Unison to continue strikes

[BlueThursday]

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

What age of children are you talking about here? Secondary aged I'd expect to be able to do it independently, but my P5 would need help to access Teams and print the work and then talk him through it. I was unable to do that as I had an already very full on work schedule myself and his Dad works in a hospital.

I was also not prepared to spend all evening catching them up on the school work they missed because I had to work . We had after school sports and other commitments.

I don't feel good about it but facilitating the online learning was just too much for me to cope with on top of everything else at that time.

I'm secondary. I don't think you should have been sent anything that needed printing!
It is so hard for any school/teacher to get the balance right - some parents aren't happy unless their child has enough work to keep them busy from 9 till 4. Others just want an hour or two, and some want nothing.

facilitating the online learning was just too much for me to cope with on top of everything else at that time.

This is literally the issue. I'm very conscious of increasing the attainment gap by moving some forward and not others. I know of some pupils who were in sports and drama clubs so weren't accessing work at home, and a lot of parents were working, so unable to support their kids. There's no way you're going to set work that works for everyone.

Incidentally, my own child, in junior primary, was set nothing. Same LA as me, who was told that all classes should be following a full timetable at home. So there's not even consistency within the same council area.

@Whitestick
I get that you can't guarantee that kids will engage. Kids who need supervision and whose parents are busy working won't do it. Other kids will opt put because their friends aren't doing it. I get that it must be frustrating and I don't know what the solution is.
However for those who will engage I think what a lot of parents struggle to understand is why the offer seems to vary so wildly between schools in the same LA and also between teachers in the same school.
Some teachers appear to set very little, others set loads and others suggest personal reading (I'm looking at you English dept).
Who issues the directive of what teachers are expected to produce? Is it LA or HT? Genuinely interested to find out what you're advised to do.
I understand that there may be issues around live teaching but when the rest of the world is able to meet remotely I'm not sure why this can't happen to an extent. And if live teaching can't happen why has a suite of pre recorded revision lessons not being produced for each subject/level. A lot of time has passed since Covid to allow contingency teaching to be worked on. I genuinely don't get why it's not better.

I was in the meetings, your children weren't! Well probably not yours 😀Mostly young people seem to prefer work they can get on with themselves at home. Setting that online works better than getting to see me on camera in such an artificial setting.
I think people mean so many different things when they say "live teaching" that we often argue at cross purposes.
Staff had to prepare all our normal lessons (as no one knew for sure whether the strike would happen) and whatever online provision might be needed. My workload went up a lot because of the strike, I can't be doing with posters (not you) saying fuck you, just another stick to bash teachers with (and not even our strike!)

@Whitestick
I'm honestly not teacher bashing. I understand how frustrating it must be at your end too.
Are you given the opportunity to feed back up the line? Do they take any notice of your feedback in order to change or modify the online offers? Are some LAs seen to be doing a better job than others from a teacher perspective?

I am NHS and I don’t believe that public sector workers should have the right to strike. I know this is controversial but I think that our wages are paid from the taxation of others who are sometimes in much more insecure employment. It doesn’t sit right with me.

I support the strikes - the TAs etc are worth their weight in gold. Teachers cannot win re setting work - some parents don’t want any set, some want their kids fully occupied etc etc it’s impossible to set something that everyone will be happy with but agree some work/activities should be set. Also have to remember that staff will have spent their non contact time preparing for in school lessons incase strikes called off so to expect huge amounts of amazing at home/online material is perhaps unrealistic. I hope the strikes are resolved soon for everyone’s benefit.

To add to that, we still had our seniors in, but some were at home providing childcare for younger siblings, so they had to be set online work. Phew.

Next date announced - 8th November South Lanarkshire, Edinburgh, Dumfries and Galloway and Fife.

Next weeks strike has been cancelled ahead of another offer.

I hope a resolution can be agreed

Well unison won't tell us the offer so we don't know.

Is it definitely cancelled or could there be a last minute change if the negotiations go awry?

This is the email and WhatsApp we got on Friday. Suspended.

The strike on Wed is suspended.

UNISON's local government committee met earlier today to take a view on a new offer from. COSLA.

The decision of the Local Government Committee is that we suspend all planned strike action and consult our members on the improved position with a recommend to accept.

The consultative ballot will commence early next week and we will provide further details on this as soon as we have it.

Thanks @Groovee. Seems I don't have to have a plan B for this week.