O/T. School Inset days - what do NSC's teaching contingent think about this...

[Westdene Seagull]

Unless you are married to a teacher, are a teacher or know one you will not realise how much overtime they do. My wife goes at 7.30am gets back at 5.30 then usually carries on working untill 9.30 ish. Then also plans on a Sunday for the Monday. Holidays are a joke. May half term is spent doing reports, I actually take my daughter away to give my wife peace and quiet to do it. Again she works silly hours to do it. Summer holidays usually means she gets about 3-4 weeks off as the rest is spent getting the new classroom ready etc. I know what you will say bigger fool her but she is a damn good teacher and conscientious, not all are mind.

They also work morning, noon and night during term time.

I've just finished my teacher training and have a teaching assistant role to begin with.

Frequently I was planning for four different groups per lesson, extension work. Then creating resources for each lesson. Coupled with assessing completed work.

Creating, tailoring individual education plans. Dealing with parents. Mid term planning. Ad infinitum.

I would say I only really had one day off a week where I didn't do anything school related, but that was soon absorbed by essays.

Remember also that staff in education don't have the luxury of picking and choosing when they want a break.

Teachers get longer holidays because they do far more than the average 9-5 employee does on a work day. I have worked in an office, a supermarket, a call centre and as a teacher. I can tell you now that the teaching job does far, far more hours over a year than any of the others by some distance.

Oh do give over ! I was married / lived with a teacher for 19 years, have a sister who is a teacher and a cousin who is a teacher - I recognise they put in long hours but to dismiss that fact that many many workers also put in long weeks ( mine average around 55 hours ) but without the holiday perks is ridiculous.

 

[jgmcdee]

Oh do give over ! I was married / lived with a teacher for 19 years, have a sister who is a teacher and a cousin who is a teacher - I recognise they put in long hours but to dismiss that fact that many many workers also put in long weeks ( mine average around 55 hours ) but without the holiday perks is ridiculous.

And your salary for those 55 hours a week?

 

[Nibble]

Oh for Heavens sakes . More cowtowing to parents and their bloody kids. Get your bloody kids to school and if you have to pay more for holidays so be it, should have budgeted that in when you decided to have kids.

 

[Wilko]

Oh do give over ! I was married / lived with a teacher for 19 years, have a sister who is a teacher and a cousin who is a teacher - I recognise they put in long hours but to dismiss that fact that many many workers also put in long weeks ( mine average around 55 hours ) but without the holiday perks is ridiculous.

What job do you do and how much do you get paid out of interest?

 

[Nibble]

Teachers do work hard but they are far from the hardest working people around. I went out with one for about 8 ven she got bored in the holidays there were so many of them. Always cost a bloody fortune to go on holiday too.

 

[BigGully]

Errr .... no. The implication is that teachers get 13 weeks holiday a year. Even if you suggest they use half of those holidays for work it still gives them 6 and a half weeks holiday. That's one and a half weeks more than the average worker - I hardly see taking a week in the summer holidays ( or do it at Easter or during a half term if necessary ) is impinging in their holiday.

Errrr .... yes, you are still implying that the inset days are somehow a non-working time for teachers and should then be taken through their holidays, its a direct reduction on their entitlement, so the inset example is wholly irrelevant, just go for reducing their annual leave if that's how you feel and run with it.

But how you can directly reduce anyone's annual holiday entitlement and 'hardly see it's impinging' is the strange bit.

 

[nwgull]

My mum was a teacher and I have lived with 2 women who are teachers (1 primary and 1 secondary). I can definitely back up what others have said about them working bloody hard throughout term time - 50 hour week as a norm - and putting in extra hours during the holidays in preparation for the following term. It is anything but an easy job.

On the separate subject about holidays, the academies can, in theory, choose their own holiday dates. However, the head has to account for families with kids at different schools so it's normally much easier to have the holidays correspond with all the other local schools.

 

[bluenitsuj]

Why is it so difficult to understand that school time is for teaching kids, and that it's full as it is? Add a couple of weeks, randomly throughout the year, every different child at a different time, for the teachers to attempt to compensate for, and your kids will do significantly worse at school.

I understand perfectly, but children can get just as much 'education' out of travelling the world, which is not affordable during term time. You only live once, and time spent with your children should be very important.

With reference to you saying that kids will do worst at school by missing a couple of weeks, I did take my daughter out two years ago for a 3 week holiday. She has top grades in Maths, English and Science.

We may just have to agree to disagree but I do feel strongly about this. Education is only important to some people when they choose, yet training days, strikes, bad weather ( kids get sent home with 1 cm of snow on the ground ) and open evenings ( my daughter was home at 1pm today so they can get ready for parents evening) . Add all this up and you are probably very close to the 2 extra weeks which I put forward earlier.

This is just my opinion and of course, many will disagree, but that is what debate is all about.

 

[jgmcdee]

I understand perfectly, but children can get just as much 'education' out of travelling the world, which is not affordable during term time. You only live once, and time spent with your children should be very important.

And you have lots of time to do so in the holidays. Travelling the world is affordable outside of term time; perhaps not quite in the same way but it's perfectly possible for most people.

With reference to you saying that kids will do worst at school by missing a couple of weeks, I did take my daughter out two years ago for a 3 week holiday. She has top grades in Maths, English and Science.

Which is great for her. Did the school do nothing whilst waiting for your daughter to return, or did other children learn things that your child did not? And how would you feel if your daughter was sat at the back for a couple of weeks doing nothing whilst the teachers spent their time teaching children things which your child had already covered, due to those children taking a holiday during term time?

We may just have to agree to disagree but I do feel strongly about this. Education is only important to some people when they choose, yet training days, strikes, bad weather ( kids get sent home with 1 cm of snow on the ground ) and open evenings ( my daughter was home at 1pm today so they can get ready for parents evening) . Add all this up and you are probably very close to the 2 extra weeks which I put forward earlier.

So your plan is to put the two weeks on and then cancel all training days, strikes(!) and bad weather(!!)?

 

[Barrel of Fun]

Training days, in theory, improve the service teachers and support staff supply to many millions of children.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

No but most of us don't get 13 weeks holiday ( I get 4 1/2 and most people get no more than 5 ).

So? Many people get paid more than me. If those with more holiday should sacrifice their holiday for training then maybe the higher paid should pay for their training? Of course not, it a stupid idea.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

Oh do give over ! I was married / lived with a teacher for 19 years, have a sister who is a teacher and a cousin who is a teacher - I recognise they put in long hours but to dismiss that fact that many many workers also put in long weeks ( mine average around 55 hours ) but without the holiday perks is ridiculous.

I am not sure it is a perk but if we are to consider it as one maybe I should start bleating incessantly and enviously about the perks my friends in other industries get. But no I won't, I prefer to just be pleased for them and their work.

 

[Green Cross Code Man]

So? Many people get paid more than me. If those with more holiday should sacrifice their holiday for training then maybe the higher paid should pay for their training? Of course not, it a stupid idea.

This.

Usually these threads are started as a cheap way to have a go. Perhaps if people think teachers jobs are so great, they should become a teacher. There are loads of other professions one could be envious of if one puts one's mind to it. But jealousy of the holidays by the general public and also through the fact that parents often don't want to take responsibility for their kids makes a feeling that makes teachers an easy target.

 

[bluenitsuj]

And you have lots of time to do so in the holidays. Travelling the world is affordable outside of term time; perhaps not quite in the same way but it's perfectly possible for most people.

Most people, not all. My wife's family are 8000 miles away. They cannot come over due to money, if we had gone over in the summer holidays it would have cost us over £1200 more, just for flights. Everybodys circumstance are different. Its getting away from the thread but it is not an option for some people. If you just want to go and sit on a beach for two weeks in Lanzarote, then no, not allowed, but if visiting family, or chinese new year, then to me, that is different.



Which is great for her. Did the school do nothing whilst waiting for your daughter to return, or did other children learn things that your child did not? And how would you feel if your daughter was sat at the back for a couple of weeks doing nothing whilst the teachers spent their time teaching children things which your child had already covered, due to those children taking a holiday during term time?

My daughter done the work while being away, we asked for it beforehand, and she done it.



So your plan is to put the two weeks on and then cancel all training days, strikes(!) and bad weather(!!)?

I think the point I was trying to make was that education is important (which it obviouslyy is ) when it suits the authorities, yet kids can be sent home on a whim, and strikes will always happen, but are the children put first when the teachers do strike? no.

 

[jgmcdee]

I think the point I was trying to make was that education is important (which it obviouslyy is ) when it suits the authorities, yet kids can be sent home on a whim, and strikes will always happen, but are the children put first when the teachers do strike? no.

Which is an incredibly insulting point to make to the headteachers who have to decide when to close schools. Do you honestly think that they do it "on a whim", rather than taking in to account the reality of the situation and making a tough decision?

Strikes are a totally different matter, and as with doctors and firefighters there needs to be some separation of the job that these people do from the impact that they have on others. Given the pay and conditions (and hostility from so many parents) do you believe that any teachers are there because it's an easy option? And if not, then surely they are there for the love of the job. So surely they wouldn't be striking unless they really thought that there were no other option.

 

[Barrel of Fun]

The school I work for. The last time she called time on school was at 0530 having been down there to inspect. She and many others spent much of the previous day trying to turn the ice rink in to something resembling dry land.

Granted, I've not met every headteacher, but the ones I have met, dedicate their lives to learning. Not looking to take the day off for a bit of snowfall!