to be pissed off at school revelations?

[HKLP]

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 ) 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.

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?

MoreBeta may one enquire as to why you actually had children, if they're such an inconvenience to you?

And a few more points:

MoreBeta Thu 28-Apr-11 22:21:19

Tethersend - "I don't want to alarm you, MoreBeta but... some teachers are parents too"

Yes and you NEVER have to juggle school holiday cover because you are not at school in school holidays.

This is crap actually. Dh's school is in a different county, hence different LEA, and no, the holidays do not always coincide.

clam - "If it is snowing heavily and my colleagues and I cannot get to work, along with half the rest of the population, you have to have a back-up plan for the care of your children, as I have for mine."

Yes your back up plan is that you are off work when your children are off school. You dont do an extra day to make up for the snow day. You dont have to use up your holiday to look after your children on a snow day. We do.

Dh's school was not shut during the snow, dc's was. Other schools around the area were closed on different days to ours. Everyone who has a child has a responsibility to that child to ensure they are cared for when they themselves are not available. I'm sorry that you find this so onerous.

It is clear that teachers hardly ever face this issue because their working hours and days are virtually identical to the days when their DCs are at school.

Well no, again that is not strictly true is it? Dh is at school from 7.30am until 5pm minimum (we'll ignore the working once he's at home, because, well so many people do don't they?). Dc's school is open 8.45 until 3.15. That doesn't look like the same to me.

I look after my DCs as much as any other working parent who has a 9 - 5 job. My children are only at school 8.30 - 5.00 every day. We dont have a nanny or au pair and never have had.

My point is that I just want my children to be in school doing something useful when I am working - which is just normal working hours. We contract out childcare a lot less than most families where both parents work.

Do your dcs still have Maths lessons out of a textbook at this school you pay for, MB?

Was so when you posted that.

Send your children to a state maintained school like most of the population, and pay for a childminder/ out of school club like the rest of us, and then maybe that enormous chip on your shoulder borne out of some misguided sense of entitlement will start to shrink a little

'Only' 8.30 - 5?? For primary age? Personally I'd find that unacceptable. Nothing to do with the fact teachers should be working 'proper hours' but because they are CHILDREN. Plenty of time for those hours when they hit the workplace (unless they choose to be teachers, natch ).

Ds has had a number of teachers this year, through no fault of the school: he had two "main" teachers doing it is a job share (one a probationer imposed on the school, the other a promoted post who supported the probationer and also taught another class - a complicated situation casue by the imposition of the probationer - who, as it happens has turned out to be brilliant but we will lose her at the end of the year). The promoted post teacher had the temerity to get married over the summer to someone who lived on the other side of the country so when she managed to find a promoted post over there, she left in October.

The depute head took over her teaching duties - not that she had anything else to do (hence the lack of lunches and breaks). This transfer worked ok 'cos the depute is a brilliant teacher.

Ds had a different teacher for Maths 'cos he was in the top group, which did their maths with a group from the year above - that teacher was covering maternity leave. The teacher who had been on maternity leave has recently come back and taken over the class. This transfer has not been so smooth with ds treading water/going backwards :(

It MoreBeta had his/her way, then if teachers were able to take holidays when they wanted (which I am sure - if they weren't concerned about the children's education - they they would love, 'cos it would mean that they weren't tied to the expensive times of year) ds would then have to have ad hoc teachers to provide cover for those times that they were away - creating yet more opportunity for disruption.

Providing time for handover would take time away from teacher contact time - is that really what is wanted?

School is not free child care - it is there to educate our children. It is our responsibility as parents to sort out child care at other times. If people need more wrap around care, then they set up or get involved with their local out-of-care service. They are often charities and are crying out for parental involvement.

prettybird what do you mean about an NQT being "imposed on the school?"

Well clam if it's like dh's school the HoD gets called to a meeting and at said meeting is presented with their trainee. Though that's a PGCE student and not an NQT.

No prior knowledge/discussion/consent I mean.

The school has no choice about when or if they get probationers - or who they are. They are just allocated randomly to the schools around the city. It is actually a very well regarded school for probationers as it has an excellent reputation for supporting teachers. However, in this case, it was only told less than a week before the end of term and they had to to shuffle all the class allocations. So after ds had been told he was going to get a very good teacher for P6, he then had to get a revised letter on the last day of term saying he would only get her half the time and the new teacher the other half.

Ironically it was partly the "fault" of the really bad teacher that ds had had in P5 who was sent away on secondment somewhere else for a year - again at the last minute, hence the school needing to be allocated an extra teacher.

.... and the sad thing is, the other teacher will probably be back next year unfortunately for the children who get her while ds' probationer teacher, who has been excellent, will be out of work/lucky if she gets supply work.

It doesn't work like that in our LEA. NQTs apply for jobs just as any other teacher.
My point, however, was that you implied that to have an NQT is somehow a bad thing. You've said yourself that this one has been excellent.

I wasn't meaning to imply that a probationer was a bad thing - it was the imposition , at the last possible moment after the class allocations had been done, which was a bad thing.

In Scotland, all probationers have a right to a teaching post, so the school gets them regularly. However, they have no choice about where they go: the education department of the council employs them and then allocates them to the schools.

The schools don't even get a choice of teachers for permanent posts: again, the Educuation Permanent does the recruiting :( Hence why the good probationer won't get to stay on :(

The only time the school gets to choose is for promoted posts. :(

Sorry - and the main point about my post was that lots of teachers was not necessarily a good thing, especially at primary school level. Ds' school is one of the exemplars of best practice for "team teaching" (partly becuase of the extra resources it gets for having so many kids who speak Engish as a second language and also because the head teacher and depute spend as much time as possible in the classroom and do thier "manamgent" work outwith teaching hours). I've met teachers who trained there who still rave about the place and how brilliant it is at team teaching. Yet even though it is good at it, ds has still suffered adversely from having too many changes of staff.

What would it be like at a school that wasn't as used to "team teaching"

God knows, some MNers scream to high heaven in disgust express concern about people taking a few days off to go on holiday: can you imagine what it would be like if kids, as well as teachers, could taken time off when they wanted, to a pre-specified amout of course . How would teachers then work out a course programme? That's the logical corollary of what MoreBeta is suggesting.

Prettybird is in Scotland, where all probationers are guaranteed a job for their probation year. Unlike NQT's who are not guaranteed a job, and have to find one (a lot spend a year doing supply). However NQTs tend to get permanent jobs, where as probationers can be out of work after their probation year.

That's correct. Although at least it does mean that they are then fully qualified to teach as the PGCE isn't properly "finished" intil you have done the probationary year. Many moons ago, before they introduced this guarantee, dh did his PGCE but couldn't get a job. Found a job, not in teaching, as he was getting married (1st wife). Just before the wedding he was offered a 2 month contract at his old school, which had a full-time vacancy. He said if they could make it 6 months, then he would take it (the school wanted him) - but the council refused, saying they would just do it in blocks of 2 months supply.

Because he never did his probationary year, his PGCE has now lapsed. What a waste :( (As it was, he has had a successful career in a different field and if he had got that teaching job, I would never have met him!