“The comments about this article from so many are appalling. So many people who think they know about education because they went to school. Sadly a lack of understanding of the profession and how it works.

A few facts for you:

1) In most surveys about jobs teaching is the most stressful, or at least in the top 5.
2) 50% of teachers leave the profession in the first 5 years, stating workload as the main issue.
3) It is about the only profession where you deal with 30 clients at a time, some of whom do not want you to do your job.
4) The government stays out of most professions. In my experience the teachers know more about how to educate children well than either government or parents (We are the professionals after all, very few think they can operate better than a surgeon or fix cars better than their mechanic)
5) Occupational Health has a box for teachers to tick because they are worried about the numbers being made ill by the job. All other jobs you have to fill in yourself what you do.
6) I have spent more time supporting teachers at this school than in the rest of the county combined
7) The management practises are appalling and there is a culture of bullying.
8) We completed an HSE survey, which is a national document about bullying behaviours from managers in ALL professions. From the results the evidence was irrefutible.
9) Around 1/3 of teachers suffer from mental health issues caused by their job.
10) Teachers have 13 weeks (1/4 of the year) where they are not in school teaching. How much of that do they work? I work on average 3 days of every half term (5 working days off, of which I work 3.) I spend a lot of the 10 working days off at Christmas writing reports and marking mock exam papers. At Easter I spend 5 days at NUT National Conference and most of the rest getting coursework ready for examiners, writing more reports on students etc.) I accept that 6 weeks in the summer is a long time (30 days.) However I will work 10 of these too. I forgot to mention that except one all bank holidays are in the time off so take 12 days off for those. Also we don't finish at 3:30 I work most nights till 8-10pm and one day each weekend. I do on average a 55 hour week in term time.
11) Teachers in post pay for the pensions of those who have retired. I pay contributions that go to those who are retired at the moment. Scrapping this scheme will cost a fortune and had the government not taken holidays from their contributions when the economy was good public sector pensions would be affordable.
12) The medias portrayal of teachers is wrong. It's more of a betrayal as Panorama proved recently. None of it based on secure evidence. But it means that we can carry on bashing the profession, so who cares if it's true.

The staff at this school went on strike reluctantly, after several years of hell in their school. The union spoke the the LA about it two years ago. Had something bee done then this would not have been necessary. One, two or even ten days strike will have less affect on the education of the pupils than another year or two of ineffective, bullying management. Personally I applaud the staff at this school for taking action to protect the education of children at Gedling School and urge parents to support them. I would also like to thank the teacher from Gedling not in the NUT for his comments and any other supportive comment posted.

I am quoted in the article, but not in context and I would like to set the record straight on certain issues.

1) Bullying and harassment was part of the action.
2) Some of the areas quoted as not being part of the action have a serious affect on workload. (Poor behaviour support means teachers have to spend more time dealing with them, increased class size means every set of books takes longer to mark etc.)
3) Words like "claims" and "we understand" are only included to make the action look unjustified and to make me look ill informed. To me it shows ”

“The comments about this article from so many are appalling. So many people who think they know about education because they went to school. Sadly a lack of understanding of the profession and how it works.

A few facts for you:

1) In most surveys about jobs teaching is the most stressful, or at least in the top 5.
2) 50% of teachers leave the profession in the first 5 years, stating workload as the main issue.
3) It is about the only profession where you deal with 30 clients at a time, some of whom do not want you to do your job.
4) The government stays out of most professions. In my experience the teachers know more about how to educate children well than either government or parents (We are the professionals after all, very few think they can operate better than a surgeon or fix cars better than their mechanic)
5) Occupational Health has a box for teachers to tick because they are worried about the numbers being made ill by the job. All other jobs you have to fill in yourself what you do.
6) I have spent more time supporting teachers at this school than in the rest of the county combined
7) The management practises are appalling and there is a culture of bullying.
8) We completed an HSE survey, which is a national document about bullying behaviours from managers in ALL professions. From the results the evidence was irrefutible.
9) Around 1/3 of teachers suffer from mental health issues caused by their job.
10) Teachers have 13 weeks (1/4 of the year) where they are not in school teaching. How much of that do they work? I work on average 3 days of every half term (5 working days off, of which I work 3.) I spend a lot of the 10 working days off at Christmas writing reports and marking mock exam papers. At Easter I spend 5 days at NUT National Conference and most of the rest getting coursework ready for examiners, writing more reports on students etc.) I accept that 6 weeks in the summer is a long time (30 days.) However I will work 10 of these too. I forgot to mention that except one all bank holidays are in the time off so take 12 days off for those. Also we don't finish at 3:30 I work most nights till 8-10pm and one day each weekend. I do on average a 55 hour week in term time.
11) Teachers in post pay for the pensions of those who have retired. I pay contributions that go to those who are retired at the moment. Scrapping this scheme will cost a fortune and had the government not taken holidays from their contributions when the economy was good public sector pensions would be affordable.
12) The medias portrayal of teachers is wrong. It's more of a betrayal as Panorama proved recently. None of it based on secure evidence. But it means that we can carry on bashing the profession, so who cares if it's true.

The staff at this school went on strike reluctantly, after several years of hell in their school. The union spoke the the LA about it two years ago. Had something bee done then this would not have been necessary. One, two or even ten days strike will have less affect on the education of the pupils than another year or two of ineffective, bullying management. Personally I applaud the staff at this school for taking action to protect the education of children at Gedling School and urge parents to support them. I would also like to thank the teacher from Gedling not in the NUT for his comments and any other supportive comment posted.

I am quoted in the article, but not in context and I would like to set the record straight on certain issues.

1) Bullying and harassment was part of the action.
2) Some of the areas quoted as not being part of the action have a serious affect on workload. (Poor behaviour support means teachers have to spend more time dealing with them, increased class size means every set of books takes longer to mark etc.)
3) Words like "claims" and "we understand" are only included to make the action look unjustified and to make me look ill informed. To me it shows ”

“Teachers are one the biggest bunch of parasites going.”

“What an utter disgrace. Any teacher who took strike action should not only be dismissed but should have their pension removed. The public will not stand for this nonsense and the government knows it has public backing for getting tough with these people.”

“bet they won't be out picketing for the next six plus weeks,eh?...all be off on their jollies to some sunnier climes no doubt before heading back for a wodge of inset days and marking sessions....shirkers....deport them !!!!”