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Not so good for NI teachers to be paid much less than Wales!

Someone coming out of Uni with limited teaching experience I don't think should merit a great salary.  I graduated in 2007, I was happy enough to get a job of any description to try and get the experience required.  I dare say there is a big difference generally in a teacher at 21/22 and someone at say 30 who has been round a few corners the same in any job really. 

I agree in principle.
However the amount has to be reflective of the true cost of living.
The national living wage is going up to £11.44 an hour in April, and by my rough calculation a new teacher in NI will start on £12.ish per hour. So a professional qualification earns a teacher £1/hr more than someone serving at a till in the local corner shop.
The pay doesn't reflect the job they do.

How many years to you are top of your scale, was one of the teaching pay deals a couple of years ago not that you got to about £38k in 7/8 years ?

It takes 11 years to get to Upper Scale 3

Not 100% sure but I think once you hit that upper scale, that's it. No more pay rises.
Only way to get more is to go for a VP or principal role or take on extra responsibilities, but there are only so many of those to go around.
if 38K is the top and that's what you are on, year on year you get a pay cut in real terms with inflation.

Dunno if this has been mentioned yet, surprised if it hasn't.

How many times can you bounce the ball back then?

As far as I know, you  can bounce/dribble the ball basketball -style as much as you want , as long as you don't catch it in your hands .

Oh! I didn't know that.

You're clearly  still annoyed about 1994, aren't you? 

It certainly annoyed me at the time, even it if was one of the all time great games.
But what annoyed me more was the Derry County Board sacking Eamon Coleman after it. He'd lost 1 championship match after winning an All-Ireland.

There's an obvious theme here that many feel the job teachers have isn't deserving of the pay as they get too many holidays or have 10 month contracts or have a decent pension.

That's the job, it comes with those holidays and perks. Like many jobs in private sector that come with perks such as pensions, company car, private health care etc.

Yes teachers have a 10 month contract, but they still have bills for 12 months like the rest of us, so their wages are split over 12 months. Not sure why that's an issue as their annual salary hasn't changed. If you want to compare a 10 month contract with a 12 month contract, then take the annual salary of someone on a 12 month contract and compress it to 10 months, the comparison applies then.

The fact remains, the role a teacher provides is a professional one that all children need.

In terms of hours worked...that's so far off the mark you've no idea.

I'd be the first to poke fun at a teacher and the short days and long holidays, but the reality is totally different.

To add insult to injury, teachers doing the same job in other parts of the UK are getting paid more.

It's unsustainable.
Teachers will leave the jobs. Kids will ultimately suffer the consequences and all those people who see the schools as free childminding will be up in arms.

Teachers in the wee six not doing so well

I hadn't seen that before, but I can say that it feels about right.
My wife is a teacher now for well over 20 years. She has management points and her take home now is roughly 2k more than when she started all those years ago. Less than £200/year increase in salary.
I can say in all honesty, she has more hours to work in a week than I do.
Was recently chatting to a young lad in a tyre depot when getting a puncture fixed, he was about 21/22 and he was telling me he's taking home over £500 a week. One of the neighbours kids has a part time job in Tesco, and her hourly rate is better than what my wife earns.
I get that there isn't money in the education budget to pay them more, but the current state of things where students and early stage "non-professional" jobs (such as a tyre fitter) earn as much as if not more than a teacher of 20+ years in a management position is fundamentally wrong. I'm not suggesting that those other workers don't deserve what they are getting paid, but teachers should certainly be getting paid more.
I know of 2 young teachers who recently resigned. One of them is just looking for work in shops etc until they find their feet. The other is doing reflexology from the house 3 nights a week and making more than she was when teaching full time.

Watched the toy show on the rte player on sat night as we'd the transfer test on Sat am.
It's the first time in years we watched the whole thing. It felt like it was about the children and the toys again.
Kielty has a much better persona and approach to this, he really was excellent. The children had a chance to talk without any condescending remarks from the presenter who just wanted attention on himself.
Still had the obligatory amount of cheese, which is actually great.

Unfortunately I didnt get to see the Trillick v Scotstown match but by all accounts it was a very good game.
I had a feeling Trillick would win it and had the potential to win Ulster under the radar, but not to be.

Glen probably deserved to win the first SF, that point at the end to win it was worth it alone.
I still think they are not playing as well as last year, but perhaps that will come yet. Glass has been underwhelming, but that's not to say he's playing badly, just doesn't seem to be hitting the same highs as last year.
I dont think that was a penalty tbh, and had it not been given Glen probably ran out comfortable enough winners. Hurson had a reasonably good game, though I though he was a little harsh on Glen in general, but for me he got the penalty wrong.

Glen and Scotstown will be an interesting game. Glen perhaps slight favourites, but not much between them. Scotstown keeper play could be the difference in the two teams.

How long would a retender take?

Depends on whether the design has changed. They could issue tender documents with a qualification document along with it instead of getting a short list first - that might save 6 weeks. For a project that size you'd need at least 6-8 weeks to price it. Same again to assess it and award it.

Add in a couple of weeks for downtime over christmas too. 4-6 months maybe before it can be awarded I'd guess.

Panorama last night about the missing children in Ukraine.
Seems to be a concerted effort by Russia at the highest level to "re-locate" children from Ukraine into Russia. Difficult to understand the motive behind that.

Also some of the propaganda on Russian media about the Ukrainian state selling children's organs into Europe was just bonkers.

Really heart-breaking stuff in general....albeit a completely 1 sided view of the story, however, it's difficult to see any justification for any of what was covered.

https://ulster.gaa.ie/2023/11/ulster-gaa-statement-on-casement-park-project/

Heron Bros not proceeding as contractor 

Sounds like it has to go out to procurement again given the new costs and passage of time.
Herons might still get the contract but will probably have to re-tender.
Probably a delay that they hadn't anticipated.

Senior
Trillick (Tyrone) v Scotstown (Monaghan) - Trillick by 3 (I personally think Trillick are dark horses for Ulster having seen them first hand in Tyrone)
Glen (Derry) v Glenties (Donegal) - Glen by 6

Intermediate
Ballyhaise (Cavan) v Glenullin (Derry) - Glenullin by 2
Liatroim (Down) v St Patricks (Armagh) - Cullyhanna by 3

Junior
Blackhill (Monaghan) v Arva (Cavan) - Blackhill by 2

God help those wee children and the extended family.
Absolutely devastating.

[would have given Dublin a tougher game in the final]

So it's Monaghan to beat Derry in 2024 AI Final?
Would be great to have a Final without Kerry, Dublin, Tyrone or the crowd to the West of us.

Would be brilliant if that was the AI Final pairing.....with Derry winning though 

Most people in Derry are realistic and most are happy that we can compete with the top teams again. No-one expects to win the AI, but its fantastic to at least be in the conversation with a chance.
We've one AI in our history, so success for me is being able to compete at the top end consistently and if we win Sam that would be the cherry on top. Would love my kids to get that experience and I think Derry as a county would get some lift if they did win it, but at the end of it all if we don't win it doesn't take away the enjoyment and the hope.
I feel Derry could have won last year, should have beat Kerry and would have given Dublin a tougher game in the final. But it was still a great year for us, and this year hopefully will be too.

Kerry was level 1-13 each with 73 minutes played in this years All-Ireland final i don't think Derry would have given much tougher than that.

That was with Clifford not firing.
It's all ifs and buts I know, but I think if Derry had been playing Dublin, we'd have put them under more pressure than Kerry did. Only an opinion and last season has been and gone. I'd be happy if we got a chance to test ourselves against Kerry/Dublin again at that stage of the championship.

So it's Monaghan to beat Derry in 2024 AI Final?
Would be great to have a Final without Kerry, Dublin, Tyrone or the crowd to the West of us.

Would be brilliant if that was the AI Final pairing.....with Derry winning though 

Most people in Derry are realistic and most are happy that we can compete with the top teams again. No-one expects to win the AI, but its fantastic to at least be in the conversation with a chance.
We've one AI in our history, so success for me is being able to compete at the top end consistently and if we win Sam that would be the cherry on top. Would love my kids to get that experience and I think Derry as a county would get some lift if they did win it, but at the end of it all if we don't win it doesn't take away the enjoyment and the hope.
I feel Derry could have won last year, should have beat Kerry and would have given Dublin a tougher game in the final. But it was still a great year for us, and this year hopefully will be too.

Monaghan & Derry weren't far away in their semis this year. They have to believe they can beat them next time.

There is a big difference between staying in contention to 65 mins and winning

True. But if its in the melting pot at that stage anything can happen. Lucky goal, a penalty, a red card etc

Most times the team with experience grinds out the win.

Monaghan have experience, won ulster relatively recently...been in the latter stages of the AI and have a group of players that have been around a long time. The age of their experienced players might be their downfall though as they rely heavily on the older lads.

Derry have a good age profile, have loads of experienced players in terms of club series from Slaughtneil and Glen. Plenty of players now who have won all-ireland minors too and who have played in the latter stages of the AI whilst also winning back to back ulsters. The only experience lacking is winning an AI. But I take your point, in an AI final the team who have been there and done it before will always have an edge.