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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to be pissed off at school revelations?

341 replies

HKLP · 27/04/2011 23:19

Have name changed for this as the route in which I found out this info makes me very identifiable.

I always have my friend's DD on Teacher training days as she has to work at the school the DC attend.

My 2DC are off school today and tomorrow as the school decided to manipulate TT days so that the school broke up on 8th April(1.30pm) and return 3rd May. It means the school will be open on Polling Day (with extra safeguarding in place Hmm) and we will not finish one day early in July as we normally do.

That's fine, but obviously 3 weeks and a day and a half makes life very difficult for WOHPs.

After speaking to my friend last night, it was revealed that the staff are not going into school on these 2 days as have worked/will work extra hours after school to make up the time.

Shock

Apparently, attendance at afterschool events will count towards this time, rather than actual training. Is this acceptable standrd practice?

AIBU to be pissed off about this?

OP posts:
NinkyNonker · 28/04/2011 19:05

But will someone just tell me how it would work? Logistically I mean?

janajos · 28/04/2011 19:06

I think MB that you really don't understand how a school works. I came into teaching from the private sector primarily because I had two young children and needed/wanted to spend time with them. I guess I was lucky to have the choice.

I have NEVER worked so hard in my life. Imagine contact time as having to deliver up to 6 presentations a day, each time to a hostile audience. You have to win the kids over ever lesson; it is both rewarding and exhausting in equal measure. I start work at 8am when I have dropped my three off at nursery/grandparents and I don't leave school until 5.30/6pm. I take marking home two nights per week and will do an evening or two at the weekend if necessary and at high pressure times. Many secondary teachers do much more than this!

We are paid as professionals but pro rata; lawyers, accountants and other similarly qualified people earn more but do not get the same holidays - we earn them and need them in order to deliver the generally excellent service you all rightly demand for your children.

Listen, I have to make childcare arrangements which I pay for even during the school holiday when I don't need them! Factor in too, as someone else said, that we can't take a break when we feel like it, we have to fit in with very expensive school holidays. I can't just take a long weekend for a wedding and I couldn't get married in term time either come to that! We are not qualified to provide childcare, we are professionals who have all obtained a post-graduate qualification in order to teach your children.

It might be a debate MB that you wish to have, but please don't come to me to provide after school care; I am not interested and I have not trained to be a nanny.

COCKadoodledooo · 28/04/2011 20:02

I don't appear to have had an answer to my question re young children in schools 9-5 for 47 weeks of the year? Is that because you've realised what a frankly fucking ludicrous idea it was?

goodbyemrschips · 28/04/2011 20:05

I am catching up now...................I do not believe the children should be in school 9-5...........just the teachers sorting out their lessons.

and during the time the children are on hols the teachers could be doing all their training etc

The teachers could take hols just like in normal jobs and other teachers fill in just like in normal jobs.

lynehamrose · 28/04/2011 20:07

More beta You must have a piss easy job that you can post here all day

( I work part time hence why I am on here!)

clam · 28/04/2011 20:08

mrschips, I think all that sea-air has gone to your head.

goodbyemrschips · 28/04/2011 20:09

maybe beta has a day off...................strange but sometimes happens.

Goblinchild · 28/04/2011 20:09

9-5 to plan and mark everything?
You do realise that it takes quite a while to plan and resource a week's lessons?
That in an hour of extended writing, 33 Y6 can produce several pages each of work that needs to be marked?
You truly think that an hour and a half extra a day, from 3.30 to 5 would be sufficient?

goodbyemrschips · 28/04/2011 20:09

sea air is great....................lol

the surf was a bit flat though.

goodbyemrschips · 28/04/2011 20:10

goblin ...depends how good you are I suppose!

mrz · 28/04/2011 20:11

goodbyemrschips most teachers are in school by 8.30 (many much earlier) and very few leave much before 5.

Teachers covering while the class teacher takes random weeks holiday would be to the detriment of the pupils as far as continuity is concerned and for the youngest children it could be unsettling.

Often training dates are determined by the availability of courses so it is highly unlikely that quality training could be provided in a narrow time frame.

emptyshell · 28/04/2011 20:15

If I roll in on supply at 8.30... I won't be asked back!

goodbyemrschips · 28/04/2011 20:17

ok enough is enough.

could the teachers please stop repeating themselves it is boring.

OK you are harding working under valued hard done by...

mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

so why do you do it?

TethersEnd · 28/04/2011 20:18

"other teachers fill in just like in normal jobs."

Err... and what happens to their classes?

Goblinchild · 28/04/2011 20:19

'goblin ...depends how good you are I suppose!'

Define good please. I take time because I plan for the needs of my class as groups and as individuals, same with marking.
I like the activities to be engaging and challenging. I think marking is useful when relevant observations are made.
That takes time. Or I could do the equivalent of a quick, cheap fix off the back of a lorry in the time you have said is adequate.

TethersEnd · 28/04/2011 20:19

goodbyemrschips, have you ever thought of teaching? With your penchant for control, you'd be great Smile

JemimaMop · 28/04/2011 20:20

The teachers in my DC's school get there by 8.15 to open up for Breakfast club.

The budget cuts mean that they have had to get rid of lunchtime supervisors, meaning that the teaching staff are not only on a rota for playground duty at morning and afternoon breaks but also at lunchtime.

They run after school activities (sports, craft, choir etc) after school on Mon, Tues and Wed. On Thurs they have a staff meeting after school. So Friday is the only night that (if they are lucky) they leave before 5pm. They then take work home with them. They also come in during holidays and sometimes at weekends.

TethersEnd · 28/04/2011 20:20

Although you'd have to read Das Kapital and be able to drink your class's weight in lager first, of course.

Goblinchild · 28/04/2011 20:22

'Teachers covering while the class teacher takes random weeks holiday would be to the detriment of the pupils as far as continuity is concerned and for the youngest children it could be unsettling.'

Not if your focus is on producing identical units from the education system.
They need to keep up or fail. If they are exceeding target levels, they can cruise. You could let the ones move up that have achieved the set level for their year, or they stay back. Perhaps that's what GMC means?

mrz · 28/04/2011 20:23

The car park gates are locked by 8.15 and children start arriving at 8.30
3 days a week I teach extra literacy groups before school 45 min sessions

Goblinchild · 28/04/2011 20:24

You know, parents whinge a lot here about their children, and how hard being a parent is. Some of them even have more than one child and still complain, despite having experience of how hard parenting is. Grin
You lot should stop all that grumbling, why did you have them?

goodbyemrschips · 28/04/2011 20:25

Lots of schools have lots of different teachers anyway for different lessons.................getting a supply in for one lesson of say history for two weeks would not be hard.

Or giving the class a task to do while being suoervised by a TA COULD BE DONE VERY EASILY.

I think about solving probs not making them.

mrz · 28/04/2011 20:29

Do you really want identical units that possibly don't meet the needs of individuals at that point GMC? The ones that are failing could watch a video perhaps?

Why do I teach?
because it is the best feeling in the world when that struggling child suddenly experiences success and you have played a part in that success.

TethersEnd · 28/04/2011 20:30

"Lots of schools have lots of different teachers anyway for different lessons"

Yes. They are called secondary schools Smile

"getting a supply in for one lesson of say history for two weeks would not be hard."

I'm not sure where to begin with this one... you do know that teachers tend to teach more than one lesson a week, don't you? Please say you do, that would be great. Because 'getting a supply' to cover a teacher's absence sort of already happens, but they need to cover that teacher full time for say, two weeks, at great expense to the school. Do you see?

"Or giving the class a task to do while being suoervised by a TA COULD BE DONE VERY EASILY."

It is done, increasingly so. No complaining about your children's quality of learning though, eh?

So, I've given you a few more problems. Solve away!

takethisonehereforastart · 28/04/2011 20:30

YANBU...but neither are they.

Having seen the explanation here I think it's fair enough. But if they called it Teacher Training Day then it's not unreasonable to think they would be there doing their training on the day and it's not unreasonable to be surprised to find out they won't. The name does give that impression.