A teacher from St Brendan’s Sixth Form College in Brislington, where some staff went on strike earlier this week in a dispute with the central government over pay, says some union members couldn't afford to join the picket line as "they are living up to the edge of their salaries." Staff members at the school who are members of the National Education Union joined teachers at nearly 90 other colleges across the country in walking out over demands for an above-inflation pay increase funded by the government rather than school budgets.
Bev Forsythe-Cheasley, a biology teacher at St Brendan's, where she’s the NEU rep, told Bristol Live that teachers are experiencing a 20% drop in pay in real terms compared to 2010. Bev said, “Over 10 years, there’s either been no pay rise, or if there has been a pay rise, it’s been below inflation.
“But when we actually work it out with the current offer and the rise in inflation, that will be another seven per cent on top of that. So it will be closer to nearly a 30% drop over 10 years, which is obviously huge.
“I know teachers across different colleges are relying on foodbanks, and I know teachers who really wanted to join the strike but couldn’t because they’re living so close to their pay packet that just had no leeway in their salaries to lose a day's pay. It’s about £50-£70, but they just couldn’t afford to lose that, which is just how closely people are living to the edge.”
Read More: Teachers at St Brendan’s Sixth Form College in Brislington set to go on strike in a row over pay
To get by, Bev explained that many of her colleagues are turning to private tutoring on the side to make the career affordable. She said, “Teaching is a hard job - you work long hours and extra hours outside your ‘normal ‘paid hours’. And then they’re doing extra work on top of that."
The squeeze on school budgets is compounding the workload. Bev said: “It has a knock-on effect. Over the last few years, teachers have had a big increase in admin tasks they’re asked to do. It feels like a lot of other support roles within schools are being cut, increasing teachers' workloads, and it’s another massive reason why people are leaving the profession. They’re being asked to do more for less. It's not sustainable."
The government's current offer of five per cent is funded by schools and would increase to eight per cent for certain staff members, including early career teachers, but the NEU insists that even that figure is far too low. Bev said: "A lot of new teachers are young people who are having to deal with the massive hikes in rent at the moment and the fact that accommodation is no longer affordable."
Bev added that it speaks to teachers' commitment to their students that strike action has come as a last resort only after ten years of real-term pay cuts, which she says are having a detrimental effect, not just on the standards of living of teachers, but recruitment and retention of new staff and having far-reaching consequences for students now and in the future.
“The recruiting of new teachers is at a crisis point because it's now seen as a profession where you can’t earn a decent wage, particularly when your starting off at the very bottom of the pay scale. People aren’t choosing teaching as a career, or once they start, they leave for better-paid jobs that are less stressful.
“I see it where I work - there are positions that can’t be filled. There’s a shortage of teachers we’re noticing, and that has a really bad impact on students.”
Discussing last week’s strike action at St Brendan’s, Bev said that around 75% of NEU members at the school either joined the picket line or didn’t attend. She said that some students arrived at the school knowing that some of their classes were likely to be cancelled.
“The college decided to stay open and suggested students work in the library if their teachers were on strike," Bev said, “I do know that some of our own students turned up and saw us at the gate and were slightly frustrated about that, especially among those students who had travelled and paid money to get there on the train.”
On the whole, though, Bev feels that the reaction from pupils to the walkout was supportive. “It was really nice,” she said, “some students even went and bought us hot chocolate.
“The students understand that we’re asking the government to fund the pay rise. Currently, the suggested pay rise is going to come from the college’s budget. So students recognise that if that’s the case, there will be cuts somewhere in the school's budget. That might mean less support staff, fewer clubs, fewer trips.
“We encouraged them to channel that feeling of annoyance towards the government, maybe write to their MPs and express themselves that way.
"People work as teachers because they do care about their students. They don’t want not to be teaching them. We know it impacts, so there's this double issue of losing pay but also not teaching your classes which we know is detrimental. But the fact that so many of us choose to go on strike shows how important it is for us to get that pay rise, and the reality is that the government needs to fund it. That they expect schools to find it in their budgets just isn’t doable. "
Although the action only affected sixth form colleges, other teaching unions, NASUWT and leadership union NAHT are balloting members for action. Given that the NEU voted overwhelmingly in support of walking out, with 88.5 per cent voting yes on a 63 per cent turnout, it looks increasingly likely there will be widespread, coordinated strike action in schools this coming spring.
Asked why NEU took action early, Bev explained: “I think there was discussion as to whether we should wait, but part of the reason those ballots are taking longer is the postal strikes. Also, the feeling amongst sixth form teachers is that we wanted to make the government know that this is an issue right now, and we wanted to make a stand now to show support for secondary and primary staff to start that conversation and then hope for bigger action in the new year.”
Students and parents are likely to be less sympathetic to action closer to exam periods, but Bev said, “People will be very mindful of when the action takes place, but I think it’s a really important point that striking is going to disrupt students and that's why it really is a last resort because the pay offer is not acceptable.
“Short term, it will cause disruption, but the whole point is that if we don’t fund this sector properly, that’s going to impact students for years to come and impact them significantly. We’re hoping the government will make sure that the action doesn't have to go on very long and fund [the pay rise] so that students this year and in years to come can benefit from a properly funded education sector.
“We encourage parents and students who don’t want to see this happen to channel their frustration to their MPs and the government. Teachers don’t want to have to be doing this. We want the best for our students, which is why we must challenge this lack of funding so we can resolve this as quickly as possible. “
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