Which side are you on boys?
2002-03-07 || 5:15 p.m.

So what kind of a day have I had? Well, strangely mixed would be the answer.

I've been out the last two nights and so I was pretty knackered when I got up at the crack of dawn this morning. I needed to get a reasonable night's sleep as my science lesson this afternoon was being observed as part of whole school monitoring.

The other thing that has been on my mind has been the strike action next week. Well, there's no need to ask me where I stand on the question of unions and striking. I am 100% behind my union. I have to be. Trouble is, other people don't feel the same. We had a meeting during the lunch hour last week - our official NUT meeting to talk over the implications of a 'yes' vote to the strike action. What are we striking for? The London fringe allowance and the value that the governments puts on teachers.

The whole of the South East is suffering a terrible crisis in that it lacks teachers. Although this is a nationwide problem, it is far worse here because the cost of living is so much higher in the South East. Just to give you some idea of what this is like, as a teacher I earn �17,665 a year. A small house in the town in which I live would cost c.�80,000 plus. Now, to get mortgage I can only have three times my salary. You don't have to be Einstein to know that the figures just don't add up.

So we get London weighting. Well the real value of this has declined dramatically over the years. The rise has never even been in line with inflation let alone in line with the cost of housing. We have just been offered 3.5% increase in the fringe allowance and it is just not enough. I found out today that 85% of those who voted, voted 'yes' to the strike next thursday. And just to really emphasize the situation, my salary above of �17,665 is INCLUDING the fringe allowance!!

To get back to the meeting last week, I kept very quiet because I knew I was going to vote 'yes' Everyone else was saying they were going to vote 'no'. To be perfectly honest, living where I do and getting a fringe allowance, the benefit to me is minimal but I don't think that's the point. The Union line is to strike and I won't break the Union line. So what's happening in reality? Well, I thought I would be the only one at my school on strike and I thought that would make Maria hate me even more than she already does. Thankfully Helen and Cathy are going to strike too, but we are still in the minority. Funnily enough, at the governers' meeting last night, one of the governers said that she was a bit disappointed that we weren't more militant. So am I.

The atmosphere in the staff room has not been what you would call a bundle of laughs. People have been slagging off the Union and saying they are only in it because they have to be. They don't think through the benefits it brings them. Nobody ever got anything by waiting for some kind philanthropist to notice them. We need protection and security and the Union gives us that. Kylie has been particularly upset by it all. She came up to my room at lunchtime saying that Helen had been slagging her off because she would not strike. I said that I thought it was a personal matter and one for your own conscience. Personally, I said, I would not be able to not strike (if you see what I mean) but I am happy to strike for others. I know I lose a day's pay and quite honestly given my circumstances I CANNOT afford that but that's not the point. People suffer far more under other circumstances around the world, my one day's pay is a mere drop in the ocean. If other's won't do it, then I will and I won't slag them off for not feeling the same way I do. Who am I to say who is right and who is wrong?

Helen did tell me that she also voted 'yes'. It just shows that even when you think you are the only one who thinks a certain way, you can be sure that whatever you are thinking, someone, somewhere will feel the same way too.

Of course, the real fun will be when the parents start talking in the playground especially when they get the letter Maria sent home tonight telling them that their children in Years' 1, 3 and 4 would be excluded from school next Thursday. They are going to think we three are real bitches who do not care about the children in our care and don't value their education when in fact, of course, the opposite is true. I think that any parent who values their child, their child's education and the person who is teaching their child, should support us otherwise they are saying we have no worth and they don't mind someone worthless being in charge of and influencing their child all day long. Trouble is, its a really conservative school in a pretty affluent area and therefore cocooned in its own little values and out of touch with real life. The kids are great though and I just hope I show them a different point of view. Last year I worked in an inner city school and that was great but the travelling is too much and not fair to Rebecca.

So to my science observation. It went really well. Excellent in fact. It is a relief to know that I'm not spouting any obvious scientific heresies in front of the kids, I'll be ok as long as I can keep my real opinions to myself but that's the same for everything, especially RE. If Maria could read my mind I'd be saying Hail Mary's for the rest of my life.