Managing school strikes

[mamnotmum]

Just had an email from school to say they are shut next Thursday for strikes and will update us soon about a strike on 2 May.

It's not that I don't support the teachers but there is no way my employer is going to give me a day off with less than a weeks notice (paid or unpaid) and I can not work from home/bring my child to work.

I realise some people have grandparents / friends but is anyone else finding it increasingly difficult to manage?

Would teachers be willing to be contracted to work these extra hours and days though? They say they are doing it already and not being paid for it, but would they be happy to accept it as a contracted part of their job?
If that was actually it... no more "goodwill"... yes.

"They say they are doing it already and not being paid for it, but would they be happy to accept it as a contracted part of their job?"

Doesn't matter, because it's not going to happen. It would cost billions and at the moment they've got it covered as teachers are doing it for free under the loose phrase on our contracts that says plus any hours deemed necessary to do the job, or something like that.

Has that negotiation angle been put to the unions & government already?

Well, I clearly remember the many teachers on here asking for schools to be shut even longer than they were.

No. It would be prohibitively expensive for a start.

Primary schools reopened on 1st June 2020, having remained open throughout April and May 2020 to keyworker children, with no vaccines and no mitigations and a high death rate from covid. Meanwhile many other people who weren't keyworkers were furloughed and baking banana bread at home. People were understandably scared and asking for protection.

The government offered us as part of the negotiations a ‘workload task force’ to attempt to reduce workload.

The previous workload agreement and workload reduction toolkit don’t seem to have done much good so this was met with scepticism.

Not clear if that task force is now also off the table. Probably, as the govt was seeing the negotiations as doing teachers a favour instead of an effort to solve a serious workforce crisis.

@ichundich "Well, I clearly remember the many teachers on here asking for schools to be shut even longer than they were."

No, teachers were asking for safety mitigations in schools, which the government refused to acknowledge as necessary. Because, biggest fudge of all, kids apparently didn't catch or spread Covid.

Honestly this is where teachers lose any goodwill, there is always a 'yes but'. Do you not think that those well paid (probably statistically doctored) top ten professions just work 8 hours and get paid for extra? You have to work smarter and learn more and more all the time and pick things up quickly without training and innovate, it's not just start one of these jobs and that's it - 'job done' either you know.

Is 'work to rule' an option? Can I have examples of teachers actual contracted hours? (hours per week / weeks per year/ over gross pay per annum)?

'overall'

My primary school as a workplace was actually open for several weeks more than in a normal year over the pandemic, as it was open over Easter and at May half term in 2020 to provide keyworker childcare.

At no time, throughout the entire period, could any PPE be worn when working with children, and almost none of the mitigations provided for elsewhere in society could be provided in schools.

I appreciate how extraordinarily frustrating the difference is between the school being open as a workplace, where staff were required to work with children under insufficient Covid mitigations, and the school being open for your child. But from the point of view if the staff, it us the school bring open as a workplace that is the key factor.

1265 over 195 days
plus any additional hours necessary to complete the job

The directed time (the first bit) is the part we are obliged to be on site working. The "anything else" is where the problems come.

Work to rule doesn't work because you can't fit marking, planning, writing reports etc into those directed hours.

We don’t have contracted hours. We have to work as many extra hours as deemed necessary to discharge our professional duties.

Honestly this is where teachers lose any goodwill, there is always a 'yes but'. Do you not think that those well paid (probably statistically doctored) top ten professions just work 8 hours and get paid for extra? You have to work smarter and learn more and more all the time and pick things up quickly without training and innovate, it's not just start one of these jobs and that's it - 'job done' either you know.

Having worked elsewhere as well as in teaching, I am fully aware of that. I am pointing out how hugely unrealistic the idea of paying teachers for the hours we actually do is in comparison to the relatively modest increase in fully funded pay the unions are asking for.

Oh my... is @cantkeepawayforever one of those "has worked in the real world" teachers???

It's so frustrating to hear people on here complaining that it's the teachers who are disrupting education, especially for those with additional needs, when we are striking precisely to safeguard school budgets and provide for all children.

Less money in the budget = less resources and less support staff. Without resources, children get a sub-standard education. Without support staff, it can be almost impossible to teach a class. Imagine this scenario (which is not an unusual one) without support staff in the classroom. 27 primary-aged children on the carpet ready for learning. Child 28 is screaming obscenities at the top of their lungs. Child 29 is unable to remain still and is climbing on furniture in a corner of the classroom. Child 30 emerges half naked from the toilet covered in excrement. How much teaching is going to get done during that allocated lesson time?

And the fundamental lack of understanding about how lesson planning and teaching works is unreal. Planning, assessment, marking and admin has to be done live: changes and adaptations are made based on the specific and changing needs of the children on a daily basis.

If you don't like the strikes, don't blame us. Get on to your MP. Get the government back to the table. Be grateful that during a time when the cost of living is obscene, teachers are giving up money they can't afford to lose in order to try and rescue the education system from this shitshow of a government.

Peace out.

I know several teachers very well.

They are well paid (15 years + qualified, heads of subjects / years / KS etc).

One is paid £60k+ (London, TLR etc).

They are all very vocal that their pay is fab but they're striking because they don't know what else to do in terms of school budgeting / 1:1 for SEN, resources etc.

I don't think it's about pay, which I guess means they shouldn't be striking - but I also don't understand what other choice they have to get the right people listening about how much kids are and will continue to miss out on.

I support the strikes, but have no idea how I'd manage if my kid was at school. I guess next year when he is I'll find out!!!

Also - on the "make them work 52 weeks with 5 weeks hols" - holidays are one of the main draws to the profession. Imagine earning 60k and having 13 weeks off? In theory that's amazing. I know that I practise those 13 weeks are quickly swallowed by prep etc.

We weren't furloughed and had to homeschool our children whilst working and studying part-time. To them, like to many others, the schools remained shut until September 2020 and again from January to March 2021 because we are not key workers, special needs, vulnerable etc. Schools were not "open" ffs. We certainly weren't baking banana bread. But the teacher down my road was indeed overhauling his whole garden.

So you agreed with the school closures.

Who agrees to their kid not having a teacher?

Because that's the reality right now for many kids.

Schools were not "open" ffs

Primary schools were open as workplaces throughout. Often with staff doing 2 or 3 different roles simultaneously - keyworker or selected year group face to face; online learning; social work. On top of educating our own children, after full clothing changes at the front door.

I'm retiring this year, so haven't really any skin in this game any longer. But I am nonetheless striking (even though it might adversely impact on my pension) because I feel so strongly about trying to protect the profession I've loved for 37 years.

I think it's important to mention lots of senior and experienced teachers higher up the pay scales are getting the push from SLT, being bullied out of a job role because they are too expensive and schools cannot afford higher paid staff anymore... ECTs are often being given subject lead status in replacement.

The fact the pay deal wasn't fully funded as already established will only impact schools worse and put them in a more dire position they already are.

There is a section of the gov.uk website where you can search any school in your area and see it's budget, or more appropriately, how much debt it is in. Might be quite eye opening.

Someone above was claiming that kids wouldn't have missed any learning because schools were "open" during lockdown. No, they were not open to the majority of children, which is the point I was making.