Understanding the Teachers' Strikes

[Sleepysophie]

I am largely in support of the Teaching Strikes but I want to understand the reason for the methodology of the teachers not alerting the school beforehand as to whether they are going to strike, or not?
I get that not making management (and therefore parents) aware whether they will be taking part in the strike, until the day of the strike, creates the most disruption, but why annoy the parents and pupils by inconveniencing them? Missing the education for that day is surely enough of a disruption without having people do the school run only to be turned around at the gates and then have to make alternative arrangements?
I was married to a Teacher (I'm still married to him but he is no longer a Teacher) and I worked in education (non-teaching) for 15 years. I don't understand why you would wish to inconvenience your (probable) supporters.
There may be an obvious reason and I am sure someone here will explain it?

The whole point of a strike is to disrupt.

The Goverment refuse to negotiate so there is no other choice.

Striking is the last resort. Teachers are leaving in droves. Schools are not being funded.

This is a crisis.

@Goinghome20 Not going into school on that day is disruption? Even the train companies tell you in advance when they won't be running a service. I 'm just intrigued as to why Teaching is different.

My dd was told to turn up for lessons online today (secondary school closed for y7 to y10 + y12) but was also told that there was a fair chance no one would turn up to teach. Cue three hours of class whole-class Roblox! Dd had a blast, although I guess her Spanish and maths and history skills haven’t improved much today 😃

so i agree it’s just about causing chaos, to maximise public annoyance

i don’t think teachers unions care who support them, they just want the government to cave and if it annoys parents who don’t know if they need to take time off work or not, that’s just tough in a “share the pain” kind of way.

If schools have advance notice, they could try to arrange supply cover etc.

I'm a nurse and we don't have to let anyone know we are striking until 6am on the morning of the strike. Apparently you don't even have to do that, but it makes it much easier to plan if people do let us know. I don't support the strike though.

None of the teachers in my school told the Head whether we were striking. She didn't know whether she could keep children safe so she made the decision to close the school.

We were told of her decision at staff briefing and then an email went out to parents later that day. The parents were given a week's notice.

The overwhelming majority of teachers chose to strike but if we had told her what we were doing, she might have kept the school open for children whose teachers were not striking.

By not informing her, the strike was more effective and it didn't cause divisions between staff.

I hope that the week's notice allowed parents to make alternative arrangements.

In the case you describe OP the failure is on the school leadership to not communicate adequately.

Teachers would much rather be in schools doing what we do best, teaching your children.

We are at the point now where we have to stand up for education.

There is a recruitment and retention crisis. A funding crisis.

Pay and working conditions have been eroded. No pay rise in 11 years! Many of us did not get the tiny increment awarded in Sept 22 as it was not funded and our schools have no money to honour it.

33 in a class, not enough resources and just sitting back and watching as it get worse every year?

No. No more.

We are in a really dire situation and I do not think enough people are aware of this.

I am a parent too. Many teachers are. We get it, it is frustrating for us all, but, we are fighting for the future of state education in this country. There is no other choice now.

Thanks everyone. So in essence, it is so the HT will decide to close the school rather than risk not being able to accommodate the pupils safely. And potentially, if teachers were to let the HT know, then they may decide to keep it open with reduced number (only close it to certain year groups for example) or replace striking staff with agency staff. I get it now, obvious I suppose and I don't know why I hadn't thought of that already!

@Goinghome20 I know why teacher's are striking and in my original post I did say I largely support the strike although I don't as a rule support them (strikes generally, not teachers!). Perhaps its because I was so involved with education for as many years as I was, that I am a little biased. It seems public opinion on this one is 50/50 which is higher than most of the public response to rail or postal strikes.

some teachers would have said they were striking today and then just turned up to work. Those are the rules. Not sure who made them. Government or union.

It avoids other teaching staff, such as other teachers, TAs, cover supervisors and supply teachers, being asked to cover for striking teachers.
Sadly there are plenty of His who won't support their teachers and will try to push others into covering for them.

Everyone at my school did tell our HT that they were striking. That's because they can trust him not to put pressure on other staff. Not all His are like this.

I think there are a couple of reasons for this.

So, firstly, new rules say that supply staff can be used to cover for striking teachers- this is the first time this has been the case. As you can imagine, there was high demand from some schools for supply today, and not all supply staff will cross a picket line, so part of the reason for this advice was to stop schools being able to book supply teachers in advance.

Secondly, some heads would put pressure on staff who indicated they were striking not to strike. This isn't legal, but you know it would happen. In these cases, it's sensible just to say you haven't decided yet or you aren't going to say.

Thirdly, some schools have (potentially illegally) indicated to parents which teachers are striking- obviously no-one will say before the next strike day now!

And finally, it is the right of people not to make up their mind until the day. We had new union members join us on strike today. They may not have known a week ago what they were going to do. People can also choose not to cross a picket line at their place of work.

The NEU did let each school know how many members were in that school 2 weeks ago, so heads may have had some basis for planning.