Teacher Training Days - and 13 weeks holiday

[marinyork]

the education act also puts limits on the number of days children can be in school.
i could write lots but it probably wouldn't be read anyway as once you have your minds made up thats it really isn't it.

Why wouldn't it be read? Most of the stuff you've written has probably mean read many, many times before by other people. Something different would most definitely be read.

 

[TheDoctor]

Surely the standard of teaching she was providing must have suffered drastically in this period?

So teachers have it easy AND they're too tired to do a decent job???

 

[ohnovino]

Don't forget they also have no flexibility on when they can take their holidays.

 

[redcard]

So teachers have it easy AND they're too tired to do a decent job???

Is that your opinion?

Working 16 hour days and having responsibility for 30 kids....something's gotta give

 

[marinyork]

Don't forget they also have no flexibility on when they can take their holidays.

That sounds like a negative to me. Is it?

Depends what you want. For some people when the holidays are is a gigantic bonus. For other people it might be a complete pain in the backside.

When my best friend became a teacher recently one of the big pluses he listed was fixed holidays, so not everyone sees it like that. Although less than a year later he is moaning about them now.

 

[Night Train]

I used to get paid for 12 teaching hours a week and spend around 35-40 hours a week in college to do that. The training days and holidays were unpaid and yet were used to develop teaching aids and coursework, do marking, research and plan and prepare visits to events, organise transport for visits, organise exhibitions, etc.

Note that I only got paid £18ph for 12 hours a week, for 30 weeks, from mid September to end of May for the whole year's work, not including holidays, half terms and training days. June and July were full time unpaid marking and assessment, training, exhibitions and preparations for the following September. No work was ever promised for September and no notice was given of any classes until, at most, a week before classes started. Also the classes offered may not even be the same the classes taught the previous term and so any preparations could be invalid, or even taken and used by someone else.

While traveling around, in my own time, researching and organising visits and events I can claim no expenses at all. Also no expenses for using my own laptop, printer, paper, mobile phone, internet, transport, acquiring PPE, specimens and examples of profession work and working materials, text books, folders, stationery, and so on.

I was supposed to book something like 15 hours of training over 3 years. During my last teaching year I booked over 50 hours of training, all unpaid.

Yeah, teachers have a great stress time and enjoy lots of holidays. Probably that explains why I am broke, signed off sick with stress for the last 14 months and awaiting a psychotherapy referral while trying to cope with the mental ill health it brought me.

 

[Arch]

The prospect of trying to control more than 2 children at once is so terrifying, I don't think I could do it for a week with 51 weeks off!

I did like the teaching I did at Uni as a postgrad, but that's dealing with adults (or almost adults), who've chosen to be there. How anyone teaches classes full of children and stays sane, I don't know...

 

[subaqua]

Is that your opinion?

Working 16 hour days and having responsibility for 30 kids....something's gotta give

usually teachers health. i can guarantee wifey will be fairly rotten about 8-10 days after finishing for summer for about 3-4 days. in half terms its the Tuesday or Wednesday for about a day.

I loved somebodies comment about lesson plans being the same. secondary maybe but not in Primary thats for sure.

 

[Archie_tect]

Don't forget they also have no flexibility on when they can take their holidays.

This is a joke, right?

 

[TonyEnjoyD]

Good to see so many people supporting both sides of the discussion.

a few years as a school building manager ( caretaker who was too dangerous to be trusted with a broom ) or doing night school teaching or even being a governor ( done the governor and the night school lecturing bit - practical stuff too not just dry lectures )

sub aqua, I never once in my posts had a personal dig at anyone so why you see the need to shore up any arguments with this I don't know.

My role as building manager included contract and contractor management and budgetary expenditure as well as some janitorial duties. I worked from 06.30 to 18.30 and in my time between 11.00 and 15.00 I could still be found helping out in the school as well as chairing the "friends of" group of parent volunteers raising funds for and doing extra fir the school.
Weekends, you were permanently on call and often out in the middle of he night too with alarms and vandalsm callouts.

Getting back to the OP, The head and staff were able to deliver an excellent level of education and still have a lot more free time over the holidays AND keep up to date on teaching method and standards without the week and a half extra school closure that has a massive impact on parents and commerce.

 

[Night Train]

My lesson plans had to be written year on year to take into account the needs of the student intake for that term. That means it isn't possible to write them during the summer as there is no knowing about the students until they have enrolled onto the course.
If I had a student with specific learning requirements then I would have to reconfigure my teaching, and working and assessment methods to suit their needs as well as that of the other students.
Also they are checked to ensure that any comments made during inspections the previous year have been acted upon.

This is a joke, right?

Teachers are not allowed to take holidays during term time, or training time.

 

[Archie_tect]

usually teachers health. i can guarantee wifey will be fairly rotten about 8-10 days after finishing for summer for about 3-4 days. in half terms its the Tuesday or Wednesday for about a day.

I loved somebodies comment about lesson plans being the same. secondary maybe but not in Primary thats for sure.

Hello from 'somebody', you read it, it's not difficult to remember who wrote it... my two cousins were deputy heads by the time they finished... it was their experience not mine.... I'm not a teacher [remember?].

"If 'someone' is so disfunctional that they cannot organise themselves year on year to plan their workload or plan for a year's teaching based on their experience to achieve the results they need over several years, working within the guidelines for curriculum, including the marking and assessments- which they have to do every year then, perhaps, they should consider another profession and not be teachers". [My cousin's words - not mine. She was an infant school teacher for 38 years, became acting head for 12 and then became an independent OFSTED inspector, so don't shoot the messenger OK?]

 

[TVC]

My nephew is head of a challenging primary school in Wigan, works very long hours and has very few days away from the school. He deals with local social services with on going welfare cases, spends huge time trying to secure new buildings whilst negotiating all the crackpot red tape politicians put in place, and has been assaulted twice in the last three years by parents. I think the guy is a hero and deserves a lot more recognition than he gets.

On the other hand, my brother is head of Economics and Politics at a lovely private school in Yorkshire. He works three 11 week terms, gets paid higher than the public sector and never has any discipline problems because the boys know they get kicked out if they cause bother. In all he has a complete doss of a job, and admits it.

 

[Archie_tect]

Obviously- lesson plans are part of the job- they should be able to use a template based on their experience though, sigh.
Remember that every parent of school-age chldren can't take holidays in term time either? [or shouldn't]
I have not had a two week holiday since 2004.... I'm not complaining, just saying.

I'm not anti-teachers.... my cousins loved it and still do as governors and independent inspectors- teachers are wonderful people [in the main].... they just knew that they had a privileged position in a responsible job which they loved. Teachers sjhould love teaching, otherwise they are negative and a bad influence on the children they are intended to inspire.... that's why they are there...right?

The teachers I know well don't spend a lot of time complaining... could it be that the ones who do are possibly a minority?

 

[subaqua]

Good to see so many people supporting both sides of the discussion.

sub aqua, I never once in my posts had a personal dig at anyone so why you see the need to shore up any arguments with this I don't know.

My role as building manager included contract and contractor management and budgetary expenditure as well as some janitorial duties. I worked from 06.30 to 18.30 and in my time between 11.00 and 15.00 I could still be found helping out in the school as well as chairing the "friends of" group of parent volunteers raising funds for and doing extra fir the school.
Weekends, you were permanently on call and often out in the middle of he night too with alarms and vandalsm callouts.

Getting back to the OP, The head and staff were able to deliver an excellent level of education and still have a lot more free time over the holidays AND keep up to date on teaching method and standards without the week and a half extra school closure that has a massive impact on parents and commerce.

not a personal dig , in the same way your dig at teachers wasn't personal .