Clapping doesn’t pay the bills

A GROUP of heads and deputies marched through the streets of Lancaster on 1 February to demonstrate against the Government’s proposed anti-strike laws.

Rallies and marches were held across the country, after early morning pickets at thousands of schools and colleges.

Siobhan Collingwood, a former primary head teacher and member of NEU Leadership, was among the group and addressed the crowd. “Teachers don’t want to be on strike today and this could have been avoided, but is a reflection of long-term systemic underfunding of our schools, from a Government that doesn’t value our schools or the education of our children,” she said. “Teachers are striking because we care about the children in our schools, because we know that if parents knew of the conditions in our schools they would be horrified. If parents knew, they would be on the streets demanding better for their children.

“The only reason they don’t know is because of the relentless professionalism of teachers and school leaders who carry on regardless, desperately trying to make this broken system work for the good of the children in their schools. But no longer. It is time to stand with our colleagues from other public services and say ‘Enough!’ It’s time to value our key workers – platitudes and clapping don’t pay the bills, or make our jobs rewarding, sustainable, possible.”

Catherine Armistead, head teacher of Skerton St Luke’s CE School in Lancaster, told Lead: “It was good for staff to see leaders take action, and we also had a really good reaction from the public. I felt it was important to strike for everybody in education, and because of the wider cost-of-living crisis.

“As a leader I’m concerned about losing staff who are looking for jobs that pay more. Some of our non-teaching staff are going to work in supermarkets, for example. Even here, where the cost of living is a little bit less than, say, London, staff are struggling with mortgages and payments and the general cost of living.

“I get food boxes donated to school containing long-life food, and I have staff who ask to take a box home because they are really struggling with the cost of living.”

Catherine added that more and more was being asked of schools and staff, including supporting increasing numbers of children with special educational needs, at a time when wider support was being cut and there was a two-year waiting list for ADHD and autism assessments. “We are now not just trying to teach the curriculum, we are going above and beyond every single minute of the day. It is exhausting. It’s demoralising,” she said. “Staff should be earning a decent amount of money that they can live on, but also schools should be funded better. This industrial action is about pay but it’s also about making sure schools have the appropriate amount of funding in order to meet the needs of the children they have.”

NEU joint general secretary addresses members in Cardiff

MEMBERS on strike in Wales on 2 March were joined by NEU joint general secretary (JGS) Mary Bousted, who, along with fellow JGS Kevin Courtney, has been joining picket lines, marches and rallies during strike days.