ok, im in year 13 doing my last year of A levels (business studies, ICT and philosophy if your interested..)

and being the biggest school in derbyshire, john port is in abit of trouble

our new head teacher, who is already not popular due to her changing the school uniform for the sixth form, and now the rest of the school. has decided to apply to become an academy status school.
that means that they will get money straight from teh goverment, and it will not pass through the local council (who spreads all of derbyshires schools money out to those who need it more, and less to those who dont need it, ie john port) meaning that the school will get more money, as it currently has a £300k deficit.

however become an academy means they can change teachers pay and conditions every year if it wants, and also can choose to stop non law classes, like food tech, ICT, history etc for years 7-9, however can still teach for GCSE if there is a big enough demand from students

now, NASUWT union of teachers has been on strike twice already for the last 2 thursdays. however they are now stepping up the heat and have decided to strike on tuesday, wednsday and thursday, in 2 weeks (next week is a half term, and we have monday following off for an incet day) and the week after that (in 3 weeks time) striking on the monday and tuesday.
this affectivly means that only years 10-13 (gcse and A level) can come in, and other teachers are not allowed to set work, effectively meaning no teacher for a lot of students.
they are already working to contract, so are not doing lunch time duties, helping with after school buses etc.

so my question to you is, do you think this is right? to strike for something that hasnt happend yet, and to strike so hard that it will be affecting student learning a lot?

some news links:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-derbyshire-12416353
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-derbyshire-12492755
http://www.itv.com/central-east/strike-over-academy-plan50866/

http://www.johnport.derbyshire.sch.uk/
to have a read of the letter of utter disgust of our headteacher

I was always of the thought that strikes happened to prevent, not to make matters better. So yes, it is right that they should strike before this happens.



If they were to strike in the middle of the summer holiday, I'm not sure it would help their cause. Hopefully the school and the union will make some settlement and it won't happen.
I think it is wrong that it can effect you, but you are the reason they can strike (because you could get bad marks and that would look bad for them). It's like the train drivers striking in a weeks time, the line won't be affected, the station staff won't be affected, but it's the passengers that will be (and thus revenue for the big wigs pockets).

The thing is it's better to strike to stop something happening than striking after it's happened. Harder, and more costly, to change.

It sucks, it's crap that it will affect you lot but then I'm sure the teachers are arguing that they will strike to benefit not only you but students later on.

What has NASUWT actually called strike action against?

Mark

EDIT - Okay, so I just saw the links and followed them.

So the teachers just need written assurances that their jobs and pay won't be affected by the academy status.
If they don't get that assurance then yeah, I think strike action is perfectly acceptable.

Mark

This is just self intrest from the union. If wages are individually arranged between the teachers and their school, there's no large roll for the union to play in that. It's "jobs for the boys" in the union.

Maybe someone should threaten to take the union to court for loss of potential earnings caused by disruption to their education

good idea lol

I remember complaining about working conditions at my previous job. They told me I didn't have to work there, so put up or f*ck off. There's millions of unemployed would love the job for half the wage, and a billion "foreigners" who could do it better for a 'teenth. What makes these people think they're so much better than everyone else?

I don't agree with schools being wrestled from local authority control.

I also agree with teachers striking over pay and conditions. They have a particularly difficult job, and if there's one thing we should be spending a [LIFTED] of money on it's education.

They don't need more money, they just need a cane and the right to use it.

Perhaps the question is why doesn't everyone else stand up for themselves?

+1

In the interest of balance, here's the press release from the NASUWT:

http://www.nasuwt.org.uk/Whatsnew/NASUWTNews/PressReleases/StrikeTwoTeachersFightForJohnPortSchool/NASUWT_007558

For those on the ground this is about way more than just pay and conditions - which would be a good enough reason in itself.

This is about vehement opposition to the entrenchment of division in the education system - opposition with which I agree.