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Original poster

School Strikes 26th March - Invoicing the LEA

432 replies

Bexinder · 21/03/2014 11:47

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!

OP posts:
mrz · 22/03/2014 17:36

Perhaps DoneWithStruggling missed the train drivers and fire brigade actions last year because they didn't inconvenience her

HarveySchlumpfenburger · 22/03/2014 17:41

Strike action in the UK over the past 14 years has included:

firefighters
post office workers
council workers
bus drivers
bin men
football referees
nhs workers
Doctors
tube workers

Presumably this is what's meant by privileged professions.

Go back further and you can find privileged professions such as dockers and miners.

HarveySchlumpfenburger · 22/03/2014 17:45

A lot of people I know were unaware of the fire brigade strikes at the end of last year. It doesn't seem to have been particularly well publicised. Which is odd, because one of the things I think they were trying to do was to get people to cook safely of not cook at all during the strikes to prevent fires. And you'd think that would require quite a lot of publicity.

Morgause · 22/03/2014 17:47

The Sun are backing you?

Biscuit
WoodBurnerBabe · 22/03/2014 17:53

I've used all my holiday for this year, so my choices are either to take unpaid leave or pay my childminder extra to have my school aged children for the day.

I 100% support the strike action, despite financial cost to myself, the OP is completely ridiculous. This has everything to do with the quality of education.

lionheart · 22/03/2014 17:55

"He is improving education."

I'd like to know how you reach that conclusion, 2little1s.

titchy · 22/03/2014 17:56

You do realise that the purpose of a school is to educate the kids, not to provide parents with free childcare..... The fact that the latter is a bi-product of the former is convenient, but in no way indicative of purpose.

NonnoMum · 22/03/2014 17:57

If Sarah Vine is on this thread perhaps she would like to come and talk to me about my pay and conditions.

I sometimes work the odd shift in a restaurant with no accountability, and no OFsted and no performance related pay.

Guess which one is more lucrative?

DoneWithStruggling · 22/03/2014 18:28

I'm not teacher bashing. But to be a public sector employee and/or to be in a unionised workplace at the moment is an enormous privilege. I would hazard a guess that most people are not these days, and as a result are subject to pressures not to take holiday or breaks, are probably in jobs without benefits such as employer-contributing pensions, are possibly on zero-hours contracts without sick pay. I am pro-union largely for these reasons and support the right to strike. But when teachers strike it has an adverse effect on people who have no control over educational policy or teachers pay and conditions. Although I resent our school "profiteering" out of the strike, I am grateful to have the option of easy childcare open to me. Other people are not so fortunate and have to choose between losing pay by not working or losing pay by giving it to childminders etc. I am also concerned about children who depend on free school meals or the school environment as a break from stressful homelives.

The point about school not being childcare also bothers me greatly. I was put on jobseekers when my youngest was 5, as I was deemed available to work. I quickly found work and was keen to do so. But the government's assumption is that school is childcare and a parent is available to work once their child is at school. For good or for worse, that is the situation for many families accross the country.

13loki · 22/03/2014 18:35

But the general public do have control over education policy. That is democracy. If others choose not to be unionised, that does not mean that people who are in a union should not see the benefits of the union. Tell your MP that education matters to you. Tell them the policies are adversely affecting you. Tell them it will affect how you vote.

mrz · 22/03/2014 18:40

Most of the people I know who work in the private sector are members of trade unions DoneWithStruggling, I certainly was as were every single one of my colleagues.

Lottiedoubtie · 22/03/2014 18:45

It is ridiculous to say that you should be grateful to be in a unionised profession, so grateful you shouldn't support your union and use your right to strike.

It is unfortunate that striking had a negative effect of parents. Lets not forget it also has a negative effect on teachers who are all bright enough to know Gove isn't listening and despite that they still feel strongly enough to strike and loose a days a pay.

Because although it's crap (wouldn't it be great to live in a perfect world?) it is the best shot teachers have of being heard. Teachers are striking because they are being pushed into a corner not because they want to strike for fun.

Soveryupset · 22/03/2014 18:46

I am afraid I also agree that school is conceived in the way it is as childcare as well as education. Otherwise it would be only 3 hours a day. When I went to school in a different country so many years ago, we only went to school 3 hours a day because indeed it was only a means to educate - and an amazing education it was too.

Nobody can tell me that a child of 4 really needs to be out of the home and into an institution 7 hours a day for purely educational purposes.

I also think we don't have control over educational policy and we do not have control over teacher's conditions. We are not in a democracy, the current government did not get a majority of votes and most of the parties did not have a manifesto many agreed with anyway. I have written to my MP about quite a number of shabby practices and both DH and I are active in our community in many capacities including semi-political ones, but it is massively time consuming and hard work to get the smallest of local campaign through the door, let alone something as big as educational policy.

The truth is when it comes to health and education you only have choice and influence if you have the money to go private.

mrz · 22/03/2014 18:59

So you aren't in favour of Mr Gove's plans for 10 hour school days Soveryupset.

DoneWithStruggling · 22/03/2014 19:08

Soveryupset I too was educated in another country. We had 4 hours of school a day (which included breaks) and a three month summer holiday. The main difference to my mind is that when we were at school we did academic learning and when we were at home we played. It frustrates me a little to find my children watching DVDs and playing with their own brought-in toys (golden time) at school and then having piles of homework to do at home. But that is a side issue. The school day does seem to have been stretched to suit an adult working day, and the trend certainly seems to be to stretch if further to accommodate a 9-5 working day day. School has become childcare, and it would be naive to deny it whatever your opinion on whether it should be or not.

And we don't live in a democracy. We have a representative democracy which is not the same thing at all. Furthermore, most of our MPs represent uncontested constituencies. Very few (need to) pay more than lip service to the actual opinions of their electors.

Lara2 · 22/03/2014 19:14

We most definitely have the right to strike and should do so if needs be.
It always interests me that parents go nuts over a strike but never utter a murmur over our 5 INSET days ( which come out of our holiday ).

Lara2 · 22/03/2014 19:16

Sorry, that should say 'some parents'.

13loki · 22/03/2014 19:22

And that is the fault of the electorate. Hold the MPs accountable. If the seat is uncontested, get your party to contest it. Run as an independent. I didn't say it was easy, but if you are allowed to vote, you do have a say. You have a voice, use it.

Oh, and representative democracy is a form, or variant, of democracy.

mrz · 22/03/2014 19:23

In the 2010 general election 532 of the 533 parliamentary seats were contested on the day with the 533rd seat contested on the 27th May. There are no uncontested seats DoneWithStruggling.

DoneWithStruggling · 22/03/2014 19:24

Perhaps as the INSET days are notified further in advance so proper plans can be made, and cover the whole of a school so parents are not having to sort out only some of their children?

But, another alternative protest idea - why not strike on INSET days?

DoneWithStruggling · 22/03/2014 19:27

Mrz I would suggest that only marginal seats are contested.

www.electoral-reform.org.uk/safe-seats/

LindyHemming · 22/03/2014 19:28

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

mrz · 22/03/2014 19:28

A safe seat is very different to an uncontested seat DoneWithStruggling.

In a general election every seat is contested it's how the electoral system works.

BoneyBackJefferson · 22/03/2014 19:35

DoneWithStruggling

"But, another alternative protest idea - why not strike on INSET days?"

Which schools inset days would you like us to strike on?

clam · 22/03/2014 19:37

We'll have another bright spark on here in a moment, suggesting strikes are held in the school holidays. Has happened before.