Steph

TeachFirst ambassador. Back In Reception after 4 years in year1! Ba (Hons) Spanish and psychology All opinions are my own!

[Josephine Liptrott @Jo_Liptrott]

This will be a long thread but bear with. My gym offers a women-only pool session every Friday for 90 minutes. Invariably, some blustering bloke comes barging in, is shooed away by the (female) lifeguard & goes off complaining. Also, towards the end of the session, men tend 1/14

[Claudia Lewis @MBDscience]

I'm surprised this half term felt so long, given that last year apparently lasted 5 million weeks .

[👩🏻‍🔬👩🏻‍🏫Rose @rosethechemist]

Gill, babes, last year four of the classes in my dept only had a qualified teacher for three months. A teacher left last week and we can’t replace them. My A Level physics students have no teacher.

Us striking is not the problem. 8 days is not the problem.

[National Education Union @NEUnion]

Today as 300,000 teachers go on strike to #SaveOurSchools this is why.

👉 Share or like if you’re with us.

[Rachel Tomlinson FRSA #ubuntu @BarrowfordHead]

Hi all

I am sure you will have seen in the news that the National Education Union are taking strike action on Wednesday 5th July and Friday 7th Friday.

School will be CLOSED to ALL children on both days.

The Year 6 London trip will not be affected.

1/10

[Tom Rogers @RogersHistory]

Gillian Keegan says she “can’t think of something that’s worse either than going on strike or refusing to mark homework"

What about not having any teachers left to choose to do either?

"it just damages children when they least need it. It’s very wrong"

Not having any teachers stood in front of them damages them more than anything else!

[Dr. Farbod MBBCh FRCEM @EmergencyBod]

I'm sorry if I still seem full of rage about #Partygate.

It's because I am.

I will NEVER forgive.

I can NEVER forget.

[Gareth Waugh @GarethWaugh]

UK is always like "We should protest like the french! Set the country on fire!"

One guy jumps on a snooker table "good heavens that's a bit much"

[Tom Rogers @RogersHistory]

8 Reasons for abolishing OFSTED or at the very least stripping it of it’s powers….

1.Unfair judgements - as inspections last for 2 days and are done by a small group of humans (sometimes 1), the chance for unreliable judgements is high

2.OFSTED doesn’t help schools to improve - following an inspection, OFSTED doesn’t help a school or it’s staff. For example ‘this school has bad behaviour in it’ - they walk away post inspection not to be seen until the next inspection. There is no school improvement arm to OFSTED.

3.Impact or a poor grade - this links to 1 and 2, but the community impact can be as follows: a) parents don’t want to send their kids to the school (each child is worth money to the school) b) some teachers don’t want to join the school as scared off by rating c) and prob the biggest - the psychological imprint of a poor grade is something I can’t imagine having to deal with as a school leader. But what I know is - it can be devastating for an individual and their family.

https://t.co/FcRjWQf93F and budgets - HMI pay is 72,000 a year, day inspection pay is £330. OFSTED budget is £150 million a year. Bonuses are awarded to OFSTED senior leaders usually between 5000 and 20000. OFSTED haven’t disclosed what these bonuses are for. In a school funding crisis, where teachers and TAs are having to battle for relatively small increases, surely this is wrong.

5.Impact of OFSTED pressure - it won’t take you long to find examples of leaders needing healthcare as a result of the pressure of upcoming inspection. Grades can be career defining but, as previously mentioned, are not reliable. The lottery of ‘who you get through the door’ and ‘what their lines of enquiry might be’ causes uncertainty, doubt and stress.

6.‘Doing it for OFSTED’ - OFSTED say no one should do anything for them which is easy for them to say when their own careers don’t rest on OFSTEDs judgements. Schools feel they need to ‘do’ all the time - new policies, new protocols, to ‘keep up’ with other schools and OFSTED themselves. The competition culture OFSTED inspires is damaging.

7.There are alternatives - the grading system doesn’t have to exist, neither does the OFSTED inspection system. Other countries do things very differently - take Italy, Ireland, Finland and Germany as just a few examples very close to home. It can’t possibly be argued that the English education system is better off than any of these by employing the system it does.

8.There is no evidence everything would fall apart without OFSTED - what’s the harm in giving it a try for a year or two? What’s the harm in a 5 year experiment - no OFSTED gradings whatsoever for 5 years and then survey schools, parents and children to find out about what’s changed for them positive or negative?

[Tom Rogers @RogersHistory]

Had a chat with Flora this morning and she said: “Whatever happens today it must be made really clear....this is not about us...this is about Ruth, her family, her community still reeling....
This is for educators all in the same position. We MUST not lose sight of why we are doing this. This is not about this particular school and not about me”

@FloraSCooper doesn’t have an ego, as someone who knows her well, the fact she feels the need to say this speaks volumes. She won’t be able to tweet any more about this from her account but never mistake silence for compliance. Needs our support more than ever in the coming days!! 👊

[Flora @FloraSCooper]

I've just had the call. I've refused entry. This is an interesting phone call.

Doing this for everyone for our school staff everywhere!

@Ofstednews
@Headteacherchat

#ShineOn
#BurnBrighter

[Ceridwen Eccles @Teacherglitter]

Sit and imagine what your life without PPA would be. Think about the teachers at home who could not afford to strike but did so you now have it. Lots will be retired now. They did it for the profession. We don’t strike for just us. It is for future teachers

[🇬🇧 TeacherToolkit.co.uk @TeacherToolkit]

It's important to note that the impending #TeacherStrike is NOT just about teacher pay!

It's also about:

1. Underfunded schools

2. Squeeze on the school day/hours

3. Teacher workload; one of the highest in the world!

= The means, ALL pupils get less quality teaching!

[Steph @MISS_M_EY]

This is a really lovely view of primary. When primary can often be seen as Jack of all trades master of none it can be (not always) looks down upon. This is a good read.

[Matthew Evans @head_teach]

Yesterday I spent the morning visiting primary schools for my own professional development.

Today I am reflecting on what I saw.

Here are my takeaways… 🧵

[AR @llewelyn20]

Personally I think the odd missed day of school makes fuck all difference.
But it makes me laugh that kids will be 'deeply harmed' from a day not in school due to strikes, but will be absolutely fine with a day not in school from the coronation.
Make your mind up.

[Steph @MISS_M_EY]

Can anyone share their STAFF well-being policy? We’re looking at implementing one that has real impact and supports staff. Currently don’t have one in place and I want to change this but need to go armed with examples and ideas! Please RT this! Thanks #teachertwitter #Wellbeing

[Jeremy Corbyn @jeremycorbyn]

When we march with our friends, the teachers, the rail workers, the health workers, the civil servants & the postal workers, we’re also marching for those in poverty.

We’re marching for those who are hungry.

And we’re marching for the next generation.