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….?

There is a fair amount of support for teachers in my kids school. It's an enhanced provision school and the staff deal with some incredibly difficult and challenging behaviour along with complex needs. They are fabulous and supportive and the staff are well thought of so I suspect that's why parents are behind them

Is it helpful to have supportive parents though? Or would it be better to have annoyed parents emailing MSPs with complaints about children being out of school? Parents I have spoken to are more resigned than supportive or unsupportive.

In general, I think the media reporting about strikes is very misleading.

There's so many falsehoods about nurses pay rises (only mentioning the bottom of the scale who get a large rise) & giving "average" salaries & making out that everyone can get to band 7 or 8A - when the reality is very different.

Again, I haven't seen much publicity about the teachers pay rises coming from school budgets.

Little about the terrible working conditions & patient safety in the NHS.

Or assaults on teachers.

Or Paramedics having to stay back 2 hours as they have started on a call & can't leave - can you imagine that with childcare?

It all seems very biased to me & only focusing on pay, without looking at conditions.

I think the teachers' cause will be damaged when the council budgets are announced. It looks fairly likely that there will be redundancies (or at least natural wastage) in many councils as budgets get slashed. Teachers are on a very good salary compared to many council workers and they have very good terms and conditions.
It will not be a good look still demanding 10% when other school and council staff (who accepted a much more realistic offer) are losing jobs. In addition, if the teachers get their demand, the pupils will still suffer because of the lack of classroom support from the support staff who have been cut.

I think it's probably time to accept the offer on the table and wait until the financial climate has improved.

Don’t see a lot of sympathy for teachers where l am
Compared to many in the Private sector they are pretty well looked after

Yep, 10% pay cut this year seems pretty well looked after, on top of years of a pay freeze and another tiny, below inflation pay rise last year.
Why is it hard to recruit for many subjects, if it's such an attractive deal? Why do so many leave?
We are selling our children short when we think the people who spend so much time with them deserve so little.

I work in this area & the answer is no I’m afraid.

Can I ask, as DD wants to be a primary teacher, are there not that many jobs then? Is she likely to be struggling to find work or stuck as a supply teacher? Why do they train so many teachers if they don't need them then? Also can NQTs enter the independent schools or do they need more teaching experience for that?

We do need huge amounts of trainees. The PGDE course is notorious for its dropout rates and there is a growing retention crisis due to conditions.

There are currently no posts. Teaching always goes in peaks and troughs (my mum’s cohort in the 70s was the same) but that will gradually improve. The jobs are still there, class sizes are huge and the inclusion agenda means that more bodies are needed for every aspect of education. But the councils won’t offer permanent posts at the moment.

The demographic of course entry has definitely changed, and we are seeing fewer 21 year old grads. However, older recruits means that people need a permanent job much more quickly, which makes the growing retention crisis more worrying again.

I don’t know anyone in the private sector but doubt they’d employ anyone fresh out of uni.

All of my colleagues feel the same- offer us 7% across the board and we’ll accept tomorrow.

If there’s no incentive to work as a teach- good conditions/well looked after or decent salary for expectations of job- then who will be a teacher?

I don’t understand why we wouldn’t want the people who are moulding and creating future generations to be paid well. I feel the same about nurses and even MPs. These jobs help to construct and define society and yet we will compare them with other specialities for not other reasons except everyone should have similar pay rises, regardless of type of job a working conditions.

below inflation pay rise last year

The problem with high inflation is if you give all the public sector workers (ie a huge section of the workforce) pay rises that meet inflation then you will drive the inflation higher. Of course people object to effectively being paid less each year. But there is a tension there.

@Shelefttheweb - that's the problem though - constant below-inflation pay rates over decades erodes pay significantly.

And inflation is not being driven by public sector pay rises - it's food & fuel prices.

We cannot recruit in the NHS - why would you sign up for that when you can earn more in Aldi, with better pay & conditions?

Look at what's happened with social care - it has effectively collapsed due to lack of staff - who unsurprisingly leave due to poor pay & conditions - and no-one wants a poorly paid role in a cost of living crisis, so there's no recruitment.

Be sure to hand back your payrise when we get it then!

@TheTrees1 I didn't vote to strike and I don't like the impact it has on the kids. That's not hard to understand I don't think? So many of my colleagues were in school today so it looks like I'm not alone in feeling like this.

Today was our strike day...

A true martyr..

@Michellexxx nope just a bit fed up of the disruption that has plagued school kids for 3 years now. Hate it when my ten year old asks when her next day off is and is disappointed when she realises she actually has to be in school for five days straight some weeks...

You’re right. An unexpected pandemic should mean we accept poor working conditions and a low pay rise in comparison to inflation.

The added stress will definitely add to the quality of education.

Private schools are in far fewer days and do not have this same idea the time therefore equates to successful learning. Good planning, small classes and the ability to have time to commit to classes does this. And the teachers there are paid more for teaching fewer pupils and less contact time.

And there’s a reason work places have been moving to a 4 day week. No doubt school children would enjoy that too.

Hmm, private schools have some other fairly significant differences than more days off to be fair.

Yea, the ones I have listed. Just saying something relatively oblique about the several points prove that your worries are blown out of proportion.
The children will receive their education. Hopefully teachers will receive a better pay offer and better working conditions.

On another note, has anyone in the NASUWT managed to implement anything from the ‘work to rule’ measure? Specifically looking at not covering classes for colleagues absent longer than 3 days..

I would hate to work in a school with so many strike-breakers.

@MistressIggi they didn't vote to strike but also a couple of them belong to a Union that I can't recall the name of that is a non striking union

Obviously if they are in a union that didn't vote to strike then they aren't breaking a strike, but if they are in the SSTA or EIS or NASUWT and are not striking, then they are strike breakers.
How they personally voted is neither here nor there: this is a collective decision.

Don’t worry - rather than ensure the government THEY ARE PART OF offers a decent fully funded pay settlement, the Greens are going to take the day off parliamentary work in solidarity.