I haven't got kids but if I did I'd be asking the council for £50 today. They're keen as mustard to fine when people take their kids out of school for holidays so in a like-for-like situation when they say kids cant go to school then the same conditions must apply. Either attending every single day of education is essential or it isn't.
Got the week off this week then those ****s decide they don't want to work!! 3 ****ing kids all day. Twats.
Hah! I always used to book leave the week before or after the kids holidays. "Sorry love, the sarge/anyone else booked the school hols week off". Make a day of it, take them round the centre educating them on their birthright. Be fun!
Aye it depressed me t'other week when i had a walk round town. Boyes's's' Crawshaws n Ted Key it is then.
Bransholme! A quick drive round the cultural experience that is Orchard Pk wouldn't do them any harm too. Think of me when you're near Clanthorpe Rd!
I think its pretty insulting that teachers feel they have any reason to strike, they get paid very well for what they do.
Of course they're striking, these latest outrageous proposals suggest they'll have to work until they're 68, with just the bare minimum 13 weeks paid leave per year. On the flipside I fully expect to work until I'm 75 with 5 weeks holiday a year. Bless 'em.
We just don't get the same calibre of teachers these days. ****s, sadists, masochists and egoists have to find employment elsewhere.
They're ****ing ****s the lot of them. ****s and whinge bags. But I agree with them, why should they be made to work when the government can and should just give them money instead?
My God. What an original thinker you are. But, listen Clarkson, consider this: Firstly, it’s government directive to fine parents not teachers or idea borne by HCC. Secondly, it’s the government whom teachers are arguing with and fighting against. These days, people (people like yourself) nigh on actively campaign for wages to be lowered, conditions reduced. Anyone who stands up to fight, is confronted by: ‘well my conditions are **** so why shouldn’t yours be?” I do sympathise with parents, but their ire should be directed against those who deserve it.
The reasons ! Why should you support the teachers' strike? Tomorrow teachers in some regions of England will go on strike. This is the second in a series of proposed strikes by two teaching unions, the NUT and the NASUWT, who between them represent over 90% of serving teachers. That they are striking together is significant. Historically the two unions have been rivals and relationships between them have often been fractious. What has caused them to put their decades of differences aside and work together? It can be summed up in one word: Gove. This can’t be said often enough. Striking is a last resort. No one wants to go on strike. Teachers lose a day’s pay, and know that they will be accused of wanting the day off, of being lazy, of not caring about kids, or deliberately inconveniencing parents. Striking is something you only do when you have explored all other avenues and found them blocked off. But Gove has united teachers in a feeling that a stand has to be made and, since he won’t sit down and negotiate with the unions, we are taking strike action. So what’s it all about. Well, where do we start? First of all Gove has announced that he wants teachers to work longer, pay more and get less for their pension than they agreed when they started the job. So what, I hear you say. People are living longer, it’s a time of austerity and the country can’t afford to pay out for your “gold-plated” pensions. Them’s the breaks, right? No. For a start our pension scheme has had £43 billion more paid into it than has ever been taken out. Let me repeat that. FORTY. THREE. BILLION. POUNDS. more has gone into our pension pot, paid for by serving teachers, than has ever been taken out by retired teachers. Our pension doesn’t need any input from the taxpayer to make it affordable for years to come, it’s fine as it is. The increased pension contributions that Gove has demanded we pay combined with the pay freeze over the past few years means that, by April next year teachers will have had a 15% pay cut in real terms since 2010. That’s a FIFTEEN PERCENT paycut. We simply can’t sustain such an attack on our wages. And teaching is a physical job. Carrying heavy boxes of books around a school, standing all day, crouching down next to desks to offer help, standing on desks to pin up displays, intervening in physical altercations – these are all a daily part of teachers lives. Keeping 30 children focused and on task for the best part of six hours a day takes enthusiasm and energy. It’s mentally and physically demanding and while most teachers say they will struggle to make it to 65, Gove is now insisting they go on until 68. The cynical might say that, of course, he knows that’s simply impossible and means that many teachers will be forced to take early retirement, thereby losing many thousands of pounds from a pension that they have worked hard for for years, often decades. Workload is another issue. While Gove would like to maintain that teachers waltz in at 9, leave at 3, and sun themselves on beaches for six weeks in the summer the reality is very different. Any teacher will tell you that a typical day starts nearer to seven, doesn’t finish until well after 6, that breaks during the day are non-existent and that weekends and holidays are taken up with marking and planning. And that’s for more experienced teachers. These days tales of newly qualified teachers being at school until nine or ten at night and then going in again on the weekend are not uncommon. Which is why there is such a high burnout rate in teaching. And Gove wants us to do more. While most teachers need the holidays to keep on top of their workload, remind their family and friends what they look like, and physically and mentally recuperate, Gove says we should have shorter holidays and stay in school for longer so that we can have additional meetings and supervise after-school sessions. But all of this, the pay cut, the stolen pension, the increased workload, he might have got away with all of this were it not for his devastating onslaught on education. Amongst other things he’s · Removed the Educational Maintenance allowance that allowed poorer students to stay on into further education · Done nothing to reduce the trebling of tuition fees · Narrowed the curriculum into something one academic has called neo-Victorian · Removed the need for schools to employ qualified teachers · Stopped the schools modernisation programme and diverted the money into free schools often in places where there is no need · Destroyed university based initial teacher training so they we are now facing a significant shortage of teachers in key subjects · Created a schools places crisis · Refused to listen to the advice of the profession · Refused to implement policies based on evidence and research · Constantly denigrated teachers Teachers have had enough. They’ve had enough of the attacks on their pay, on their pensions and their working conditions. But most of all they’ve had enough of the attacks on education. It’s time to stand up for education. It’s time to stand up for teachers.
Teachers are generally well supported, I just think they've misjudged this one, all they're being asked to do is match the retirement and pension arrangements that everyone else is being asked to accept. Just because they were on too good a deal before and it can no longer be funded, doesn't mean they have some god given right to excessive pension provisions. At least the fireman have some sympathy, it's the same sort of issue, but obviously the age issue is a far bigger problem for a front line fire fighter.
That argument loses all credibility when it claims physically demanding for carrying books, stooping next to desks and pinning things on boards These teachers live in lala land. Next we'll have office workers striking because typing on a keyboard for 9 hours a day is too tiring for their fingers, or painters and decorators because finding the right colour paint is too mentally demanding.
The issue i have is yes people are getting cuts, yes teachers have had a real cut of 15%, but i am pretty certain you could pay unemployed teachers or young up and coming teachers a lot less than what the current teachers are getting. Also if teachers where overpaid to start with whats wrong with a pay cut? I admit i know very little about the strikers, but i certainly don't agree with them. If your that worried, leave, simple as.
Erm, councils do set the fines because each education authority has a different approach. I did I say I'd be asking the council for the money back, I never said I'd ask teachers for the money. I think OLM has hit the nail on the head with this one. Everyone else in the country is facing up to working later, as I said, I'm fully accepting of the fact I'll now work until I'm 75 and Im not complaining about that. People used to retire at 65 and claim pension for 10 years yet by the time Im that age living beyond 100 wont be unusual and we cant all claim pension for 40 years. It's nobody's fault we're living better and I accept we have to change accordingly. Why do teachers think they're any different?
Erm, LEAs fine parents by mandate from government - it's law (which was recently ammended in Sept) Every LEA fines parents for attendance issues.
