NUT Stike Action - Please Support Our Schools

[WorkingMummy]

The NUT will strike next week. Affected schools will be closed on Tuesday.

Please contact your MP to voice your support for this important action, designed to help bring the nation's attention back to the real problems facing our children, which (in the words of Harriet Harman), "Are the responsibility of this Government, and not the fault of the EU, or of migrants, wherever they are from."

WM

[uncleglen]

On a 24.5% turn out!

[steveo]

Choose your frickin' moment

[????]

No

[JoeLeg]

Business as normal, isn't that what everyone says should happen? Or should they wait until...when?

[DaveR]

The NUT will strike next week. Affected schools will be closed on Tuesday.

Please contact your child's teacher to voice your disgust for this selfish action designed to serve a minority hard left viewpoint at the expense of our children

[Furiousteacher]

Have you thought to ask your child's teacher why they're striking?

In my class of 32 children, 80% speak English as a second, third and in one case forth language. Not only am I teaching them how to read, write and speak English but to understand idioms, write using the passive voice and understand nuance in their vocabulary choice using academic language. Rumour has it class sizes are increasing to 35 in my school. These children will get less and less time and attention spent on them. How will this develop their learning?

4 children have medical conditions which affect their learning. Due to cuts to school funding there is no additional support for these children anymore. Just me. Teachings assistants are not being replaced as they leave. Teaching assistants are being asked to reduce their hours. Speech and language therapy has suddenly become a luxury that we might not be able to afford much longer.

On top of this I am judged and my pay is decided on the progress of all of these children. These children who are all assessed using the same test. A test which doesn't care that the boy in my class with severe dyslexia has the most incredible ideas but can't spell for toffee. A test which doesn't care about the fact that some children have only been learning English for a year or 18 months. A test which doesn't care about the fact that a child has a 75% attendance this year because they have been attending physio therapy sessions.

I am working in excess of 60 hours a week for your children. I put their needs ahead of my own and my family's. How selfish of me to try to protect your children's education.

Maybe you see this as irresponsible, maybe this will inconvenience some parents but if our actions made your life easy would anyone listen to us? Perhaps if we had an education secretary who was an ex-teacher they would understand the ridiculous demands they put on teachers and schools.

Thank you WorkingMummy for supporting teachers and understanding that this is an important day for us to try to make the government listen. Thank you for having a mature attitude towards mitigating the inconvenience that we are aware that this will cause. I've spoken to several parents of my class who fully support the action of the NUT and it is much appreciated.

So DaveR, when you point out to your child's teacher your disgust and the irresponsibility of their action and you remind them of their selfishness, please also ask them to tell you how many hours they worked this week - then maybe have a look at how little teachers get paid for this. Ask them how many of their own child's sports days, assemblies and school plays they've missed. The last time they could afford to go on holiday. Oh and how many sick days they haven't taken because your child was more important than recovering from the flu or getting over the physical and mental symptoms of a miscarriage. I'm sure then you will understand just how selfish your teachers are.

[dirac]

Completely agree with, and stand by you Furiousteacher. I don't have kids, but a many of my friends are teachers and consistently have to do crazy hours to keep up with everything. I honestly don't know how they do it seeing what they are like come Friday night.

[Passiflora]

A very jumbled post from the start!

Working Mummy seems to start lots of posts and then they all get lost in the EDF way of things!

[????]

It's the "worthiness" and entitlement that gets to me furious teacher. This strike is on a 25% turnout and is just belligerent militancy from The NUT who think they are the miners or something I don't owe you anything, your choice what you do go and get a job in the private sector doing something else if you hate me and teaching my kids so much.

[rendelharris]

???? Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> It's the "worthiness" and entitlement that gets

> to me furious teacher. This strike is on a 25%

> turnout and is just belligerent militancy from The

> NUT who think they are the miners or something I

> don't owe you anything, your choice what you do go

> and get a job in the private sector doing

> something else if you hate me and teaching my kids

> so much.

Get your head down ????, you need a soothing night's sleep.

[????]

I think furious teacher needs a long holiday, but in a couple of weeks he/she will get one do all is probably well. Goodnight.

[Robert Poste's Child]

???? has a point. I have several teachers in my family who don't realise what it's like to work in the private sector. 60 hours a week is pretty normal for 'career' jobs, only (as one of my sisters points out) she gets three months holiday a year, never works longer than seven weeks without a break, and a final salary pension at the end that would need a bigger private pension pot than the rest of us could buld up on our own. Given how recent events are likely to affect jobs and pensions for many people I'm struggling to sympathise with a strike right now.

[Lordship 516]

???? Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> It's the "worthiness" and entitlement that gets

> to me furious teacher. This strike is on a 25%

> turnout and is just belligerent militancy from The

> NUT who think they are the miners or something I

> don't owe you anything, your choice what you do go

> and get a job in the private sector doing

> something else if you hate me and teaching my kids

> so much.

Hey ???? - you are being a bit of a little dick here - these people are doing a great job under severe conditions and our esteemed Mr Gove carried out a serious undermining exercise which must have been very morale sapping. We owe teachers a lot - they are the hope of the next generation. Not only do they teach, they babysit, they have to be counselors for both the children & parents, they have to be watchful that all the children are not being abused somewhere. They are rebuffed by the department all the time which appears to be run by Atilla the Hun clones. Teachers have enough to do without having to worry about their job security at the same time.

Their 'holiday' is not spent playing around in the park - they have to design teaching plans, review each pupil's progress, organise their teaching modules, keep up with course changes, etc. etc & more etc

???? - compassion will never cause you any problem in your life & you are just too judgmental !

[uncleglen]

The pension is very good- the summer (the other holidays are full of marking and prep) holiday is great (except for having to pay top dollar every year because it's in the school holidays)- most of the unnecessary paperwork etc is passed down from senior staff in schools and is micro-management and monitoring, but the teachers, especially the younger ones, will not complain.

[rendelharris]

Robert Poste's Child Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> ???? has a point. I have several teachers in my

> family who don't realise what it's like to work in

> the private sector. 60 hours a week is pretty

> normal for 'career' jobs, only (as one of my

> sisters points out) she gets three months holiday

> a year, never works longer than seven weeks

> without a break, and a final salary pension at the

> end that would need a bigger private pension pot

> than the rest of us could buld up on our own.

> Given how recent events are likely to affect jobs

> and pensions for many people I'm struggling to

> sympathise with a strike right now.

Speaking as a former teacher and husband of a current one, with reference to the holidays, yes teachers get more but a lot of that is swallowed by preparation and paperwork - my wife will generally put in at least three days in school at the start of the summer holidays and the best part of a week before the school year starts, not to mention the work she does at home and the courses she takes at her own expense (she teaches Design & Technology and is continually learning new skills to improve her offer to her pupils). I don't accept that sixty hours a week is "normal" for most career jobs - friends who are lawyers, architects and even a junior doctor don't do those hours, I've asked - and in any case she puts in more like eighty hours (seriously, she gets to school at 7.30, leaves at 6.30, does three hours' marking, reporting and prep when she comes home and does roughly five to ten hours' work over the weekend).

This for a starting salary of ?22,244 (nationwide), compared to the average graduate starting salary of ?29,000, and in a profession where a classroom teacher will never get more than ?45,000ish, even after thirty years' service.

It's worth remembering also that the strike isn't just about pay, it's about the funding for schools, which the Institute for Fiscal Studies has predicted will drop by 8% in real terms up to 2020. This will mean larger class sizes, fewer resources, less chance of new buildings etc, all things which will have a direct impact on your children's quality of education; it may surprise some to know that lazy greedy teachers do actually care passionately about such things - passionately enough to give up a day's pay to make their point.

I personally disagree with the strike, not for the reasons others have stated above but because successive Tory governments have proved that they are entirely immune to strike action. But please, can we stop directing our ire at those who are working incredibly hard for your children and focus it on those who deserve it, a government which has meddled with and forced unnecessary cuts on the education system, partly on ideological grounds and partly so its chums in big business can make a killing from academies.

Sorry for the long post but obviously I feel passionately about the misrepresentation of teachers and their motives. One final point, to which I've never been given a satisfactory answer: if teaching is such an absolute doddle, with such munificent pay and featherbed T&Cs, why aren't graduates flocking to sign up? Why is there a recruiting crisis?

Rendel

[DuncanW]

I value the work teachers do highly. I do not support the strike.

Not supporting this strike is not the same as not valuing teachers.

The majority of teachers do not support the strike.

24.5% of NUT members voted for it.

NASUWT, the second-largest union, aren't striking.

[Robert Poste's Child]

Rendel, appreciate your PoV and I'm sure it varies from one individual to another (size of role, ability to organise workload etc) but mine's also based on what I see going on around me. I'd cite some more specific examples but don't want to make anyone recognisable.

[rendelharris]

DuncanW Wrote:

> The majority of teachers do not support the

> strike. 24.5% of NUT members voted for it.

91.7% of those who voted, voted for the strike. In any ballot you can only go by what those who chose to participate voted and you can't extrapolate that all those who didn't vote were against it. I don't like the result of last week's referendum, can I assume that the 28% who didn't vote were all on the side of Remain and so the ballot is invalid?

[rendelharris]

Robert Poste's Child Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

I'm sure it varies from one individual to another (size of role, ability to organise workload etc)

Would I be correct in inferring that you think a teacher who works long hours is simply inefficient in organising their workload? If so you're simply wrong, obviously some teachers are better organised than others (I was one of the desperately disorganised I'm afraid) but while that might save a few hours here and there, the weight of paperwork, marking and preparation required makes very long hours absolutely unavoidable.

[Lordship 516]

It also depends on the subject. My son is a maths teacher & he concentrates on stretching his students individually. He has less preparation to do as his subject is very structured & defined and teaching plans can endure for years. However he spends a lot of time marking & analyzing where/how each pupil is going wrong & then has to work out how to correct this across a class of 30+ students whilst still progressing with the normal syllabus load. Other subjects have their own challenges and are subject to constant changes & CPD challenges - no easy at all.

[DuncanW]

Rendel - you are quite right about that. The vote is valid.

I don't support the strike though and am just pointing out that as a great majority of teachers have not voted for it*, I don't feel not supporting the strike equates to not valuing the work teachers do.

NUT membership = 308,569

*24.5% who voted = 75,599

* 91.7% in favour = 69,324

Combined NUT & NASUWT membership = 591,459

So that's less than 12% of union members that have voted for this

[Robert Poste's Child]

rendelharris Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Robert Poste's Child Wrote:

> --------------------------------------------------

> -----

> I'm sure it varies from one individual to another

> (size of role, ability to organise workload etc)

>

> Would I be correct in inferring that you think a

> teacher who works long hours is simply inefficient

> in organising their workload? If so you're simply

> wrong, obviously some teachers are better

> organised than others (I was one of the

> desperately disorganised I'm afraid) but while

> that might save a few hours here and there, the

> weight of paperwork, marking and preparation

> required makes very long hours absolutely

> unavoidable.

I think it's a factor, yes, (one of many, obviously) just as it is in any other job where admin, paperwork or process is cited as the problem. The rest of your post kind of bears that out I think.

[rendelharris]

DuncanW Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Rendel - you are quite right about that. The vote

> is valid.

> I don't support the strike though and am just

> pointing out that as a great majority of teachers

> have not voted for it*, I don't feel not

> supporting the strike equates to not valuing the

> work teachers do.

>

> NUT membership = 308,569

> *24.5% who voted = 75,599

> * 91.7% in favour = 69,324

> Combined NUT & NASUWT membership = 591,459

> So that's less than 12% of union members that have

> voted for this

I see your point, though I still think it relies too heavily on assuming that a failure to vote means a lack of support. We shall see the true level of support by the numbers who come out next week.

[uncleglen]

You can't combine the NASUWT and the NUT- teachers specifically avoid the NUT because they are so militant and so join the other unions (ATL, Voice (formerly P.A.T- 20,000 members and a no-strike policy) because ALL teachers need Union support for one reason or another.