To think that if I call in sick and have been sick for a few days now I shouldn't still be expected to work from home?

There is a structure but the five inset days per year are for training on safeguarding and new policies and procedures or long term planning - how would it be possible to produce lessons for the 190 days on those five?! Every lesson is an hour-long presentation that has to be delivered by someone with subject knowledge and has to be tailored to the individual class of students in front of you.

So for example, I might know that this half term I'm teaching Macbeth to Year 10. Maybe last year I had Set 2 and this year it's Set 4 so I can't reuse the same materials, they need to be adapted. If I work in a good school with a great English department, we share lessons so the person who had Set 4 last year gives me their resources but I still have to tailor it for this group. Ok, that's my long term planning. Medium term planning, I know that in Week 4 I'll teach them how to write an essay on an extract. But I'm off sick that week, and a cover teacher will take the lesson. I can't just send him or her the extract and tell them to guide the class through how to annotate and analyse it. When I teach it, I'll model how to choose a quote and we'll brainstorm it together on the board. I can explain the context and answer questions and correct misunderstandings. I can scaffold and support and I can offer extension to those who need more challenge. Can someone coming in who might not have ever read Macbeth teach my lesson? No! They need something different to deliver.

And even if I'm there to teach it, there might be a disruption or maybe we won't get through it all or I realise they need more time or something pitched a bit differently so my plan for how I move on will change. By the end of the half term, we will have covered Macbeth but how we get there is going to be something I manage on a day to day basis, constantly adapting and changing the materials I already have.

Or that's what my life used to be before I left teaching! Now when I'm ill, I stay in bed.

Neither me or my colleagues do this. I’ve worked from home if not well enough to be in the office but if unwell and off sick then work phone goes off, out of office goes on and that’s it.

It's ridiculous. In my school they don't use supply teachers so you can't just send a copy of the medium term plan with objectives and they'll manage. I have to provide work and resources that a TA, who isn't paid to come in early, can teach.

I don't take time off sick unless I'm throwing up or can't get out of bed.

“Anyone who's in a job that can be done remotely does some work when sick”

Untrue. Why would I do work if I am sick and being paid sick pay?

You can't plan that far in advance because every lesson you are assessing where the students are at, what they need further support with, what needs to be adapted and extended and differentiated going forwards. It's a flexible, adaptive role in which you respond in real time. You have a long term plan of what will be covered in the half term, but the delivery is something you are planning lesson to lesson. And while a teacher might have lessons planned that they can deliver with their subject knowledge and skills, this isn't something a cover teacher can walk in and do. So you have to plan a different lesson that they can deliver, which means the lessons you have planned for that week go to waste. The idea that you could possibly have a half term's worth of lessons prepared in advance that a non-specialist could walk into the classroom and teach is not anchored in any kind of reality!

What?! That's absolutely ridiculous, I had no idea this was a thing. I naively thought the lessons were already planned well in advance and that's what teachers were doing on inset days and the school set a structure of what subjects that were to be taught.

I can't believe teachers are having to do this when unwell and lessons are planned so last minute. That sounds like a nightmare when you are ill.

This isn’t the case in teaching. She’ll still be taking sick days, despite setting work for her classes! It’s appalling.

It makes me so mad, op. If you are sick, that means you’re not capable of working. Believe me when I say that you’ll wish you hadn’t set any work when you return anyway, because it won’t have been done or would have been done wrong, with people moaning left right and centre about what you’ve left them to do!

You are too sick to work, and that includes setting cover.

That's not true.

Some people on £000's k salaries who head teams may do that if they are unwell and can WFH.

If my ds is unwell and cannot get out of bed he doesn't even WFH - but he can.

If you are too unwell to work you are too unwell to work.

I think those who can work from home perhaps take time off when they "could" go in but feel a little unwell because they can - teachers are either in or too unwell to work.

No you shouldn't be expected to work from home, in principle.

But unless this is your first year of teaching you also shouldn't need to plan from scratch in huge detail. You aren't going to be off for months so it doesn't matter if it's a few days of "watch this video and answer these 5 questions" or "work through page 76 section A".

I don't think you should be doing work if you're unwell. If your child is unwell, then doing some work planning while they sleep on you seems fairest to everyone (which would be after the GP, BTW you need GP if over 40 degrees with calpol + ibuprofen, or other worrying symptoms like going floppy).

Preparing a lesson on the day itself does seem quite last minute. I'm not a teacher, but the majority of my work will be prepped weeks in advance and only emergency bits on the day. I wonder if your school has an expectation (which clearly they didn't communicate effectively) that you prep ahead of time e.g. half a term ahead, or even just a week ahead? That might mean they expect materials, not that they expect you to be doing the prep. Not for now, but worth chatting with your HoD to find out when you get back?

Ex teacher.

This used to really, really bug me.

If I had a migraine I could barely think straight, let alone sit at a laptop, yet I was expected to send in all the cover details - and I am sure it was by 7.

I hope you and your baby are better soon, OP.

This is another ridiculous expectation on teachers. I complained about this a few times and got nowhere. Are your lessons normally online beforehand? I taught primary and we had to submit the weeks lessons by Monday morning so were fine for the first few days. They’d usually change our PPA to the sick day too which was awful, not well enough to work includes planning; when you’re planning for such a range of abilities and needs people underestimate how much work goes into it. 19 years I lasted. I don’t think you should be planning but sadly, it’s very common.

My mum was a teacher - I remember taking in her cover lessons when I was a student there. Thought it was bonkers even as a kid!

Completely agree that you shouldn’t have to send in cover work if you’re ill; pretty sure it’s not lawfully enforceable. If I was your SLT I would expect that your lessons were planned for the first day of sickness however so would expect you to send that in when you were calling in sick as the work should already be done.

For your last point however - you didn’t call in sick. You asked to take an emergency day’s parental leave. Which I’m assuming was fully paid. I would therefore absolutely expect you to send in your lessons for that day unless you were very hands on dealing with sickness like mopping sick etc. Very few jobs would give paid leave so you absolutely should expect to meet the business needs as far as possible. A temp of 39=call the GP for an appt, not rushing to hospital, so you theoretically had the ability.

You're clearly not a teacher, and anyone who does work at home when they're off sick, is making a rod for their own back. If you're too sick to go into work, then you don't work. If your child is sick and has to stay home from school would you still let them eat chocolate and have fizzy drinks, then go and jump on the trampoline? No, because it would likely make them more sick. Hence if you're off sick from work, you shouldn't be working.

No they don't. I used to work from home. I did no work when sick. I turned off my phone and certainly didn't log on to check emails. My DH who is more senior than me does the same. He also would tell his staff off for working when sick. If you are sick enough to be off, you shouldn't be working.

Because schools Can't pay for supply anymore. The most recent pay rises which were not fully funded, plus the funding crisis around SEN means budgets are worse than they have ever been. As a governing board we hoped positive change would come with the new government, but we are much worse off than a year ago

I don't believe for a minute teachers are special, nor that my teaching job is even particularly challenging but like many teachers I have worked in other jobs and no, in those jobs sending a few emails was not at all like planning. In actual fact, when most people were off sick they didn't answer emails at all and certainly not at 6.something am.

OP I'm primary and it's not a thing in primary generally (even though I'm the only one teaching my key stage, so there is no parallel class to get work off AND more than one year group to teach at once). I like to think in a secondary I'd refuse but know how hard it is if that is the expectation. If you're sick though, you're sick.

This is hilarious. monitoring inbox and answering urgent queries is absolutely not the same as planning five hour long interactive presentations someone not qualified can deliver. Also teachers also have to monitor inbox and answer urgent queries throughout the day.

What did your actual message say?

Because "I'm not coming in and can't do cover" is very different to "please could you help, you have y7 period 1 and so do I, please could you print a second copy of your resources as cover for my class?".

It sounds like you're completely overwhelmed and perhaps not communicating in the best way. Your colleagues are probably snowed under with their own work (not your fault) but extra requests do make it harder for them.

?!? Well yes, it does equates to planning lessons. Do you understand how other people job works?

First rule, never mark cover. It's a waste of everyone's time.

You are well within your right to not send work. As long as you give people notice, HOD or other, will have to sort it. It's really hard to be in school sorting last minute cover, whilst teaching/doing form time. I can see why she was asking for something. Even a "y7 need pie charts" is something to go on.

What subject are you?