Teachers' strike

The teachers in the school of which I am governor are not on strike - they issued a statement expressing sympathy with the aims of the strike, but wished to fulfill their obligations to the children. I applaud them for this.

I have been 'on standby' to look after DGD1 as well as DGD2 today as we have known for some time that her teacher will be on strike today. As it happens, the other GP needed to swap days, and in fact DGD1 has gone into school as the other staff are covering.

It was made public on February 14th. How much notice do they want?

BBC 14th February

The parents I heard were mostly complaining about the lack of notice - several saying they only heard about the strike yesterday. If teachers are going to strike shouldn't they take into consideration the fact that many parents do work and need time to either arrange for time off or to find someone able to look after the children.

I don't think parents think of teachers as child minders, they are paid to teach and it is not unreasonable to expect them to give parents an opportunity to make alternative arrangements if they do strike.

Indeed this is not the case Gilly. Striking teachers do care about children's education and loath going out on strike. No professional takes this decision lightly believe me.

Yes, it's inconvenient for parents, but our education system is being eroded. Teachers are overworked, sinking under more and more government initiatives. I'm picking my two GS up tonight from school and nursery and will drop them off at my daughter's house at 6.00 pm when she gets back from school. She will put them to bed and then start her marking. I'm afraid she will crack under the strain as she's having to cover extra 'A' level and GCSE classes for colleagues off with stress, and she gave up Saturday to run extra tuition classes.

That is the reality of teaching today.

I am not sure what you mean by "says it all as far as I'm concerned" Dragonfly1 ?

Do you mean that parents are concerned as to how they will have to tell their employer they cannot come to work today?
Possibility of losing a days pay?

I am furious at todays strike. First of all only half of my GC's school is actually on strike and the other half are working as normal (or in other words doing what they are paid to do). This means 1 GC is at school and other 2 are not. My GC's school is a failing school (according to Ofsted) and the striking teachers just about sum this up. They are the ones who couldn't care less about the childrens education (not the parents) or they would be at school teaching.

Well, yes, it says that most parents have to work these days and of course it can be difficult to find alternative child care without much notice!