DfE considering making teachers work for free to make up for lack of catch-up funding

[noblegiraffe]

With the upcoming spending review looking like it will hit education hard with little extra cash for catch-up, the DfE is reportedly now considering simply making teachers do it for free.

They are considering a proposal to remove the 1265 hours cap on teachers ‘directed time’ which would mean schools could add hours to the school day and just timetable teachers to teach them for no extra pay.

This, to a sector which is already critically short of teachers, will only damage recruitment further, and push more teachers out of the profession.

They are flailing around trying to come up with solutions to problems of their own making that will, in fact, only make things worse. Absolute idiots.

www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/oct/01/dfe-considering-return-of-sats-at-14-and-axing-teaching-hours-limits

@Viviennemary. I got sick of all the lazy parents unable or unwilling to parent in lockdown......

Children don’t learn after a full day of school. You can’t catch them up by making them sit there longer. It’s lip service and all it will do is drive more teachers out of the profession. It’s a ridiculous idea.

The last state school I worked at was always a bit "creative" with directed time, anyway. They once had a slide up during INSET which was like "this is the new compulsory initiative, but that other thing was only 50 mins, if you credit that, subtract that other thing, divide by the sum of this... it falls within directed time"

We have a lot of things that aren't in DT but we're expected to go to and we mostly do. But if we're suddenly expected to do more for less (because we're in a real terms pay cut situation) all the "nice to haves" will go.

I don’t know how anyone can stay in teaching. Completely overworked and underpaid, with zero respect from the government or parents.

There will be little public support for teachers on this. Average Joe who works in an office with 28 days holiday will work closer to 1800 hours.

Whilst I don't think teaching is an easy job I also don't think it's the hardest by a long mile.

I do it because I love it, I'm good at it, and I know I'm making a positive difference.
But it's exhausting bring constantly on the back foot, and it's depressing that we're often vilified just because of what we do.

[quote IactuallyHateMN]@Viviennemary. I got sick of all the lazy parents unable or unwilling to parent in lockdown......[/quote]
I got sick of trying to teach my teenager subjects which I have no expert knowledge of, whilst simultaneously looking after. 4 year old AND working from home, because her teachers couldn't use zoom properly and just sent PowerPoints out.

I’m not a teacher, but I think anyone would rightly be pissed off if their employer tried to increase their hours with extra pay or discussion. Yanbu.

Over 2021 the 1265 hours cap is directed time (ie contact time). It only constitutes about half our workload as all admin, prep, marking etc etc is on top of that.

@LuaDipa

I’m not a teacher, but I think anyone would rightly be pissed off if their employer tried to increase their hours with extra pay or discussion. Yanbu.

*no extra pay or discussion.

@QuarantineQueen

Over 2021 the 1265 hours cap is directed time (ie contact time). It only constitutes about half our workload as all admin, prep, marking etc etc is on top of that.

No it's not, officially the 1265 is directed working time. I work for an academy trust in a role which means I know the contract well.

@QuarantineQueen

Over 2021 the 1265 hours cap is directed time (ie contact time). It only constitutes about half our workload as all admin, prep, marking etc etc is on top of that.

In the interests of accuracy, before the critics pile on, DT isn't only contact time. We are entitled to 10% PPA to get some of that admin etc done. Not that it comes close to enough, mind.

@over2021

There will be little public support for teachers on this. Average Joe who works in an office with 28 days holiday will work closer to 1800 hours.

Whilst I don't think teaching is an easy job I also don't think it's the hardest by a long mile.

But the 1265 is directed hours not the full hours worked. The point is not who has it hardest. The point is if you want good teachers for your children then the government can't make the profession any worse. They've already announced yet another pay freeze, which means a pay cut. I am a dedicated teacher who gets very strong results year in year out in a challenging centre. I'll definitely walk if the government gets this through. I wouldn't be much worse off off working in a cafe, paying less tax and having my brain to myself in the evenings.

@over2021

There will be little public support for teachers on this. Average Joe who works in an office with 28 days holiday will work closer to 1800 hours

Don't weigh in on something you don't understand. Teachers work on average 55-60hrs per week that includes and goes beyond 2265 head per year. Average idiot Joe works 1800...teachers work on the average 2300+ condensed most of the time into 42 weeks per year unlike average Joe who does just a mere 1800 over 52 weeks

goes beyond 2265 head per year.

Goes beyond 1265 hrs per year

So they work 1045 hrs on average above directed time to get the job done to "old school" satisfactory standard.

@over2021

There will be little public support for teachers on this. Average Joe who works in an office with 28 days holiday will work closer to 1800 hours.

Whilst I don't think teaching is an easy job I also don't think it's the hardest by a long mile.

I think the problem is, as demonstrated by this comment, many in the general public don't understand that the hours during term time are long. I regularly work 12 hour days during term time. I love teaching but I would not work 12 hour days with piles of stress for my salary with 28 days holiday. If I only had 28 days holiday I would expect a higher salary for the amount of work and stress that's involved.

I hope this doesn't go through as the quality of education will decrease - there are only so many hours in the day, and if I'm teaching more lessons than that's less time to plan and mark for the ones I already have. I actually find this more concerning as a parent than a teacher tbh. I want my son's teacher to have the time to plan brilliant lessons.

What the actual fuck?! Teachers have worked extraordinarily hard under extreme duress and are now being penalised further? Fuck off tories.

1265 hours is already a farce.

@Iggly

Disgusting.

The main problem is that the treasury, Rishi Sunak, won’t give the money needed for catch up funding. It’s needed. Our children’s education has been disrupted for two years.

Have people forgotten home schooling and crying that we couldn’t be teachers?! Teachers are professionals and should be treated as such.

I will support teachers if they strike. I hate the way this government has destroyed the morale of the profession. As a country we are one of the worst in how we treat our teachers.

How did we end up here?

Post like this are a refreshing reminder some of the public realise what teachers do and don't think they work 9-3.30 term time only.

Let's hope the whole of the country gets behind them for the sake of our children's education.

54% of teachers using Teacher Tapp said they would leave teaching if they could find another job that matched their salary. I wonder what this latest gem will do to that figure?

I'm not a teacher or a parent and I think it's outrageous. If my employer decided to increase my hours with no increase in pay or discussion I'd leave. It's even worse for a teacher because it's not just your employer, it's the entire industry so you don't have the same option.

The last strike I remember is when DD was in year 2. She is in Y11 now. Annoyingly, my school loving child's teacher was on strike so cried, but my school hating child's teacher was in and they cried too.

I don't think teachers can win this, the backlash would be horrendous after the disruption. I just can't believe anyone thinks this is acceptable.

Teachers will just leave. We need teachers to stay.

Posted before I finished. Are teachers allowed to strike? I'd support you all if you did.