Parents becoming teachers? Is it me or has Gove totally lost it?

[sogrownup]

How do you feel about going into school to cover for a teacher who is on strike? Is there anyone out there who believes that this is a sound idea.... I think it's madness!!

Turn on your TV. Look at the riot developing in Syntagma Square outside the Athens Parliament as MPs there vote on austerity.

Greece is in a state of financial collapse. Pensions are not being paid. Public sector workers will be dismissed in droves once the IMF steps in.

I hope the UK unions are taking note. Is that what you want?

By the way you may all be interested finding out how much union boses are being paid and that they got an average 5.4% payrise this year. It is a PDF document.

Tuitioning?? The verb is to tutor so your advert should say "We run a successful tutoring centre....." Please note that there is only one 'l' at the end of successful.

If this is the standard of your advert, I hate to imagine the quality of your teaching!

Graet advert for a tutor!

successfull = successful

cant = can't

inconvience = inconvenience

!!!! = one explanation mark is all that is required for emphasis

and the two x tomorrow are wrong too!

Great haha

morebeta that would be all very well if the government had audited the pension scheme and come to the conclusion that it is unaffordable or unsustainable. But all its assessments have concluded that the current scheme, which was revised in 2006, is affordable and sustainable. The most recent audit should have been conducted two years ago, but it wasn't. So it's not a fact, as many have it, that teachers/public sector workers have their heads stuck in the clouds over the current state of the economy. The point is, they haven't been able to negotiate because the government won't release any facts or figures at all to support their own position. Effectively they are simply taxing public sector workers for the jobs they do.

Not only that, but nobody is saying the current scheme must or should remain exactly in place as it is. The unions want to negotiate, but are unable to do so because of this situation. And teachers' pensions are not enough on their own to save the economy, or to cause the economy, to go into meltdown a la Greece.

tuitioning centre and no apostrophes...

Do always vet things like that carefully.

Not to mention 'no advertising'

Bugger - why did I miss the missing apostrophes, and the misspelling of inconvenience?

Beta, don't foret Bob Crowe's council house, which he so desperately needs.

Strix - you may enjoy this article about a recent lunch at Scott's of Mayfair attended by Bob Crowe.

Gove's own council opposes using parents to break the strike.

politicalscrapbook.net/2011/06/gove-council-opposes-strike-breaking/

The only silver lining I can find in this could is that all this strike action will annoy people enough so that the tories gather more support for the forthcoming restrictions on unions/striking (like the tube drivers who will not promise not to strike during the Olympics... oh what fun that will be).

The Tories don't need any support - just lethargic acceptance. The Lib Dems and Labour are hugely helpful in this. It seems almost like teamwork.

teachers have helped too - 60% of those eligible could not be bothered to vote either yes OR no.....

Takethat- it's not all about the pensions anyway.

AS I explained further up, I chatted to ds3's striking teahcer about this; she said she was happy to pay extra into a pension if necessary. What scares her is how the hell she is supposed to still be managing children with behavioural difficulties (ASD / SN teacher) at 66 when she finds it hard enough at 60! There aren't any otehr jobs for her to go to- the jobs there are go to young teahcers who get less pay so chnaging job not an option (most local schools making redundancies not recruiting) and she is worried that by having to work until 66 she will cause the children in her care to be at a higher risk.

She is an amazing teacher that I cannot fault in any way whatsoever, the absolute model of how i'd like to be if I taught; but a lot of her day is spent physically engaged in keeping them safe- and of course in these times with less TA input than before. It's just not going to work. Even ds3 who is a delight and has no real behavioural difficulties in terms of what we would perceive as 'bad' (obviously the ASD stuff, obsessions, absences etc) takes a lot of physical management just by the way he swings as he holds your hand or jumps on you for hugs, it's a very demanding variant of teaching- even before you get the kids with EBD thumping you (in our unit we have a few who can't be moved to specialist provision as their mums refuse to accept any risk).

Actually Strix you seem to be in a minority of people annoyed by the strike ... our parents have only offered supportive comments. Not a single moan!

An aside to StayingDavidTennantsGirl - if you're in Scotland, why is the school closing at all? Are lots of your staff in the English teaching unions? I haven't heard of anywhere in scotland shutting, before now.

i dont mind doin that.anything for a change.i would its a new begining

Tutor1 should also note that ellipsis only requires three dots. I am a teacher who just logged on to see what the general reaction amongst parents was to the strike. I wanted to say a big thank you for all of your support. This really is the last resort, and I can honestly say I would rather be teaching your children tomorrow than standing on the picket line.

all power to you jamjar :-D

I am going to be in full support of the strike tomorrow (university lecturer feeling your pain).

if Tutor1 represents the quality of private 'education' provision in a deregulated 'market', we should all be very afraid.

'Free schools' are no doubt going to be founded by shysters who can't spell 'inconvenience'...

You are absolutely right, iggitwotimes. I had looked at the school calendar, and where it said 'Last Day of Term' on thursday, that had been crossed out, so that made me think that they might be striking - so I asked the dses and got many, many different answers (from just three boys). Finally, today, ds2 told me that they are in school tomorrow.

peachy absolutely - my DH is a teacher so I'm aware of the arguments about age, too. I totally agree with you - I was just answering the specific point made by beta. Our first baby was due last Sunday (she's not born yet) and we could really do with not losing a day's pay right now, but he feels he has no choice and I fully support him.

The teachers have my support 100%. Good teachers deserve a medal. I home educate two children and cannot imagine having to deal with twenty or so more. It is hard work and must often be thankless. They deserve decent pay and a decent pension.

We take everything lying down in this country; I cannot believe the some of the spiel I'm hearing via the likes of the DailyMail newspaper and DailyMail radio (LBC) the general tone seems to be that all the teachers should shut up and put up, and be grateful for even having a job, and one day off school is going to jeopardise every child's future educational prospects.

The way I see it my children will have a very uncertain future. They'll have to sweat blood and tears just to get on the property ladder, then look forward to working for the rest of their lives because by then the retirement age will probably be 75+ if that. And they'll probably have no NHS either by then. And we are all, for the most part, just taking it lying down.

I'm glad they are standing up for their rights.