Teachers on strike - do they usually name names?

[hester]

Just had a letter from dc's school, warning us of strike action at the end of the month and listing by name those teachers who will be on strike, and those who won't. They will close the classes of the striking teachers, and keep open the others.

Is this normal practice? I would have thought it would expose individual teachers to some irate parents? I also expected that they would treat it as a whole school issue, provide what cover they can, maybe suspend lessons and hav a games day in the hall. And if they couldn't do that, close the whole school?

Increase in wages sounds like a good idea.

Even my friend's dh (a GP) is baffled at the gap between what he earns, and what a Head teacher earns, given the hours and the responsibility. Gap yes, but that much gap?

IMO teacher shsould be paid more too, but the money should be spent on differentiating their pay more rather than be equally shared out.

Mainly what concerns me is that teachers have an ultra important job as they are preparing the workforce of tomorrow and they should all be working with that goal in mind.

Mrz - contracted out of what? Serps?

The normal TPS will still be a final salary scheme, mrz - as in it guarantees a predictable and calculable income in retirement, arrived at a calculation based on salary (career average or final). The alternative, basically the only version available to new employees in the private sector today, is a money purchase scheme in which your retirement income cannot be calculated and is the amount of annuity your pension 'pot' will buy on the day you retire, based solely on the performace of your investment.

I would rather have a predictable and plannable £9000 than a 'could be anything between £3,000 and £12,000' any day - and for you to have a predictable £9,000 the taxpayer takes the risk that, in fact, only £3,000 is really available but you have been promised £9,000 so that is what you get. Yes, you take the risk that you could have got £12,000 - but again, I would prefer to have a pension with no 'downside' risk than take a punt that there might be an 'upside'.

I know from previous discussions on here that you already have a private sector defined benefit pension - and perhaps the certainty and generosity of that makes you compare the two sectors in a particular way. However, such defined benefit pensions simply do not exist in the private sector today (all companies have closed them to new employees, a very few keep them open to existing employees but most have 'frozen' the old one - in the same way as your accrued TPS pension to date will be 'frozen', there is no intention to backdate the new scheme - and transferred all employees to money purchase schemes). We need to compare the landscape as it exists today, not compare teaching pensions in the future with private sector pensions from the past.

I'd accept a pay freeze for the next decade if they'd stop fucking with the system every year and promise no more new initiatives.
The paperwork and waste of time and resources and planning is insane.

Teacher's Training Agency are still using pensions as an incentive to tempt graduates into the profession.

sun you would have to ask the TPS what I'll be contracted out of as that information is a direct quote from what they have sent me ... and it makes very little sense

Well goblin we already accepted the pay freeze but I suspect the system is set for more insane tampering with millions/billions wasted

I would love to accept a system where I made the same amount or profits every year, but business is not like that. Some years have been fantastic and others not so good. Perhaps the same logic follows in government.

A few questions to increase my knowledge

1. Do teachers ever get a bonus? For example if you have performed particulary well? Would you want that system
2. Would you consider going over to higher wages but change the pension type to a defined contribution. For example a 8% pay increase but the removal of your final salary. It would be your risk and responsibility to fund your retirement.

No teacherwith2kids I don't have a private sector defined pension what I have said is that the most recent "prediction" of what I will receive when I retire from my private sector pension is much more than what I will receive from my teacher's pension (although it is less than what was predicted a few years ago).

No teachers don't get bonuses

No, there are no bonuses ever, no matter what. Personally i would rather lower wages and more long term security. As far as wages go. I have taught for nearly 20 years and have been at the top of what I earn for about eight years now. There will be no change to that wage no matter what I achieve. I could leave the classroom and manage, but that is not for me.

I also would like to see performance more rewarded than it is, and "bad" teachers booted out. I think the reason why it does not happen is it is hard to measure. In my experience there are usually two or three universally weak teachers in a school. Then there are many that work well with most classes and pupils. Then there are some that are great and quite 'special'. It is the measuring that is hard. There are so many factors which affect exam results - time of lessons, amount of coursework versus exam, number of lessons varies across the course, the 'mix' of pupils in a class, the previous teacher a class has had, if it windy during your lessons (!), how supportive a particular group of parents are..... I could go on.

I fully support the teachers who are choosing to strike next week. Complacency leads to apathy....and I don't want my children to be taught by teachers who are apathetic. I'm trying to teach my children to have a strong sense of worth and integrity and I'd like their teachers to model this as well.
I do wonder as well, why other areas paid for by the public purse are not under the spotlight.

Is it easy to "boot" bad teachers out? Do you have a whistleblowing process?

No, not easy. Although many leave under their own steam as they can't handle it. Think it should be easier, but the difficulty of measuring makes it hard to gain "proof" I suppose.

Yes we have a whistleblowing process but it isn't easy to "boot" bad teachers. Schools must demonstrate they have done everything possible to help the teacher to meet standards (which can be a long process)

The few I have known all went off on stress first, then had a settlement agreed with LEA and so left. And left teaching, too - good riddance.

Many, many years ago there were payments for excellent SAT results.

In primary schools?

"everything possible" sounds like a fudge. Surely a head teacher should have the power to give a clear set of expectations and if they are not met have the ability to get rid of teacher.

What as teachers, would you like to be measured on? Perhaps we can compare notes on what an employer wants?

There were. It was a nightmare - governors got to decide how to share it out. In their wisdom, they decided that everyone (and I mean, everyone) should get an equal share. I was the Y6 teacher, and had been their Y3 and Y4 teacher too. I am not saying I should have got more than anyone else, but I did object to the Y5 teacher's share - he handed the class back to me with no progress made, and with some children having apparently gone backwards, and was the laziest teacher I have ever met. Then the caretaker, who refused to lift anything heavier than a duster, ever (and that included chairs) received the same too. Get my drift? It only amounted to about £30 in the end and made me very cross.

Yes my primary school got the good SAT results payments for 3 or 4 years but it was a very long time ago.

There are 42 standards at the first level that a teacher has to meet. They are used to judge NQTs and teachers. If you go through thresholding and get a payrise, you have to meet the next level of standards.
Depends why the teacher is struggling or failing as well, what sort of support do you need if you have a DS dying of cancer, a DD with EBD and a class of unmotivated and aggressive children?
Different to not coping because you are not skilled enough to handle the challenges, or just not prepared to work hard enough.

Yes our lazy caretaker (at the time) dinner ladies, the lollipop lady et al got an equal share.

Very different Goblin