To have deceided after 20+ years in the private sector and 18 mths in a school..

[hmmmmmmmmm]

that teachers really do have a pretty easy life.

I know it's controversial and for years I believed my teaching friends and relatives who said that teachers needed all those holidays because it's such a tough job. It's true there are some teachers who really shouldn't be teaching and for them it's an impossible job no matter how hard they work, but that's true in any profession, if you're not suited to it it's incredibly hard.

For the rest, compared to the the jobs I've done in the private sector, they have loads of breaks and PPA time (most of which is spent taking things pretty easy IMO) and all (my?) school staff seem to spend huge amounts of time chatting - that was really rare in most of my other jobs. Even when in front of a class, provided they have control (again, if they're up to the job) they spend a lot of time sitting quietly while the class get on with stuff/watch TV

I've seen people working under pressure and none of the teachers I work with are under anything like the pressure I've seen and experienced in the past. I've never had it so easy, although I'm not teaching, really very little is expected from me for the money compared to my experiences in a "proper" job.

I do have huge respect for those who are good at it and it definitely wouldn't be for me, but for those who are in the right job it really isn't hard work, certainly not harder than jobs others have to do 48/46 weeks per year.

'sitting quietly while the class get on with stuff'

This bugs me. I'm only a TA, by the way, so if teachers have it easy, I must be practically flatlining. Parents think I am doing nothing when I am standing in the classroom during registration, and start to talk to me about forms etc - I'm sure I've done the same in the past. That is the only time that the child I work with is in the class. At that point I am observing him like a bloody hawk as things could kick off at any point; even if things are going well, I am observing the language he is using, the responses he is making, who he is communicating with, his body language, his mood, the book he is reading etc. Observing is a crucial part of my job, and the teacher's job - and she has 28 children to observe, I only have one. Never, ever assume that a person doing a job is doing nothing because they are not, to your eyes, visibly sweating out some sort of 'product'.

Unless you are a teacher how can you possibly know how much time they spend in lesson preparation.

I am an academic teacher- which is a far cushier job- but even so, I rehearse lecture in the shower, mark essays in the evenings, think out new teaching strategies on the bus and take my holidays in places which I can then use in my work. My parents who were school teachers were exactly the same.

When I did my teacher training there was a big group of 8 of us, all friends. All of us went into full time teaching, enthusiastic, fulfilling our life's dream. We'd all done a 4 year course and not one of us was there because we couldn't think of anything better to do. We were all passionate that this is what we would be doing with our lives.

Almost 20 years on, we're still in touch and every one of us is still working. But guess how many are still in full time teaching? 1. Yes, one of my friends is still a school teacher and the other 7 of us are doing something else. Some of the jobs are related (one is an Ed Psych, I teach music privately etc), but almost nobody I know from my teacher training days could stick the pressure and relentlessness that was a full time school teaching job.

Go figure.

I worked in recruitment before I was a teacher the hours were long, only 4 weeks holiday, plus working to stressful targets. Miss it a few times and you were out the door.

I remember at first, in my training year being very shocked when the holidays came round so quickly. But I think teaching is one of those jobs when the more you know, the more experienced you become, the more you realise you have to or need to do.

I love my job and would never go back, but that doesn't mean my job is easier or less stressful, just different types of stresses and strains.

"school staff seem to spend huge amounts of time chatting "
no no no they're discussing whether to take those gold plated pensions at the age of 50 or wait until 52

I'm a school governor. I work full-time in a job that can be extremely pressured at times - certainly have worked in some very high pressure environments. And from what I can see of my son's school, the teachers work extremely hard and do very long hours.

I think YABU and YANBU

The thing with teaching is that it varies so much - between schools, between roles in schools and even between different weeks in the same job.

I spent my first job working in a school where I was only ever there from 8 till 4 and never at weekends. But I had to work every night at home and marking, planning and assessment were really important.

Now I am at school from 8 till 6,7,8,9, or even 10pm at night plus Saturdays and some Sundays - but I rarely bring work home with me and have much more time during the day to procrastinate and do not have to produce so much forumlaic and needless paperwork.

Swings and roundabouts.

This week I have spent the following hours working on the school premises:
Monday - 8am till midnight
Tuesday - 8am till 2am
Wednesday - 8am till 9pm
Thursday - 8am till 11.30pm
Friday - 7am till 10pm
Saturday - 7.30am till 9.30pm
Sunday - 9.30pm till 7pm

But that kind of schedule only happens 3ish times a year (show weeks)

My normal schedule (as normal as teaching can be!) would be around
Monday - 8am till 9pm
Tuesday 8am till 5pm
Wednesday - 8am till 9pm
Thursday - 8am till 3pm
Friday - 8am till 6pm
Saturday - 8am till 1pm
Sunday - flexible/not at all

However, at the end of next week my holidays will start and I will probably average around 2 hours a day in school over the next 3 weeks - so a very easy life indeed!!

I think the main thing that makes teaching an easy life is that it is fun. It might be long hours but, if you're enjoying every one of them, then it doesn't really matter. I'm not an organised or hard working person and the idea of an office job or something like that fills me with horror. I couldn't cope if wor was just something to go to to pay the bills, I need to enjoy my days or I fall apart.

oops, that first Sunday should be 9.30am not pm, I definitely didn't spend 22.5 hours in school that day!

Your obviously not a teacher are you

My SIL was a teaching assistant and thought teachers had an easy life. That was until she trained to be a teacher and realised just how hard it really was!

I think teachers do have a tough job. There's a lot of preparation and marking etc, not to mention the paperwork (sorry, don't know the specifics as I'm not a teacher). On top of that there are discipline issues, difficult parents etc.

I also don't think it's the toughest job in the world either. Lots of people do extra hours, travelling for work etc. I think the difference is that teachers are often forced to defend themselves from criticism and therefore appear to always be complaining about their lot. That naturally irritates people, especially in this economic climate when everyone is feeling the pressure. It's a vicious circle.

I watched a surgeon once and tbh what a con!!! I cut up meat and have learnt how to fillet fish. it's not a lot different tbh. Afterwards they sit in a tea room and write notes. They get clinic time when all they do is chat to patients and I know they get afternoons off to 'study' when they go home and probably sit in the garden room snoozing.

Yeah. Surgeons - piss easy!

I think it rather depends on the institution and the teacher. The responses here do not give a representative sample as no one is going to come along and say "yes, I do as little work as possible".

My father was a secondary school teacher until 10 years ago (and I accept that things may have changed), but he seldom brought work home. Pupils marked their own work in the next lesson and he largely taught the same lessons year in, year out so little planning was required. He was (and is) by nature very lazy and the job certainly allowed him to be.

I would say that he was a natural in the classroom and inspired his pupils, decades on sometimes someone will recognise my name and tell me how great my father was.

Nurses - piss easy! They just sit around the work station negelecting their patients.

@Coconutty I could definitely bea minor Royal -all they do is dress up in posh clothes and get driven around and wave...

I've not really got this game, have I?

Goosey I think you could work like that and be successful in terms of results and relationships with pupils and other teachers until a few years ago.

Now though there is too much monitoring to get away with that way of working- even if he didn't need to prepare he would now have to and be seen to do so. It's also quite unusual to retire as a 'mere' classroom practitioner; most teachers would move up the ladder within the department or postorally, and that involves a lot more work outside the classroom.

postorallypastorally

I loved teaching, and I hope to go back to it. I'm a good teacher.

I taught children with Profound and Multiple Learning Difficulties. I can assure you there was no time at all sat quietly while the kids got on with stuff - generally up to my eyeballs in glitter/ paint/ glue/ tapioca/ general mess.

I was in work every day by 7am (to set up for the day - play doh and mashed sweet potato don't make themselves!) I left by 5 most days. I took work home in the form of reports/ observations that had to be typed up etc.

15 mins at break, 1 hr at lunch but that was expected to be used to prepare the afternoon lessons.

It was hard work. I loved it, but I would be exhausted (and filthy) by the end of every day.

There are harder jobs. I worked in retail for a year, only part time thank fuck, I would have gone insane doing that 5 days a week. Shorter hours but no autonomy, no thinking really and no creativity, and BORING, and dealing with the massive wankers that seem to make up 10% of the shopping population. No fun at all.

I could definiteyl work at MNHQ, all they have to do is sit around with and read the bunfights. When they get sick they wade in with their usual "this isn't in the spirit of mumsnet" and make the thread go poof . Then kettle on and on to the next bunfight.

After reading some of these long daily schedules ( which I am grateful not to do and hats off to you), I have come to the conclusion that my SIL is either lazy, a liar about how little she does out of core school hours, a crap teacher or a mixture of all three. She doesn't do half of what some of you do. I feel sorry for her pupils.

I have a friend who used to be a lawyer in London. She subsequently retrained as a primary school teacher & finds the latter infinitely more stressful. I rather suspect that any teacher who finds the job easy simply isn't doing it to the best of their ability.

OP never returned huh? Surprise!