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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

aibu to think teachers should

295 replies

goodbyemrschips · 28/04/2011 08:26

to think teachers should work like the rest of us.

Just have 5-6 weeks of a year and work 8-5 mon to fri.

If this happened then they would get all the time they needed to set up lessons and teacher train etc during the time the kids were on holiday.

[this is inspired by another thread]

OP posts:
missmiss · 28/04/2011 19:16

I am a secondary school teacher in a subject that requires (comparatively) little marking and preparation. I am in school from 8.30-5pm every day. I also work an average of 2 hours an evening. I spent the first week of my Easter holidays on a school residential trip.

I think I have an easy ride.

EverythingInMiniature · 28/04/2011 19:17

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

clam · 28/04/2011 19:19

Our LEA has made Facebook, YouTube and online shopping "access denied" to all users, not just students. The YouTube one is a pain, actually, as there are many clips that would be useful to show in class as teaching points, but I cannot believe there are schools where teachers can (or do) access facebook during the day. Crazy.

LadyClariceCannockMonty · 28/04/2011 19:21

wotnochocs if I'm reading your post right and you're saying my dad is an inefficient worker I think that's massively offensive. Oh, and inaccurate too.

spanieleyes · 28/04/2011 19:22

All social networking sites blocked at my school, I can't even get on Mumsnet!

diabolo · 28/04/2011 19:22

exotic it is 9-13 (we still have middle school's here). It is OFSTED "satisfactory". Deprived area, high SEN, high FSM.

Some of our teachers, especially in English, History, PE are fabulous. Our HT is awe-inspiring.

We are below the floor in Maths (a teacher we actually had to "manage move" out of the school), at the moment but working hard to rectify this in the coming SATs.

But why have to manage out this crap teacher? Why couldn't we simply sack this person for ineptitude (and it really was).

The teaching profession is averse to almost any criticism, and I think it would really benefit from it.

Goblinchild · 28/04/2011 19:23

I'd like a big fat book with sequences of outstanding lessons and all the resources needed to teach them that ran for three terms. I'd start on page one in September and teach with pace and vigour and rigour and whatever, working through the book until July.
Then if anyone failed it would be the fault of the parents or the children or sunspots.
My teaching would take no account of cohort or additional needs or changing circumstances or divergence, originality or talents. My sausages would be uniform. I could grade them Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, Epsilon and shape their futures accordingly...
Oh, hang on. Didn't Huxley already consider that as a possibility?
I like my job, I work reasonably hard. I'm happy with the pay. I would like to take some managers, some parents and most Government innovators, movers and shakers and turn them back into the organic fertiliser they were created from. Or drop them into the briny with a hundredweight of paperwork round their necks.
Neither of my children want to become teachers, thank God.

diabolo · 28/04/2011 19:23

clam please do not accuse me of lying.

alistron1 · 28/04/2011 19:24

I would love my DP to work from 8-5 monday to friday and have 5 weeks off a year!!

I wouldn't have to spend nigh on every evening doing all 'the stuff' while he is chained to his lap top, we'd have quality family time at the weekends and for some of the school holidays. It would be brilliant!!!

And if he was paid for the hours he did, rather than for a fixed number of hours per year, we'd be living like kings Grin

My DP is very bright, a degree in physics don't you know...and he is no martyr. He's the HoD of a core subject in a large inner city secondary school. As well as worrying about ensuring that kids achieve he's a front line social worker, mental health professional, social engineer....

LooktoWindward - what subject does your DH teach, what sort of school is he in and what responsibilities does he have? 'Cos I bet in his private sector role he wouldn't be expected to develop a large team of staff, teach (and plan) 20 hours a week and carry the can for performance of his dept (against ever changing 'standards') for 40K a year...with no bonus/company car/gym membership/private healthcare. And with the added joy of constant OFSTED scrutiny!!!

I worked in the private sector for a few years and ran a team in an office. Pro rata I was earning shed loads more than my DP for far less responsibility. And once I'd left the office I was 'off duty'.

I now work as a TA in a primary school and can assure you that 20 odd hours of classroom time a week on it's own (without all the planning/marking etc) is mentally, emotionally and physically exhausting. Working in an office was like a holiday. I could wear high heels to an office, and I got a lunch break!!!

alicatte · 28/04/2011 19:29

I would LOVE to work 8-5. No chance unfortunately. I used to have another career - teaching involves a lot more work, both in terms of hours and the intensity of the work done within the time - it really is full-on. When I do get back home there is marking - usually until 11 - BUT NOT TONIGHT - Yippee!

clam · 28/04/2011 19:31

diabolo Where did I accuse you of lying? I was expressing incredulity that there are LEAs who allow FaceBook, as evidenced by the word 'crazy.'

alicatte · 28/04/2011 19:31

Oh and it's 'weeks off'

echt · 28/04/2011 19:31

OP has gone to the beach apparently.

Perhaps they didn't appreciate so many posters "agreeing" with their bizarre and badly thought-out proposal.

Soo much easier than actually engaging in a debate they started. :o

Goblinchild · 28/04/2011 19:32

One of the interesting statistics is not the number of PGCE students, or the number of applicants per teaching job. It's the attrition rate after the first year, and then after the first three years.
It is very depressing how many drop out, after all the training they've undergone and funding put into supporting an NQT, The reality is very different to the view from the other side.

alicatte · 28/04/2011 19:32

Facebook - Ah yes, where I work (and in many other local independents) the school actually has a Facebook page, it is nice for the children and parents to have a link back when they leave.

cricketballs · 28/04/2011 19:35

mitochondria - I was just about to post the same thing - I leave not long after the bell in order to collect my own children. I feed them, sort them out then sit on the laptop for 2/3 hours planning etc every night. Just because we are out of the door (when we haven't got meetings, parents evenings etc) doesn't mean we are not putting the hours in.....

Goblinchild · 28/04/2011 19:36

Most of the shared file and networking sites are blocked by Sussex.
It makes resourcing even harder, because you find something great for class when you are working at home, get to school and you get The Sign. Computer Says No.

diabolo · 28/04/2011 19:37

clam you said "I cannot believe there are schools where teachers can or do access Facebook".

I assure you, there are!

Apologies if I misunderstood this.

FunnyBumbleBee · 28/04/2011 19:39

D'you know what... I don't work as many hours as many other teachers say they do. I don't work every single evening and weekend although at busy times I do both. I do get spat at and sworn at and shouted at and have chairs thrown across my classroom for 6 hours a day. I need more holiday than 5 weeks a year to recuperate from that. My GP told me that of a teacher is peroperly stressed he will automatically sign them off for 6 weeks with exhaustion- imagine how many more teachers would be off with less rest time? And who is going to cover their lessons?

FunnyBumbleBee · 28/04/2011 19:40

peroperly?! properly, obviously. It's the gin... but that's a whole other thread about teachers!

MigratingCoconuts · 28/04/2011 19:41

INSET DAYS DO COME OUT OF HOLIDAY TIME....! THEY WERE TAKEN OUT OF THE HOLIDAY IN THE 1980's WHEN FIRST CREATED. KIDS HAVE THE SAME AMOUNT OF HOLIDAY THEY ALWAYS HAD AND TEACHERS HAVE A WEEK LESS

wow! feel better for that...back to the wine.

diabolo · 28/04/2011 19:43

Can any teachers on here explain their personal thoughts about inept teachers they work with? How do you get rid of them without:

a) shunting them off to another poor school?

b) going to the GTC (or whatever it is now) and trying to get them struck off? (which I understand is virtually impossible).

roomonthebroom · 28/04/2011 19:45

Sounds like a great plan. If I could work those hours, I'd go back to teaching in a heartbeat.

I left because often I was working till 11pm, one day at the weekend, and at least 2 weeks in the summer hols and several days in all the other holidays too. When I wasn't working I was thinking about how much work I had to do to properly prepare my classes for exams, prepare lessons, fill in paper work etc.

8-5, 5 days a week sounds like a dream. If this ever did happen though, pupils would soon notice the difference as work would remain unmarked, lessons wouldn't be so well prepared and parents would complain.

I guess you're not a teacher and don't seem to know any either. Come back when you have the first clue about what it's actually like to teach.

Panzee · 28/04/2011 19:49

diabolo I don't know any inept teachers. I know some who may appear to work less hard and I know some who do not do things 'conventionally' (i.e. they ignore paperwork requirements) but the children are inspired and they learn.

That's not to say that there are not inept teachers out there. It's just that I've not met any yet.

LookToWindward · 28/04/2011 19:50

As I've stated on other threads, my DH teaches maths though is pretty high up in the pastoral side of things as well. He is (again repeating myself) very highly regarded and has been promoted above many of his colleagues. He enjoys his job though he'll freely admit it can (at times) be pretty tough (though nothing compared to what he used to do).

His (and reading these threads mine also) complaint is that teachers seem to constantly complain, forgetting that for a job that isn't really that hard or stressful, is very well rewarded for not needing much in the way of qualifications (apparently one of his colleagues tried to compare a PCGE to his MSc in pure mathematics recently as "they're both postgrad qualifications".) and has frankly some of the best T&Cs you can get.

Someone once said that the collective noun for a group of teachers is a whinge. That is absolutely spot on.

If the teaching profession wants to spoken of in the same breath as accountancy, law or medicine then frankly they need to get a grip and realise what they do isn't that hard, isn't that exceptional and is fairly rewarded to boot. NUT I'm looking at you.

Teaching isn't a soft or easy option by any means but it really isn't that different to what any other profession does.