Unison to continue strikes

[BlueThursday]

https://news.stv.tv/scotland/rolling-school-strikes-across-scotland-ahead-as-staff-reject-council-pay-offer

fantastic /sarcasm

Do we know dates yet?

When will we find out if the other unions have accepted the offer? As they suspended their strikes to review it.

What happens if they accept but Unison continues to strike?

From what I was told, unless Unison voted to accept, the other unions are unable to accept it as unison holds the biggest majority. The strikes will be moving to rolling like the teachers did. But unison members were only informed at 12.52pm and that further negotiations are to be held with a view to the rolling strikes.

Although I fully support the right to strike, it's no wonder so many kids now see school as optional.

The way they see it is that if it's OK to tell them not to come in for days at a time, it's equally OK for them to decide not to bother at other times.

I don't think local authorities are going to reverse that post covid trend anytime soon! What a shambles.

Agree @Indiana2021 huge amounts of families happily started their October hols a week early at my kids schools. Can’t say I blame them. Given the amount of work my high school kid was given for the 3 day strike, when teachers were meant to be working, I have no idea how schools can say with a straight face that missing days has a massive impact on learning.

If it’s going to be rolling strikes of more than a day I’ll be embracing it and booking extra days off and going on a cheap hol with mine. The can do their 1 page of school work on a plane!

@MrsAmaretto I don't blame you. I'm very much of the opinion now that I won't be too concerned about taking them out for holidays either, and that is the polar opposite of the way I used to think. Parents are becoming increasingly disillusioned and less likely to have goodwill towards the schools or worry about a few days missed when their kids education is seen to be not important enough by both local authorities and the Scot Government.
It's really sad that it's gone this way, but the local authorities and the government really need to look inwards and evaluate what they've done wrong and how poor the online alternatives have been.
The covid online learning offer was woeful and communication continues to be poor. There's no excuse to have not come up with a working robust online offer in the time since to keep parents and kids engaged.

@Indiana2021 absolutely I never took my kids out of school before covid, even though their dad worked offshore and every 2 years he missies all school hols.

tgis year has been very poor, our schools across the county were shit for over a week due to ooor weather even though it was not that bad and by day three it was obvious if they changed the school day to 11-2 with a 39 min break for lunch it would have been fine to have buses and cars do the transport.

Im extremely annoyed that I received an email with the last school strike saying that the loacal council - teacher committee had agreed that live teams sessions did not have to be offered by teachers even though the my weren’t on strike? Well, to be frank - fuck you! Why the fuck should I pay £1k more to have my kids in class rather than Tenerife if all you need to do to get your 43k wage is provide one sheet of A4 tasks??!!

Lol - loads of spelling mistakes. Menorca AI 😆😆😆

November 1 for 4 LAs

https://news.sky.com/story/unison-announces-strike-date-for-school-and-nursery-staff-in-four-scottish-council-areas-12987083

I find the comments here really disappointing. Support staff work so hard for terrible pay. They are often left with the most challenging and/or vulnerable children. I actually wish parents and media could see how badly the schools would struggle without them on a strike day. This will obviously never happen because it just isn't safe to have the children in without them. So many people have no idea what schools are actually like these days. The level of need has soared at the same time as resources and support are being depleted. I fully support the striking staff and hope they get what they deserve.

I stated that I fully supported the right to strike, and I absolutely do. Unfortunately, schools and the staff in them have been badly let down by LAs and the Scottish Government for years. As a parent the contempt I feel is not towards the school but rather the LAs and ScotGov who are willing to push our kids education aside so easily.
I completely value and support the difficult and vital role that support staff have in school and agree they should be paid accordingly.
The fact that it's been allowed to get to this stage is shameful. The point being that posters aren't criticising the strikers but rather the authorities who have underpaid and undervalued support staff for years, which directly impacts our children's right to learn.

Agree. PSA jobs used to be like gold dust..when they were simply taking reading groups, laminating and putting up art work etc.
Now it’s mostly working 1-1 with violent and distressed children. For this reason hardly anyone is applying for the job because you can get the same money working In Sainsbury’s without the kicking biting and to be perfectly honest..the heartbreak. I gave my all in my PSA role and loved it but my heart was broken for these poor kids over and over. I packed it in after 8 years, mentally and physically exhausted..and skint.
Pay them a decent wage. They bloody well deserve it.
As do nursery workers as they are in the same position.
Without decent support staff your child’s education will be disrupted far more than a few strike days.

A recent post in my school for a PSA role got over 50 applicants…

I think lots of parents recognise and understand the need to pay support staff a decent salary for the role they do and understand that their role has been much more complex of late. Support staff strike so schools can't open.
What a lot of parents struggle to get their head around is why, despite significant pay rises during the last few years, is the digital/alternative learning offer so poor when teachers aren't actually on strike. That's the question a lot of parents have.

I support it. My sister is an EYP- she can't do her job because there is no incentive for support staff doing 1-1's to stay. When you're being bitten, hit, kicked and unsupported for the entire school day- and often with several children in this situation because the finding isn't there, or they don't have a plan, and then constantly struggling because the pay is shite- I wouldn't volunteer. She's been to the hospital 4 times this year because she's been bitten, and it's broke the skin (school policy) by different children. Seems that there was a lot more support for teachers striking than there is for the support staff, dealing with our kids every day, the cleaners and the janitors and the school receptionists.

How are the councils going to pay for pay rises if council tax has been frozen?

Several of the previous posters seem more concerned with getting cheap flights than the underfunding and lack of resources with the education system.
People often say they support the 'right to strike' until it's an inconvenience for them. The whole point of the strike is to cause disruption. If teachers were able to provide high quality, differentiated lessons online the same way they do in class then parents and local authorities would think support staff aren't really necessary. We can cope without them.
Also, I think a lot of Mumsnetters truly believe that teachers are the ones who get to make the decisions. They definitely don't. Saying "fuck you" to the teachers, I'll just take my child out when I want is really not helpful or supportive. (Not you, I know).
Complain to the people who actually make the decisions rather than blame it on the people who are trying their best to mitigate the impact of their cuts.

They’re absolute fuckwits. I’m so pissed off. It’s entirely injustified, the other unions have accepted it, and it’s causing havoc for parents and already disrupted children

As an EYP I appreciate all the supportive comments.
To be perfectly honest, we are not paid enough. As a member of Unison I voted reject to the pay offer, it's absolute bullshit.
I appreciate that it's made life difficult for people but in all honesty, no other profession tolerates the abuse that is hurled at school staff on a daily basis so why should we?
Especially the classroom assistants, the schools cannot run without them. The patience and care they have towards the children is unbelievable.

Bear in mind this is all council staff... cleaners, kitchen staff, janitors. The schools cannot open without them.

Sorry you feel this way but it is entirely justified. It's not unison that have rejected the pay offer, it's the members (staff) themselves.

Exactly this! What do you think LA are going to pay teachers with???

the Scottish government seem to agree to pay rises to stop strikes which make them look bad without actually providing any more budget to pay the pay rises.

at some point we have got to decide if we want to live in a society with the extra child payment of £25 a week and free social care, or we want pay rises for public sector employees. We cannot afford both. We cannot increase taxes any more - it’s already way too high when it’s easy to work remotely in England and pay far far less each month- and the scottish government does very little to encourage enterprise and grow the economy.

To me as an economist the problem boils down to house prices. We cannot afford to pay the taxes needed for a fair society because we are paying so much in bills to live.

I'm a teacher and provided what I judged to be sufficient work for those who were absent from my classes. I spent time in advance preparing the pupils for the tasks they'd do when they were off, delivered online lessons and set tasks. In one class 4 children signed on to the online lesson and 8 completed the tasks. So 8 are now ahead of the others. So this is perhaps why the tasks being delivered are deemed inadequate, because teachers will have to reteach what was missed anyway.

I'm in a LA where s4-6 attended school anyway so thankfully the impact on teaching was not on the entire school.

That’s great @gawditswindy and just highlights the different provision across the county for pupils. And how some teachers are appear to be doing very little work despite being paid the same!

Our S1-6 high school was completely closed, whilst others in the county were open for S4-6.

Our high school sent out an email that stated that the local negotiating committee had an agreement that live lessons on teams were voluntary for teachers. How amazing is that? You get paid but negotiate that you don’t have to teach remotely? In 2023 when half the country easily works from home and all kids have teams accounts paid by the taxpayer?

My child had not quizzes etc set on teams and has had no homework at all on teams in S2. They did complete the 3 scrappy pieces of A4 paper they were given. If this equates to what they normally cover in 3 days at school I have no problems with them missing school in the future.

It's a catch 22. Kids (and parents) are skipping the work that is set because they consider it meaningless but the fewer kids do it, the less meaningful it can be, so large numbers of kids aren't falling behind.

Just turning to your last point, as a teacher I struggle to get my head around why less than half of any of my classes attended or even looked at the online lessons I provided on those days (and the school gave them devices, so other than wifi all they had to do was click a few buttons).
I then have to do catch up the next time I see them, so will the ones who did the work this time bother doing it again when so many of their classmates didn't?