Going on strike

[Proffesor H Plum]

Edging education towards adopting some principles of privatisation is what gets my back up. Cant think of any public service that has been privatised since the 80's that has improved. No one should have a strike dilema in this day and age. Once again the follies of the privelaged few affect the funding of what should be a basic right. That of a high quality education for our children. Forget the 750k, imagine what the money waisted bailing out the bankers could have done in education, health, transport................ . Aye Mr Cameron just turn the screw a little tighter on the working man.

[Barry Siddall]

I don't agree with everything my union does but a vote is a vote and either you abide by the majority decision or come out the union - simples

The fact that people cannot be arsed to vote and the turnout is only 30% or whatever is irrelevant - they are the rules in place at the time of the vote.

Then again non members shouldn't have the rights that are gained by the union as well but thats another story

self self self some people - not saying the OP is like

[mcq10]

Originally Posted by Barry Siddall

I don't agree with everything my union does but a vote is a vote and either you abide by the majority decision or come out the union - simples

The fact that people cannot be arsed to vote and the turnout is only 30% or whatever is irrelevant - they are the rules in place at the time of the vote.

Then again non members shouldn't have the rights that are gained by the union as well but thats another story

self self self some people - not saying the OP is like

spot on mate.schools are being blackmailed by the eton idiology of cameron and gove. Academies are a way of driving down wages and keeping working class kids down. Dont get me started on tuition fees as well.......

[Proffesor H Plum]

Originally Posted by mcq10

spot on mate.schools are being blackmailed by the eton idiology of cameron and gove. Academies are a way of driving down wages and keeping working class kids down. Dont get me started on tuition fees as well.......

Our lass works in learning support, she gets paid next to nowt and does a really difficult job with some challenging students. The school has just become an academy and guess what, the entire learning support team was maid redundant and had to apply for their jobs again. Really needed that stress when we are skint

[rentaghost]

Originally Posted by Proffesor H Plum

Our lass works in learning support, she gets paid next to nowt and does a really difficult job with some challenging students. The school has just become an academy and guess what, the entire learning support team was maid redundant and had to apply for their jobs again. Really needed that stress when we are skint

Interestingly enough learning support staff are exactly the first staff to go when your budget gets slashed as it is next year. In a state maintained school they cant touch teachers pay but they can slash jobs in non teaching roles. Your lass may lose her job anyway but had more chance of maintaining it with 750k coming through the door than the horrendous budget cuts the school would have had this year. Certainly our support staff have no chance of keeping their jobs with the budget the school would operate on next year.

[garvey100]

Originally Posted by rentaghost

The NASUWT boil my piss at the moment and theres a lot of self interest going on. The local NASUWT reps have been an absolute disgrace telling people to strike or go into an empty room and put a gun to your head.
In a years time when many more schools become academies I have no doubt they will be giving out different advice as they are now in South Warwickshire and Leeds where almost all schools have become academies but by which time schools up here will have missed out on the 750k funding that can make a huge difference to a school like ours.
You will get very few people in education that support the principle of academies but in the real world it isnt a case of changing to an academy or staying the same. Its a case of suffering the most horrendous cuts to your school imaginable if you dont. Next year we would be expected to run the school on around one fifth of what we have had in the past - this means the loss of support staff, this means students who were receiving support going back into mainstream classes, this means bigger class sizes, this means those classes having more disruptive students in the classes and learning suffering for others, this means extra curricula stuff being cut to the bone.
You give the example of SIMS however the school gets a good deal off the LEA for some things but awful for others. An example of this is our internet connection which is utter shite and costs us 25k per year from the LEA we could get connection elsewhere that is much better for half the price.

Who actually told you this tripe? The Head Teacher, the governing body? Have you requested a look at the school budgets? They are in the public domain you do realise

Have you costed the internet yourself, or is this something else you've been fed by your Head Teacher?

[rentaghost]

Originally Posted by garvey100

Who actually told you this tripe? The Head Teacher, the governing body? Have you requested a look at the school budgets? They are in the public domain you do realise

Have you costed the internet yourself, or is this something else you've been fed by your Head Teacher?

Before you get on your high horse I dont take the word of anyone without good reason - however the internet costs came from the Union rep himself who was giving feedback on a meeting he had with the school governers. The budget figures for next year were given by the head and the Governers and not disputed at all by the Unions who accept these cuts would have to be made.

Do I trust our Head Teacher or a Union rep stuck in the 70s who is advocating suicide for anyone that doesnt follow their instructions and someone who I will rarely see again? Probably our Head on balance.

[garvey100]

Originally Posted by rentaghost

Before you get on your high horse I dont take the word of anyone without good reason - however the internet costs came from the Union rep himself who was giving feedback on a meeting he had with the school governers. The budget figures for next year were given by the head and the Governers and not disputed at all by the Unions who accept these cuts would have to be made.

Do I trust our Head Teacher or a Union rep stuck in the 70s who is advocating suicide for anyone that doesnt follow their instructions and someone who I will rarely see again? Probably our Head on balance.

Worrying I must say, very worrying.....you seem to think that the Union rep has some sort of hidden agenda here and you say that it's NASUWT, though I happen to know for a fact that NASUWT would NEVER open a dispute based on a 50% turnout. You do realise that NASUWT activists and officers are all voluntary lay officials and are not paid for doing what they do, don't you? What sort of agenda could they possibly have?

The reasoning behind such comments from the rep, though I don't condone them in any way, shape or form is because the TUs have encountered such apathy from school teachers regarding the change to academies. After the change, when their working conditions have changed for the worse, guess who are the first people to come whinging about it? Yiou guessed it, it's the people who couldn't be arsed to do anything in the first place.

The reason I question your rather spurious budget claims has been confirmed. It has come directly from the HT and governing body. The unions haven't contested this? Were you there for the TU meeting regarding the change to academy status? Budget projections etc are not something that is automatically produced for academy conversions, and I'd be surprised if your school was forthcoming with these as if your suggestions are correct, I would suggest a rather serious investigation into the budgets is needed, as the type of cuts you are suggesting simply aren't necessary if a budget has been managed properly. In my (fairly wide) experience, this has been used very often as an excuse for changing, along with other ones I bet your school used (County Durham use a stock letter for all schools)like curriculum freedoms, additional funding from private sources etc etc ad nauseum