Scottish teachers strikes

[museumum]

How have other Scots found the teachers strikes?
I’m seeing a lot of stress from English parents I know on Fb as well as on mn but it seems to me in my bit of Scotland parents have said “fair dos” to the teachers and just got in with things/arrangements quietly.

I’m not sure this is necessarily good for the teachers cause….

interested to hear from other Scots around the country….?

Interesting to read that £108 was taken off for a days strike...I had £180 taken off per day and did think that sounded like a lot! I wonder if someone said one hundred and eight to payroll and they misheard it as one hundred and eighty...it is getting sorted and we are expecting the pay back tomorrow so 🤞

There's the statistics. I work in a perfectly nice (easy to commute to from many areas) secondary in central Scotland. We already struggle to fill English and Maths vacancies. When I completed my ITE I was in a cohort of 20, this year 4 are expected to complete the course. General supply brought in to cover BGE to allow subject specialists to teach certificate classes.

I am glad my DC are over school age.

And how much of that is down to salary versus the other things mentioned upthread? I’ve got friends who are teachers and friends whose children are teachers - salary isn’t an issue. One NQT is thinking of packing it in because the senior team is absolutely useless - she teaches PE in an high school and finds it very difficult to get the pupils to engage as they see this young teacher as an easy target. Zero support from very poor management. Another is training to be a primary teacher at the moment in a v deprived area and again it’s the support (or lack thereof) from the teachers on placement that’s dragging her down - little or no guidance, visible irritation from them when asks for help, goalposts being moved at the last minute. I appreciate those are just 2 anecdotes and obviously don’t constitute evidence, but it’s interesting that neither quote the salary as the reason for their disillusionment.

The teachers I mentor cite it being a combination. Sort of a there's no way I can put up behaviour/toxic management/workload for that kind of salary.

Absolutely. 👏🏻

Increasing a teacher’s salary will do precisely nothing to address the main issues facing education and teacher retention. Interesting you focus on that as opposed to improving teacher performance in supporting new teachers and management skills further up the school. Perhaps salary increases should be linked to performance.

*new teacher retention

The attitude of many teachers on this thread also shows the problem of basing recruitment on salary - do we really want teachers who are only in it for the salary (which is already above average for most industries) or because they want to teach and care about children?

No one is only in teaching for the salary. Look at the disastrous bursary schemes in England. Hundreds of thousands of pounds lost because people stick it out long enough to get the full bursary and then quit.

The job is too difficult to do on 'caring for the kids' alone. The people who went into the PGDE year with me with that attitude crashed and burned. They were too emotionally involved with the kids and generally struggled with the balance of relationships and classroom management. When they weren't the saviour they thought they were going to be, they quit.

Most of the LA jobs you mention have overtime!! Wow, the sheer ignorance of some people, do kids a favour and your own ego by never applying to teaching. You wouldn't stand a chance.

Which again indicates the systemic failure and under-resourcing of the education system across the country - which (as already been said) won’t be improved by giving individual teachers an unrealistic pay increase.

Primary teachers could supplement their salaries in their holidays or at weekends if they wished to - may be by being a Carer. Carer organisations are desperate for Carers in most parts of the country. Or is your ego too big to take on that sort of work? Zero hours contract most likely so no overtime and pretty much minimum wage. But obviously better off than primary teachers as they may be able to pick up some extra hours occasionally.

I don't think that teaching has ever been the kind of profession that you go into for the money...it's not something that has ever been a consideration for me personally. I've always been happy with the amount I get paid and yes the job is tough and getting tougher but it is a vocation that many teachers choose because they like working with young people and trying to make a difference to young people's lives.

I really hope your post is satire but fear it's not.

Overtime?! I’m fascinated - which of those jobs exactly do you think have regular overtime?

I don't focus on anything. I cite the student teachers and early career teachers I mentor. That interpretational bias is yours. On average I support 4 per year, so definitely not anecdotal.

I've never commented on how I (personally) view the industrial action, pay offers, conditions, unions' (plural) stances. My views are not for this echo chamber,

I don't understand why you are trying to twist my neutral posts into spin that suits your perspective.

Did you not see the part of my post that said what worries me more? Of course we deserve a pay rise everyone deserves a pay rise when inflation is at over 10% and our bills are getting higher by the day.

Sorry that wasn't in reply you. It was to the poster who said "I focussed on salaries".

It was in response to the suggestion that carers (and others) can do overtime so better off than primary teachers who can’t get extra money from SQA marking like secondary teachers (who do that at weekends)

@Lidlfix I presume you were referring to me? It's hard to tell if someone doesn't use the quote function, but assuming that you were then there was no interpretational bias. "Sort of a there's no way I can put up behaviour/toxic management/workload for that kind of salary" but absolutely no reference to the fact the education needs a systemic overall, more funding as a whole and ideally performance related pay for senior managers in order to improve the behaviour/toxic management/workload - just a 'I want an unrealistic pay deal which will result in further cuts elsewhere in the education budget and do nothing to improve these key issues'.

As a local authority worker in one of the roles mentioned I can assure you there is no paid overtime. I have worked additional hours on a number of occasions though

I have also worked with teachers , several if whom worked a full week in school and then spent at least one day of the weekend doing private tutoring at ( at the time £25 per hour).

I also have an undergrad degree, a postgrad diploma, a masters (paid myself) and a lot of years experience and have had many years of payrises of 1% or no payrise at all. This year's LG 5% is the largest rise I can recall in the past 10 years.

I do appreciate the tough environment of schools and that teachers spend a lot of time and energy dealing with social and emotional issues many of which are challenging but they don't have a monopoly on dealing with societal problems or supporting very vulnerable people.

Results of SSTA ballot are in. 85% voted to accept the offer and end industrial action.

That's good news!

Do we know about the EIS?

EIS still mulling I believe

How can the EIS be mulling - surely it’s up to their members?