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A local primary school teacher has shared a poem explaining why she and her colleagues are going on strike today.
Here's what Katie Bennett-Jones had to say...
Pay up, pay up you hear all the teachers cry
But has anyone stopped to actually ask why?
In the news it may seem we're out for the money,
Yes, energy and bills continue to soar.
True, the pay isn't keeping up and we're all overdrawn -
But if you really look further, money is not at the core.
It's the workload and stress
Causing teachers to strike
The reviews and the data
That's causing mental illness to spike.
The tick-boxing exercises for Government stats
Sorry, when was the last time they sat in a class?
Why don't we swap for a day and you come into school?
Where the 5 year olds try to sit and learn fractions
Or the 6 year olds learn of subordinate conjunctions.
Through lockdown and covid, angels we were called
"You're magicians and wizards -
How do you work in a school?"
Teaching 30 plus children fractions and time
Or phonics and spelling and even some rhyme.
But all that seems forgotten, now that we're back
And on piles the workload and the to-do lists a plenty
Because on top of the curriculum (that needs a review),
We're not just teachers but many other professions too.
We're nurses and counselors, dentists and chefs,
Going home with all that responsibility heavy on our chests.
But not just in schools the problem is found
Newly qualified teachers are running aground
The universities see teaching degrees are half full at best
Because the teaching profession is an absolute mess
Why would the young leavers want to study and graft
For 3 or 4 years for a job that can't last?
Newly qualified teachers are leaving in droves
And the government act like nobody knows -
Why 1 in 4 NQTs leave within 3 years
And that stat goes up to 1 in 3 in the next years.
Primary and secondary class sizes continue to soar
How can one teacher support a class of 30 or more?
And within that 30, all in one class,
The SEN needs are higher than ever before.
So again we cry - Education is in crisis!
Teacher's don't want to be out on strike for the day
We want to be in our classrooms focusing on teaching for a change.
But if all of our time continues to be,
marking and data and statistics and tests
We need to stop and ask
- what do we want education to be?
We want to be free - To teach and inspire,
To facilitate a whole spectrum of children and young adults
Who have the chance to be creative, passionate and independent
Who flourish in school and hold no resentment.
Then go on off in the world grounded and happy
To live their lives with a host of skills they've acquired
Through creative planning and life experiences many
Looking at their teachers and feeling inspired.
So they can think to themselves, 'What do I want to do?'
'I think I'll be like Miss and inspire the next generation too'.
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