Teachers - you're 'avvin a laugh aintcha?

[mholdall]

Kids recently had a week off - half term. They were back this week then, guess what - teacher training day. Seriously, what I want to know is this: is there ANY other job in the country where you get:

• 13 paid weeks holiday a year
• Good pay
• Good pension (believe me, you do compared to people who do proper jobs in private sector - if you dont believe me, try it)
• And yet you still need these extra days to do some training. Training for what, exactly? Seriously, for what???? And how am I, as a parent, supposed to factor childcare in here.
• Oh, and you still do nothing but moan about pay, pensions etc
• Rant over

'it's not teachers who decide INSET days it is the LEA, you know office workers who don't actually teach.'

Fair enough point, but therein lies the problem with the outsider's perception of the teaching profession. It's almost as if everyone else, the government, the Local education authority, Michael Gove dictates to teachers what to do, including loads of measures that teachers know aren't in the best interests of the children, but what do teachers actually choose to strike about? Their Pensions. I'm actually all for the strike, but (and correct me as harshly as you like if i'm wrong) I'd rather see teachers strike over issues related directly to teaching. Why can't you liase with LEA for a more appropriate time for training days for example?

I think the perception is that teachers have an easy ride and choose to strike over issues that increase comfortability of said easy ride. I KNOW that is COMPLETELY untrue, but I think that's how some people perceive it.

Also, most parents now have been in school themselves and have formed their opinion of the teaching profession based on their experience, which in some cases was dire.

I think most people have said YABU but you don't seem to hear. You know what you know and nothing anyone says will change your opinion. But still, YABU.

The only thing we are allowed to strike about is pay and conditions. If we could strike over other things such as discipline we chuffing well would as those are the big issues.

Scream away. The Summer holidays are not paid. It is a fact. As I said, take 5 weeks off unpaid and re-distribute your earnings across the year, so that you get a wage slip for the weeks you are off. Simple.

As ever:

If it is such a fab job with so many perks, then why not train and become a teacher?

No one is stopping you from being a teacher yourself and getting all the amazing perks are they?

Go ahead! Do it.

If not, why not?

I never taught my child to read! I thought that was what school was for , surely. My parents never taught us to read either, and my mother was an English teacher! None of my friends tought their children to read. I didn't know where to start! I didn't even realise, but that must make me an indecent parent! (and this is coming from a TA)

On the other hand, I support teachers 100%. The job is hard, I have seen it first hand. Long hours in term-time, and most conciencious teachers work during at least part of the school holidays too. The kids can be very, very challenging, and you need the patience of a saint. Any one who thinks it is a cushy option really needs to stop having a go, and start having a go at it themselves if they think they can do better.

This Summer pay thing is a silly distraction. A teacher gets £XXX per year and X weeks of "holiday". It makes no difference how you allocate the salary (to term, to term+holiday etc).

I have started working in a school last term, in that very short time I have seen

Teachers being there early in the morning and staying late after school
Teachers boiling kettles for teas they never have time to drink
Teachers spending their lunch break checking the the computers are all working for their next IT lesson,
Teachers being actually shouted at by parents because "of course DS/DD brought back in their homework this morning!" and same parent actually bringing the book back the following day, pretty much throwing it to the teachers face without even the hint of an appology...

I could go on and on.

I most definitely enjoy helping teachers but become one of theme NEVER because what I see from them all day is dedication to my children and other people children whilst still getting constant grief an no thanks.

Govt could provide all/most of the basic the teaching materials online for download online to reduce the preparation time teachers need between terms.

This is the funniest thing I've read on the thread. The government's job is to keep changing things to increase the preparation time teachers need, not to make our lives easier.

Teaching materials are available online, along with things called textbooks, but unfortunately the little buggers I teach are not all identical and need things tailoring to fit. I don't plan my next lesson until I've taught the previous one. Then I look at how that went, how far we got, which bits they found difficult and make sure my next lesson builds on this. Which is why, morebeta it would be useless to make me work 5 weeks of my holiday planning lessons which would then be binned when I actually met my classes and saw what they needed.

Ok - I am going to be honest about my job, OP.

I love it.

I get to work with interesting, challenging, funny and inspiring people every day.
I get to see a child achieve something they never thought possible.
I am never bored at work.
I do an amazing variety of things every day and learn more than I teach most days.
I have a stable and largely secure job - I am unlikely to be made redundant.
I am paid enough to live on.
I get professional development as a matter of course.

I will admit that I am extremely lucky to do the job that I do. I don't expect extra thanks for it, but I get it from my pupils, the parents and the Head. That is a lovely bonus.

However, I will not admit that my job is a cushy one. It just isn't. I work for it - and the think that is most frustrating is that the things that take up the majority of my time are the things that I have been asked to do by the management/Government - producing statistics, completing paperwork..etc - all things that have little or no impact on the children.

It is not a cushy job, but it is a good job.

If anybody else says the summer holidays are not paid I will scream. Grow up ffs - teachers get a wage slip EVERY month of the year. Who puts the summer wage slips there - the bloody money fairies? The summer holidays ARE paid.

Are you completely thick OP? Im not a teacher (but have been educated by very good ones) and even I can understand that teaching is salaried - therefore salary is split over 12 months - it could be split up over only term time (therefore teachers get a different salary every month) - but then this would be unworkable as they would have no salary over the summer holidays - and bills don't stop then.

We could work in the holidays!
We could run compulsory parenting classes for all those people out there who have children they can't cope with, can't discipline, can't get to cooperate and don't know how to raise. There are enough people on MN complaining and bewildered to start with.
In your own homes. You could get star charts and grades and all sorts.
Or we could run holiday boarding schools. Send 'em back trained and working towards being reasonable people, let you all cock it up again and then along comes another holiday so we can patch things up again.
Holiday childcare sorted.

Its odd. The teachers who objected to my earlier post complain that they work very long hours but don't want to even consider moving their hours 9 - 5 with enough time to do prep/marking and training properly scheduled.

You can't have it both ways. My proposal was to make teacher hours regular 9 - 5 and remove all the after school marking late at night but work properly 9 - 5 physically in school throughout the year instead (except when on holiday).

Methinks that actually teachers like the long hours in term and long holidays. Yes I do read the TES website and have seen teachers openly talk there about the long holidays as a perk of the job. I know full well they will fight tooth and nail to keep it that way. It is that attitude which annoys parents. So many more women work now and there is the social change that teachers unions refuse to acknowledge.

Change has to happen. It does not mean more hours for teachers. Just regular 9 - 5 spread evenly every day through the year to fit in with the normality of how working life is for 95% of the population.

What is wrong with that suggestion? What is not to like about regular working hours and proper rest and spending time with your family at the end of the day? Seems like teachers don't want that.

Odd that.

erm - but it isnt good pay is it? I know the holidays are good, but any decent teacher will work through a lot the break doing planning or whatever and it is not a well paid career unless you get to head teacher level and even then I imagine it varies greatly. Plus some of the children they have to deal with...let alone the parents - I wouldn't do it!

Teachers at the Ds's school are worth their weight in gold. They have a very demanding and exacting job. It's incredibly different from when I was at school in the 70's and 80's.

Every email I send is replied to promptly, many teachers are in the school building by 7.30 am, the head is there before 7 most if not every day.

I'm fed up with teacher bashing, there are good and bad in every profession but what I see at the moment is extremely impressive, and this is at an Essex Comprehensive.

'what teachers actually do isn't always clearly transparent to parents.

From a parents point of view, school reaching only builds upon a foundation already put in place by the parent - of course i'm talking about decent parents here- who will already have taught their child to read and write, taught them the basics of maths, taught them lots of general knowledge. Teachers build on this...'

Well, that made me smile

Indeed .Perhaps the person who wrote it should try it and find out!

CopperLocs - I wouldnt go as far as to say teachers are lying saying their jobs are hard. I just think not enough live in the real world, just like public sector workers generally. What doesnt help is their pig headed, Tory-hating unions egging them on to strike for purely political reasons. If teachers cant see they are being used as pawns in the unions' efforts to annoy the Tory party, them more fool them.

mholdall - why don't YOU become a teacher then? Then you can have all the perks yourself. No one is stopping you.

belgianbunSat - what are you talking about. Their pig headed. What is wrong with that??

MoreBeta - your proposal is an excellent one. But don't expect it to happen anytime soon. Turkeys dont vote for xmas..