Tory Education Plans Leaked

[SabineSchmetterling]

www.theguardian.com/education/2019/aug/27/leaked-documents-reveal-tories-dramatic-plans-for-schools

What do we think?

I find the bit about keeping plans to cut TAs quiet because almost everyone who matters thinks it’s a bad idea so absurd that it’s almost funny.

More money in the system can only be a good thing but I fear that it’ll take a bigger injection than that to rectify the situation caused by years of chronic underfunding.

The funding isn’t even close to what’s been cut and is focussed on Tory voting areas - anyone would think he’s planning a general election 🙄

How can they cut TAs-a move they know will be unpopular-quietly?

Won’t people notice?!

If they talking about raising starting salaries to £30K (from £25k?? I thought it was £22k-or are they quoting London figures only?) what about those on UPS?

Or is it just focusing on getting teachers in, not retaining them?

I’m not sure with the billions they talk about schools having had cut, whether this will actually make enough of a difference?

The fact that the Torys have made all the cuts themselves and haven’t seen fit to give us any money to sort it out before now, and are only promising to sort it (their mess) all out before an election seems rather hollow.

So they get votes in and then BJ says there’s no money or he lied..?

What they might do is give a funding increase that (partially) covers the pay increase pledge plus the pension contribution that they only funded for one year.

That gives a headline of schools getting extra money, plus the headlines about pay increases.

Don’t get me wrong, the funding for the pay increases and pension contributions would be a big help, but I think it’s a bit sneaky as a lot of people won’t realise that the pay increases aren’t fully funded.

I think it’s a bit sneaky as a lot of people won’t realise that the pay increases aren’t fully funded.

Yep-we didn’t get the last one :(

I’m assuming that they will have to do the pay increases across the board or it will start to play havoc with the pay scales. The weird sliding scale thing they did last year works as a one off but can’t be done repeatedly or you’ll start to get weird anomalies and it will start to interfere with STPCD rules about pay. In the long term you can either do pay rises of set percentages or set amounts across the board. Once you start giving one percentage to MPS, another to UPS and a third to the Leadership scale you quickly start to skew the payscales. It was a bizarre idea from the off. If they wanted to give more to the lowest paid I don’t know why they didn’t just give a set amount (e.g. £2,000 or whatever) to everyone, which would obviously be a progressively smaller % the higher you go up the pay scale.

Letseatgrandma: are you in a maintained school? Did you get any rise at all?

Yep and no.

We know it’s crap but we were going through a horrible forced redundancy process last year and knew that if anyone made a fuss, we could cause ourselves more problems. We will see what happens this year.

I notice the 2019 20 pay scales don’t seem to be available anywhere yet?? A 2.75% pay rise was announced by the government in July -though only 0.75% was funded. Wonder why those haven’t been updated?

That’s awful. The pay rise this year with 2% of it unfunded is ridiculous. We can’t afford it but there’s no way the Head would consider not paying it.

I wonder if it’ll even happen?!

It seems unlikely. Politically anything could happen in the next few months and I doubt education is going to be high on anyone’s priority list, sadly.

Dom Cummings is actually quite big on education, he was Gove’s advisor and is keen to keep pushing the stuff he started there.

If he still had Johnson’s ear after 31st Oct, we might see some action.

I think it was a big shiny object thrown to distract and placate us from today.

I know, I'm a cynic!!

No, it was to show that Johnson is actually keen to have a Queen’s speech so he can crack on with all these exciting plans and that’s why he’s suspending parliament. Nothing to do with Brexit, you see. Look, he genuinely has plans for education!!!

It was to give plausible deniability. Except no one is falling for it.

I think noble has it spot-on!

I agree that Noble has it. Whatever the reason though we could really do with some more money, the 2.75% pay rise would mean we have to cut curriculum/ make redundancies, or not give it.

Is the 2.75% payrise supposed to be from next month?

I believe so.

Top news on the BBC app. A distraction from Brexit?!

Something to chew on when schools are closed en masse from November or before due to petrol and food shortages, or other reasons........

Hope the 2.75% is paid in euros.

So a briefing document was released and hyped by the left wing guardian.

A briefing document is one produced by civil servants to examine possibilities.

We haven't had the last pay rises anyway and have been told we won't. I share 1 TA with 3 other classes. My class size this year is 35.

I don't believe anything they say and none of it has to be applicable to academies anyway, as I know to my cost.

I'm dreading the next few years until - please - they are voted out.