Secondary teachers strike

[tocahairchop]

Any other secondary teachers in Scotland who are not keen on strike action? I get the motives behind it but not at all up for striking at this point due to disruption and the fact that times are tough for everyone. Feel like I have to justify myself to non teachers by saying 'I don't agree with striking' as it's not going to be met favourably by the public in the same way as other sectors striking over pay.

Ooof. So how the heck will parents know what is happening before then?
I have a disabled child with SEN too who is in a mainstream & struggling as it is.
She's in S4. Losing time will be disastrous for her.

NC as I think a friend is on here. I'm pretty pissed off by the teachers strikes tbh. DD has exams coming up (prelims) and needs teachers around to be able to ask questions, prepare her etc.
Its bad enough they missed teaching time during the pandemic now they miss teaching time due to strikes from teachers who imo get a pretty good pay and benefit deal already compared to others with longer hours and shittier conditions.
My other friend is a single parent with a disabled child aged 9. She can't afford to take time off work or even WFH due to his needs and finding childcare that meets his needs is also impossible. No family to help (her DF died and DM doesn't keep well, no siblings).
I used to be a union rep in HE, gave it up in disgust at some of the demands (let alone sending members money to causes abroad I neither knew or cared about)

I keep hearing about the salary being decent. I would ask again, why should teachers accept a 7% pay cut this year?

Everyone's had a pay cut in real terms though, it doesn't make it right but I genuinely believe whatever raise teachers get should be matched for all public sector.

I've had 5% uplift and happy with that. I'm in a similar wage range to teachers (slightly less that some) and have a relatively good standard of living.

I pay £13 a month to my union to work for me. All public sectors are not in the same union so all public sector workers do not have the same pay and conditions. Part of teachers large holiday / school closure day entitlement is due to the fact that there is no flexibility in terms of holidays. Leaving aside the fact that we can't take a day for a sick child or to let the gas man in, we also have to pay the enormous school holiday premiums to go on holiday. We don't, however, officially have to work weekends.

Different workers have different pay and working conditions because they do different jobs. They have different entry requirements re qualifications too.

@Invisimamma do you still believe "we're all in it together"? I don't think it's ok for the working public to be suffering by being paid less in real terms year in year out because of the government's mismanagement of our money.

No I absolutely agree, but my point is that this situation is not unique to teachers, every part of the public sector is being hit by the government mismanagement. I just think whatever is offered to teachers should be given to everyone else e.g. NHS, police, local authority staff.

That only makes sense if they have not already agreed a pay deal, and if we have had the same freezes/rises every single year. I would be very happy for all public sector workers to get an inflationary pay rise! But the teachers' union cannot argue on their behalf, nor the nurses' union on ours.

TinyChancer

If things don’t change there won’t be any qualified teachers to look after the children.
They are paid a pittance compared to their friends with the same degrees.

@Allsnotwell I don't believe that to be honest. When planning to be a teacher most folk would assume a decent enough salary, nothing amazing but teaching isn't exactly a profession that you might go into because it pays pretty well. It's just not that type of career!

I stand with Scottish teachers on strike.

I'm in N.I. where we are up to 20% worse off in real terms than 20 years ago.
And unlike people who did their degrees and teacher training 20 tests ago I have big student loans and university fees to pay off. Those saying we earn more than some parents in our class, fair enough. Does that make it right though? Not all of those parents are professionals who studied for years and whose employers have made no gesture towards cost of living.
A colleague of mine retired a few years ago. She told me that when she retired, despite her responsibilities, she was earning significantly less in real terms than at the start of her career as a newly qualified teacher.

This is so disappointing and shows a lot that is wrong when these kind of attitudes are around. Scottish teachers were always well respected, professional and well paid.

You only need to look online at jobs being repeatedly advertised after being unable to recruit any suitable candidate. People can’t afford to consider teaching as a profession and this is a huge loss to our young people. Personally, I want someone with an in depth understanding of their subject, a love of working with young people and huge amounts of enthusiasm and patience to teach my children. I don’t want it to be someone who has minimal qualifications and who is not very good at their job only because they can’t get anyone else.

Teaching needs to be made attractive again. With the huge amount of hours that we work and the high stress levels- the pay needs to be such that it reflects this and makes it a realistic option for new graduates.

@meala I don't really understand your point...I've been a teacher for over 20 years and definitely didn't go into it for the money. I have an honours degree in my subject and have been (and still am) completely dedicated to my job and the young people I teach. But not once I'm my career and even less so at the beginning, did I consider the salary as a positive or a negative. It's just never been something I've given a lot of thought to. I imagine lots of others would feel the same. Not too many vacancies in my authority so maybe I'm just not seeing what you are, I don't know.

My DH is a maths teacher with a degree in engineering. Some of his uni peers are earning triple what he does. Our nephew comes to us for tutoring twice a week because his school can't recruit enough maths teachers, and the ones they have managed to recruit are very honestly, not of the highest standard.

No one goes into teaching for money but it should also be assumed that we will be paid well.

If you want to recruit the best graduates, you can't rely on goodwill and the idea of a vocation. Teaching is too hard and unfortunately, many of the poor sods sold the idea of going into teaching to 'make a difference' are unable to cope with the realities of modern classrooms.

But not once I'm my career and even less so at the beginning, did I consider the salary as a positive or a negative.
This will be why 80% of teachers are female though - not viewing it as a job that you need to be able to support a family on! It is a privileged position to not need to consider the salary (I am not slagging you, I'm hardly underprivileged but we do rely on teachers' salaries to raise our dc and what we bring home each month has to be worth it!)
If I had my time again I would not be a teacher, it has given me a lot (and I wanted a job where I could help others) but the personal cost has been too extreme and now we're basically told if you don't need a food bank then you're comfortably off.

I’ve been a TA for the last 10 years it suited my family and I worked hard and made a big difference to a lot of teachers and students.

However with the pay rise coming from schools budgets many will lose their TA’s, we’ve been told this- a lot of staff are supply staff and easily let go.

However now my children are grown, I have applied for a career post - and got it - basic starter salary is £10K more than I earn now, admittedly with reduced holidays (I wasn’t paid for them anyway)
I won’t have to bring work home, I won’t have to run round organising out of hours activities, and I won’t be working overtime for no extra pay!!

No brainer.

@Allsnotwell are you in Scotland? Rises will not be funded directly out of school budgets here.

We are told over and over again that if teachers’ salaries rise, cuts will be made. They’re made anyway. I have almost no support in my classroom and 5 children with significant needs. Never mind those who have specific learning needs. I cannot provide the learning and support they deserve while I am alone in the classroom. I cannot physically cut myself into all those pieces. Planning for so many individuals cannot be done within a 35 hour week.

I get tired of being told it’s a vocation and to suck it up. I have for the last 22 years. Being assaulted 3 times in the last 5 weeks has made me not willing to suck anything up any more.

Absolutely hear you.
I loved my job but would not do it now if I had my time again, and I would actively discourage my children from going into teaching.

Discourage my children from entering the profession.

I get tired of being told it’s a vocation and to suck it up

I completely agree with this. I love my job and care very much about the children I teach, but it's my job. My salary is important to me. It's how I pay my mortgage and feed my own children. It's the same rhetoric that's applied to the NHS - you should be doing the job for the love of it, and take whatever pennies are thrown at it 'cos it's fur the weans'. Bugger that. Is Angela an accountant for the love of the job? How about Tony the mechanic? Should he not get a pay rise because he loves cars?

DD1 is a teacher "did you not see the piles of marking on a Sunday? Yes but I see you come alive talking about your classes" DD2 was determined to do teaching post grad until this year when she started to look at basic graduate recruitment. DD3 is doing a Social Work degree... DD4 is doing HR Management and already has companies asking her to contact them when she graduates . I feel like my social conscience and lefty leaning principles have let them down. They'll be as skint as their auld maw. Apart from DD4 - may she pick my nursing home.

Are primary teachers going to join the planned Secondary teachers strike next Wednesday ? When will parents have confirmation of this ? Does anybody know

Is it SSTA or NAWST?

The SSTA action will only impact on Secondary Schools. Any NASUWT action could impact on primaries. However, it is a much smaller union so potentially I guess there could be class closures but not whole school ones.

Strikes are next Thursday...think whole secondaries could close depending on numbers