GENE BRODIE, education correspondent, reports from a teachers’ union meeting on the increasing levels of grievance among schools’ staff

Simple message: teachers are angry at their treatment by employers, as they prepare for Wednesday’s strike

According to the Chinese saying, it is a curse to live in “interesting times”.

At a rather bullish annual meeting last week of the Croydon branch of the National Education Union, Ellie Sharp, who was standing down as president, opened with the assertion that “this is an exciting time”.

Annual general meetings of any organisation are rarely exciting, but Sharp had read the room. There was a palpable feeling of excitement among the 50-odd school reps who had packed into the hall at the back of Ruskin House.

Delegates were warned early on that “the press are here” and if they did not want to be identified then they should say so when they got up to speak. I looked round, waiting for the press to show themselves. I scanned the entire room before I realised that the reference was to me.

I tried to keep my little notebook out of view, in much the same way that teenagers might try to use their mobile phones surreptitiously when in class.

I managed to make a note of some numbers: There were 3,375 NEU members in Croydon. This figure had been boosted by another 170 members that had joined in the past week since the strike ballot results had been announced. Nationally, the NEU said that it had received 32,000 membership applications last week.

Ready for industrial action: teachers will be on strike across Croydon this Wednesday

There are plenty of stats. How about this one: one-third of teachers leave the profession within five years of finishing their training.

Then there’s this: 1-in-8 children are taught maths by non-specialists.

There is, at the same time, a nationwide recruitment crisis. The teachers that are leaving are not being replaced. Things are going to get a lot worse before they get better. Exciting times indeed!

And behind all this, we appear to have a government that believes in the sanctity of the market in almost every context bar one – paying wages that the market appears to be demanding.

Well-paid politicians show their support for education by starving schools of funding and not even providing the money for the 5per cent, below-inflation pay rise that they say the teachers should get.

Teaching is getting tougher with bigger class sizes, unmanageable workloads, fewer support staff, fewer breaks… As a teacher, the longer you work at it, the poorer you get. No wonder there is a recruitment crisis.

If there is any silver lining to this cloud, it is to be found in the union, not the government.

As an extra incentive to get people to the big NEU march in Westminster on the first strike day this Wednesday, February 1, the NEU is organising a placard competition. Teachers are mostly creative types, so they might fancy the idea of raiding their art departments and putting together a clever banner or two. The winners will take home union merchandise (lanyards, probably), some biscuits and a £50 voucher for their school library.

In what other industry would you have unions striking while at the same time raising money for their members’ employer?

There were questions from the floor – what was the best way for members and their families to get to Westminster for the demonstration, given that ASLEF and RMT are also on strike that day? Bloody railway workers! Answer: the union is laying on buses.

How much would be deducted from members’ pay packets? Answer: approximately 1/30 of a month’s net salary and less than £2 off their annual pension. The strike looked affordable, even for those members at the lower end of the salary scale.

As an added incentive, the union would pay for breakfast for those members who picketed schools at the beginning of the day, just as many schools these days (and sometimes individual teachers) provide breakfast for their pupils.

A lot of schools will be partially open, with just some classes or year groups being asked to come in, and with the timetable being altered that no teacher is asked to cover a lesson that would have been taught by a striking NEU member. A lot of schools will be closed, inevitable in Croydon where a strike ballot turnout of 74per cent was much higher than the 53per cent national figure.

One teacher at the meeting said that they have already set their out-of-office text for Wednesday. “It says, simply, ‘I am on strike today’.”

• Inside Croydon – as seen on TV! – has been delivering local community news since 2010. 3million page views per year in 2020, 2021 and 2022.
• If you want real journalism, actually based in the borough, you should consider paying for it. Please sign up today. Click here for more details

• If you have a news story about life in or around Croydon, or want to publicise your residents’ association or business, or if you have a local event to promote, please email us with full details at inside.croydon@btinternet.com
• Our comments section on every report provides all readers with an immediate “right of reply” on all our content. Our comments policy can be read by clicking here
• Inside Croydon is a member of the Independent Community News Network
• Inside Croydon works together with the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, as well as BBC London News and ITV London
• ROTTEN BOROUGH AWARDS: Croydon was named among the country’s rottenest boroughs for a SIXTH successive year in 2022 in the annual round-up of civic cock-ups in Private Eye magazine