Lucie Scott on the picket line

IT is with a heavy heart that we go out on strike. As we enter the accelerated slide of the academic year –a crucial moment in many young people’s lives – some may ask: why would we do this?

We are fighting for the opportunities that a good education can produce: confident young people and women, academic success, more choices and opportunities to study in higher education, ability to achieve ambitions and meaningful careers.

We are seeking to highlight the positive impact a school can have on future generations, the way education can improve the quality of a student’s life, along with that of their family. We are fighting to properly fund what is every child’s human right, the right to an education.

Taught by well-trained teachers who are committed to smoothing the transitions that children are going through on their journey towards becoming adults.

We want children to be taught by subject specialists who are vibrant and encouraged to develop as professionals –not burnt-out and ready to exit their vocation after less than five years. A child potentially spends seven years in secondary education.

They need to form solid positive relationships with their educators to excel. A teacher has a daily impact and young people need quality and consistency. Recruitment and retention are at an all-time low.

Subjects are unfilled, budgets are already under massive pressure. Many teachers have to teach out of their subject specialism.

People are leaving and positions cannot be filled.

More agency staff are being used who are not paid during the holidays although they need to work during them. The cost of living crisis impacts on energy bills and other essential resources.

Students are working hard but need more access to mental health services and many are struggling to have money for lunch every day. We need a fully-funded pay rise, that does not force the headteacher to make cuts elsewhere. Allowing a teacher to develop and flourish is as important as it is to have well-established and experienced practitioners.

The younger generation are born of this millennium: they have access to so much information, are living their lives very publicly and under extreme scrutiny.

They need positive relationships to build emotional resilience and learn how to manage a barrage of information and also develop their own identities.

We have to acknowl­edge the impact of this and the pandemic: being isolated, living online, and getting addicted to various platforms like TikTok and Netflix.

Teachers and students have been through so much over the past seven years, but our pay is worth the equivalent of what we earned a decade ago. If Britain is to invest in its future, it has to invest in education.

That means a fully-funded pay deal that values the contribution of teachers and allows us to develop as practition­ers who can change lives.

Lucie Scott is an NEU representative at Parliament Hill School