Average Teacher's pay £34k p.a.? As any Maths teacher knows, averages don't really tell you much. It also depends how the average was worked out. The vast majority of teachers earn a huge amount less than this.

That said, The Villan makes a valid point, which is why I am not striking. Now is not the time to strike with the economy as a whole looking shaky and GCSEs and A Levels looming. I do not think striking is always wrong, but the issue of pay is not serious enough to warrant it, IMO. Do the NUT really think the govt. is going to simply roll over and give us more money just because a patchy strike, which a tiny minority of all teachers voted for (a minority even within the one union that voted at all), closed some schools for one day?

Morale amongst teachers is dipping and dipping. The issue for today's strike is pay, but there is a much deeper well of rightful resentment here, and even if we were to be paid over the odds, this would not address the real underlying issues. The unions have not served us well by only focussing on and acting on pay.