Teachers' pay strike.

As a former primary school DHT, I will always remember my Father in law who lived ‘up North’ asking when visiting here with MIL, why I was so late home (6.30pm after a long SLT meeting) and then having to continue to work after dinner ( which husband/MIL had got ready).
FIL then hoped I was claiming overtime re normal office hours (🤣) and was aghast when I said such a thing didn’t exist- there is no overtime in education!
That was back in 2012-13ish- I retired in 2017 2 years early than expected.
Too tired to continue in a job where the children, their learning and their individual needs, due to government demands and pressures ( yes, I blame you Michael Gove, and your 2014 reforms) no longer came first. I’d had enough- it’s not about money really, it’s about conditions same as the nurses and other public servants, who are expected to do more without investment and support. Rant over- no teacher wants to strike but now it is a last resort.

My son in law went to university as a mature student, got a degree and did teacher training. He's been teaching for some years now but has given it up for a job in engineering. His salary is £2,000 a year more, and will go up again this year. The added bonus is that there is no homework to mark or lessons to prepare when he gets home. He is still being offered teaching jobs and turning them down. It won't be that many years till he retires and he's had enough of the stress.

I agree Urmstongran

If you pay subs to your union and the majority vote to strike, then, in my opinion, you strike. End of.

Joseanne

I know she is not highly regarded by many as a Headteacher, nor is the journalist popular, but I found this article at the weekend interesting, and where I was coming from in this thread.
www.google.com/amp/s/www.dailymail.co.uk/columnists/article-11687697/amp/SARAH-VINE-Theres-one-group-teachers-deserve-money-Katharine-Birbalsingh-right.html

I did look Joseanne
I got to
'I feel for teachers, as life can be very hard in the classroom because of poor behaviour, insane amounts of bureaucracy and because they can work very hard and feel a lack of purpose as they're not necessarily seeing the impact of their work,' she said
I'd heard on social media she'd said that but could find no-one to agree with her except on the "insane amounts of bureaucracy" which as the Head of a free school she can do something about.

Vine then says that"as schools were seemingly delighted to use Covid as an excuse to close their doors". A vile slur.
and
"It'll be the usual suspects on the picket line: people who make excuses for their own failures.... Meanwhile, that ever-dwindling pool of good teachers will do their best to keep the school open"

Hateful stuff from the ex-wife of an Education Secretary

Teachers are contracted to work 39 weeks which is 195 days. They teach for 190 days and the remaining 5 days are used as Inset, or training days, which are compulsory. They were instituted c. 1987 as a result of a NUT led strike in return for a £2000 pay rise, plus other concessions.
I fear these strikes will result in more concessions being wrung out of teachers. They need to attack the impositions placed on them within schools, generally brought in by academies run by businessmen concerned with profit, and use the unions' extensive knowledge to resist the unrealistic workloads demanded, not by the Government but by headteachers and academy managers, for the purpose of self-aggrandisement, (and more money, which no-one hears about.)
I am aware some teachers hope these strikes will bring down the Government, rather than improve conditions for teachers.
Be careful what you wish for.

I know she is not highly regarded by many as a Headteacher, nor is the journalist popular, but I found this article at the weekend interesting, and where I was coming from in this thread.
www.google.com/amp/s/www.dailymail.co.uk/columnists/article-11687697/amp/SARAH-VINE-Theres-one-group-teachers-deserve-money-Katharine-Birbalsingh-right.html

Joseanne

^Teachers if they strike should state it is on the children's behalf not for more salary.^
I agree Yammy, and that is exactly the reason why I started this thread, nothing to do with teachers' greed, though it can wrongly be perceived as such.
They will be seen as looking after themselves not most importantly the children.
Indeed. So why don't the unions realise that it would make more sense if their rhetoric and demands were not all centered on more pay?

Because nobody would believe it. Teachers not worried about finance may well be more at ease at work, though implying they aren’t doing a good job isn’t either kind or totally accurate.
Let’s tell parents the teachers are striking for the children’s benefit not so they get more money to make up the shortfall in their salary. Obviously nurses are striking to improve things for the patients, not because they haven’t enough to live on.
Experienced teachers have had a 13% fall in the value of their wages over the last few years . (ECTs only a 5%fall.)
^Sorry, but I’m supporting the strike because teachers need the money, particularly experienced teachers whose children are teenagers or starting Uni or who have moved back home because they can’t get work or afford a house!
It will benefit the children, in a roundabout way, but the strike you’re asking for is one where teachers refuse to teach unless the Government puts more money into school.
On strike you don’t get paid. So that would be asking teachers to manage without pay and be faced with enraged parents who have to take time off work to look after their children.
I’m not sure anybody whether a teacher or not, would be that altruistic.

Urmstongran

I said upthread our daughter is on £45k p.a. (full time) - upper pay scale as 17y.

She is on strike tomorrow. The Y1 & Y2 classes are closed as those teachers are in the NEU.

I’ve just texted her to ask whether our grandchildren will be off school tomorrow from their school and she texted back “Not heard anything yet!!”

Thank you for answering, I missed it.

I said upthread our daughter is on £45k p.a. (full time) - upper pay scale as 17y.

She is on strike tomorrow. The Y1 & Y2 classes are closed as those teachers are in the NEU.

I’ve just texted her to ask whether our grandchildren will be off school tomorrow from their school and she texted back “Not heard anything yet!!”

What are teachers paid these days?

Most teachers in their third year of teaching onwards will have a Teaching and Learning Responsibility (TLR) paid on top of the basic salary.
A school will only have a certain amount of money to spend on TLRs, and in a secondary school, they usually go to Heads of Dept and Heads of Year. Those who are 2nd in big depts may get one. They are not automatic.

PS not that many ON HERE are teacher bashing. It seems there is general support.

Nobody appreciates the workload if teachers until they’ve tried it. Every night and much of weekend marking and preparation .
My next door neighbour, a man in his 50s, with a background in the private sector gave it a try after completing a one year course. He packed it in after one year. One year!

My niece, HoD in a secondary school, just yesterday announced she has found a new job, paying the same wage, and will leave in May. She just wants ‘her life back’.

Those who prefer to ‘teacher bash’ are part of the problem. It’s your children and grandchildren who will suffer, sadly, as more and more give up the fight and leave the profession.

For some years, I was HoD in a big department in an 8-form entry comp. The work-load was huge, in particular supporting less experienced colleagues and foreign student assistants. I did suffer burn-out, partly due to pressures at home. For the last 5 years before retirement I was happy to have a part-time role at a lower grade. Our own children had fledged and we no longer needed the income (but my pension suffered).
I cannot stress enough how much teachers appreciate the learning support assistants. With the many ADHD pupils there are in schools, the LSA males it possible to teach.
Pay is important, but not as important as sustainable working conditions.

Teachers if they strike should state it is on the children's behalf not for more salary.
I agree Yammy, and that is exactly the reason why I started this thread, nothing to do with teachers' greed, though it can wrongly be perceived as such.
They will be seen as looking after themselves not most importantly the children.
Indeed. So why don't the unions realise that it would make more sense if their rhetoric and demands were not all centered on more pay?

AGAA4

The job is not as enjoyable as it was. Many newly qualified teachers give up after a short time. According to my DD and SiL , both teachers in their fifties, there has been too much government intervention in teaching making a difficult job harder.

You are so right. Teaching when I entered it was great, 42 children in an open-class school with no doors. It was like herding Browns cows, the next classroom singing lesson could be heard in yours.
We did have teaching assistants who did all the dirty jobs like washing paint pots etc. They also helped with the children's learning. You could adapt the curriculum as you thought each child needed.
Then came the National Curriculum which prescribed lessons that were one size fits all and were told not to give the less able children to the Teacher's aides who by then were on courses and to be tret in a different way.
Record-keeping was beyond managing, carrying a notebook around and writing down when children had hit a target. All to be collated at home after staying until 5.30 at least to prepare for the next day's lessons.
Holidays others have said again were for preparing for the next term. No one sees the work done at home. If we were taking the children out on an educational trip we had to visit the venue in our own time to risk access.
Teachers if they strike should state it is on the children's behalf not for more salary.
A tired disillusioned person which many of them are, will not give their best and the children will suffer.
I sympathise with them but agree again with others they will be seen as looking after themselves not most important the children.
I retired early completely wiped out and disillusioned I have never regretted it and my family got their mum and wife back.

Yes, Hollyhock, I have friends teaching 60+ students. Secondary. Imagine, 63 fifteen year olds. One teacher to supervise.

And then expect them to progress and the school is Ofsted slated if they don't.

My daughter works in a secondary school and will be going on strike next week, not because of the pay although any increase would be good but because of the fact that the pay increase that they have been offered is being taken out of the school budget with no extra money from the government. This means that money for TAs has been cut, books can’t be bought and the heating in the school was not switched on until November among other cut backs. She loves teaching but stresses are getting to her.

My daughter is a secondary school teacher. She won't be striking as her union didn't reach the required percentage to strike in the ballot. However conditions (not pay) are dire at the school - 60 to a class, no TAs, no supply teachers available, reduction in dinner ladies requiring teachers to cover lunch times. Noone wants to enter the profession, hence the shortage. Most of her spare time at home is spent doing school work.

If insufficient teaching staff are available, schools will have to close.
Agency staff or staff who are not striking cannot be asked to teach for striking colleagues, though I fully expect to hear ‘claims’ of that happening. Support staff and any non-striking staff will be in school and will provide non-teaching care for any children meeting the vulnerable or critical worker categories, whose parents applied for a place before the deadline on 25/1/23.

Our youngest is 42y and has been a teacher now for 17y. She works full time (always has). She earns circa £44k as a Key Stage 1 Lead in a 2 year entry primary school. Juggling her workload and busy home life with 2 under 11’s herself (plus their after school activities) is very stressful at times. She’d love to go part time but household finances dictate otherwise. She has the responsibility for 8 colleagues. So it’s not ‘just’ teaching, it’s meetings, senior lead and planning. She loves her job but looks exhausted a lot of the time. She leaves the house at 7:30am every morning and gets home by 5pm. Occasionally later but then she needs to ensure her children have pick up from the childminder. And of course parents evenings mean she gets home around 8pm. I see how hard she works. I’d hate it. So many children with special needs that upon entry to school in a Reception get picked up and then have to be catered for within the system. Planning etc. I think it’s probably always been a very demanding career and now there are added concerns in various ways. I’m very proud of her.

She is a member of the NEU and will be on strike next Wednesday. She won’t get paid and her colleagues in other unions within the school will cover or maybe the Head can bring in agency? Maybe not, I don’t know what the rules are. I will ask her later.

The only effective means teachers have to get government to take notice is to strike because it impacts on working parents and they vote. The impact on children (if it really exists) is irrelevant because the Tories don't care much about state education beyond English, arithmetic and history according to the Tories. How many Tory Prime Ministers attended a state school?

LOUISA1523 thank you.
I would think that is a hardship fund if you have to apply, and not from the employer but from the union.
There was one for lecturers when my husband was on strike - he encouraged junior staff and part-timers to request it. It wasn't very generous but obviously helped out.

Callistemon21

Fleurpepper

oh I know- but I do find something strange. Time after time, after time - people with other so-called stressful and difficult jobs, used to say to me 'I have NO idea how you do it, and how you can stand it- I would not last 5 minutes?

there must be a reason. And a reason why recruitment is such a massive issues. Why do you think we have such a shortage of teachers?

Perhaps it's because some pupils are very disruptive and unruly now and some would-be teachers realise this and find it daunting.

Teaching in some schools could be more about damage control than imparting a knowledge and love of your subject to a class of pupils.

It is almost never student behaviour. It is the huge additional workload on top of the actual face-to-face teaching.

As a UK teacher I was at school by 7.15am. Left as the caretaker was locking up and went home to work until 10pm. I also worked all of one day at the weekend. And I worked at least half of every holiday.

The students were the minor part of the work. It was a 40 hour a week administrative job, plus a full teaching timetable.