Strike warning

[Mistral]

The SNES has decided to call for a strike next Monday (18th December) It looks as though it is only on secondary schools and, as usual, the private sector won't be concerned.
More information here: http://www.snes.edu/snesactu/article.php3?id_article=2387

I had been wondering, there is usually a strike some time in December and I hadn't heard anything.

[Lori]

Thanks Mistral.  I'll be on the look-out for a notice from daughter's school.

[Tourangelle]

Lori

Isn't your daughter in collège?  If so there wont be a note, as we aren't obliged to say in advance if we are striking or not. 

I am.

[Lori]

Yes Tourangelle she is, but often the teachers will advise that a day will be a strike day.  I then know to take her to school that morning (not send her on the bus) to determine which teachers are there and which are not.  Usually one is and if one is, she stays.  If none are there (has happened once), she goes home.

The frustrating thing is, if she doesn't go, no matter what, they send off a letter stating she missed a day of school, even though, if she went, she would just sit in Permanence all day.  I really don't understand this.

 

 

[Tourangelle]

It's just a legal thing, so that if anything happens to her while she is supposed to be in school, but isn't, you can't claim that you thought she was in school!

[Lori]

Oh, well when put that way, it makes sense.

 

 

[Mistral]

Lori, all the school is doing is checking that you know she's not at school. I have had pupils whose parents send them to school on strike days, but who somehow "get lost" between the bus and the school gate. Since our school doesn't send out absence letters for strike days (illegal, but it's not my decision) the parents don't know that their child has been outside all day and not in school. I can check on my son, but otherwise I would be furious. If you want to avoid getting a letter, then just fill in an absence slip in the same way as if she had been off school for illness. That way the absence is accepted as "justifié"

The school isn't allowed to inform parents as to whether or not the teachers are on strike. It is considered as part of their "vie privée" Most teachers warn pupils in advance, especially in schools where a lot of them come by bus. Do bear in mind that some pupils can be quite imaginative about the number of teachers absent. I've had parents tell me that they didn't send their child as there was only one teacher present for that class when I know that in fact, it was the reverse; only one teacher absent. It's not usually lying. It's part wishful thinking and part hearing a friend say "wouldn't it be good if MmeX wasn't there?" and only hearing the end bit.

Slightly frustrating as a teacher when you know that every teacher for a particular class is there, but still only 12 pupils come. If you do games/revising the parents who sent their kids complain because they didn't send them for that, and if you continue with the programme, the parents who didn't send their kids complain that they are penalised.