to think there is NO NEED for 2 inset days after a week off?

[Charliefarlie1192]

Only realised by asking on fb this morning that ds doesnt return to school till wednesday as today and tomorrow are inset days, aibu to think this is beyond ridiculous?!

ok, no inset. if you'd like your children to be taught by people who don't have the current training for the job, fine.

Ohhh yes where in the independent sector there is actually some truth in the 'I pay your wages' argument.

boneybackjefferson and itdoesnthurttohavemanners - I don't know how either of you can assume what my DH earns or does for a living, but you are right, he's not a teacher.

I haven't slated teachers at all, in fact I have acknowledged how hard they do work. I'm just pointing out that it's not the only profession which involves working out of hours. People focus on teachers holidays as they are unusual (I can't think of many jobs which get so many), but they shouldn't be making comments when they aren't in possession of all the facts. I can understand why teachers feel the need to defend themselves, as they are under constant scrutiny. But as many people have already said, if people think teachers have such a good deal they can train to become one.

These threads appear every half term.

The OP is always told that inset days are already taken out of holiday and they always ignore that fact. None of the OPs ever seem to offer up a solution other than to say that teachers should do their training during the holidays completely ignoring the fact that they have already come out of the holidays.

NiceHamione - but when do you fit all the work in then, if not in the 13 weeks holidays? Do you do very long days during term time and at weekends?

These threads appear every half term. The OP is always told that inset days are already taken out of holiday and they always ignore that fact. None of the OPs ever seem to offer up a solution other than to say that teachers should do their training during the holidays completely ignoring the fact that they have already come out of the holidays

That's exactly what I was about to write but you wrote it so well, I don't need to ;)

Would the OP like us to take another 5 days from our holidays to include the Inset days?

Then maybe next year when a different OP comes on to complain that the Inset days are annoying, we can take another 5 days...

Mishy1234

I'm not having a go at you or your husband. Just replying to your post.

The longest that I have ever seen MN last without a "teacher" thread in AIBU during term time is about 9 days. and they always follow the same circular pattern in content as well as thread drift.

Dh's school do their Inset training after school, a couple of hours a week during term time. Would be more convenient if more of them did. Don't forget teachers who are parents also need to find childcare to cover Inset days. Tacking them on to the end of holidays helps imo, rather than random days in the middle of term. As does actually looking at school calendars/newsletters

Dh's school do their Inset training after school, a couple of hours a week during term time.

Presumably, these are classed as Twilight sessions though which count as an INSET day when you've done x number of them and the school would still close for children on those designated days?

We have twilight sessions , all that means is the we do not come into school for INSET days, it has no effect on whether the days your children attend school.

Yes I work long hours during the week hula. I have just got home, I live two minutes from school and I tend to be at my desk for 7am. I will have about another 3 hours work to do tonight , which is about average for me.

mishy that's the point thought, we DON'T get all these holidays! Most teachers work through most if not all of them!!!! Yes on paper, looks good, but, as I stated previously, I'm pretty certain I enjoyed more holiday with my 25 days annual allowance in a previous career.

I would question that most teachers work through most of their holidays. I usually do absolutely nothing in the holidays and I think most of the teachers I know do very little. This is particularly the case for the long summer holiday.

Haven't read all this thread, but to those of you who have said its unfair for working parents....so are no teachers parents?? They have to deal with inset days too you know. It's getting a bit boring hearing this argument all the time now.
All schools need to train their staff. This needs to be done during term time as this is when ALL school staff are paid, and required to work.
The school can't necessarily choose these dates due to the training provider working through all schools in the LA
If you don't like it, pay for your children to go to private school that way you will get what you pay for.

They had 2 Inset days before term started in September, ones where they were actually in school, and the twilight sessions means they close their doors for the summer 2 days before other local schools. Not sure about the other day, but it's an academy which makes up its own rules.

But they're billed in the school timetable as part of the holidays if that makes sense? Not explicitly as Inset. And I'm pretty sure that's why the LEAs set random days for terms to start isn't it? Ds1 is at school in Hants, and they were supposed to start back in September on a Friday, so they'd be in school just one day. Obviously the sensible thing to do was make that an Inset. Same with summer. The last day of term is officially 23rd July, but they're closing to pupils on the 20th. I just don't get why tacking them on to the end/start of holidays, however it may be done, is an issue.

NiceHamione, can I be cheeky and ask how long you've been a teacher? I'm looking forward to dh being able to take the whole summer off but can't see when it's likely to happen!

About 7 or 8 years , I have always tried to do as little as possible in the holidays to be honest.

Ah, bit longer then. Maybe it will improve in time. He tends to go in for the first and last weeks, and then for results days (has a heavy A/AS level/GCSE type timetable), but he rarely switches off completely.

I go in for result days but don't really count that as working.

I have never ever gone into school for the first and last week of the holiday. The most i have ever done is the odd day.

NiceHamione - my experience is very different as pretty much all the teachers I know do a lot of work throughout the school holidays including an NQT and up to teachers who have been working for 15-20 years+, both secondary and primary. Certainly when I was secondary I worked in much of my holidays - probably took about half of them off. Even as a primary school YA I work for a reasonable proportion of the holidays!

I certainly work in the holidays (now in my 9th year, which makes me feel old). I only go into school for the odd day here and there as it is usually a building site as they try to stop the place falling down, but I work from home making resources etc for about half of most holidays.

I use my gain time and evenings during term time to make resources . At the moment I have gained 11 hours a week which I can use to do prep for next year. Averaged out that is about 80 hours from exam classes leaving until the last day of term. Gain time is a huge bonus for secondary teachers .

Haven't read every comment but still, get the jist.

Charlie, are you very young? Say, younger than late twenties? Are you jealous of your teacher-sister? If you work so hard yourself childcare for the odd couple of days (probably report writing) shouldn't be a problem? I bet you would be having a good old go at teachers if ds's report wasn't ready on time!

I know you will deny the jealousy and have some excuse re childcare, but seriously, you found out from fucking facebook about the inset days?

Sorry, YABVVVU and making yourself look a bit silly, and you sound very very childish. I'd love to know what you do. This has touched a nerve with me - my sister is a teacher also and she works so bloody hard and is never home before 5.30 - 6.

hello haters. here i am again, a teacher. i left home at six this morning, paid for a taxi so i could start work at six thirty. i worked through break and lunch and i worked after school. at six thirty this evening i was at a school related meeting and i've just got in.

and you lot with part time jobs in the corner shop think you can criticise...

ooh, did i mention that in the so-called half-term (timed to take in the bank holidays so that we would lose two days rest that the rest of the country got) i worked on thursday, friday and sunday?

that would be because of my 'vocation', i suppose.

or, maybe, because of the punishing workload and ridiculous expectations...

Gained time? I have 9 periods of that a week at the moment, each allocated to a departmental/pastoral task, we are not allowed to do our own activities in that time. This week I'm mostly tidying the stockroom.

I use each holiday to set up the next term. I use PPA in school to mark so I don't have to lug exercise books home. In most holidays except summer I run revision days and of course I'm always available on email/VLE to deal with queries about revision etc.