AIBU to think the teacher sickie story is not newsworthy?

I read that as well-so he is not teaching and probably won’t be again.

I hope he bloody enjoyed the few days away while he could.

I think teachers should be able to take a few days of annual leave where necessary. I was a teacher (I’ve since left because it had turned into a bloody horrible job) and a bit of give and take would go a long way in supporting the dreadful retention issues in teaching. Even if was unpaid!

The system in the UK does seem extraordinarily inflexible. In Canada where I live teachers can book a day off for personal reasons same as an employee in any other sector. I think they are kind of expected to find a substitute for the day, but these seem to be readily available. My daughter's teacher was out for an afternoon recently because he was buying a house and needed to sign the paperwork. Surely giving some flexibility like this makes for happier employees.

Hope he had a fantastic time. I think it is ridiculous what a fuss has been made about this

Man pulls sickie is not a story.

School in ridiculous draconian overreach possibly is. The SLT members who decided to refer this to the regulatory body need to have a think.

Poor guy. Bet the 'anonymous staff member' was popping when they saw the facebook pics. Couldn't wait to spill the beans.

He was silly not to just own up in the first place though, likely that would have taken the wind out of the investigation rather than fuelling it. If a nosey bugger sees a social media post, best to own up, otherwise you know that's going to give the story legs.

Yes he has MND now, which is a really sorry end to the tale. Hope he has a lot of support and doesn't give this any headspace.

The real villains in this story are the nasty colleague who decided to grass him up- what a horrible, sad individual and also, those who decided to pursue this in this manner given his MND diagnosis. It is highlighting the inflexibility in schools and actually much of the rhetoric I’ve seen around this has been massively in favour of the teacher and what an overreaction this is.

Slap on the wrist, dock his pay for the days taken. Stern warning. I mean he won’t be the first or last person in the country to play hooky. Not really news worthy 🙄

I agree! Is he the only one that ever called sick to go on holidays? Come on! I’ve done it more than once and most of my colleagues have done it too. Now most of the companies have introduced “wellness and mental health” days that most people use for an extra day of holidays. It’s a bit sad that in schools they don’t allow them to get time off easily.

I was given a voucher by headteacher fir half a day off during the year, but then was never allowed to actually use it! 😅

Had a colleague who called in sick for Glastonbury. I didn’t care - she worked rly hard and still had to create all the cover lessons. Teachers don’t get to do a lot of things due to the job so I don’t see the harm for one off occasions…

I hope he had a fantastic time.

I’ve read in comments that the teacher has since been diagnosed with MND.

Teachers are being held to the most ridiculous standards, along with having an insane workload. Given the amount of burnout and also teachers on long term sick, requiring the extensive use of supply teachers there's probably a call for teachers being able to book a couple of days off across the school year, as long as it doesn't clash with the never ending cycle of testing and exams.

Teacher of 26 years.

I wasn't allowed UNPAID time off for best friend's weekday wedding - I was supposed to be a bridesmaid.
I wasn't allowed UNPAID time off for my uncle's funeral.
When my child was in hospital, having emergency surgery to save her life, I was allowed one day UNPAID.
I could go on...

People talk about the amount of time off we have- most of which is unpaid - but, in reality, we have no flexibility. I know some schools will allow time off, but it most certainly isn't all.

I don't blame him for lying. There are many times that I wish I had.

The right wing press are on a mission to discredit public sector workers and any profession that requires any degree of intelligence.

Fascism 101.

I also feel sorry for him. You can just imagine it all happen. His friends telling him to pull a sickie, him knowing that he definitely won’t get the time off. Then some fool puts in on facebook!

I once worked at a school where every member of staff could have one day off a year and it was covered internally.

I agree, obviously he’s done wrong, got found out and should face disciplinary action. But why it’s made the news is a mystery to me. It’s not like he hurt one of his students, embezzled school funds or anything truly serious. Having his face splashed across the media seems disproportionate to the ‘crime’.

My, teacher, daughter gets 1 per year. Soon lost to medicine/appointments etc.

In my last but one school I got 1 day every 7 years - and that was after 14 years!
The thing was no one was counting!

Very true. I never saw any of my children's day time productions, sports days etc.

Funerals were problematical. I was ok - relatives thoughtfully died in holidays and for others my school was generally supportive.

Many colleagues were not popular if they had medical + dental appointments during the school day.

Technically - he could have been vomiting - just the order of events/anticipation of vomiting was wrong.

All that's happened here is that the school has outed itself as a terrible place to work for referring the case in the first place.

Teachers need to be given some flexi days so that they can live normal lives. Otherwise we're never going to be able to fully staff schools.

Surely this highlights how rigid the teaching profession is?

Teachers often aren’t allowed to attend any personal occasions such as their children’s/grand children’s sports days/assemblies/sharing afternoons. They can’t attend weddings of close people that are on a week day. Even funerals are frowned upon unless it’s a close family member.

There’s no flexibility. I know someone who went to a football match abroad (massive game for their team) and lied about it so they could go.

Another person I know had to miss a prestigious event that their partner was attending to receive an award. They were told they couldn’t attend as it wasn’t their husband (!) and they were leading assembly that day.

What people don’t realise is that more and more teachers are leaving due to the inflexibility, the need to put other people’s children ahead of your own, the fact that calling in when generally sick is frowned upon etc. Then parents moan about the lack of decent teachers and how they all keep leaving.

I personally feel that teachers should get a few days flexi to be able to be normal human beings.

I mean, he probably was vomiting.

I did wonder why it was in the news, not news worthy at all but why would some one inform the media in the first place. Very odd.

I work in elderly care. If staff pull sickies then those elderly people who were relying on staff to get them up, fed, toileted, clean and dry have to now wait far longer for that same help. And the colleagues have to run around non-stop to make up for the shortfall. And do you know what? It’s a f*ing job. Everyone pulls sickies from time to time (admittedly I never have, but still…) and the company just has to deal with it and have alternatives in place. It shouldn’t fall on the colleagues and the service users shouldn’t be affected. If you run a care home, a hospital or a school it’s your job to have contingency plans. A teacher should not he held to some astronomically high standard and essentially struck off for not going into their job one day. That’s ridiculous.

What else would he be willing to falsify to ensure he doesn’t get into trouble? Not the sort of person that should be a teacher

But you’re here giving the story more oxygen!