Teachers strike on Thursday

milliebear00001

msb5262 wrote: »

Under some circumstances, non-striking teachers are directed to work from home as it isn't always practicable for them to come into school. In any case, non-striking staff will be paid as usual.

In practice though, most Heads will not authorise this and the advice of the NASUWT to their non-striking membership is to turn up for work or face disciplinary action for being in breach of contract.

Heads also need the approval of the LA employer to do this (which in practice is also rarely given).

morganb

Spendless wrote: »

They wouldn't know to do that though would they? :cool: Unless they have have been reading this thread or are similarly informed. Parents will take the view that if the school hasn't said it will or may be closed, it will therefore be open.

I would have thought that by Monday at the very latest, all Headteachers would have written to parents. I don't think the majority of parents would assume the schools were open and / or unaffected? I for one emailed my children's Headteacher last week so that I could plan ahead. At that stage he hadn't spoken to all his staff so couldn't comment, but he has done so now.

morganb

milliebear00001 wrote: »

In practice though, most Heads will not authorise this and the advice of the NASUWT to their non-striking membership is to turn up for work or face disciplinary action for being in breach of contract.

Yes. I'm definitely required to go INTO school to work. And I would have gone in anyway and made sure I was seen and that I had signed in and out so that there would be no dispute over my pay. I endorse the strike action but my Union is not involved.

balletshoes

ViolaLass wrote: »

Does anyone know what happens to non-striking teachers at a school that closes? Do they just get the day off? Do they get paid? I'm assuming yes but this thread has taught me a couple of things already so I'm open to being corrected.

at my DD's primary school, on Thursday the school is closed to all the children - but any member of the teaching staff/support staff who is not striking will be there as on every other school day.

morganb

Also from the point of view of public perception I think it would be unlikely that non-striking staff would be allowed to work from home (unless the day of the strikes coincides with their PPA time which doesn't necessarily have to be spent on site).

morganb

balletshoes wrote: »

at my DD's primary school, on Thursday the school is closed to all the children - but any member of the teaching staff/support staff who is not striking will be there as on every other school day.

This will be for health and safety reasons. It would be unwise to open a school to children if sufficient numbers of staff are striking thus making it difficult to supervise children. A school could decide to partially open and only keep certain classes at home but this would depend on the % of striking staff.

Spendless

morganb wrote: »

I would have thought that by Monday at the very latest, all Headteachers would have written to parents. I don't think the majority of parents would assume the schools were open and / or unaffected? I for one emailed my children's Headteacher last week so that I could plan ahead. At that stage he hadn't spoken to all his staff so couldn't comment, but he has done so now.

Personally, I think a huge number would take the view that if the school hasn't said otherwise, they'll assume it's the same as normal. My neighbours child told me yesterday that school was to shut. I checked both my kids bags and the school website - nothing. I asked 4 more parents last night/this morning, 3 didn't know, 2 knew nothing of a strike and the 4th insisted it was closed cos she'd had a text saying so. I also am subscribed to the school's text messaging service and I'd had no such text, so I pressed her as she has 3 kids all at different schools (infants/juniors/seniors) as to which school had sent the message and then she admitted she wasn't sure.

As it happens we have had a letter this afternoon, but I was interested to read that a teacher doesn't have to tell the head and the reason behind it. I would never have realised that was the case.

You'd also think the HT would tell people wouldn't you.However my 8yo came out on Wednesday afternoon, asking me if I was attending a presentation the following day. I didn't even know parents were invited, the letter had gone out whilst she was off and a copy hadn't been saved, nor was it on the school website, and my eldest has less than 4 weeks till he leaves school and mentioned a leavers concert, so I sent up a note asking when? So I could book time off and got the reply from the school 'we don't know yet'. So, I don't totally trust them to let people know. I am a lot more organised than my friends, so I am more likely to ask, whereas others just rely on me to feed them info!

justmel

Our primary school is going to be closed,i had an email from DD's grammar school saying that they do not have authority to close the school due to any action but that for health and safety reasons they can and have decided to ask parents not to send children in.

Checked my other DD's school website and they are saying they simply do not know how many staff will be involved and that the staff may not yet know themselves,they are going to try to update parents the day before but even that may not be possible.

They say that lessons are not likely to carry on as normal,it will be supervised tuition but there is a chance that they will have to close at the last minute because of health and safety and that all parents should nominate a safe place for their children to go if that happens.

My daughter can come home but that wont be possible for everyone so i would say check with the school and try to have something to fall back on if coming home isn't an option.

paddedjohn

Teachers these days dont give a flying f*ck about the kids and are going to lose what little respect the rest of us have left for them if they continue with these strikes.

Kimberley82

paddedjohn wrote: »

Teachers these days dont give a flying f*ck about the kids and are going to lose what little respect the rest of us have left for them if they continue with these strikes.

I agree. Its not like they are the only ones this whole mess is effecting.