Gillian Keegan says 'Children have been through so much in the pandemic & I can’t think of a worse time to be willingly keeping them out of school'... but then blames the #teachers for the continuing #strike action.
No, they are out of school because of years of #Tory attacks on teachers & a current unwillingness to try and settle the dispute... as always, its never the #Tories' fault, oh no, there's always someone else to blame!
Looks like unless the Govt. is prepared to do something meaningful about #Teachers pay & conditions, we are heading towards an Autumn of discontent, with the prospect of a #generalstrike across the entire #teaching profession.
Given the Govt. (backed by the rabid right press) is unlikely to change its stance we need to prepare to support both teachers & parents weather this storm.
To win we need to:
#SupportTheStrikes
#supportourteachers
& do what we can to help
Teacher Appreciation Week, my ass!
“The point is intimidation. The point is that we will self-censor and shy away from material. I think all this promotes intolerance and undermines many of the core values of education. Everything we do as teachers to promote critical thinking is undermined by what they are doing. They’re very much modeling the kind of indoctrination that they’re so fast to accuse other people of.” #VotingMatters #VoteBlue #SupportOurTeachers
One school's strategy with #OFSTED - record everything they do in the school & then use it to question summary (and misplaced) assessments...
Its a ground-level fight back strategy (OFSTED could hardly require meetings not to be recorded) which complements the ongoing national-level campaign for reform...
If you're not quite sure what is going on in the dispute over #OFSTED inspections then this @YorksBylines piece will give you a clue why #teachers are losing any remaining patience with the way accountability & scrutiny are organised in #schools
https://yorkshirebylines.co.uk/news/education/we-felt-like-criminals-teachers-talking-ofsted/
Since 2017, 147 #Education & #Healthcare workers have died from #mesothelioma (caused by #asbestos):
what this tells us is that the defunding of these sectors, robbing maintenance budgets to keep things going, is having a fatal impact on the sectors' #workers.
Failure to remove asbestos from #schools & #hospitals is killing the staff.
not only won't the #Tories pay health/teaching staff properly they've engineered a situation that kills them at work.
As NEU votes to campaign to abolish OFSTED & ex-#Headteachers start to resign from #OFSTED (as a way of making it inoperable), Paul Whiteman of the NAHT observes:
'We now know, not just through the tragic death of Ruth Perry but the others that have come to light since, that not only does [inspection] create stress within the system, but that it is a serious stress that is leading to harm. It has to be dealt with immediately'!
A new method of oversight is urgently needed
Why did #teachers overwhelmingly reject the Govt.s anemic pay offer?
Could if be something to do with 1 in 3 teachers skipping meals to 'make ends meet' or the 1 in 5 who have had to take on a #secondjob?
The appalling state of pay & conditions in #education, again shows that the crisis in education is directly related to its defunding.
Teachers know a unfunded pay offer is just a way to try & blame them for future cuts!
Welcome my very good friend @siobhancollingwood to Mastodon.
She's a wonderful advocate for #trauma informed #education, does amazing work in #schools drawing on her long experience as a Headteacher in #Morecambe (now retired) & works with the Violence Reduction Network to help children from families with a history of violence escape the cycle, while is also active in the #teachers #union
She's new to this space, but please follow her as she is a voice worth listening to!
It will be no surprise to you that #inflation has hit the value of (real terms) incomes, in both the private & public sectors...
Certainly private sector #employees are suffering, but this is outstripped by the fall in #publicsector wages (in real terms)... this alongside greater remaining unionisation gives us the context for the #strike action(s), even if the reasons are wider than just pay
Emeritus Prof Christopher May
CultureStorm