..yeah, we just ignore the Welfare officer though, Cherie..:wink:...

We lock her in a cupboard, seems to do the trick.

and think of all the holiday and inservice days

You should have become a teacher, jealousy is a terrible thing. :laugh:

For all those who probably won't bother to read back through the thread

today's strike in part is about a government proposal to take away the responsibility for schools from the Local Authority and have them run by private business (presumably for a profit).

Nobody has yet commented on this, so I wait with bated breath a response.

Can they not do this in term though?

Thankyou cherie, it's about de professionalising teaching... of course there will be those who spout the usual 'all the 'holidays' they get rubbish....
Soon you will only be able to get a decent education if you pay for it, and 'free' schools will be for those that can't, staffed with 'teachers' with an NVQ.
How many kids will get to university with a system like that? Only the elite.

Thousands of schools in England and Wales are closed, as teachers join rallies and picket lines in a strike over pay, pensions and conditions.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-26729786

..you are actually my hero now, you know that..but how is it that your school's budget can allow for the cost of the locks, though...are you feeding those children..:laugh:...

http://www.hackneygazette.co.uk/news...tion_1_3485740

“Teachers will not stand by and let Michael Gove and this government destroy the education system,” he said.

“Gove’s policy of creeping privatisation includes the deregulation of teacher’s pay and conditions - we will not let that happen.”

..oh I also meant to say Cherie that I read the link, yeah I was aware of that but it's not a recent thing..?...if anything, the schools here have increased the LSA's hours over the last few years and employed more, a lot of them HLSAs because what the government says makes no sense whatsoever...there isn't the budget to always get supply teachers and a lot of supply teachers are nowhere near as good as an LSA who knows the children/school/timetable etc ..obviously we're a primary school and don't have specialist topic teachers though...but how are they going to fund more teaching staff when none of the support workers have had a salary increase for over 4 years and it's just been extended to another 4 years...?...crazy....

Lazy bastards tbh :hmph:

I usually don't complain about a day off, but I'd have rather gone in today.

LOL. Well theres a change...

I think the whole point of a strike is disruption so they draw attention to it.


You are missing the point though of course pay, pensions and conditions will change if schools are privatised

It is fairly recent, I think it came up some time last year, we recently signed a petition about it through our Union Rep so it is an ongoing proposal.

..do you really think it would happen though, Cherie..they couldn't afford more teaching staff on the budgets..?...

Its great I have a half day :)

I suppose it would be less costly if you got rid of 10 TAs and just appointed one qualified teacher!

overnment ministers have started talks to phase out teaching assistants in England to save £4 billion a year, but heads and parents are likely to oppose the move.
There are currently 232,000 teaching assistants, three times the number in 2000. The last government introduced them to ease pressure on teachers and give them more time to prepare lessons and mark work. Phasing teaching assistants out would enable schools to hire more teachers and reduce the DfE’s budget, and would probably take several years.
The think-tank Reform questions the value for money of teaching assistants and claims that their impact on educational outcomes for pupils is ‘negligible’. Its research director Thomas Cawston said: “We found that while they were supposed to help teachers, they were actually being allowed to take classes themselves. Not being prepared or qualified to so those classes, they were not doing a very good job. The money spent on teaching assistants would be far better spent on improving the quality of teachers.”

[QUOTE=Cherie;6770881]I suppose it would be less costly if you got rid of 10 TAs and just appointed one qualified teacher!

overnment ministers have started talks to phase out teaching assistants in England to save £4 billion a year, but heads and parents are likely to oppose the move.
There are currently 232,000 teaching assistants, three times the number in 2000. The last government introduced them to ease pressure on teachers and give them more time to prepare lessons and mark work. Phasing teaching assistants out would enable schools to hire more teachers and reduce the DfE’s budget, and would probably take several years.
The think-tank Reform questions the value for money of teaching assistants and claims that their impact on educational outcomes for pupils is ‘negligible’. Its research director Thomas Cawston said: “We found that while they were supposed to help teachers, they were actually being allowed to take classes themselves. Not being prepared or qualified to so those classes, they were not doing a very good job. The money spent on teaching assistants would be far better spent on improving the quality of teachers.”[/QUOTE]

..it won't be spent on that though, will it...some teaching assistants are far better qualified to teach and better at teaching than supply teachers and far, far cheaper...

[QUOTE=Ammi;6770892]Of course it won't, great sweetener for parents though (Royal Mail shares for staff anyone?). This is why is annoys me when teachers go on strike the only thing you hear is about is holidays, all the proper issues are swept under the carpet. You never hear anyone complaining about MPs holidays do you!

[QUOTE=Cherie;6770936]Of course not, you just get those who are too ignorant or arrogant to see beyond the end of their nose and start arm flailing about militants and such.

Well that Corrupt Union (NUT) only got 40%
so militants are needed to Buff it all up in front of SkyNewsHD Live
in Central London today

prophesy?... :/

Yes 6th Form Colleges got the Legal OK
by a Judge

So students will Join Teachers on Strike?

I would hate to be a teacher,I know someone who is and they work a lot more than likely people think, a good bit of it from home outside of term times,preparing for term time and also as to assessing pupils progress or lack of it.

Good luck to them if this is the only way to get their voices really heard.
like Doctors as to health and care,my guess is teachers know far more about educating children than those in govt.

I'm with Cherie on this.

The privatisation kick that the Tories are on needs to be stopped and it's foolish to discredit the strike just because you're jealous of the Holiday time.

If you had to deal with hateful inbred brats every day you'd need a six week holiday too.

This strike has nothing to do with being overworked or underpaid :conf: