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!

#SupportTheStrikes
#supportourteachers
#GTTO

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

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/jul/05/united-front-teachers-could-biggest-strikes-decade-england

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...

#SupportourTeachers

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.

#supportourNHS
#SupportourTeachers

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

#SupportourTeachers

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!

#SupportourTeachers
#SupportTheStrikes

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/apr/05/one-in-three-young-teachers-in-england-skipping-meals-to-make-ends-meet

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!

#SupportourTeachers

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

#SupportTheStrikes
#SupportOurNurses
#SupportourTeachers

While I'm sure no-one here thinks the #strikers are rabble-rousing anti-social lefties seeking to disrupt our wonderful system, it nevertheless is worth reading these first-hand accounts of the desperate circumstances that have driven people onto the #picketlines
#SupportTheStrikes
#SupportOurNurses
#SupportourTeachers
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/jan/21/why-we-strike-workers-reasons-joining-picket-line-britains-new-winter-discontent

Its no surprise #teachers have voted to strike... knowing quite a few teachers, I'm only surprised its taken them this long to join the growing wave of dissatisfaction in the last months;

Once again: don't blame the strikers when your life is disrupted blame those who forced them into a corner;

specifically my experience of teachers is disrupting children's education would be the last thing they'd want to do;

that they are doing so says it all (to me)

#SupportTheStrikes
#SupportourTeachers