AIBU to wonder why the feck teacher training days can't be delivered in the holidays.

[Billynomates71]

Anyone?

oh come on it didn't turn into a bun fight at all - the OP asked a question - was answered repeatedly with facts then got goady

rtf - it helps :)

wow because even after it had been repeatedly explained the OP still persisted in saying that teachers should do INSET during the holidays- for example she suggested instead of this Friday they could do next Monday - that would be Monday, in the holidays.

Unplanned INSET shouldn't be happening - your school should be able to give you ample notice - if they don't then that needs to be taken up at individual school level

I have read it thanks and it the tone of the posts from people supporting teachers was predictably aggressive interspersed with facts.

I genuinely do not understand why people get so defensive when education and the education system are questioned. Ok yes the OP is a bit slow on the uptake in understanding how insets work but still, most professions - my own included - get questioned frequently without all the sarcasm and snarky responses or links to how to train up

The reason it becomes a bunfight is that the that the question isn't being asked to understand the system but as a way of attacking those who work in education and it very often is done so in an aggressive manner and - crucially - as the OP in this thread demonstrates - they really are not interested in understanding or accepting the answer, they just want to bore on about how lazy, over paid and under worked teachers are.

In my one experience of snow days it wasn't the fact staff couldn't get in but because the safety of 1300 pupils could not be guaranteed at school and the decision to close was made by the head teacher and the director of education - not because staff couldn't be arsed going in.

Snow days are about children's safety not adults.

True true Cora. It's about the ice on the school site, not the ice on the roads leading there. You can't keep 1500+ people safe in such conditions.

You also can't stop 1500 kids snowballing the fuck out of each other ( or cars, buses or people's front windows).

educating your maths doesnt really work out because NQT/ nurses and AHP all get similar starting salary and its pro rata all get paid annual leave its just teachers get a bit more AL that nurses or AHP. But as others have pointed out we all have choices and personally i chose NOT to teach because of the burn out my mates got from teaching, well trying to teach, it seemed most of them had to spend hours doing the most ridiculous amount of target based lunacy than actual proper teaching. The school dd goes to is fab their inset days are always end of term, so pupils finish a bit earlier than other school children in our area and its cheaper and easier when it comes to going away

I'm not a teacher myself but it really annoys me when teachers constantly face the whole 'you get loads of holiday, it's a cushy job' attitude.
This country really needs more teachers. A teacher who is passionate about their job and can inspire their pupils is worth their weight in gold and can change peoples entire lives. They are already leaving the profession in droves because of the pressure put on them and then they get attitudes directed at them like some on this thread. We need to encourage our teachers! You never know it might be your child one on them really makes a life changing effect on.

I totally get why there is some defensivness on here. Yes it was just a question but it was a very loaded one with many other digs added in.

I can only hope that billy reads the instructions at work in a more comprehensive way than he has done the answers on this thread.

If a school is closed for snow more often than not there will be some teaching staff there. We have to try to get in regardless. It's ratios and safety factors that determine closure for pupils, plus some schools are getting very old now, a school I worked in previously had an ancient boiler that would pack up in the very cold meaning no heating so pupils could not attend. We, as staff, were there, in many layers, huddled round the Head's electric 2 bar trying to work in freezing conditions!

Boney I think Billy is a girl. Nothing else to add to thread

wow do you honestly think its the teachers who decide if the school closes because of snow? Do you think they just fancy a day off?

Before I stry I've only skim read the last few pages. So apologies right now.

I always thought teachers had a sweet deal. 13 weeks holiday, 9-3 every day. Nice.

Then my sister qualified and I saw how much she was actually doing. She teaches ks2. She starts work at 7. And finishes on a good day at around 9. She has in the last year been attacked by the children has to work when she is sick, where as I could take a day if I chose to, and has been over worked to the extreme. But she loves her job. She is well paid for it. And I have a new found respect for what I thought was an easy job. No way would I want to do it. I just couldn't. I work 9-5 (or till 7 at the moment). Am absolutely exhausted but know ghat for the most part when it hits Friday I have 2 days to relax. Not work mark books plan for the week etc.

I see where the op is coming from inset days must be a pain when you forget about them. But I don't see how or why teachers should be expected to take the time out of their holidays

I wouldn't be happy taking holiday to attend mandatory training for my job.

Also re holidays 13 weeks. So 60 odd days. I would out money on it that most teachers would work through half terms, so take off 15 days. They'd probably put in a week or so at Christmas and Easter. So take off 10 days. Then 2-3 weeks during summer. 60-10-15-10 =25. Same actual relaxing sitting down going in holiday holiday days as the rest of us.

Many years ago, more than I care to remember, I suggested on a thread that MNHQ should put up a sticky saying that INSET days are not taken from term time, but from teachers' holidays

It would be activated when a thread such as this was posted.

It wasn't taken up and this thread rather proves my point.

Too many threads there, but YKWIM.

So we close schools when we want to, refuse holiday requests, take too many holidays, exaggerate our workload or are way too innefficient with our time and are frowned upon when that full weeks holiday is not taken up with inset days even though that would make it even harder to get a weeks holiday away somewhere!

Just checking because I've never heard anyone complain about my profession before, it's coming as quite a shock!!!

So we close schools when we want to, refuse holiday requests, take too many holidays, exaggerate our workload or are way too innefficient with our time and are frowned upon when that full weeks holiday is not taken up with inset days even though that would make it even harder to get a weeks holiday away somewhere!

Yup!

What do other countries with longer holidays do about working/childcare? Do they object quite as much as some people here?

I honestly can see school holidays being massively reduced within the next ten years to encourage more people back into work. This would mean all the private schools will have longer holidays during the cheaper periods, won't get fined for term-time absences, won't have to follow the National curriculum etc Two totally separate echelons of people-those who can and those who can't.

Won't that be nice.

It won't happen. Teachers are not paid for holidays therefore they would need to pay a lot more if they were taken away.

I come to this thread the morning after one of my twice weekly after school childcare sessions for my teacher dd(other 3 covered by cm). Yesterday was typical, dd is a secondary school English teacher. She leaves home at 7.30 for a 15 minute drive to school. She arrived back at 17.45. I had fed the dc aged 5 and 8. She then had 90 minutes with her children to supervise hwk, baths and bedtimes as well as some playtime. She had a meal with her dh who was home at 18.30 then,at about 8.00pm she settled down to 2 and a half hours of marking and preparation. This is the same every weekday. At weekends one full day (wow!) is family time and the other is spent working and trying to fit in shopping, cleaning and cooking/freezing meals. She is exhausted. She is a wonderful teacher according to her assessments but she and all her colleagues work as hard or harder for less reward than most people I know in office/managerial/finance sector jobs.
I was a teacher for 30 years and the job now is harder than it has ever been. Many train but few remain. "Boring" billynomates? It is never boring but it is bloody hard work and inset days are maybe the only truly boring aspects.

I get 20 days holiday a year. Along with the rest of the uk ft workforce

Speak for yourself op, I work ft, not a teacher, and get 40 days a year, although I have to take ten of them over Christmas.

There are jobs with better holidays, t&c's out there op. Go look!