking unpaid leave to strike for the health services as well. Surely it would be better to be striking because dedicated teachers are buying their own materials for the pupils to learn from! When teachers can have all the materials they need, in clean classrooms and a reasonable working environment, given the support the need and deserve and rewarding dedicated teaching.

I think so too, because the kids deserve better, let alone me!

"Unless public sector workers pull together and start saying enough is enough then services will continue suffer across the board. I for one am not prepared to sit back and let it happen without fighting for the profession I love, for the health service which brought my dd into the world, that's all."

But only if the UNION says so.

just to respond to the £34,000 figure that'sbeen mentioned...i am a primary school teacher with 12 years experience. i am at the top of my pay scale, but havent gone through the threshhold (too much paperwork). i work part time, but my full time salary would be about 29k. this is at the TOP of the pay scale for a class teacher without management responsibility. as you can see, this falls considerably short of the national 'average'.

if you were calculating average pay for supermarket employees, would you include the supermarket managers' pay? if you did, it'd be v misleading. lumping head teachers together with newly qualified teachers is going to create a v deceptive picture, imo.

AARRRRRRGGGHH!!!! Its the pupils that have 13 weeks holiday not the teachers!!!!

Now I love being a teacher and think the pay is reasonable compared to my graduate chums (nowhere near 33 grand like!!!!! Think lots of high paid head teachers have bumped up the average!!!) Most I know are on between 19 and 26 which for most is manageble I think.

Work load is huge. Holidays are totally unfelxible and I would agree with below that most of kids time off teachers spend doing preparation (syllabuses change constantly as do methods of teaching and learning), marking (assessment requirements are as ludicrous for us as for the poor kids) and creating resources. (I am expected to make several worksheets/handout/powerpoints for each class and well as stuff for 'virtual learning', variations for special needs, different abilities etc) I spent the Easter holidays in work, 2 hours with each A-level student recording their work because of the pressure to get grades up (so the kids are pleased and the parents and managment and the statistic people etc etc).

The day my daughter was due I waddled into to work as it was results day and two weeks later I was calling Universitys, students and parents from my hospital bed after a C-section to help them get into Uni. You can't say 'no I've had a baby' when its one of your kids' future!

I am not complaining and I certainly wouldn't have been striking today (GOD owful timing and I think pay is good....though if it was worked out per hour would prob be pants!) Teaching is a vocation and there are more rewards than pay. What should be attracting graduates is the chance to a be a real part of childrens' lives, to inspire and help people become what they want to be.

I've posted this on the other 'teacher bashing' thread :-

Can we all just walk away from this please
Let's get back to discussing Cods face creams - far less controversial

But we are all born to be whipped, BB, don't you realise that?

Take shite all day at work, get told were shite all day by the media and be greatful.

Oh and protest on your own (because that is so common isn't it?) and get sacked. And then replaced by a cheaper and less experienced teacher. that would be good for the kids, doncha think?

Every teacher I have ever known has spent an absolute fortune on classroom resources.

And it's all to benefit the kids. Textbooks (like MB) through to stickers and rewards at primary level. Posters to hide ugly damp patches or in one classroom I taught, to stop the plaster coming down. Endless Pritt sticks because school cannot afford them. Pencils, pens and various stimuli for history topics. The list goes on. DH knows to steer me away from the education resource section of Waterstones!

Countless teachers up and down the country are subjected to teaching in cold and draughty post-war prefab huts. Yuck!
Who else would work there?

Many teachers (primary as well as secondary) are subjected to verbal and physical abuse daily. How many non-teachers would put up with this at work?

Sorry this is a ramble. I'm writing as I think.

ok...a challenge for anyone with a calclator handy... if my f/t salary is 29k, and i work 39 weeks a year, 5 days a week for 9 hours a day (hours spent in school)- what is my hourly rate??

Cushion cover - you are speaing the truth. Spend a fortune on resources - know the kids will love them and will help them understand cool stuff easier!

My beloved display got rained on over the Christmas holidays.......... they were inside by the way

22 pounds an hour...

oh god pritt sticks I should have taken out shares! and pencils and pens. My 'martianbishop says well done' stamper was stolen and that was quite a bit. Stickers up the ying yang, and I work in secondary!

Do you see that as high or low?

I do a few days supply as well as permenant job and supply get around that but without paperwork, meetings a crap.

Find that strange

Do you see that as high or low?

I do a few days supply as well as permenant job and supply get around that but without paperwork, meetings a crap.

Find that strange

blimey, i made it £16.50...lucky i'm not a maths specialist

My apologies - I'd put in 39 grand.. Sorry. yes is 16 an hour

Lets all become plumbing teachers......

Dh has one relative who retired early

Not his mother the teacher
Not his uncle the doctor
Not even his uncle the solicitor

His uncle the plumber!

Scarcer than hens' teeth round us, plumbers. And I've got one who is reliable, reasonable and hot! [lucky bitch emoticon]

Yes, I've had an indoor display ruined by a water leak before. I was gutted cause the kids had spent so much time and effort on it.

Noonar, don't forget;
2 parents evenings a year,
2 hours pw every Sunday for prep,
2 evenings a year for school discos,
2 Saturdays each year for Fayres,
1 hour each week for staff meetings,
1 hour each week to take an after school club
The list goes on!