News / National Education Union
Teachers’ strike: ‘We can’t run our schools properly’
Thousands of teaching staff across Bristol took to the city centre on Wednesday morning as part of a strike for better pay.
“SOS save our schools” was chanted as drivers, who had come to a halt on Park Street, College Green and Colston Avenue, beeped their horns in solidarity.
Schools across the city closed or partially closed as part of the first day of the strikes organised by the National Education Union (NEU).
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Madeleine O’Loughlin, a teacher from Sefton Park Infants & Junior Schools, said: “It’s not really about wanting to be paid more. It’s bigger than that. Our schools have been underfunded for years of Tory cuts.”
Teachers from Sefton Park Infants & Junior Schools joined the strike for better pay – photo: Rachel Sutherland
Madeleine (pictured above wearing an orange sign), was joined by fellow staff members. She added: “We can’t run our schools properly. We can’t do our jobs properly. We want to do our jobs, yet here we are.
“We’re a school with an incredibly supportive parent community, incredibly supportive leadership team and yet still we can’t do our jobs properly.
“No one goes into teaching to earn their millions, that’s not why you do it, and yet there are school staff members using food banks and not being able to afford to have the extra child they want to have.
“The government needs to wake up.”
Teachers and the NEU are desperately calling for an inflation-plus pay increase for teachers to be funded by the government, rather from school budgets.
Louise Howlett (pictured above in a yellow coat) explained: “We want to do our jobs, but we just can’t do it anymore, it’s just getting harder and harder and that’s both for new teachers and experienced teachers.
“The pressures are just global. It feels like we’re scooping up all the other services which are being cut as well.
“We have worked unbelievably hard over the past two years, schools weren’t closed during lockdown.”
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Aris Da Silva is a language teacher at the University of Bristol and has worked there for nearly 14 years, yet he is on a 10-month contract. He said: “Every year I work from September to June and then they renew the contract again. During those months I don’t work, I don’t get paid.
“It’s been this way for almost 14 years and I’m here trying to change that.
“I want better pay for all of us and better pensions. We have to keep fighting.”
Aris Da Silva said: “I want better pay for all of us and better pensions. We have to keep fighting.”- photo: Rachel Sutherland
Ursula Brown teaches at a secondary school in south Bristol and has 30 years of teaching experience. She said: “This is a small part about teachers’ salaries, but that’s not the whole story.
“The government has given pay rises not in line with inflation, but they’ve come out of teachers’ pay and school budgets so actually, it’s not a pay rise, it’s a pay cut for the schools.
“It’s not just the teachers who are suffering it’s all the support staff and all the other services that are there to serve the children. The children’s needs are really suffering too.
“Our senior management are wonderful, they’re doing their best it’s not the fault of the schools, it’s the fault of the government.
“I’ve been teaching for 30 years, and in the last 10 years I’ve seen how it really has eroded resources, funding, and management are really stressed trying to balance their budgets.
“People are doing more work, they’re stressed, people’s jobs are being cut and that’s why I’m striking not just for the teachers but for everybody.”
Ursula Brown (pictured left) said: It’s not just the teachers who are suffering it’s all the support staff and all the other services that are there to serve the children.” – photo: Jessica Lees
Teachers took to the streets on Wednesday as part of the UK’s biggest day of strikes across multiple industries.
Hannah Packham, South West regional secretary for the National Education Union, said: “Thousands of members across the South West have made clear today that education requires serious attention by government.
“Our members have taken a stand today for a fully funded, above-inflation pay rise, because the profession cannot go on like this.
“Parents know the consequences of persistent underfunding, both for their school/college and for their child.
“This strike should not be necessary, and we regret the disruption caused to parents and pupils, but our aims are in the interests of everyone in the education community.
“The government could not expect strikes to be averted unless it brings forward concrete proposals for increasing pay.
“NEU members across the South West have taken industrial action today, reluctantly, to stand up for the future of education.”
Thousands of teaching staff across Bristol took to the city centre on Wednesday morning as part of a strike for better pay – photo: Rachel Sutherland
The NEU is planning further strikes in the South West region on March 2, along with strikes across England and Wales on March 15 and 16.
Main photo: Rachel Sutherland
Read next:
- Teachers set to strike over ‘unacceptable workload’
- Bristol University staff and students stand in solidarity as strike begins
- Three more schools could join School Streets programme
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