Teachers at More House School Frensham striking

[McGoggin73]

Hey guys - just heard that teachers at More House in Frensham will be striking next week. Does anyone know anything? I’ve heard it might be about pay and pensians. Such a shame - the teachers have done wonders for our ds.

i know, just saw the letter this weekend. Absolutely devastating that the teachers feel pushed to take this action. I hope they can seek a resolution quickly - those teachers are worth their weight in gold

I've heard that the pensions are being cut by about 8% or something (could be wrong on the % but I remember thinking it was high) with no pay rise. I really hope they get something sorted soon, I'd be gutted if all the good teachers left, which they undoubtedly will. There's literally no organisation where it's acceptable to pay your staff less than what they are currently getting. Come one More House sort it out!

I heard the same today - it's outrageous! The school want to leave the teacher scheme pension and have apparently offered a much worse one in its place. I wonder if us parents could have any influence here? Probably not but might be worth a shot? They've just got another outstanding too - what a way to repay them!!!

The head sent out a letter to parents. It looks like teachers are striking tomorrow - but the school is still open, don’t know how they’re going to run proper lessons though. Apparently the teachers are having to take a pay cut. I thought they’d be asking for more money but turns out their not.

I know one of the teachers there and it sounds really horrible. They're not asking for a payrise they just want to stay on what they currently have. The school are giving everyone a pay cut through the pensian. I also heard that the school have over 10 million pounds for building projects and they should be working on keeping their excellent teachers instead

I'm a teacher at a different local school, but I know some people who do teach at More House.

My understanding is that the management there refuse to use the recommended pay scales, so are already underpaying most of their teachers by about £5-10k a year. The management have now had the damn cheek to say they can't afford the teacher's pensions either and so have told teachers they have to take a paycut if they want to keep their pension plan instead of moving to a rubbish new plan.

Any one of those amazing teachers at More House could move into a mainstream and get an instant £10k pay rise while working less directed hours. Teachers are meant to be in "directed time" 32.5 hours per week but More House are demanding longer days with around 36 hours directed time, yet still for less money.

Parents reading this - I suggest you write to the school governors demanding proper pay in line with the national pay scales, and that the teachers can keep their pensions without pay cut. Otherwise those teachers are not going to stay long. The people I know who work there are all on the verge of handing notice in and leaving. It's a shame as the teachers there do an amazing job!

Management say they can't afford to pay them properly but if you look them up on the charity commission I can see that several members of management are being paid around £130k which is disgustingly high.

Just to add a little more info, the management are forcing new contracts onto all of them and threatening to fire anyone who doesn't sign them. They're going to fire all teachers and then only rehire the ones who agree to either a rubbish pension or 5% paycut. Given they're already underpaid by about 80% of what they are worth already, that's pretty sickening.

Sorry, that should read "only paid about 80% of what they're worth"

Well said YellowSubmarine994! 🙌🏻

There is a parents meeting on zoom at 19:00 on Thursday for all those affected by the on going industrial action: follow this link - https://tinyurl.com/ct78bfn6

Parents have also set up a petition for parents to sign:

https://chng.it/sCfXP7Vbnf

The only way the school will be able to afford to pay teachers more is with a significant hike in school fees.
This means councils who are currently funding pupils will be less likely to do so

continued - clumsy fingers
less likely to do so in future and parents paying fees will faces big increases.
Think carefully - only those who are willing to see state funding for their sons stopped and /or to pay £20k plus in fees each year should be supporting the strike.
Many, many private schools are in this situation, MHS is not unique. The Teachers Pension scheme has more than doubled employer contributions which is not affordable for independent schools. And I say this as a teacher in an independent school which is also paying less than state schools and has also recently left the TPS.

Dearest, I’m looking at this school for my son, boarding. Can anyone please please please share the opinions on this school. Thank you so much in advance

You might be better starting a separate thread. We have only looked round. We liked it very much but decided a specialist autism unit would suit our child better. The students who showed us round really impressed us - they were clearly nervous but they spoke up so well.

I just don't think that's true at all. The teachers are wanting about £5-6k each to cover the 5% paycut. Even if you went above that to a £10k rise to cover how massively underpaid, cover extra pension contributions etc. they currently are, that would work out as £500k for 50 teachers.

There are roughly 500 pupils at More House so that would be an extra £1k in tuition fees for each student.

Day students pay £22k a year currently at Moor House so upping from £22k to £23k would only be a small change. I understand school fees can be tough to pay, but we also can't carry on abusing teachers by paying them peanuts and expecting them to stay. You have the choice of paying £22k for a crumbling, understaffed, and non-functional service run by new staff with little experience because the experienced ones all left, or £23k for a great service with happy and experienced staff who aren't having to take on a second job to pay the bills, which one would you pay? It's a small increase for a massively better service. No brainer really ...

I really hope they keep the good teachers, as I am seriously considering this for my son mainly on the quality and enthusiasm of the teachers. It is a relatively ‘cheap’ school in terms of fees compared to other specialist schools paid by the LAs, so I would much rather they upped the fees and kept the good teachers - it would still be acceptable surely to the LAs. Some autism specialist schools are 50K a year and don’t seem to be half as good!

DzSev, I cannot rate this school more highly. My son is achieving on a scale we never thought possible for him. The school will look closely at whether they will be the right place for your son, depending on his needs, and be aware that they don't accept everyone. He will be able to spend a day or two at school to see how it works for him. I remember my son coming home after his trial day, saying that he didn't know that learning could be so easy.

Changed username for this.

Term is supposed to start back on Tuesday but the first day back is a strike day. School is closed for years 9, 10, 11 and the entire sixth form.

There are two days of strikes each week, every week after that. So half of September will be non teaching. What happens come October is anyones guess.

The kids aren't taught on strike days as there are a lots of teachers on strike. My son feels he is being babysat so for the first time in his life starting to refuse to attend on strike days and I don't blame him.

I can't see how these strikes will end. The last month of term was the same. Multiple strikes in a week.

I have secured tutors for my gcse year kid that I can't afford.

There is strong support for the teachers. I support them but this is going to screw my sons chances in his gcse year. He like all the boys are up against it anyway with their SEN. I'm a Surrey LA parent and I had to appeal to get MH named in his EHCP. I'm beginning to think this is going to drag on for a good while.

MH is a fantastic school but its not transparent. For me I fully support the teachers but my first priority is my son. This is going to harm his education on top of covid.

Strikes on going since June. Its September now with no end in sight. Twice a week. Draw your own conclusions.

I hope this ends well. High staff turnover isn't good in any business. Especially if your a year 11 kid with multiple special needs and ehcp.

As I learnt years ago, even if you secure the best possible SEN school for your SEN child they will still be repeatedly screwed over. The motives for that might be valid but the outcome is always the same. Not suitable education for the SEN kids.

i don't care if its Mother Thereas screwing my kid over for the greater good. If your not on my sons side your part of my problem IMO.

Hi I have been following this with interest as we are considering sending our son to MHS and have been very worried by the strikes and potential impact on staff morale and turnover.
Can any current parents give any update on how this has progressed and any resolution.
Thanks very much

The dispute is officially resolved now after management budged a little, but there wasn't really any official communication from the school until last couple of days and a lot of teachers are still quite disgruntled and looking elsewhere. I wouldn't worry about future strike action, but I would worry about managements attitude causing a high staff turnover in the next couple of years.

Thanks for your reply. Good to know it’s been resolved but what a shame if teachers still feel they need to look elsewhere.

Definitely a shame. I can understand it though, not wanting to work for someone who has treated you so poorly. I think a lot of trust and respect for the management has come about, which is a shame.