To not go on the residential?

*Imagine a free ski holiday or trip to Italy. Must be horrendous 🙄
I refuse to believe that anyone is actually this dense - another one on the wind up. Ignore.

I know teachers work hard- and know many! All of whom tutor on the side and none of whom are what I would describe as overly stressed.
I also know two who were absolutely delighted to be picked to go on the ski trip!! They certainly weren’t complaining about having to go and from the videos I have seen seemed to be very much enjoying themselves!
I know another who is just back from a trip to the states- also told me how much fun they had!

Another anti teacher clearly!

Yes, I agree they must be exhausted unless they don't have a young family or other family members to look after and are young enough and fit enough to enjoy working ridiculously long hours.

Imagine a free ski holiday or trip to Italy. Must be horrendous 🙄

And yes ..of course these are "holidays" for the staff. No work or responsibility involved at all .. .nooooo....not a bit! 🤪

Your resentment is palpable! 😂

@Youthiswastedontheyoung

I don't think this is the right place to ask as it's obvious that most people think teachers get an easy ride due to the holidays.

YANBU to not want to go but I do think you need to let them know - I can't see that the trip can go ahead if you're not there with your class.

I don't think they are unreasonable to assume you are going as it's pretty standard for primary schools to do a trip.

Could you not go up for our working days?? I do think that there are some trade offs in teaching - everyone knows we have to do parents evenings & trips etc but we do get good holidays in exchange so it's time in lieu. Also what do you plan to do if your class are all away? Maybe you can find another staff member to swap & you teach their lessons in exchange for them taking your class away??

When I first started teaching we used to drink wine on French study trips but most schools are zero alcohol.

It’s baffling how many also find time to tutor on the side too! They must be exhausted 🙄

Yeah OK....I'll play your game and bite ...one last time!
My goodness, how does it feel to be such an expert on.....well ...everything?
40-50 hours a week 😂😂😂😂😂I wish! I can honestly (not in any way exaggerated or fabricated) state that I worked way more than that on the vast majority of working weeks; hence early retirement as I simply couldn't sustain it!
We will agree to differ as things obviously operate very differently in the utopia in which you live.

That is exactly my point! There isn’t one as people just get on with it as they know it is part and parcel of the rule!
teachers expected to take kids on school trips! Shock horror!!! Imagine a free ski holiday or trip to Italy. Must be horrendous 🙄

I can only describe what I have directly observed: in the primary schools where I have worked, teachers arrive between 7.30 and 8 and leave between 5.30 and 6. 50 hours. They then do another hour or two at home, 4 days per week (I know this because I see e-mails; datestamps on lfiles etc). 56 hours. They then work at least half a day at the weekend (again, I know this because of timestamps etc). So let’s say 60 hours?

More some weeks, a bit less others, but I would say 60 hours is a norm for a primary teacher in a school with ‘industry norm’ planning, paperwork and marking policies.

My DH calls it a ‘compressed hours’ job - 60 hour weeks in term-time, in return for much lower hours outside term.

Stop pontificating about your silly ‘friends’ and do some actual research @PicturePlace The DfE workload survey back in 2019 showed that the average teacher works considerably more hours than that, and things are definitely worse since covid. It’s a top priority for the DfE and has been for a long time, regardless of government. And it’s not going to suddenly not be because some daft woman on Mumsnet says it isn’t an issue. Grow up.

By "didn't want to be there", do you mean school or the residential?
The OP has never mentioned not wanting to do her job. Her concern around attending a residential is a very valid one.
People who go into teaching do so because they want to teach. Many teachers, myself included, attend(ed) residentials unless there was a valid reason not to. It seems a bit extreme to say that a teacher shouldn't go into the job because they can't or don't want to attend residentials.
I have never known a residential to be cancelled in the school I worked in due to lack of staff. There were always those who loved going and who were quick to volunteer. I do not get why people think it has to be the class teacher accompanying them every time. In a primary school, the children tend to know all of the staff anyway and many of the older children will have been taught by some of the lower years staff at some point.
Leading up to retirement, I stayed behind to teach the members of my class who weren't going on the residential. They need support too!
Not all residentials involved the entire class of children.

I'm describing roughly 40-45 hours a week, which is about what teachers work. None of this, "I work 80-100 hours a week" nonsense, it just isn't true, and you know it.

The clue is your not being a teacher.

Caring about children doesn't' mean you have to engage in 24/7 unpaid work while setting cover for your lessons that happen while doing unpaid 24/7 work and then having to mark and assess that work after getting back from the unpaid 24/7 work.

I cannot speak for secondary teachers, but in a primary teaching career, when working full time, I was always the only full-time female class teacher with school-age children. The only male full time teachers with school age children had wives who taught part time.

Having time when I was not required in the classroom at the same time as my dc had school holidays (mostly; if working in the same county - in sone years there would be 3 weeks that didn’t overlap) was definitely a benefit, even if planning and preparation at home and at school took up a chunk of each ‘break’ to get sufficiently ahead to manage the term time.

Colleagues with school-age children all worked part time or left for other jobs, because the hours required in term-time, as well as the mental load of worrying about vulnerable children and families, just wasn’t workable full time.

I don’t think my experience is unusual - there is a statistical correlation between female teachers having children and leaving the teaching workforce.

Honestly the amount of yapping from teachers!! Try working in social care!! I worked in homelessness- never heard support workers complain once about having to take kids on residentials- kids who took drugs, were violent, having sex- all kinds of risk taking behaviours and for a lot less money than teachers!! Wise up!! Most people are sick listening to it

Start your own thread about social care.

Has the OP said what year group anywhere?

My impression is that it's primary.

Imo a full week is often too much. Not just for teachers but for children, the staff and children not attending and the parents who are pressured to pay.

One or two nights might be better for everyone.

Not a teacher but i have taken kids on residential trips!! And I did it for the benefit of the kids!! Why go into a profession working with children if you don’t want to actually be there.

@Janedoe82

Most people are sick listening to it.

And yet, here you are following the thread. 🤷

Don’t open the thread then. Simple.

Clearly not a teacher then nor someone who has ever taken groups of children on residentials.
The OP has a four year old daughter and a husband with a degenerative spinal condition to care for. There's the problem with the OP being expected to attend a residential!

Honestly the amount of yapping from teachers!! Try working in social care!! I worked in homelessness- never heard support workers complain once about having to take kids on residentials- kids who took drugs, were violent, having sex- all kinds of risk taking behaviours and for a lot less money than teachers!! Wise up!! Most people are sick listening to it.

First of all, you think that working every waking hour is safe, do you? And there is very little sleep to be had when you have such massive responsibility for bringing 30 children home again in one piece. That’s aside from the children who are up in the night, which par for the course.

They aren’t- they have some sleep!! If it is only once a year I really don’t see what the issue is.

I've noticed this a lot. If you're a HoD with children, in a subject with lots of extra curricular.

You have to have at least 1 readily available additional adult. Probably 2. Partner, mum etc

Late nights/overnight/weekends away...

Unless you've got a team on standby at home, it's not really possible.

Friends, Most of my Y6s sound more mature than you do in that post!

Well it’s a complete mystery why so many teachers leave in droves within 5 years citing workload then, @PicturePlace, and also a mystery why the last government and the present government have made workload a top priority if all your friends are ok. Maybe write to the Prime Minister and tell him they’ve got it wrong because your friends are absolutely fine?