Can i, should i claim back childcare costs for next weeks Teachers strike ?

gregg1

Broken_hearted wrote: »

Two points
1 I have worked in plenty of schools rural and inner city so can see full well how much/little effort they are putting in.
2 My father worked as a teacher he loved his job never complained about being overworked infact it was less work than his previous job as a welder. He taught troubled teenagers the ones other teachers couldn't handle who had been kicked out of their schools.
As for the money side he is nor ever has been short of money and has a great pension.

A lot also depends on what subject the person is teaching. Some subjects demand more preparation and marking than others - what did your father teach?

MegS

Sorry but any extra money the Government has should be going to the Forces, all the problems they have and they still only got 2.6% - not even as much as inflation and they can't strike about their conditions.

borntobefree

I don't doubt the teachers have a good case, but they've had years to do this. Why now when the economy looks like it can least afford it. Havn't they heard of the credit crunch Don't they realise that the US economy is in recession and we may be heading the same way What planet do they live on? We could all be jobless this time next year - their timing sucks.

curtlyb

borntobefree wrote: »

I don't doubt the teachers have a good case, but they've had years to do this. Why now when the economy looks like it can least afford it. Havn't they heard of the credit crunch Don't they realise that the US economy is in recession and we may be heading the same way What planet do they live on? We could all be jobless this time next year - their timing sucks.

some cynics might say its the best time, hit a government whilst it's down :rolleyes:

Lunar_Eclipse

SootSoot wrote: »

It is amazing that many of you do not realise the reason behind the strike and seem to think its a 'holiday' for those who are in the NUT. Teachers get a raw deal.

I fully appreciate the strike is not a holiday, although I am also disgusted that teachers, as degree educated professional members of society, think this behaviour is acceptable. I am sure no teacher would accept such behaviour inside their classroom from pupils 'striking' from school work/tests etc.

Additionally, whilst I totally agree that teachers are underpaid, I have been led to understand that this strike is over pay rises (not level of pay) and given the current economic climate, I do not share their belief that a pay rise this year of 2.45% is unacceptable. This action and mindset is appauling IMO. And I have lost all respect for the three teachers in my daughters school who are striking. What planet are they on? My husband works in the City and since starting his new job 11 weeks ago now, the company's share price has almost halved and a significant portion of the workforce are being made redundant. And this is in a well respected multinational company that is doing well. Teachers should be worried about losing their jobs, not complaining about a pay rise! Grrrghhhh.

andyrules

Lunar_Eclipse wrote: »

I fully appreciate the strike is not a holiday, although I am also disgusted that teachers, as degree educated professional members of society, think this behaviour is acceptable. I am sure no teacher would accept such behaviour inside their classroom from pupils 'striking' from school work/tests etc.

Additionally, whilst I totally agree that teachers are underpaid, I have been led to understand that this strike is over pay rises (not level of pay) and given the current economic climate, I do not share their belief that a pay rise this year of 2.45% is unacceptable. This action and mindset is appauling IMO. And I have lost all respect for the three teachers in my daughters school who are striking. What planet are they on? My husband works in the City and since starting his new job 11 weeks ago now, the company's share price has almost halved and a significant portion of the workforce are being made redundant. And this is in a well respected multinational company that is doing well. Teachers should be worried about losing their jobs, not complaining about a pay rise! Grrrghhhh.

Whilst I agree that the timing is not good, I am at a loss to understand why you think that having a degree should preclude one from striking!

No-one likes to strike, but it is a method of negotiation and has been for centuries. Back in the 70s when the miners came out, the public experienced weeks of planned powercuts of several hours each day. We survived by shivering around candles and carrying torches; it caused huge disruption to daily life.

Surfbabe

geekgirl wrote: »

My son who is doing A levels has no maths, history or physics lessons on Thursday but his music tech teacher is there and has said that he will have them all day so that they can get ahead with their projects. As far as my sons teachers are concerned they are all worth the payrise apart from the maths teacher, I wouldn't whizz on him if he was on fire!

My DD school is closed to yrs 7 - 11. Yr 12 - 13 are expected in as normal either for scheduled lessons or to study as normal in library or 6th form study room. She is taking Maths, Pyschology, Biology and Art and all the teachers are in. The Art teacher has told them that the room will be open for them all day if they wish to catch up on coursework as part of their study time - its not covering for any other teacher so isn;'t being a "scab" or whatever you want to call it. I also work in a school (office - have only had cost of living rises for last 4 years as am top of scale - which is pretty low) and none of our teachers are striking.

curtlyb

andyrules wrote: »

No-one likes to strike, but it is a method of negotiation and has been for centuries. Back in the 70s when the miners came out, the public experienced weeks of planned powercuts of several hours each day. We survived by shivering around candles and carrying torches; it caused huge disruption to daily life.

Generally strikes aim to hit the company in the pocket through lack of revenue for the strike period....... All that will happen tomorrow is that you will cheese off several thousand potential allies both morally & in the pocket whilst the LEA will be sat on a nice nest-egg of unpaid staff wages......somebody has obviously not thought this through very well have they, and i thought they were well educated

clairec79

tintingirl wrote: »

This is technically covering for striking teachers so he really shouldn't be doing this.

Not necessarily, when I did A levels and one subject had a lot of coursework which had to be done there all of us knew if we were free at any point we could go to that classroom and work on it (regardless of if there was a class in there) if the teacher wasn't teaching others at that point and we wanted/needed help she'd give it. If there had been a strike and she wasn't involved I'm sure she would have given us that option (aside from anything else it would have mean that we could have had one week where we didn't stay for an extra 3 hours one day a week to get it done, so she could have that time off)

Lunar_Eclipse

andyrules wrote: »

Whilst I agree that the timing is not good, I am at a loss to understand why you think that having a degree should preclude one from striking!

No I don't. Although generally speaking I suspect there may be a correlation between a person's education level, intelligence and problem solving/negotiation skills. But that's an entirely different debate and has nothing to do with my personal opinion on striking. I just don't agree with it morally. Which I know is a bit off topic too, sorry.

I think teachers (intelligent people in the main) should know better. I believe striking is not an acceptable way to negotiate, in part because it affects the innocent (pupils) in the same way that something like war does. Additionally, it is blackmail, fulfilled in a manner which is akin to a toddler tantrum. Very few people accept 'if you don't accept this then I won't do that....' type behaviour from a child (who comparatively doesn't know any better) so why should it be acceptable for teachers to behave in this way? It just doesn't sit well with me.

Which is not saying that teachers don't deserve better pay.