teacher's strike

eezer

This happened to us last time - one in, one off. The school said that if this was the case then those that were in could also stay off so he did. I had to book a days leave to cover it so we all made the most of it and had a great day. The kids thought it was great to be on strike. With the pressures of work we don't get enough time as a family so will take any opportunity for a quality day together when we can. If that makes me a bad parent then we'll have to agree to disagree.

Valli

Emmarillo wrote: »

I have one in Primary and one in Secondary and all inset days are different, one school strikes and the other doesn't, and even their policy for snow closure is different. I love spending time with them separately doing what they like to do - cooking and shopping with one, swimming, bike rides and board games with the other.

It wouldn't have occurred to me to keep a child off because the other is.

no

Union

There are a few

NUT
UNISON
NATFHE
NASUWT
ATL
and possibly even the GMB...

hence the upheaval.

But thank goodness we live in a country where one can be a member of a union without fear of retribution or sanction.

JC9297

DirtyDick wrote: »

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...

Schools are not allowed to cover striking teachers, either with the school's own staff or supply teachers. That is why, particularly in primary schools, the children whose class teacher is striking are told not to come in but other classes attend as normal.

thegirlintheattic

DirtyDick wrote: »

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...

Supply teachers should not be covering for striking teachers. I know that non-striking staff in my school will be teaching normal lessons and want to (as do I, it was a hard decision to strike), unless the school is closed, then they will be in planning.

emma12345

At my daughter's school we had a letter saying that on strike day if you have more than one child in the school and one of their classes is available and the other is not, meaning that one child would attend and not the other, then you may take both the children out of school if you wish and the children will both be marked as 'not required to attend'.

Not sure if that's the same in all schools but I think they are taking a lenient view because they know some parents will have childcare issues of taking the two children to different places.

Bumpmakesfour

So those that would let their child stay off..how then do you deal with the I've got a tummy ache/bit of a cough/tired etc days.Surely it's pretty hard to then say they have to go in if they get given a day off just because their siblings school is closed?
Kids need to realise that there are things in life that aren't "fair" and you HAVE to do things you don't want to sometimes.What lesson are you teaching them for the future?If the parent isn't really bothered about attendance how on earth do you expect the children to be?

dizziblonde

DirtyDick wrote: »

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...

OK - couple of things:

A) I'm a supply teacher. I have a range of preprepared lessons that I can pull out of my bag (or the box in the boot of my car) to keep a class busy (and learning) during a day I'm covering a class and there's no work left. I find the insinuation that all we do is babysitting incredibly offensive as I take great pride in doing a decent job and keeping things running as normally as possible for kids (indeed I view myself as having done a good job if the teacher's absence, and my presence, isn't noticeable - as then the disruption that's been caused is minimal). Quite a bit of background work that goes on to make sure we're able to go in cold to a class of anything from Nursery up to Year 6 and provide appropriate work to the kids in the class, whose abilities and special needs we're often left unaware of - but it's part of the job and we're expected to have it in our bag of tricks - so we do.

The line from our agencies, and from our unions is that schools are NOT allowed to use agency staff to cover for striking teachers. While I worked last strike day - that was to cover planned absence from a teacher having some in-school release time, whereas if it was a call asking for strike cover - my agency would have declined to provide a teacher for that cover.

Incidentally - we weren't eligible to be ballotted for this strike action, we're also a group that were heavily sold down the river by the unions now sending us emails reminding us that our support is expected for this strike (if you sense I'm quite angry about the tone of the communication I've had from my union in particular you'd be right, and if I wasn't leaving teaching at the end of the year I'd be making the switch elsewhere) - and the fact that so many schools are looking like they're closed for the day hits us directly since it means its a day we have no possibilty of getting work.

So just think before you start slanging us off as babysitters because lots of us take an incredibly pride in the work we do and doing the best for the kids while the teacher's away.

Skinto_7

Id say if your kid is supposed to be in school then thats where they should be (id also say the same to some of these dillusional teachers who dont know how lucky they are to be in a job), dont see the hassle with one going and one not, its a lesson they will need to learn someday, might aswell be now!

jackieblack

JC9297 wrote: »

Schools are not allowed to cover striking teachers, either with the school's own staff or supply teachers.

This isn't what the Department for Education guidance says.

LoopyLil_2

If school is open, then I would send the child to school. One child is off because of the teachers striking at a different school isn't a justifiable reason to keep the other one off aswell.