RAWMARSH SCHOOL: Solving strike is responsibilty of management

There is a real mix of staff who are on strike, some who have secure jobs at the school and some who have either been given compulsory redundancy, volunteered for retirement or redundancy.

I would ask the parents of kids at Rawmarsh School to ask, why these teachers are on strike, do you honestly think that teachers who have secure jobs, if the previous letter is to be believed would actually strike to cause a negative effect on the GCSE results of kids they have spent the last 5 years working with?

I agree striking does disrupt school life, but is it not the responsibility of the management to do something about it?

After all, is it not obvious if the fight is only for their jobs why would the teachers who have jobs be striking?

From what I have heard the teachers in the NUT do get reimbursed by their union whilst on strike but I have gathered that these funds are not limitless.

As for the teachers going home to ‘enjoy themselves’ I can assure you from what I have seen firsthand, this is not the case as teachers are actively campaigning for their cause ‘kids not cuts’ by leafleting, visiting other schools, establishments and attending meetings in the afternoons that they are on strike, in the evenings and at weekends, so it is safe to say that in this penny pinching environment that we are living in, they are the ones that are financially losing out.

The teachers I have spoken to have assured me that their GCSE pupils are their uppermost concern and that work is being distributed to them for the strike days along with catch up sessions after school and in the upcoming holidays.

We have to understand that there are also a lot more kids in the school than the ones which are currently doing their GCSE’s and it is clear that these teachers are striking for all their futures.

What will become of GCSE results in future years?

Mark my words if these cuts are allowed to go ahead, kids will be taught by stressed out teachers teaching maximum hours with maximum class sizes.

I would like to put this question to the school, have you budgeted for the drop in GCSE results in years to come and also for the amount of money you will be paying out in wages for cover teachers?

Regardless of the effect this will have on the kids of Rawmarsh, whatever happened to the ‘Every Child Matters’ motto, quite obviously the management and LA at Rawmarsh have come up with their own motto: ‘never mind the kids, every penny matters’