‘I am doing this today for all of the staff’
STRIKING teachers manning the picket lines yesterday insisted their protest was not just about pay.
Resolving underfunding of education was also an issue.
One of the striking teachers on the picket line at Cardiff High School was French teacher Stephanie Cuff, who said that school staff needed to stick together.
She said: “I feel very lucky to work in our school.
“I love working with my department, I love that we are able to provide our pupils with lots of opportunities because of our particular school context.
“It is not without its problems. There are still stresses in the job, but I do feel that that is not a shared experience across lots of different schools UK-wide.
“The message today, which is on the flags, is ‘pay up,’ and for me personally, yes, I do think we should be given the pay rise that we deserve in line with inflation... I think it is important, but I am doing this today for all of the staff.
“It’s not for me and my personal gain. I don’t have children to support, so I can live quite comfortably within my means, but I know that some staff and support staff can’t do that, so I think it is important that we all work together.”
At Ysgol Y Deri in Penarth, ICT teacher Mairead Canavan said she was striking because education has not been made a priority.
“We have been driven to strike because the government won’t negotiate with us over pay and funding. We say they have not made education a priority,” she said. “We know not enough money is coming from Westminster – but the Welsh Government has money but is not choosing to spend it on education.”
At Cardiff High School, English teacher Jack Desambrois said: “I have got to be honest, I love teaching. Teaching is amazing. This school is a great school. The kids are lovely so I cannot fault the actual job that we do.
“The average teaching week is about 55 to 60 hours. And that is the only thing. It is about how much work is involved outside the teaching.”
Teacher Geraint Williams was at the picket outside Llanishen High in Cardiff.
He said: “There are lots of members of the public beeping their horns in support. Many teachers are discussing how it was the first time they have ever been on strike and why it is important to them.”
On the picket line in Penlan, Swansea, Clwyd Community Primary School special needs teacher Lucy Norman said: “It wasn’t
an easy decision to make, we haven’t taken this lightly at all. And we didn’t want to use it as a day off. It’s not a day off; it’s about raising awareness of why we’re all doing this, to show the difficulties education is in at the moment.
“As a teacher of children with additional learning needs, they need regular staff and staff who are familiar to them. It’s really difficult to keep staff and keep good staff.
“We love our jobs, we love our children and that’s what we’re here for as parents ourselves, we want to make sure our own children are having the best education and that we can give the children we teach every day the best. Unless we get proper funding, we can’t give these fantastic children what they deserve.”
Clwyd Community Primary School’s Ben Wolsey, who teaches Years 3 and 4, said: “It’s a sad state of affairs really that we’re out here, I’d rather be in class myself. It’s sad to see that the teaching profession has been eroded over the last 10 years or so.
“We can’t retain specialist teachers within comprehensive schools, which is having a knock-on effect on the children’s education. It’s not for us, it’s for the children, that’s what we’re here for. My own children are going to comprehensive school soon and I’d hate to think of a non-specialist teacher teaching them and their education suffering as a result.”
At Cardiff High School, maths teacher Ceri Thomas said: “There is more support for the strike now than I would have expected and a lot of the younger staff are supporting industrial action, which might have been a surprise. Pay is a very big issue... but the workload is also a massive issue and that is related to recruitment.”
When asked how the workload increase and lack of staff is affecting him, Ceri added: “I think it is gradually increasing greater expectations on staff. Class sizes are still a major issue, discipline is an issue, lack of resources is an issue.”
Cardiff High School ICT and computer science teacher John Amer said working 50-60 hours a week was physically and emotionally draining.
He said: “It is very draining. Emotionally as well as physically. I’m tired. One of the things that is levelled at teachers is that we have a lot of holidays and yes, that is true, but I feel I always need those to recharge so that I am ready to face another batch of pupils every September. Standing in front of pupils for up to five hours a day, up to 120 pupils a day if it is a full class, is extremely tiring and that is, as I say, not to mention all of the other duties we have to do.”