Schools to be judged on their extra-curricular activities. Get in the bin, Bridget.

[noblegiraffe]

"The Department for Education will publish a new set of enrichment benchmarks for schools across five categories: civic engagement, arts and culture, nature, outdoor and adventure, sport and physical activities and developing wider life skills.
Ofsted will consider whether schools are meeting the expectations as part of its inspections, with information made available to parents through new school profiles, the Department for Education added."

This is nothing to do with the curriculum review that has just come out.

https://schoolsweek.co.uk/another-expectation-schools-to-be-judged-on-enrichment-benchmarks/

Fuck off. Extra-curricular activities are put on by teachers for free and in our own time. They cannot be an expectation when they are voluntary and unpaid. Should we publish a league table of how MPs meet benchmarks of volunteering and charity work on a weekend and in their holidays?

And if you are cutting school funding (schools are going to be told they have to fund future teacher pay rises out of their budgets by making 'efficiency savings' like there are any possible savings left to be made after the Tories cut everything), then you cannot demand that we do more.

Phillipson is apparently also unhappy that some schools are closing before 3:30pm. Yes, because they can't afford to keep the lights on that long.

You want extra stuff, you have to pay for it.

Hhmm and yet in other jobs no one would ever say that people should work for free for the good of the company. Teachers are people with their own families and lives, they're not some kind of robot philanthropists.

And a lot of these academies have squeezed teachers a lot by increasing directed hours and changing ratios (and increasing PANs) and using a lot more unqualified staff etc to enable this.

This tends to impact on the quality and experience of the teachers that you retain and therefore the teaching the children benefit from. But Ofsted will rate them outstanding because they're offering all these clubs.....

Well, if that's the case, it certainly hasn't had an impact on gcse results, which are fantastic for a comprehensive school.

School trips in the school day have to be free, so who is paying for those if schools are judged on offering them, yet payment is only voluntary? And which teacher should lose their job to fund this if the answer is ‘the school should pay’? And what planning and marking should be lost to allow teachers time to plan them?

Bridget mentions debate club and sports teams which are definitely outside of school hours and mostly teacher-run for free.

There is a fundamental mindset difference here.

In my world, and most people I know, our jobs are defined by what we are asked to do. Sometimes that fits within our current hours. Often it doesn’t. Sometimes some responsibilities become obsolete, other times we take on new things. Just because I’m asked to do something new, it doesn’t mean I’m doing it for free.

I didn’t see teachers offering any extra time up when lesson or homework planning was virtually eliminated by eg Twinkle then Chat GPT or CoPilot, or homework didn’t need to be marked as much because online platforms like Dr Frost or DoodleMaths do it for you.

All our jobs are changing all the time, I just don’t understand the continued resistance of teachers to change - especially when the change has benefits for the kids.

The first position of teachers and more than anything the unions because they set the narrative… is always that you’re being screwed over. It’s unfair. You’re so terribly hard done by, you’re being asked to do things for free. I also find the idea that there has to be some kind of group think to be quite galling. It’s as if you’re betraying your profession to say anything other than the above.

Why not say sometimes - you know what that’s a good idea, what do we need to do to make it work?

I feel for the many fantastic teachers out there who get on with their jobs and manage their time accordingly. Everyone gets tarred with the same brush by threads like this.

In every professional job, that's exactly what happens.

I went from NHS to teaching via a few other things.

I was on call one Xmas (I don't do it so I tended to volunteer) and I was called in at 2.00am Xmas morning. You do not get paid for being on call, you are supposed to be paid if you are actually called in, but it really is peanuts.

With modern tech, patents can get an insight into teacher working hours. I can tell you that my DDs recieved emails from teachers at 10pm last night and 6.30 this morning (these were notifications of uploads to the digital platform not personal emails). Now obviously they could have just be online for 10 minutes but the spread of hours like this is not unusual.

Have the state schools received all that money from parents paying VAT for independent schools yet? (Hollow laugh).

Years ago now our DS moved from a private school. The private school had massive playing fields and a very full programme of extra curricular activities that were mostly included in the fees as was afterschool club up to 4:30. At the small local school he moved to there was no green space and many of the afterschool activities were run by parents.

At the private school the showy sports stuff took over and supplanted a lot of the academic work that would have been standard in school following the national curriculum. The maths they were doing was way behind, the prep school classrooms were scruffy in contrast to the lush playing fields.

I don’t know why I’m biting because you’re obviously on the wind up but you are so ignorant it’s embarrassing.

You don’t see teachers offering up extra time because of blah blah blah? The educational system is completely held together by teachers and TAs giving extra time, unpaid time, to their jobs. It has been pointed out time and time again that school staff are doing a ridiculous number of hours extra, unpaid, in order to do their jobs and to do the best for the kids and instead of understanding this and appreciating this you whine about being sad because teaching staff are wanting to put a limit on adding free extras to the already huge pile of free extras they currently do.

If all teaching staff chose to withhold all the freebie extras they currently did then you would actually have something to moan and whine about and you would see how the majority go above and beyond as standard for the kids. You are vilifying people who are pushing themselves to the limit in order to do their best for your children.

I think this is unreasonable. Lots of pupils are on school transport and this wont change. Lots of pupils do good quality enrichment with specialists outside of school. Lots of pupils want a rest as they found the school day tiring.

Teachers have enough teaching to do.

Plus a lot already run clubs anyway without them being judged on it.

If the government wants clubs they should fund them properly.

Agreed.

I think teachers can absolutely legitimately argue that it’s not a race to the bottom, no one should work like that, and that if other professions accept it then more fool them but they’re not going to. That is all very reasonable.

But they cannot reasonably argue, like the poster you’re replying to did, that no one other than teachers gets asked to work over your contracted hours, or take on additional responsibilities at no extra pay because it’s what the employer needs. Does that poster really think significant and regular unpaid overtime isn’t a thing for other people?

Absolutely tell Bridget Phillipson that you’re not doing it until she comes back to you with some more money for this extra curricular stuff, go on strike if you want. I’d support that. But don’t act like people who don’t support it just simply don’t understand what it’s like to be asked to take on extra stuff for no extra pay and no reduction in your other workload.

I don’t know about everyone else but I can say with all honesty that AI tools/online resources have not saved me one minute of planning or marking time, and it’s not because I don’t want to use them! They’re just not at all suitable for the work I want them to do.

Thank you.

Our teachers use them a lot and I’ve no objections at all as they’re very good. Friends of ours who teach do the same. We also use AI tools at home to set practise questions when revising, they’re excellent. For example - ask Chat GPT to set questions on estimating for an 11 year old, and it can produce different worksheets (in printable format) for different levels. I know teachers who use it to plan work around English texts for example, come up with games for language classes and sports. Create examples of certain poetry or writing styles, it’s honestly quite amazing. And the number of platforms available now is just mindblowing.

🤣. I think some schools have benefited from “free” breakfast muffins and half a bowl of cornflakes, but it appears that the government have now allocated the money raised from the VAT (not that there will be much, if any), to building affordable housing. Of course their manifesto was “fully funded and costed” so I assume that the money promised to state schools is coming from somewhere else……

As the wife of a music teacher and the mum of two kids who love performing arts I wholeheartedlty welcome this. All young people should have these opportunities, not just those who go to private schools.

All I can see at the moment on Facebook groups for performing arts teachers is a celebration that finally the arts are being taken seriously.

Didnt BP used to be a Teacher herself? She must have a short memory . The Schools nearby are becoming more like a wrap around an all day care centre.Staff have their own families and lives too!

Schools are now meant to have in their remit:

Actual basic education- taught to a fixed external curriculum, externally tested and data driven. They are judged on this and league tabled etc.

Wider curriculum including PE, PSHE, art, drama etc - all under resourced and needing specialist skills. Guidance often contradictory or lacking on contentious topics for PSHE.

SEND - huge need from lack of specialist provision and resources, long waiting lists for assessments and therapies like SALT. Loads of services advise a TA down a course of exercises etc. None funded.

Oral health - school issue now as no NHS dentists

Nutrition and diet - including breakfast clubs

Swimming - hundreds of public pools have closed and there's a shortage of swim teachers but schools have to provide lessons and the transport costs are now x3 of what they were even 2 years ago.

Etc etc etc.

Some schools have to sort and administer uniform exchanges and washing facilities, food banks, ESOL for children and parents etc etc etc etc

The primary school here has lots of afterschool stuff, but it's all provided by external providers who pay to hire the spaces they use.

The school would be screwed without the extra money the hires brings in.

Yes it’s fair that most people in professional roles work over their contracted hours, it’s assumed to be part hour contract that you work the hours needed to get the job done. And yes other professions can work an incredible amount of additional hours over a week.

Most jobs don’t however have a huge chunk of those contracted hours where you absolutely need to be in front of a class of kids and where it’s not possible to do anything other than teach the kids. Allowing for a 40 hour working week and 32 contact hours that leaves 8 for prep, marking, any meetings, contact with parents, any safeguarding issues and pupil support, and any extra curricular activities, study clubs etc. It’s pretty obvious there’s no give at all and teachers very quickly start racking up extra hours.

My DS started high school this year and the amount of time his teachers give to the kids is obvious, I can’t see that it’s reasonable to measure performance based on them giving even more.

We pay for quite a few clubs at our state school and they are run by external providers (sports, music, drama etc) and then there are some run for free by the school such as running club, Lego, colouring club, one for k pop demon hunters dances apparently 🤣. However, our school is in a very middle class area where parents can mostly afford these paid for activities. The free ones seem to be run by each teacher having say one lunch time doing a club.

Just FYI these activities are expected in hours outside of directed time.

Our school has a rule. No emails from colleagues after 7pm and not until after 7am.
its parents who email night and day….