Sir Michael Wilshaw’s moral imperative

[russel]

Love the implication that the world will end if hedge fund managers, bond dealers and Managing Directors are not paid squillions and taxed anything above a few percent because otherwise they would be unable to get out of bed but teachers have to work for nothing.

 

[Spike]

Just a few observations.
As a teacher I regularly give up my whole lunchtime for revision/support. I do this about twice a week throughout the year. I do at least one after school session per week. I always put on sessions during the May half term and Easter. I do this out of choice. I don’t get any extra pay. I could do a lunch duty and get paid. However, I choose not to.
Many of my colleagues do exactly the same. There is no pressure from the Head. Indeed he is very supportive and appreciative.
Wilshaw is complete w@@@@@.

 

[ks.234]

Teachers, you've been warned:

"Allison Pearson is away" is a nice touch.

This goes to what I’ve called the exceptionalism that such headlines show to teachers.

First os all there has been not talk of teachers or teachers unions refusing to return to work, so such a headlong is entirely vacuous.

However, such headlines achieve a resonance that doesn’t seem to happen with other professions. It’s not just that all the extra stuff that teachers do is taken for granted, it’s not even that it’s becoming expected more and more, it’s that teachers are still subject to thought processes like this that are as hateful as they are nonsensical.

What happened to applauding key workers?

 

[Spike]

I do not know a single teacher who has or is refusing to go back. I’m a Union Rep (NEU) and have had no teacher asking me for advice/concerns. The NEU has never said schools should not open. They have voiced concerns regarding safety and tried to ensure that schools are following government advice. My head has been amazing. Constant risk assessments, going above and beyond recommendations. He welcomed the Union checklist to ensure he was meeting everything. However, I’m aware from colleagues at different schools that this is not the case. Far from it. This is what the Unions are quite rightly fighting.

 

[ks.234]

Yes. As an ex NASUWT rep I still keep my ear to the ground and there has been no talk from teachers or from within the Union about refusing to go back to work either.

But then in the NASUWT we’re so much more civilised that that bunch of militant Trots at the NEU

 

[Joe Hutch]

Teachers, you've been warned:

"Allison Pearson is away" is a nice touch.

"Allison Pearson is away with the fairies". Pearson rose to fame with her novel 'I Don't Know How She Does It'. My sister-in-law was always going on about how good it was, how true-to-life, etc. Mrs H eventually re-christened it 'I Don't Know Why She Bothers'.

 

[Spike]

Yes. As an ex NASUWT rep I still keep my ear to the ground and there has been no talk from teachers or from within the Union about refusing to go back to work either.

But then in the NASUWT we’re so much more civilised that that bunch of militant Trots at the NEU

Hahahahhaha. The roles are reversed these days. Seriously, NEU is much less militant than the NASUWT. Which is good as it takes the heat off us.

 

[mandryka]

I'm sorry to say that I think the reason for this

It’s not just that all the extra stuff that teachers do is taken for granted, it’s not even that it’s becoming expected more and more, it’s that teachers are still subject to thought processes like this that are as hateful as they are nonsensical.

has something to do with these

As a teacher I regularly give up my whole lunchtime for revision/support. I do this about twice a week throughout the year. I do at least one after school session per week. I always put on sessions during the May half term and Easter. I do this out of choice. I don’t get any extra pay. . . .
Many of my colleagues do exactly the same.

I do not know a single teacher who has or is refusing to go back. I’m a Union Rep (NEU) and have had no teacher asking me for advice/concerns. The NEU has never said schools should not open.

Yes. As an ex NASUWT rep I still keep my ear to the ground and there has been no talk from teachers or from within the Union about refusing to go back to work either.

That's to say, the more that management feel that can get away with demanding, the more they will demand. A headline like the one in The Telegraph isn't really about teachers not going back in September. That's not an issue. Its function is to keep the workforce insecure and isolated -- which helps to assure their continued compliance with management aims.

 

[Spike]

I will add that there is no expectation from my Head to do this. I’ve always done it, along with running sports teams and taking kids away. However, there is now a greater expectation from parents and pressure from them to do it!

 

[ks.234]

Hahahahhaha. The roles are reversed these days. Seriously, NEU is much less militant than the NASUWT. Which is good as it takes the heat off us.

Yes. The timidity of my lot has frustrated me at times, but we‘ve starting to get one or two voices in the news recently.

Why do such quiet Unions attract such shouty headlines?

 

[Joe Hutch]

That's to say, the more that management feel that can get away with demanding, the more they will demand. A headline like the one in The Telegraph isn't really about teachers not going back in September. That's not an issue. Its function is to keep the workforce insecure and isolated -- which helps to assure their continued compliance with management desires.

It's also telling Torygraph readers what they want to hear; that teachers (particularly those in state schools) are work-shy Marxists who want watching.

Incidentally, and amusingly, the Torygraph is reporting with glee on a 'bitter family feud' in the Murdoch family, studiously ignoring an even more bitter feud, which has ended up in court, between various factions of the Barclay family:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidd...who-controls-the-family-fortune/#21dc038e3644

'Keeping It In The Family

All of these disputes—including the 25%-75% split of the family’s assets—will likely be decided in courts of law in the coming years. Questions have previously been raised by MPs over the complexity of the family’s trusts and use of offshore company structures, and the battle could spark further investigations into one of the U.K.’s murkiest fortunes. In a long read for Tortoise Media released in early March, Jane Martinson wrote that, “The story of the Barclays and their business empire is in a way the story of our age.... they have been able to create an empire so complicated and secretive that no one can really say for sure where all the money is.” A source in the article describes the financial structure of the Barclay’s business empire as “like knitting fog.”'

 

[ks.234]

I will add that there is no expectation from my Head to do this. I’ve always done it, along with running sports teams and taking kids away. However, there is now a greater expectation from parents and pressure from them to do it!

Yes. One of the problems that I faced more and more as an area rep, was the way that running after school clubs slowly crept into Performance Management assessments. What teachers now do voluntarily could easily become something with the potential to turn into a PM judgement that they’re failing in some way

 

[ks.234]

That's to say, the more that management feel that can get away with demanding, the more they will demand. A headline like the one in The Telegraph isn't really about teachers not going back in September. That's not an issue. Its function is to keep the workforce insecure and isolated -- which helps to assure their continued compliance with management aims.

The Performance Management structure introduced by Gove has been described as a Bullies charter. It has the capacity within it to be used to increase teacher workload year on year

 

[SteveT]

One can only hope that it costs them millions to sort out and lots and lots of stress. Millions of pounds that they avoided paying to the Exchequer going to a load of dubious lawyers who hopefully are not as adept at avoiding paying their rightful amount of tax.

 

[Brian]

The man is a tw*t.

 

[gingermrkettle]

We discussed this as a governing body when it was first mooted. Well, when I say discussed it was more about agreeing how stupid it was.

Quite apart from the massive employment contract issues for the necessary support staff on term time only contracts, there was universal agreement that what was most inportant was having teachers ready to go next term given the challenges that will be there. Sacrificing that for more provision over summer was, understandably, seen as massively counterproductive.

 

[ks.234]

We discussed this as a governing body when it was first mooted. Well, when I say discussed it was more about agreeing how stupid it was.

Quite apart from the massive employment contract issues for the necessary support staff on term time only contracts, there was universal agreement that what was most inportant was having teachers ready to go next term given the challenges that will be there. Sacrificing that for more provision over summer was, understandably, seen as massively counterproductive.

If teachers fall under the STPACD then the directing time budget would need to reallocated to ensure that any summer working did not exceed the 1265 hours limit, or teachers should be paid, or given time off in lieu

 

[ks.234]

Taking his lead from Wilshaw, Boris Johnson said today that there is a moral duty to open schools.

No one is saying that schools should not open, and headteachers like Allana Gay, Headteacher of Vita Et Pax Prep school, having been working hard to open schools, but open them safely. She goes on to say that ‘to have the prime minister of the country come in such an attacking mode to education only belittles what we’ve done so far.

The Headteachers Union do not seem impressed by Johnson’s ‘moral duty’ either

https://www.naht.org.uk/news-and-opinion/press-room/the-government-has-a-moral-duty-to-act-to-increase-funding-for-children-with-high-needs/

 

[mandryka]

LORD OF THE DUNCE
Labour peer advising teaching unions how to avoid a return to the classroom without breaking the law

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/12377320/labour-peer-advising-teaching-unions-avoid-classrooms/

Teachers have a moral and civil duty to educate our children, especially when the harm that the enforced absence is having on young minds is becoming painfully clear. And most are itching to get back to work.

 

[Spike]

And your point is?