Teachers

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Mick F
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Teachers

Post by Mick F »

I know the teacher's issues are on the news, and the pay/funding issues.

Our elder daughter (47yo) is an English teacher at a senior school.

I quote from her only today.
It’s the first day of strikes today, the first across the whole of England that I’ve encountered since I started teaching in 2005.
While it is about fair pay, it’s not just about the salary. When I started teaching I bought stickers and little rewards for my classes. Over the last decade, that has steadily increased to things like this:
*A visualiser (£50 ish) because the one in my classroom wasn’t very good
*Hundreds (literally) of pens because children weren’t bringing them and we didn’t have any (or we did but they were the cheapest and only 1 in 5 in a box would work)
*Hundreds of highlighter pens because we didn’t have any
*Backing paper and borders for displays
*Sets of scissors
*Hundreds of glue sticks
That’s just a selection. Last year I spent over £300 on equipment and resources. I can’t claim it back.
Many teachers are doing this: funding children’s education from their own pockets, and with the cost of living spiralling out of control, it’s even less sustainable than ever.
We have had small 1-3% pay rises or pay freezes (see https://ifs.org.uk/articles/long-long-s ... eacher-pay for what this looks like).
This year we got 5%, which sounds better, fairer, but the reality is that schools have to fund that themselves from existing budgets, alongside their own increasing energy bills.
So when we are striking, it’s not just our salaries we’re fighting for, we’re fighting to protect school budgets, so that even the current rises are funded properly.
Ultimately, fairly funded pay means the school can afford things to improve children’s education, and therefore their life chances.
Pay teachers fairly. Save schools.
(And don’t even get me started on the abysmal way support staff are paid and treated! That’s a rant for another day.)
Mick F. Cornwall
reohn2
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Re: Teachers

Post by reohn2 »

Mick you were right when you said what's needed is a general strike to rid the country of this truly terrible Tory government,it's been 13years now of stealing from the poorest and ordinary people to give to the richest in society.
The Tories are scum and need ousting ASAP :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: .
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Cugel
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Re: Teachers

Post by Cugel »

It's become more than just a suspicion that the current Tories are trying to break the state's public services completely, with the other half of the agenda being to use this as an excuse to introduce private services for even the most essential and basic infrastructure services.

They haven't got long to do their damage now, so the pace of destruction seems to have increased.

The overall motives seem to be an unholy mix of neoliberal extremist ideology allied with a desire to provide more "business opportunities" via the Chicago School of Economics mechanism of shock & awe. Life in a society is degraded to such a point that the subjects shocked by the degradation will be grateful for, and in awe of, even the worst kind of private services, since the alternative has become "none" via their destruction by the same agents as will profit mightily from total privatisation of everything.

Forget the rule of law. It'll be the rule of the accountant. Can you pay? If not, you'll be left in an asocial wilderness. For details, see the USA.

Cugel
“Practical men who believe themselves to be quite exempt from any intellectual influence are usually the slaves of some defunct economist”.
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simonineaston
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Re: Teachers

Post by simonineaston »

I fully support the teachers in their struggle to repair some of the damage done to our state schools over the past 15 years. I recall an old motto - there are few things a Tory finds more unsettling than a kid reading a book.
S
(on the look out for Armageddon, on board a Brompton nano & ever-changing Moultons)
Tim Holman
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Re: Teachers

Post by Tim Holman »

Mick and all, You're right. My daughter teaches and subsidises teaching from her income. I agree that there should be a National General Strike against this government.
Tim
Stevek76
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Re: Teachers

Post by Stevek76 »

Yes, heard similar from the ones i know. Also know a couple who tried teaching and left due to uncompetitive work/compensation/life balance with other jobs and that was several years ago.
The contents of this post, unless otherwise stated, are opinions of the author and may actually be complete codswallop
pwa
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Re: Teachers

Post by pwa »

My wife was a full time teacher until a couple of years back, and her income (taking inflation into account) shrank steadily over more than a decade. The higher inflation of the last year is the last straw for teachers. The profession no longer attracts the talent it once did, and a lot of positions are now filled with staff not properly qualified or adequately skilled, because vacancies don't attract good applicants the way they once did. This isn't how we invest in the future.

The same sort of thing can be said for other public sector jobs. Okay, we are now faced with having no money to fix this, but it should have been fixed a long time ago, when funds weren't so tight. Now we are seeing our public services grinding down and there seems no way out of it. We don't have the money to pay people properly now. Nobody will want to work in these jobs anymore. Nobody will be that stupid.
Last edited by pwa on 1 Feb 2023, 7:58pm, edited 1 time in total.
Tiberius
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Re: Teachers

Post by Tiberius »

Mick F

Context. My daughter is a primary school teacher - 33 years old.

To add to your daughter's list of personal/for school purchases, my daughter and her teaching assistant have had to buy a toaster. They buy 1 to 2 loaves of bread/day plus jam and butter as necessary. The food is to give the kids (year 6) something to eat before they start the school day. MOST of them (really) turn up to start the day school day hungry, they leave home without having had any sort of breakfast. In the four years that my daughter has been teaching at this particular school (Academy) she reckons that feeding the kids has made a MASSIVE difference to their ability to learn (probably obvious)

I'm not going to go down the rabbit hole of fault/blame re sending kids to school hungry as the subject of this thread is focussed on teachers and not parents. I'm simply adding to the list of 'What teachers do'

It seems to me. We should look after those that heal us and those that educate us. Is there ANYTHING more important?
Carlton green
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Re: Teachers

Post by Carlton green »

I wonder, setting wishes to one side, is there any precedent for mass protest successfully demanding a general election?

I also wonder whether such a protest would backfire with the wider electorate … it’s far from impossible. Amongst the best things to do are: donate money to the Labour Party’s election fund and encourage the Labour Party to ask for / pressure the Tories for an early general election.

Given the war in Eastern Europe and how that might overspill Sunak might yet win an election in the way that Thatcher did. Anyone who underestimates Putin is a fool and his influence and hand is all over the place. He might be on the back foot at the moment but don’t read too much into that.
It seems to me. We should look after those that heal us and those that educate us. Is there ANYTHING more important?

At the current time that would probably be Defence and there’s a few things after that too that are needed for basic survival.
Don’t fret, it’s OK to: ride a simple old bike; ride slowly, walk, rest and admire the view; ride off-road; ride in your raincoat; ride by yourself; ride in the dark; and ride one hundred yards or one hundred miles. Your bike and your choices to suit you.
francovendee
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Re: Teachers

Post by francovendee »

I've heard the very same about my friend's daughter's experience. She had to take her own materials in for the kids to use.
She's a bit burnt out and has decided to take a year out and go travelling. She'll decide whether she wants to return to teaching when she gets back.

A warning on the clamour for a GE. Yes this awful bunch needs to be kicked out but 12+ years sapping of the public services won't be righted overnight nor will it be without pain. Are we all ready for much higher taxes on our pay and pensions?

The money can partly come from taxing the rich but it won't be enough, we'll all have to pay more.

I get a modest pension and I manage. I'd be more than willing to pay something if it means we get services funded properly.
Stradageek
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Re: Teachers

Post by Stradageek »

Carlton green wrote: 1 Feb 2023, 9:20pm At the current time that would probably be Defence and there’s a few things after that too that are needed for basic survival.
I fully support all that has been said in this thread but.... defence? From whom? I see no armies ready to cross the channel and invade :?
Nearholmer
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Re: Teachers

Post by Nearholmer »

This isn’t 1940. It’s perfectly feasible to “invade” another country these days while lying in bed at home and controlling everything from a lap-top.
Carlton green
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Re: Teachers

Post by Carlton green »

Stradageek wrote: 2 Feb 2023, 9:00am
Carlton green wrote: 1 Feb 2023, 9:20pm At the current time that would probably be Defence and there’s a few things after that too that are needed for basic survival.
I fully support all that has been said in this thread but.... defence? From whom? I see no armies ready to cross the channel and invade :?
I too support the need for change and desperately hope for a Labour Government - the current lot in power are, IMHO and overall, rather too self serving and without genuine interest in the good of the country.

Just because I or you cannot see something does not mean that there’s no risk. We can’t see Putin’s nuclear arms and his interferences in the affairs of other countries but they’re real and certainly a threat. It’s true that there are no regular armies ready to invade the UK and that we have other pressing issues, but one button pressed in Moscow could make all our current concerns appear trivial; it would be exceedingly foolish not to fully identify and be prepared for the actions of hostile states.
Nearholmer wrote: 2 Feb 2023, 9:08am This isn’t 1940. It’s perfectly feasible to “invade” another country these days while lying in bed at home and controlling everything from a lap-top.
Quite, it’s certainly possible to cause an awful lot of disruption and destruction.
Don’t fret, it’s OK to: ride a simple old bike; ride slowly, walk, rest and admire the view; ride off-road; ride in your raincoat; ride by yourself; ride in the dark; and ride one hundred yards or one hundred miles. Your bike and your choices to suit you.
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bikes4two
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Re: Teachers

Post by bikes4two »

Stradageek wrote: 2 Feb 2023, 9:00am I fully support all that has been said in this thread but.... defence? From whom? I see no armies ready to cross the channel and invade :?
I'm guessing (hoping) that you aren't serious and just 'poking the bear' for reaction?

In this interconected world with much relience on long supply channels and even more dependence on computing technology and the internet, there are so many other ways to harm, nay cripple a nation than just boots on the ground.

Anyway, back to the topic of teachers and strikes. There's plenty of info about the striking parties and what they are asking for, but I see little in the way of where does the extra money come from. Will it be extra taxes, more expensive products - I just don't know - do you?
Without my stoker, every trip would only be half a journey
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Mick F
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Re: Teachers

Post by Mick F »

Taxation.

Cast our (older) minds back to the 70s and paying loadsa income tax. The threshold was low too.
We pay little tax these days in comparison.

Remember super-tax?
19/6d in the pound. 93% ?

Beatles hit, Taxman.
Mick F. Cornwall
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