Video interview: 'We've got support of parents' say striking Stratford teachers
TEACHERS in south Warwickshire joined colleagues across England and Wales in a walk-out over pay.
A national day of action saw an estimated half million public sector workers strike today (Wednesday).
At Holy Trinity CE Primary School a picket line of teachers gathered by the school gates holding banners and placards in support of the strike called by the National Education Union (NEU) over wages, under resourced staffing, excess workload and targets and the cost of living crisis.
Many teachers said they were reluctant to strike and would be rather in the classroom teaching, but after years of faltering or failed negotiations with government, the profession voted for strike action joining lecturers, civil servants, train workers, bus drivers, border force agents and security guards in a day of action.
Richard Sandle-Keynes, a Year 4 teacher at Holy Trinity, NEU representative and former actor, said: “I want to be in my classroom teaching pupils because we’ve got exciting things to do today, but this is the only way to get people to sit down and talk around a table.
“I have friends who’ve asked why don’t I look for another job and earn twice what I’m earning now, but I love my job. So many teachers are doing second jobs and doing unpaid overtime or leaving teaching to make more money.”
Half of Holy Trinity Primary was closed yesterday. Richard and other colleagues were due to attend a teachers’ rally being held in Leamington later on Wednesday.
He added: “We’ve seen a slow decline in teaching pay and conditions over the last 13 years and when the government starts demanding on nurses – there’s a problem here. During the pandemic, people really got to see the quality and value of our teaching profession from home but the government needs to have respect for our industry and we need to renew that value for generations to come.”
Richard has been a teacher for ten years and says “lighting that fire in a child and then see them as a sixth-former full of self-worth” is what teaching is all about.
“Many parents said ‘good morning – we support you’ when they came to school with their children this morning and some honked car horns to show their support as well,” Richard said.
The NEU said the government offered teachers a pay rise of five per cent last July but with inflation and the cost of living that figure amounts to a pay cut in real terms.
It also argues that poor pay is forcing teachers and support staff to leave the profession and that one in three teachers leave education within five years.
