To think the long school holidays are not for the teachers' benefit?

[NotInMyDay]

Discussion on BBC Breakfast this morning re long school holidays. A rep from teachers' union was saying the long school holidays were vital for teachers to rest and recuperate so that they could do the best for our children at the start of the next school year.

AIBU to think that it's the children who need this break and therefore the teachers have it too? Rather than NEEDED by the teachers.

I think that most teachers do a fantastic and unenviable job but they don't need to recuperate any more than GPs, surgeons, nurses, bus drivers etc.

Shortened by how much? 2 weeks? Where will they go - Easter? It's snowing here. Christmas? That'd be good. June half term?

And it would price me out of a job. My childcare costs would be more than my income from teaching. In near well damn is now.

today's teacher news

2 days ago

why is teaching so stressful

This is interesting, actually.

Holidays may be a perk of the job, but they make up for the other massive non-perk, which is that teachers cannot say, like office workers can say: "Oh I've had a terrible week, I'm knackered, I'll take tomorrow off and sleep all day." They HAVE to keep going

I am not a teacher.

Although I am sure there are issues wrt comparing "self reported" stress... it is clearly not an easy job.

Teachers don't go sick then [

what a lot of tosh.

A couple of weeks ago there was a twenty page thread about whether the police deserved to have decent pay and conditions. Now here's a thread about what teachers deserve. I'm struggling to understand what the public really want. Does the public want motivated, capable public servants who reasonably expect pay & conditions that reflect their work? Or does the public want to pay peanuts and get etc? Or does the public think that all public servant roles should be privatised? There doesn't ever seem to be threads on Mumsnet complaining about how overpaid / how many holidays / how easy it is to work in any private sector role. The fuel tanker drivers threatening to go on strike over their working conditions reportedly earn £45,000 pa, let's start on them.

Striking teachers would cause probs, but they would not strike much they would get re graded and then get on with it.

I don't want to start on anyone as that is exactly what the government wants , for us all to fall out whole they run off laughing to the bankers.

I thought the strike was over health and safety rather than pay.

Yes, I understand it is about working conditions. My point is that there are plenty of jobs in the private sector that APPEAR to be well rewarded for what APPEARS to be an easy life but no one seems to complain about them. I understand that public servants are paid by the public purse but that doesn't seem to justify the anger expressed towards them.

I think you are right we are being manipulated by the government.

I work 40 hour weeks in term time, including usually a couple of hours every evening. I teach 5 days a week. I'm only part time, 3 days equivalent and earn under 20k. If it wasn't for the holidays there's no way I'd do it. They are paying thousands of pounds in incentives to try to get people with similar qualifications to me into teaching. The government would be utterly stupid to force me and people like me out of teaching, and they'd find me very hard to replace.

Me too, soverylucky - for the sake of ds I would be out. I only get to be a proper mummy in the holidays.

whencanI - I'm not sure the public are being involved in any debate though. I would like to hear about examples of systems that work well in other countries and how easy / difficult it would be to implement them.

I'd like to hear about what works well in our own system & how we could keep those bits.

I'd like to understand more about how eduction shapes society as a whole and how this should influence our choices.

Everyone should have a view on education, as every single one of us has to go through the system (or very actively opt out) one way or another.
I feel as though we just bumble on in same old way.

There hasn't been a radical change, since the introduction of the comprehensive system - just tweaking - it is still fundamentally the same structure that existed 100 years ago, in a society that is considerably different.

Good luck finding teachers at all then - given that 50% of teachers leave the profession within 5 years anyway.

Exactly! They simply won't stay in the profession if they cut holidays, certainly not if they don't compensate with a much higher salary.

There would be a knock on effect in the UK's economy if long summer holidays were shortened. Entire regions e.g. Cornwall and the Lakes depends almost entirely on tourism, a weather-related industry. If school holidays were shortened in the summer, supposedly when we get our best weather and when hundreds of thousands of people make the bulk of their money, then these people would be affected adversely, because no one but the most determined UK-holiday makers want to take their family up Scafell Pike or round the SW coast path in February or October.

I'm tired of the whole country being tarred with the same brush as a few rioters in inner cities. Why should children and teachers in rural, non inner city areas have their way of life changed for the worse because of teenagers in London and Bristol etc who steal trainers and TVs? I agree that the move to shorten summer holidays is nothing to do with "learning" and everything to do with lax society and poor parenting. If children can have eight weeks off in the summer in Sweden and still out perform our kids, then clearly it's nothing to do with the length of British summer holidays and everything to do with wanting teachers to be babysitters.

Sorry for badly phrased and angry rant.

iamme43

"Teachers don't go sick then what a lot of tosh. "

When they do go sick they get accused of skiving, just check up thread.

Most of the time it's too much hassle to be off when you're sick anyway.

*setting work - and knowing it probably won't get done.
*Still having to do your marking
*Going back in when you're still not right because you've got exam classes and feel guilty - then being put on cover
*Having to deal with the fallout from the supply teacher

[smug face] I've had 3 days off in 7 years - including 2 pregnancies.
I tend to get ill the minute i get a holiday.

I work 40 hour weeks in term time, including usually a couple of hours every evening. I teach 5 days a week. I'm only part time, 3 days equivalent and earn under 20k. If it wasn't for the holidays there's no way I'd do it.

So do a lot of people and they only get 5 weeks hols a year......

Most of the time it's too much hassle to be off when you're sick anyway

this goes for a lot of people too.

GOD some teachers think they are soooo special..

In a part time job for part time pay?

"So do a lot of people and they only get 5 weeks hols a year......"

You missed the part where it says part time.

"this goes for a lot of people too.
GOD some teachers think they are soooo special.."

Um, nobody said it didn't go for a lot of people too.

Answering criticism about supposed skiving in the teaching profession is not equal to saying that nobody else has work to catch up on when they're off sick.

Why do you insist on putting words into people's mouths and then having a go at them for it?

GOD some iamme43's think they are soooo special.

See, this is what happens.

Someone inaccurately criticises the teaching profession.
Teachers answer criticism.
Teachers then get accused of being self-centred, thinking they are special, thinking they work harder than everyone else.

And the cycle continues. It's happened several times in this thread alone. Blah blah blah.