School Strikes 26th March - Invoicing the LEA

[Bexinder]

Just wanted to share what I'm doing, and I wonder if we can get some sort of campaign going. Lots of UK schools are closed due to teacher's industrial action next Wednesday 26th March. Given that we parents have absolutely no leeway when it comes to taking children out of school during term time and will be hit with heavy fines per child if we do without permission, I'm invoicing my local education authority for failing to provide education on this day. They haven't asked MY permission to allow the school to close.....Now I'm not expecting them to pay this at all, but I am wanting to cause a stink. They can close the school over the pay and pensions row, but I can't take my children out of school for a funeral.
Sorry - rant over... if anyone wants to copy the invoice, let me know and I'll post it. Thanks!

Most teachers if they wanted to could earn 46k as tube driver in London. They choose not to. It would take 46k to convince me to be a tube driver because I could not think if a duller job. They also don't see daylight, deal with suicides on the track and work unsocial hours. They also only get fewer holidays.

Good lord. Of all the daft posts I've read on MN - and there have been some doozies - this is the daftest. And The Sun backing it. Well, I never.

It is definitely harder to become a doctor than it is to become a teacher. The entrance requirements are not particularly exacting for teaching. However, keeping the requirements low and remunerating accordingly is not in the best interests of the profession and by extension the children we teach. That seems like an odd argument.

Philosothy- that has to be the worst argument to justify teachers shite wages.

I think this is becoming more pronounced, I rarely talk to a super bright student who wants to become a teacher. Most of the very bright students I teach want to go into medicine, law or something very specialised - teaching tends to be the aim for well behaved B grade students

I find this so sad. Years ago, I was one of those super bright kids and I did really want to be a teacher. However, my teachers at the time were obviously hugely disillusioned with the system and another Tory government and they talked me out of it - told me that I could do so much better. Now, I earn a whole lot more in a job that probably isn't half as stressful, so in a way, I guess they were right...but part of me still regrets that I didn't pursue that dream as I think it was what I would genuinely have enjoyed most.

I really think we ought to ensure that teacher pay and conditions are properly commensurate with the job that they do. What could be more important than educating the next generation?

Jinsei I would agree with you but I notice a lot of B graders think they are too good for teaching . The A graders don't want to be teachers indeed as they see how stressful it is but the B graders (not all) have delusions of grandeur thinking they are all going to be lawyers, doctors etc.

I was an A grader at school who became a teacher (As at A levels and across the board at GCSE)..... I wish I had listened to my teachers who tried to put me off in the 80s.

It's not all been bad but over the last 5/6 years it's got worse and worse and now it's intolerable.

I didn't want to be a teacher when I was still at school. The only school students I know who want to be teachers want to be PE teachers! I am slogging away with them to get the required grade in Maths and Science. They are not B grade students even...

I am hoping some of the brighter ones might, like me, see the light later on!

Yup I have heard kids talking about being PE teachers and psychology teachers. Out of all my A level musicians (18 of them in recent years) one has gone into teacher training.

It's not just getting good students into teacher training, keeping them in the profession is hard. A third of NQTs leave in the first 3 or 4 years of teaching. That's shocking.

I'm 36. I've taught since I was 21. I did a 4 year education degree. It's all I wanted from the she of 12.

My retirement age is 68.7!!!!! The thought of teaching til then fills me with dismay. I love the children, Ioce way hung them discover and learn. I love lauding with families and parents and the wider community. I just hate the feeling if being so overloaded with work, targets, data and hoop jumping that the things I hold dear about my job go out the window.

TheFallenMadonnaMon 24-Mar-14 19:32:40

It is definitely harder to become a doctor than it is to become a teacher. The entrance requirements are not particularly exacting for teaching. However, keeping the requirements low and remunerating accordingly is not in the best interests of the profession and by extension the children we teach. That seems like an odd argument

It is not my argument for how things should be, rather how things are. I would like to see higher entrance requirements and as a reflection of that higher pay.

• I love watching them discover and learn...

mammadiggingdeepMon 24-Mar-14 19:46:20
Philosothy- that has to be the worst argument to justify teachers shite wages.

I am not sure what you are referring to, I just thought that the comparison to tube drivers was an odd one because in many ways I think it is a deeply unnatractive job and therefore you need to pay the wages to get the workers. I suspect it is not a typical average wage for the level of qualifactions required.

I am a teacher, I would love to have earned more money. I would have quite liked to have remained in the classroom but I did not want to earn a maximum of circa 38K.

I find this so sad. Years ago, I was one of those super bright kids and I did really want to be a teacher.

I was superbright and wanted to be a teacher, however for me it was a definite social move upwards. Dad was a part time drug dealer, prison inmate and full time wife and child beater. Mum was a part time hooker and shoplifter who did the odd bit of bar work. I assumed a teacher's wage was a fortune, because in comparison to me they were rich.

However when I got to university I was given more useful careers advice and worked out that I could earn a lot of money if I chose another career. I could also travel - which I had never been able to do. It was only when I wanted more time with the children that I was willing to take the paycut to go into teaching.

If I had come from a more affluent and informed background I may never have considered teaching at all, until I wanted to have a more family friendly career.

It is probably hard to track all those who 'eventually' go into teaching, though.

I am an 'A grader' - As in every exam at all levels, first class degree and PhD from Oxbridge - but my 'apparent' destination as far as school, university etc would have been concerned was academic research followed by highly-regarded management trainee post in a large company.

My metamorphosis into primary school teacher 20-odd years on would probably come as as much of a surprise to my erstwhile teachers / university tutors as it did to me!

That is a fair point teacher, I was a late entrant and will probably be an early finisher too! I am not planning to do any work of any kind past 60 at the latest, never mind teaching!

My comparison was to show the value our society puts in those two jobs.

Educating the next generation c

Compared to driving a tube train.

Yes it's a duller job but that's not worthy of more money surely?? Picking litter up is dull, doesn't pay 46k though!

You might have to work past 60 if they don't leave our pensions alone. That's why I'll be striking and matching with pride.

As I said I would like to see higher entrance requirements and higher pay.

I don't know much about tube drivers tbh, I suspect their pay is an anomaly tbh.

Wages are not just about the value we place on the job but the amount that people are willing to work for. Clearly enough people are willing to become teachers for that level of pay, combined with the pensions, holidays and sense of personal achievement it appears attractive. The problem comes with then keeping those teachers. I suspect that the starting pay is about right, lots of "high paid" professions start on a similar amount - but teaching then stops rising unless you go into management.

I have striked before and if I was not on maternity leave I would be proudly striking again. I will not be working at 60 but would be proudly striking to achieve that for others.

People don't get paid according to the worthiness of their profession.

The trouble with slack entry requirements for teaching is that even though there is a problem with retention, there are regular new entrants. And although there are permanent issues with finding well qualified Maths and Physics (and now increasingly Computing) specialists, there are plenty of PE teachers (for example) who offer Maths as a second subject who plug gaps in the timetable and lower the quality of KS3 Maths teaching to the detriment of achievement at KS4 and beyond, and poor specialist teachers who move constantly from school to school to avoid capability, who are again required to fill the gaps, because you can't have classes with no teacher, and you can't not have Maths classes!

I worked in what was a significantly underachieving department, and one of the key factors in turning it around was recruiting well qualified staff. And by well qualified, I mean academically. Clever people with good degrees. Good teachers too, of course!

You do what you feel right. What I'll be doing on the other hand is making the most of the day, and having my youngest at nursery, and taking my daughter to see the new Muppet movie.

Slack entry requirements? What do you understand the requirements to be?

C grade GCSEs in English, Maths (and Science for some areas) and a degree. I don't think there's a class requirement, although there may be for some bursaries.

From DofE website

Qualifications

Grades needed

A GCSE (or standard equivalent) in English Grade C

A GCSE (or standard equivalent) in mathematics Grade C

A GCSE (or standard equivalent) in a science subject if you want to teach primary or key stages 2/3 Grade C

A UK first degree (or equivalent qualification) if you want to take a postgraduate teacher training course Pass

I think these are quite slack qualifications to be honest, as someone who interviews and recruits staff we would not take someone with Grade Cs in Maths and English and a 3rd class degree. I am shocked that other schools might.