With the election, I’m not sure who I’m going to vote for. I feel whoever does get the part, they all say that they’re going to put this into the schools or they’re going to do this to properly support us. But I feel that is just to into the position, and then it just doesn’t happen. I don’t have a lot of faith in the system, really.
There’s not enough funding to support the children as adequately as we need, particularly in regard to being in a mainstream school. I think that the pay doesn’t reflect the amount of work you’re putting into caring for the children. Recently, I did the strikes for teachers partly because I do think pay did need to increase but it’s also the demands of everyday lives in school. There are a lot more additional needs coming into schools, which is absolutely fine, but we don’t have the resources and the staffing. It means that we’re kind of letting them down and their families because we’re not able to properly support them.
The pay is quite appalling for the amount of hours put into it. Most people think oh, nine till three you’re done. Not true at all. The amount of hours you’re putting in, like some of my teacher friends working weekends — there’s so much more that goes on behind the scenes. It’s not just come in, teach your lessons, go home.
As told to Nichola Hunter-Warburton
