teacher's strike

Janepig

I would send the eldest in. And I have no qualms about one having a treat when the other doesn't. Chances are there will come a time when the other one will have a treat alone too. And an eldest child would have had a number of years alone with his/her parents before youngest came along, so it evens out.

Jx

balletshoes

If school is open, my child would be attending. OP in years to come you're going to come across this anyway, when one has different inset days to the other etc.

DirtyDick

FatVonD wrote: »

Will the elder child's school be fully staffed (ie with proper lessons) or will it be a skeleton staff?

Almost all teachers are in Unions as legal insurance against workplace harassment or claims of abuse, so they'd likely be following their Union advice. Even if they're in school in spite of their Union, chances are the Head wouldn't make them take pupils, they'd be in doing preparatory work.

Even if 2-3 teachers are in and willing to take classes at the behest of the Head, it'd be baby-sitting classes with watching dvds, drawing or on the computers due to shortages. So hardly revolutionary teaching that day.

floss2

If the parent decided to keep the elder child off school after being told the school would be open on a strike day, would that be classed as an unauthorised absence for that child?

thegirlintheattic

DirtyDick wrote: »

Almost all teachers are in Unions as legal insurance against workplace harassment or claims of abuse, so they'd likely be following their Union advice. Even if they're in school in spite of their Union, chances are the Head wouldn't make them take pupils, they'd be in doing preparatory work.

Even if 2-3 teachers are in and willing to take classes at the behest of the Head, it'd be baby-sitting classes with watching dvds, drawing or on the computers due to shortages. So hardly revolutionary teaching that day.

Nearly all teachers will refuse to even supervise another teacher's classes if that teacher is on strike. If the school is open to that year it is almost certainly because their normal teachers are not on strike.

If you do take your child out OP bear in mind that it will be classed as unauthorised absence and you are setting yourself up for issues in the future when one school has an INSET and the other doesn't etc.

DirtyDick

floss2 wrote: »

If the parent decided to keep the elder child off school after being told the school would be open on a strike day, would that be classed as an unauthorised absence for that child?

If a school is open the child is expected to attend unless the parent stated the child was unwell.

There are some parents who decide (IMHO sometimes sensibly) that missing a week of term here or there for a holiday is more educational than a week of school, but who'll cry blue murder at a school closing due to a strike, power cut or snow day.

DirtyDick

thegirlintheattic wrote: »

Nearly all teachers will refuse to even supervise another teacher's classes if that teacher is on strike. If the school is open to that year it is almost certainly because their normal teachers are not on strike.

If you do take your child out OP bear in mind that it will be classed as unauthorised absence and you are setting yourself up for issues in the future when one school has an INSET and the other doesn't etc.

Hence 'the supply teacher with no preprepared lesson' lessons in most cases. Even regular teachers would treat it as a day to catch up on paperwork while the kids watch a dvd. Useful child-minding...

Becles

It would depend on what the eldest would be doing.

My eldest is in secondary school. Last time school was open and if their class teacher was striking, his year group had to report to the sixth form common room and do quiet reading or homework.

On that day, all but one of his teachers were striking, he didn't have enough work to keep him busy all day and he was bored to tears.

I've got two in secondary school and if they ended up where they were going to be in a situation like that again, I'd keep them off and do something more interesting with them.

Glitzkiss

mr_and_mrs_ts wrote: »

One child is affected by the strike and told not to come to school. Elder sibling is not affected and told to come to school.
Parent wants to take child/ren out for the day. Elder sibling wants to go to school but not now as told will take younger sibling out.

WHat would you do?

Well for a start I wouldn't treat a strike day as a treat. I'd impress on them the reason(s) why their teachers are striking and what would happen if this becomes a long term thing. And I'd encourage them to keep up with their studies no matter what.

sashadesade

I'd send the kid to school, it's just a normal school day so why should they get the day off? Having said that, I wouldn't be taking the other child on a day out as it wouldn't be fair to the one who is at school - I'd save the outing for a day when both could go.