To already be fed up with teachers/eduaction workers posting about their long holiday!

[Freshlysqueezed]

Facebook is swarming with people saying how much they deserve it and other people patting them on the back. It seems like the world and his wife are in education or SAHM's with 6 glorious weeks ahead of them. Apart from a one week holiday I have a juggling timetable of various childcare arrangements to run to and fro from.

Yabu op, if anything that you should have learnt from being a regular here is that this timeframe aren't holidays because of all the stress and 'out of hours work' that is needed for the new school year, it's almost like they are contradicting themselves with regards to to the time of year.

I work in a school (actually, more than one). I'm not a teacher, but I still get the holidays - whoop whoop!!!! 6 weeks off for me starting today - I intend to enjoy each and every leisurely second! Most of it on MN!

Schools are two-tier: There are the teachers, who get paid well, and all the TAs, dinner supervisors etc (like me) who get paid little more than the minimum wage. We aren't paid for holidays, but we DO all have lots of time off. Teachers and various others come in during that time.
There are exceptions - school business managers are paid in excess of 30k, but they don't get the same hols.

I think the teacher-bashing on this thread is petty, mean and jealous. And that's not to disrespect nurses et al. When you apply for a job you know what you're taking on. You know what the perks, rewards and downsides are.
Incidentally, my hardest thing seems to be wind. Teacher's don't fart, but I walk out of the school gates jet-propelled most days, and I always wonder how teachers manage to keep it in! (sorry if that's over-sharing!)

There was this horrible post, hidden away on page 2

SAHM with 6 glorious weeks ahead of me? I have 2 kids with SN and 6 weeks of no fucking respite.

No one seemed to notice it enough to comment. How horrible is this post?!?

Like someone FORCED this poster to have 2 children?

I get parents in a dizzy spin at this time of year, because they can't BELIEVE/cope with the fact they have to parent their own bloody kids. And I have been that working parent: I have done those bloody excel spreadsheets with every day of the hols mapped out because I had to work and had to have the childcare I couldn't afford (hence why I moved careers and now work in schools... we have choices!)

In schools, we get parents coming to us in OUTRAGE: Why aren't you teaching my children to say no to drugs/to be safe from cyber bullying/to stop being so rude and disrespectful to me/to make good sexual choices/to have positive body image/to manage finances etc etc etc

Schools have to do safeguarding - to look out for signs of abuse and report anything.

We're now part of "Prevent" and it's the school's fault if some disaffected teenager.

People scream there's not enough focus on sport. On the Arts. Etc.

And THEN schools are bashed because there's not enough focus on "the basics".

Thanks for all of that. To every teacher or staff member who has opened or is going to open a bottle to celebrate the hols - I salute you!

Throw what you like if it makes you feel happy. Come and join us.

p.s. Going back to WideOpen's party thread now... It's so much more fun there!

There is so much wisdom on these threads on the subject of pedagogy. I implore you all to come into the profession. Please.

So, freshlysqueezed, you don't believe me if I tell you that I worked at least those hours when I was a teacher? You think I'm just making it up to be a martyr. Or do you accept individual teachers own accounts but don't think that it is widespread?

I don't understand why teachers can't discuss these things without everyone piling on to vilify them. Why the hate and the vitriol?

Seriously I have heard it all now with teachers can't fart because of course we all let rip at our desks! Next you will tell me you can only go to the toilet twice a day in a pre agreed time slot.

I will fill out application forms for all of you. What's stopping you. Yep the going to the toilet to order is a bit of an issue. Genuinely. You can't just walk out of a classroom.

A party thread where?

I finished last Saturday (private school teacher) but didn't dare say a word on facebook as I was frightened of the reaction of other teachers, let alone people who don't have the holidays coming up at all.

I was so embarrassed last Sunday when a friend was saying 'next week we can meet at the gym', 'next week we'll have to get coffee' and so on and I was thinking 'arghhh, should I tell her I finished yesterday and am free as a bird from tomorrow??' I didn't dare in the end!

So yes, it's jammy but not all of us boast about it - some of us hide away and pretend we're still at work!!

Actually, do you know what, teachers have to be in the classroom with the students. You can't nip out to the loo. If you have a full teaching day where each lesson you are in front of a class, with a duty at break time (supervising) and meetings/detentions/clubs/extra sessions at lunch, it is quite difficult to find time to go to the loo. And don't think that you can always go between lessons, as you can have about 5 minutes to pack up, get to a different class room possibly in a different building and set up again for the next lesson. I imagine doctors, nurses, etc have a similar problem as I suppose you can't just walk away from a patient if you need the loo.

Fatmomma, I have no words... well I do but I'd get banned.

Fatmomma Really? You're attack on a pp was just bloody horrible and unnecessary. 2 children with SN for 6 weeks with no respite - I'd be pulling my hair out.

I don't think teachers get enough time off. I think they should get more paid vacation and hazardous duty pay also. As should social workers.

Families without respite is a huge issue and I think if we are a civilised caring society we would see this parents plight as a difficult situatuion. I am really humbled when I hear about the amount of stress some families are enduring. Come join the profession. I know I am being sarcastic a lot tonight but I genuinely wish some people would come and join us. I want you to all have my cushy working life.

I actually think we could do with looking at the entire way that education is organised. Teachers seem to work very long hours during term times and then in the 13 weeks off all those working parents who aren't teachers get shafted childcare-wise and have to have all kinds of crazy, built on a house of cards expensive set-ups just to enable them to go to work every day. And yes I know that school isn't childcare, but kids have to go somewhere while you're at work, and for a quarter of the year there is a gap. I would much prefer if there was a more relaxed timetable and longer terms, with the work for the year to be covered in a longer timeframe and more time devoted to what are deemed 'non-essentials' but are actually very beneficial in all sorts of ways to children. Maybe then teachers and pupils wouldn't be dropping with exhaustion by the beginning of July, and those of us who don't get a quarter of the year off work (ie the majority of working parents) wouldn't have to scrabble around frantically making do with less than stable arrangements just to get to work at all.

I think school buildings should be opened and staffed all year round. Outside of formal schooling time have the fun stuff there. Parents drop off / pick up as usual. Some weeks children will be taught by teachers, orher week theyd be having a camp of somesort. Instead of all the clubs in run down buildings or random places, use the purpose built secure school building.

Ok so I'm confused by pp who state holidays are unpaid leave. If your annual salary is divided into 12 monthly payments as stated by a pp surely that covers periods of annual leave

My understanding of unpaid leave is no salary for the period not worked therefore if I took my 5 weeks yearly entitlement as unpaid leave = no money in the bank!

I get paid last Thursday of the month same amount every month, year in year out.....

The other issue of course is that parents want shorter holidays, but to have holidays when they want. If holidays reduced to 6 weeks, when would everyone go on holiday?

You do know that there are workers who work with kids who have been excluded from school, who do not get long paid holidays?

Just to make your day, I'm starting a months annual leave then going onto maternity

Giggly, it's a technical point about pay really. In teachers terms and conditions it is specified that they are paid for 190 days teaching per year plus 5 inset days. So the none teaching days are considered unpaid leave. But, schools all divide the salary up into 12 monthly chunks to avoid teachers having no income during the holidays. A teacher can't choose when to take the unpaid leave and not many people would be happy with 6 or 7 weeks with no income that you can't change. Hence the pay being spread out to cover this time.

I hope the teachers enjoy their holidays partly because everyone deserves some time off with their family.

And partly because I am sick of hearing my teaching friends whinge about how hard they work. I get it! They do have to mark/plan etc but they still finish at 1530 so plus 2 hrs extra that's a normal working day right?

I find it very difficult to be sympathetic as a heathcate professional on a Rota where at one point we work 7 straight 12 hr shifts. I don't moan but my teaching friends doing 0800 to 1530 are tired

Yanbu to politely point out to those who might live on Marsnot have clocked on that there are worse jobs than teaching. But you would nbu to realise its not a closed profession so you too can just take it up, with it being so easy and privileged. Do we have an emoticon for a violin?

They do have to mark/plan etc but they still finish at 1530 so plus 2 hrs extra that's a normal working day right?

That comes after meetings, detentions, phoning/emailing parents, responding to endless initiatives of government. Additionally some of the work is out of their control, e.g. report writing happens when they are still teaching/preparing/marking.

An aspect of teaching which is rarely mentioned is the performance, which can be wonderful and/or utterly draining.

I do not seek to compare teaching to other people's work, indeed, in 35+ years of teaching, I have never heard a an RL teacher say they work harder than people in other jobs, only that it can get a bit much at times. All of this takes place in an a political framework where teachers are routinely derided in a way absolutely no other profession is. The boards of MN are testimony to this, even before you get to attitudes by successive governments.

I thought teaching in the UK was getting bad when I left the UK ten years ago, but am open-mouthed at the state of it now, the micro-management alone is utterly dreadful.

I now work where I am trusted to be a competent teacher, and no-one has ever asked to see my lesson plans.