Teachers take £7000 pay cut to save colleagues’ jobs

[noblegiraffe]

www.theguardian.com/education/2019/mar/30/teachers-volunteer-pay-cut-save-colleagues-jobs-furzedown-funding

No no no no no. We can’t go down this route. Teachers already give up their own money to fund stuff for their classrooms, they can’t start paying their colleagues’ wages as well. We can’t devalue ourselves, we need to fight the government for our full worth.

Such a lovely, kind gesture, as you’d expect from teachers, but not good for the profession.

As noble that gesture is, I think it's set a precedent and not for the better.

Totally agree. Well intended but misguided. Things have to get worse before they’ll get better.

Very kind gesture on their part, but not all helpful for the profession. It will be seen as, well they can obviously afford the cut.

I can now see that bolstering classroom supplies out of on'e own pocket is retrograde, too. I used to do it when teaching in the UK. Went and painted my classroom pinboards now I think of it.

I'm also wondering if taking a pay cut will affect their teacher's pension, but don't know enough about the way the TP works now.

It's the thin end of the wedge. They shouldn't be doing that, as kind as the gesture is. It's an extreme example of teacher good will. And just wait until schools are obliged to increase the employer pension contributions - that's when the cuts will really happen as the hike in contributions is enormous.

echt

As I understand it the teachers pension for most teachers (depending on when you started) is now a life wage average.

So it could have an effect depending on when you started teaching.

That's terrible. It's a very, very kind gesture, but it's an awful precedent to set.

There was a similar thing that happened in a school near me. They were making redundancies and one department where they needed to lose a teacher, the whole department went part time instead. So 5 teachers teaching 4 days each rather than going down to 4 teachers teaching 5 days each. At least they gained a day off for their pay cut, rather than these people who don't appear to have gained anything for their pay cut.

I wish this thread had been posted on AIBU to get more general attention.

I’d be worried on AIBU that you’d get a pile-on of people saying that of course the school funding crisis should be solved by teachers taking pay cuts. Because ‘teachers get paid more than me’.

Mark Lehain, Tory favourite and current director of the New Schools Network suggested it a couple of years ago www.tes.com/news/if-we-keep-going-about-education-funding-cuts-teachers-and-teaching-could-come-across-detached

It’s now going to be awful for other staff in those schools who are facing redundancies when their colleagues don’t take a pay cut or go part time to support them.

And it’s not so bad when it’s entirely voluntary, but there could well be social pressure on teachers who really can’t afford it.

Kind bit ultimately terrible idea.

Teachers definitely need to toughen up.

In what other job would you do 12 hours a day, be micro managed to the point of ridiculousness, undermined as a professional, abused by your clients, pay to be trained, take pay cuts...and then agree to fund a colleague.

At some point teachers need to ask themselves whether their choice of job is a mental illness!

If I was still a teacher I'd be looking at jobs in Ireland. From what I've read on my it's a totally different experience there. It sounds sane and sustainable and most importantly much better for the kids.

My=mn

Teachers definitely need to toughen up.

This is definitely true. Teaching by its nature is going to attract altruistic types concerned for the welfare of others, but this can be taken advantage of by SLT pushing unreasonable expectations ‘for the good of the kids’ and can also turn into teacher martyrdom where we work ourselves into the ground instead of saying no. It’s probably also to do with teaching being a majority female profession and the socialisation that goes along with that.

I watched Made in Dagenham last night, about the women machinists at Ford who went on strike for equal pay. They worked in a crappy hut with a leaking roof. A male employee made a comment about how if the men had been expected to work in the conditions the women put up with, they’d have been out on strike ages ago.

I can identify with that noble, and a lot of the time we're made to think that we should feel lucky that we have a job at all.
I qualified in 2001 and have taught maths in school and FE. My current role is mainly outside the classroom but I'll get asked to cover classes if any of the main lecturers are off. I do not get the same rate as them even though I'm doing the same job.

My colleague has it worse than me though. and whenever she's raised concerns about having to take on extra teaching load, and her own work being neglected, our line manager just reminds her that it will get worse and she'd have to get used to it!

Apparently the Head has taken a pay cut and the staff concerned have reduced hours rather than take a pay cut. They are slt and made that choice. I still think it is horrific but not quite how the article portrayed it.

School cuts are hitting us all. I pay out at least a tenth of my monthly pay on resources so my children get the education they deserve and this is increasing as budgets are tightening. It's all a bit shit.

Don't vote Conservative folks

Hollowvictory - you mean vote Labour and go back to the 60s. Central control and no money after a couple of years.

There was a Labour government much more recently than the 60s cdtaylornats and I can tell you from experience that things were infinitely better for both students and teachers during that period.

I'm not personally a labour fan either but 8 seem to remember a more recent labour government than the 60s, how funny!

Hollowvictory

Every government of any colour has had a hand in destroying education from the 90s onward. (I say 90s because I was at school before that).

But not the current budget crisis.

Our of interest what do you think the recent labour governments did that was so bad for schools?

Academies!

Hollowvictory

Academies
Not reversing previous policies
Engaging in the blaming of teachers for any issues
Any change to a curriculum that was done before the previous changes have had a chance to settle.
And pretty much the same stuff that the tories get blamed for.

Lets not pretend that labour has been a champion of education.

PFI