NUT strike 5th July

[Dripdrop]

Are people striking?

Third time of asking how many pupils do you see a week?

I don't strike, because the families that i inconvenience, in terms of childcare to cover their hours of work, are so appallingly worse off than I am that I cannot, in all conscience, do it.

In primary, striking = school closed to class. So many of the parents in the classes I have taught over the years have NONE of the things in Feenie's list that to strike (and deprive them of a day's much-needed pay) in order that I may have them seems the height of selfishness.

Our parents would be pissed off if we didn't strike.

I can also see GinandJag's point about 'professionalism', though not many of her other points. Protesting through withdrawal of labour seems so unimaginative and retrograde - almost bizarrely old-fashioned. I would be much more willing to join in a more positive, imaginative protest:

• A 'teach things that aren't in the NC' day.
• A 24 hour teach-in
• A teach your hobby, not your subject day
• A bring your parents to school day, to see what modern education is really like
• A swap roles within the school day
• An outside learning day
• A meet and swap with other schools day / rally

and those are just off the top of my head - surely the NUT and other unions could come up with a series of publicity days that would generate public support rather than public annoyance?

• A 'teach things that aren't in the NC' day.
• A 24 hour teach-in
• A teach your hobby, not your subject day
• A bring your parents to school day, to see what modern education is really like
• A swap roles within the school day
• An outside learning day
• A meet and swap with other schools day / rally

They just sound like fun things you could do and would actually be really interesting. Not exactly making a political point.

Feenie,

How many of them will not have the money to put food on the table that week if they have to miss a day of work for childcare, or pay for a day's childcare?

Great suggestions teacherwith2kids
I have striked on all the other occasions... But I have started thinking about whether it makes any difference. I am against academisation and I do care about all teachers who are in schools dictating their every mood.

I'm in a very very large secondary school and like most secondary teachers I see around 250 students per week (8 different classes). I do have a strict marking policy but I can never keep to it and I know other schools are worse.

Something does need to be done to help the huge work load and pressure for high results... I don't know if striking is the answer. Doesn't mean I won't support it, just not sure it will get us anywhere?

I think with this strike, more than others, parental support is higher.

I'm NAS so am not striking but support those who are

But Draenor, withdrawing labour does not make a political pint either - or rather it makes a hugely negative political point, in that each time the teachers do it, the politicians can turn parents a little bit more against teachers, thus making each step of their political agenda for education that much more likely to have public support.

i would much rather teach what isn't in the NC, and then make the point to parents that it is the government's policies that prevent me from doing this more often, and get parents / local press on my side and writing positively to their MPs, than I would turn parents against teachers by striking.

Public support:

m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1164929933528683&id=1105790682775942

Parental support for a strike? The country is in significant political crisis and you think people will have spare brain space to support a teacher strike?

Who are the unions striking against? The current government? The education secretary? The whole thing has just gone up in flames. We may have a general election before the year is out.

Now is not the time.

How many of them will not have the money to put food on the table that week if they have to miss a day of work for childcare, or pay for a day's childcare?

Lots of people tend to get together and help each other out.

And the timing just before the summer holiday is particularly appalling and insensitive - I can see the headlines now:

"Lazy teachers take an extra day off just before the 6 week holiday"

[which will be EXACTLY how those already really, really struggling to find and afford childcare for the long holiday for younger children will see it]

GinandJag, private school, yes?

Formative marking for most is non negotiable...

However, I completely agree with noblegiraffe and teacherwith2kids 're timing...

Feenie, how lovely that that is your reality.

I do now teach in a largely MC school in a well-off area. However there will still be families where if I went on strike the child would spend their day alone at home, our out on the streets - yes, the more confident, and better off, will share childcare. Those more marginal, more isolated, more insecure about their relative poverty will not.

And schools with very high levels of poverty, high levels of rural isolation, an interesting mixture of marginalised social groups, high levels of substance addiction and long-term health issues, large numbers of young carers and latchkey kids - the cosy reality that you live in will not happen.

Ginandlag We all work with people like you. It's a bloody nightmare.

i would also agree with noblegiraffe that, while 5th July in ANY year would be a stupid day for a strike, 5th July THIS year just makes teachers look incredibly small-minded and naive.

Voted to leave Europe? Economy in serious danger? Thousands to lose their jobs? Whole sectors living in fear of their jobs going overseas, and others, dependent on European funding, simply vanishing? Government and opposition in meltdown?

Oh no, those aren't as important as the minutiae of teachers' conditions of work. Who does PR for the NUT? They ought to have their head examined.

At the very least, I would expect them to turn round tomorrow and say 'in the light of current political events, the strike is postponed as we can see it will have no impact at all in the present atmosphere of political turmoil'.

With 25pc turnout surely the strike cannot be legal

I was in a school today ( supply teacher). People were discussing this at lunchtime, and the NUT members are not striking because:
it is taster day for Y6
big rehearsal for school show
with Brexit they think pointless as Lab & Cons in disarray so that will be fill all the news & even if it gets reported people will think it irrelevant.

Perhaps, teacherwith2kids, you should read what is is that Letourkidsbekids understand about striking over terms and conditions that you cannot grasp?

MNHQ, we're going to need a very big 'told you so' button installed on here.

Feenie, since i am surrounded by people who will lose their jobs and livelihoods due to Brexit, and am worried about the parents in the playground who have none of the terms and conditions that teachers take for granted (and the effect that I see daily that that has on their children) we'll have to agree to disagree.

if you genuinely think that the most important thing affecting you and the people around you at the moment is teachers' pay and conditions, then I do feel you must have a very limited social and professional circle.

None of the NUT members in my school will strike - most did not know about the strike, and the few who did had dismissed it as ludicrous and felt it had been hugely overtaken by events.

In my wider professional circle of teacher friends and colleagues, I have never known a teacher who has previously had a job outside teaching ever go on strike, or viewed teacher strikes about pay and conditions with anything other than faint bafflement.

if the country was stable and economically successful, and if i could protest in a way that did not harm mostly those much more vulnerable than myself, then I would protest (because I don't think academisation is the way forward). But since that isn't the case, i won't.

I am so torn about this. Until the referendum result I had no doubt that I would strike. Now I can't help thinking that it will be completely and utterly pointless - the media aren't going to notice as they've got so much else on, the Government has got much bigger fish to fry and with the impending Cabinet changes, we'd be much better off waiting and protesting once the person we are protesting to is going to be around to take action (or not...).

You feel that I should strike because of potential changes to
"- sick pay

• length of school year, directed hours and school day
• structure of teacher working day
• non-contact/PPA time
• class sizes
• structure of school holidays
• maternity, paternity, adoption pay above statutory minima
• starting salary
• salary structure
• all pay progression rules, including proposals to reduce pay
• chief executive salaries
• probationary arrangements
• teacher qualifications and rules around unqualified people teaching
• redundancy pay (beyond statutory minimum)
• disciplinary processes
• grievance processes"

But having worked outside teaching, for employers with a very wide range of approaches to these things, I know that these things are, in the main, luxuries / discretionary. The statutory minimum is what many, many, many people in this country get in terms of sick pay, redundancy etc. Very few jobs have pay progression in the current economic climate, and salary scales vary wildly between employers. Non-contact and PPA time, though nice to have, are something many professionals do without, and different holiday arrangements and length of day would simply bring us closer to what most people regard as normal.

And yes, I work extraordinarily hard, for a salary very significantly less than I ever did in industry. I formatively mark 96 books daily, because a class size of 32 is the minimum where i work and every book must be fully parked for the next lesson, as this is the norm in primary. I arrive at school for 7.390 am and am frequently found - after a gap to look after my own children - marking at midnight.

I would protest for a better education for children, if that protest was in a form that got them MORE education, more time in school, better lessons with continued access to their daily hot meal and without depriving their parents of a day's wages. But I won't protest for better pay and conditions for me.