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

don't forget to book childcare for Nov 30th op - alternative childcare, should I say

Tethersend, I was TEAMTEACH trained in my former life as a teacher :) Was the best INSET I had, mainly because I was partnered with the head in the practical part, and got to try out the techniques on him!! :o

OP, re the 3 teachers you know, why don't you as them why they don't work in the holidays? How the feck are we supposed to know how they manage their work/life balance??

I teach secondary. This week I've had to deal with a boy wanking in class (not his teacher but am his head of year) and another who spread superglue on the toilet seats in the boys' loos. And teach all my classes.

Easy life.

Curriculum planning and organising, keeping up with new research and techniques, moderation for continuously assessed stuff....

Oh sod it, have a or eight. It's five days out of a whole year. Would you rather your kids' teachers festered and didn't keep up to date in their professional knowledge so you didn't have to endure an extra day every few months with your children?

What is it with all this teacher bashing these days? these people educate our children ffs.....something to admire in my book.

mhodall what properjob do you do?

training:

• dyslexia, autism
• teaching children with English as a second language
• learning about psychological and emotional problems
• time for teachers and support staff to discuss their practice
• setting up classrooms, displays, books

All professional careers require CPD

Oh ffs - this unpaid leave is just silly. Why not say they have 20 weeks off and say it is all unpaid leave, with salary divided up by the whole year still. Where do you draw the line ffs? My point is simple: teachers get 13 weeks hol a year. We all know it. So why do theY need extra days for training? The answer is very very simple. THEY DONT.

Nancy75- for a secondary school teacher, try 300 kids a week.

I do think some teachers are living a charmed life though. 30 to a class? luxury.

The Dartford academies are now 60 to a class; lead teacher and a whole gamut of TAs. Unreal.

Of course by September all schools (well localy) have to take academy status. So good luck to your child, OP, quite possibly one of 60 in a class vying for attention.

sorry - inset days may insclude time to set up classrooms

School is not childcare- many parents forget this simple fact. Children need time to unwind and relax and be children.

I once would not complain about the pay - but that was before the 3 year pay freeze at a time when costs are spiraling.
I once enjoyed every day of my 13 weeks holidays, until the workload upped and upped so that I have to spend an hour planning/marking/assessing for every hour actually spent teaching and now spend far too many holiday days in my classroom.
I once appreciated the teacher pension, 'til they told us we'd have to pay in 50% more each month at a time when our pay has been frozen for 3 years, retire later and have to stay in a classroom until you are older (and older) where you can't have a fraction of a second for yourself even on your worse day as there are 30 children needing your attention, and get far less money at the end of it.

I once spent every training day happily pottering around my classroom getting things done for the children, planning nice and educational things for them to do and putting up displays. Now we are required to take on every new initiative AfL, Thinking skills, Basic Skills, Changes in the curriculum etc etc etc. Training days are busy (and dull!)

I hate training days but the wonderful government keep changing syllabuses and creating new acronyms (I have no idea what the a stands for in seal). Try doing our job and see how you like it. Plus it's not that much money for the amount of time we put in and for our qualifications. My best friend from my university course(Maths) currently earns almost triple what I earn and we have identical degrees. He's a city it pen pusher type.
Please don't slag us off, we do our utmost to care for and educate your dc. Plus, we are not babysitters!!! (although it does feel like it sometimes...)

they don't get 13 weeks a year off

try going into a school and seeing what they do, as opposed to what you think they do. It might open your eyes.

I meant proper. What proper job do you do? No, really I'm interested

So why do theY need extra days for training? The answer is very very simple. THEY DONT

So when do they do their CPD then? Don't you do any in your job?

OP, I don't understand what school holidays have to do with INSET day's frankly. Are you saying that because Teachers have 13 weeks off a year they don't need to do any CPD?? That makes NO SENSE!!!!

As for the great job they do, when I passed my A levels (20 years ago) I got two As and a C and failed one. The kids who got Es and Ds - not such a disgrace in those days - were told it would be 'okay' as they could 'get a job in teaching'. And, then did. So not such a bloody demanding jobmethinks and all this rubbish about it being a vocation or a 'calling' is just that. People teach usually because they got duff grades at A level and fell into teaching.

OMG..... OP - I think you should spend a day in a classroom and see what a tough job it is. Then come home and spend a few hours planning for the next day/assessing/marking/doing other random crap the head teacher has asked... see how long you last.

I never stop thinking about my class... even if im in tescos... i'm looking for good ideas/cheap stuff to use. If is draining.

So you're not a teacher because you're TOO CLEVER? Right.

OP, do you have children???

I feel sorry for their teachers.....