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….?

I’m sure you won’t be the only ones

My youngest is gutted! I am delighted.

Inspired by @Heli1copter I've just booked train tickets and a Premier Inn in London for the 3 days. Our London family are delighted.

I went for the cheaper, non-refundable hotel booking so you can be sure the Edinburgh strikes will now be called off on Monday and we won't get our money back.

Just go anyway @Rae36 regardless if its called off or not.

I understand the union wanting to get a good pay deal, I mean who wouldn't want more pay, but I'm totally fed-up with the brinksmanship it seems to require and it causes huge disruption for working families who have to arrange emergency childcare, use their annual leave or do some half assed WFH while parenting simultaneously type arrangement

Get the flags out🤣

Isn't the entire point of striking to cause disruption?! It's actually so disheartening to see how few people are behind us. I doubt anyone that doesn't work in a school realises just how much support staff do and for how little money. Really shows how undervalued we actually are

I am not doubting the motivation behind striking. I'm just stating the impact its had on me as a working parent. Initially I supported the unions standing up for better pay but its just dragged on and on and its like nothing is ever going to be good enough and the unions will keep stirring up trouble to keep themselves front and centre as saviours. I'm equally fed up with the politicians who allow this to keep happening.

Ordinary people like me who aren't in a union and have to keep asking for extra days off work or taking unpaid leave when the schools shut are impacted too but we're just left to get on with it.

I think it's outrageous that when an offer is received, the union don't call a halt and ask THE MEMBERS what they think. In this recent dispute they have just rejected outright. The teaching unions did the same.

We as parents are pissed off because our kids' education has been disrupted for years and years. I have a son in S4. He was in P7 when the covid thing kicked off and has not had one year of undisrupted education since. He's coming up for Nat 5s and the last thing we need is another lot of strikes.

With inflation coming down, I think holding out for higher offers is not realistic.

As an NHS'er it's really hard to cover strikes - I cannot be off work.

Our jobs & working conditions are not all hearts & flowers. Whose are these days?

So true. I’m not on a fantastic hourly rate either. So I do lots of hours to earn a decent wage. The people who this affects most are low income families. Solidarity is lovely but if I don’t work I don’t get paid.

Everything is so expensive now. I can’t really afford to take unpaid leave and I used up a lot leave / goodwill in February/ March.

"Isn't the entire point of striking to cause disruption?! It's actually so disheartening to see how few people are behind us. I doubt anyone that doesn't work in a school realises just how much support staff do and for how little money. Really shows how undervalued we actually are"

You are right - the entire point of a strike is to cause disturbance. But it's a fine line. It needs to cause disturbance while while the people who are being disturbed support you. Lose their support and it plays into the hands of the government or local authorities.

I don't support the strikes. I have unfortunately seen first hand what 4 years of interrupted education has done to my kids.

And when some of the unions have called off the strikes but others haven't - that just paints the unions who are going ahead in the worst light possible. And ultimately I suspect that will lose even more public support- the very support you need.

It's now just shambolic - some schools closed and some not. Some kids getting the privilege of being able to go to school and some not.

Totally agree.

My eldest was in second year when covid hit and his education was shambolic since. He left school in 5th year as he felt school wasn't interested in teaching him. And he was right. Now in college and doing well.

Not sure if people on here have seen this petition but thought some might want to sign:

https://chng.it/tYbyxx9mcj

Focusing on ongoing requests for parents to step up and home school in impossible circumstances. I fully support the support staff striking, but expecting parents to work, teach and parent all at once at short notice is absolute nonsense. Also, if anything, I think parents kicking up a fuss puts more pressure on government to resolve this shitshow than quietly accepting whatever consequences we are thrown our way.

I've been instructed to set home learning for next week. No one will do it but we must be seen to be doing it. Can you imagine the uproar if we didn't! Parents say they want it but they also don't want it! It's a big waste of our time. I don't want to be in another school stuck in a room with all my colleagues fighting over the Wi-Fi with hundreds of other teachers! I have too much to do with my class. But I fully support the workers.
And also ... teachers are parents too! We are expected at work and also expected to be there for our own kids supervising their home learning!

I think it depends on what age and stage the kids are. I would imagine the online learning for my S4 would be - work on your folio, read the next 10 pages of "An Inspector Calls", start jotting down sources/notes for your modern studies portfolio piece, watch these YouTube videos on proteins.

Whole different ballgame with P4 children rather than S4. And yes, what we all learned through the pandemic is that homeschooling while doing your own job is impossible.

And for those in exam years, there is change to the exam conditions to reflect the disruption to their education the strikes are causing, not to mention lasting impact of Covid. They can't even appeal their grades anymore (or appeal the way they used to be able to appeal)

Amazing - we are getting live online teaching next week on the strikes.

Finally. Never got anything but pdf work sheets during the whole of bloody Covid but finally our school has discovered Teams.

The internet has landed. Woop woop.

Is there any chance these strikes will be cancelled at the last minute?

I get disruption is the aim and wish they could all be paid more but still cannot understand the lack of live support in my region.

We are also back to the two tier education thing. East Dunbartonshire called off the strikes on Friday afternoon, so my S4 will be in school next week as planned. I know some schools in Glasgow city council (like Hyndland) are saying S1-S3 at home, S4-S6 in school. Yes it's only three days but if this drags on it could be much longer over this term, and parents could argue that their kids coming up for exams are very much disadvantaged compared to mine who is in school.

Unless they are going to persist with the nonsense that "online learning" is every bit as effective as being in school.

Our schools (primary & secondary) are doing online learning.

I can leave my S3 at home while I go to work.

But having to pay £35 for my 10 year old to go to a day camp 9am-2pm so I can go in to work.

So she won't learn anything.

You worry about vulnerable children & the impact on them of being out of school - getting meals etc.

If teachers are in school they must provide online learning. Many teachers will not be in their own schools but sharing a classroom with their colleagues (in my case 20 of us) in PFI schools and under these circumstances it is impossible to provide live learning. Hardly anyone in my school engaged with lessons in lockdown- they aren't going to do it for 3 days!

I feel like live lessons are going to stress folk (parents and children) out. It's not lockdown: kids won't be sitting in their houses. They're at clubs, or grandparents, etc. I've set work for my classes to do but am not rigid about times. I've mainly senior classes anyway so life will be going on as normal.

It's not lockdown but kids still require an education, at what point is it taken seriously enough for proper live learning??
This blasé attitude that people CBA for their kids to join online learning at home in complete nonsense and was in part the reasoning for such awful support for kids during that period. I just can't believe it's not been taken seriously enough to provide kids proper support.
Kids wont be in clubs as very few are running and not everyone has grandparents to support.

Yep.

Next la over to me is now saying some schools in and some not. Whereas mine has said all schools closed.

School saying there will be some form of online learning but nothing yet in how that will be working.

I am lucky in that my child is old enough to be on their own while I work. But it also means I have no input as to what work he will engage with. He's a pretty good kid but still.

DS said to me the other day what's the point of a prelim if you can't appeal your grade with it. I see what he means. Where's the incentive for these kids to do well in exams? No grade to fall back on.