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

gregg1

benood wrote: »

This is always true at the top of a boom period for the economy - over the next few years teacher recruitment will recover as graduates look for job security which teachers have in spades.

I think it will take a lot more than job security to get good people into teaching these days!

Whelk2006

borntobefree wrote: »

I totally agree with the whole of your post. But why now. They've had a decade of boom to complain..Why wait until the economy is just about to go into recession Why wait until the country can least afford it It just makes them look out of touch.

That's one question I can't answer, the strike was voted for by the membership of the NUT and my wife isn't a NUT member... in fact in her whole school of around 300 staff only 10 are NUT members, although I'm sure many of them agree with the action. It was the headmaster's decision to close the school for thursday.

OTOH I suppose there's not a lot of point in calling for industrial action at a time when it actually won't bring any pressure to bear on the authorities.

The whole thing about what the Country can and can not afford is a diversion, IMO. Can we afford to waste countless billions of pounds on something like the Olympics, for instance, which many of us think is a flag-waving waste of time? Or billions of pounds on foreign wars? Or on an an independant nuclear force? Alongside those the whole question of public sector pay does seem to pale into insignificance.

IMO, of course.

borntobefree

Whelk2006 wrote: »

I suppose there's not a lot of point in calling for industrial action at a time when it actually won't bring any pressure to bear on the authorities.

I ask for a pay rise when my employer can afford it. I would not bother asking for a pay rise if my company is struggling.:o

Lunar_Eclipse

gregg1 wrote: »

I think its about the whole package. You mention falling standards, increased pressure, increased admin, pupil behaviour and you are absolutely right. However, once all those are taken into account then surely the pay must come into the equation as well?

Yes I totally agree with you. I think teachers should be paid more. But the strike is about a pay rise and being realistic a double digit pay rise is not going to happen. Especially in the current economic climate. I'm not sure what the answer is though tbh.

Also, I rather suspect the job itself has simply moved with the times. The hours and working conditions still compare favourably IMO. Long hours thesedays is up and out between 4-6am (both my Dad & hubbie do this) and home after 9pm. Home before 8pm (if at all!) is considered early amongst my friends. We are lucky that my husband sees the children most evenings. I'm not saying it's right, it's just the way it is nowadays.

But I do think you have to have experience of long hours in the private sector before you can see this point of view. My best friend from uni became a teacher and whilst she moans about the long hours, she knows most of her friends have less favourable experiences. My cousin works for the Civil Service (good job) and after 10 years service, I think she can count on one hand the number of days she's been in the office past 5.30pm. Seriously. Just another planet.

Lunar_Eclipse

Whelk2006 wrote: »

The whole thing about what the Country can and can not afford is a diversion, IMO.

I agree. What would we non-Govt folk know about the country's affordability anyway?

I find it really odd that your wife's school is closing with so few teachers (classes) being affected. 10 out of 300, 3.3%? Very weird indeed. He must either have full sympathy for the cause, be very behind on his paperwork or fancy a day on the golf course!

Whelk2006

Lunar_Eclipse wrote: »

I agree. What would we non-Govt folk know about the country's affordability anyway?

I find it really odd that your wife's school is closing with so few teachers (classes) being affected. 10 out of 300, 3.3%? Very weird indeed. He must either have full sympathy for the cause, be very behind on his paperwork or fancy a day on the golf course!

Yeah, I know, when she told me last night I couldn't believe it either, but it's so. And don't forget in a large school less than half the staff are teachers, there are a huge number of ancillary staff, like Administrators, TA's, CA's, IT support staff, dinner-ladies etc. etc. The Maths department at the school comprises of a nominal 12 teachers, of which there are only 8 on the staff as it's very difficult to fill Maths posts.

The headmaster is one of the government's new "super-teachers", btw, as the school is tooling-up to become one of the new private-public Academies at the end of summer.

benood

gregg1 wrote: »

I think it will take a lot more than job security to get good people into teaching these days!

We'll have to revisit this in a couple of years and agree to disagree now.:D

I don't disagree that teachers work hard btw but I think that there is often this a reflex action to lay on the misery as soon as a teacher is told "ah, but the holidays must make up for it", which would annoy me if I was a teacher I'm sure.

benood

Whelk2006 wrote: »

For this she gets paid around £34,000 per year, and she pays for her pension, it's not a gift by any means.

Sorry to repeat myself but she will have received a 60% pay increase over the last 10 years while the average employee has received 28%. Whilst this is a generalisation I don't think that it's realistic to expect to keep getting big pay rises, once in a while everyone has to tighten their belt - the country would go bankrupt otherwise.

Kez100

I do think that teachers are more disappointed that the gravy train has now stopped.


As others have said - exactly what job in the private sector will they be doing for a higher wage and the same pension benefits?

Mrs_A_4

Lunar_Eclipse wrote: »

Long hours thesedays is up and out between 4-6am (both my Dad & hubbie do this) and home after 9pm. Home before 8pm (if at all!) is considered early amongst my friends.

It's not as easy as "hours in the office". For what it's worth, I get up at 5.50 to miss the traffic, and am in work before 7.30.

In theory, some days I could leave the building at 3pm. This is, I accept, a huge bonus and affords some degree of flexibility that other professions don't have. However, my work is NEVER done. I will never get to the end of my to-do list, and even when I am not planning, marking etc I am worrying about the fact that I should be. Being on here right now is time away from the exam marking I should be doing! Every single evening, weekend and holiday (even the long ones!) is overshadowed by the cloud of work that has to be done.

During the official school day, ie between 8.30 and 3, it's like being on stage. There is no opportunity for slowing the pace or chilling out if you are tired or feeling rough. Half of my department have been struck with lurgy this week, and nobody has had time off. Technically we could, but setting work when sick and missing exam classes in their last weeks would be disastrous. So we carry on spreading the germs and knowing we won't get better for ages.

Some days I'll have before school meetings, early duty, form time, two lessons, break duty, two lessons, lunch club or revision session, another lesson, after school meeting, then the delightful prospect of a few more hours planning and marking when my brain is turned to mush. It feels like a victory to fit in a nip to the loo or something to drink. Not many professions with long hours can sustain such a pace without built-in down time.

Thanks to government policy and years of MTV-style parenting (another story, I know) we have to plan and deliver lessons like performing clowns, fast paced and full of adrenaline. Try doing that for five hours a day amongst all the other stuff. And I haven't even got on to poor behaviour, rudeness and all the rest of it.

I don't know really why I'm trying to explain. I know a gazillion other professions could (and will) come on and say how hard they work, and I don't doubt them. But lots of people's view of teaching comes from their own time at school, when things were undoubtedly different.

It's right - pay isn't perhaps the most important issue for teachers. But, unlike the, ahem, older members of the profession with rich husbands who can afford to spend every holiday jetting off to Bermuda and every weekend doing exciting things, I'm skint. I live in a tiny rented house, drive a banger that should be condemned, can't afford to have kids despite being desperately broody and, as you can see from my sig, am trying to claw myself out of massive debt (that certainly wasn't accrued by any fast living. I might resent it less if it was!)

It would be nice to know that if the strike has any impact, I might not get any skinter.