to ask for a justification of inset days

[5Foot5]

Really, really don't want to sound like I am teacher-bashing here. This is a genuine question.

There is a story being discussed on the news programme about a school which has decided to have all of its inset days at one go so that parents could potentially take advantage of term time prices for holidays. This got me thinking about the timing of inset days generally.

I assume that these days are used for training and /or acquainting staff with the myriad changes imposed on them all the time by government.

But, here is the question, why do these days have to be taken during what would otherwise be term time? Why are they not held during the school holidays when there is surely enough capacity to accommodate these days?

Can i add that I am no longer affected by this since DD has now left school but it really has only just occurred to me..

Cruikshank perhaps the discussion and pressure really should focus on employers across all sectors having truly family friendly flexible working practice?

Indeed, & as I previously suggested, teaching staff could arrange suitable individualised training - for example, a colleague of mine is doing a day of First Aid training for school trips through St John's Ambulance next week. In any rational system, she should be able to include that on a personal diary of training she has undertaken this year, to count towards the 5 days training the Government requires us to complete.

Much more useful than 'Right everybody, into the gym for a PowerPoint the Head's latest blue-eyed NQT has put together on how data seating plans will transform all our practice!'

Nope I was just expressing my opinion. That's how this works isn't it. My opinions are probably just as stupid as many others on here. Ultimately it doesn't matter it's on the Internet not government policy. Peace and love.

netty yay yay yay school us not childcare and all the rest of it.
The reality though us that if school is suddenly closing down, whatever the reason, (pd days, snow, roof leak etc etc) it IS an issue for the working parents.

In countries where it is the norm for both parents to work, you never find that expectation for one parent to be available in that way.
Because it's just impossible to hold a full time job AND to be available in that way (you need to remember that it's not just of days there)

Why would anyone assume though that arranging childcare for an inset day is any easier for the large number of teachers who are also parents? If these days inconvenience any of you, then they do the same for many of the staff.

Nobody has said that it's easier for teachers who are parents. No-one. But, given that lots of teachers are also parents, surely that is all the more reason to look into how the system isn't working, because it doesn't seem to suit anyone really.

Plus I'm not even responding to anything I remember you stated. Just the general negativity.

We play 'management speak bingo, raven.

Yep that's true when my daughter's school closes its an issue as mine probably hasn't but I deal with it.

wideo the other option is for school to stop acting as if there were the only thing important in
The world and to take working parents into account.

By that I mean, no school trip that comes back late (can't expect a CM to wait for half hour), no school closing at the drop of tha hat (remember all the threads when the winter was snowy?), no sport activity that finishes late or expect parent to pick the child up at a different place etc etc.

I am still a bit mystified why more of the ire isn't directed to providers of holiday care.

Our dates are all published for next year. The shortest notice ones are the first day or two in September, but they do them every year so no big surprise for most people.

Cruikshank there is no will to look into the system because the inconvenience of parents doesn't matter politically speaking and teachers don't have the power to make any changes either.

Schools don't act as if 'they were the only important thing in the world' - that is hogwash.

The examples you list - I don't understand how they illustrate your 'point'...and I'm unsure about what your point actually is, if I'm honest.

Or alternatively:
no school trips at all-much easier and no parents complaining because it is impossible to fit the trip into a normal school day
-keep the school open and expect every parent to bring their child in-even when the roads are like ice rinks and everyone has been warned to stay at home
-no sporting activities at all-in case it causes any disruption

By that I mean, no school trip that comes back late (can't expect a CM to wait for half hour), no school closing at the drop of tha hat (remember all the threads when the winter was snowy?), no sport activity that finishes late or expect parent to pick the child up at a different place etc etc.

I can solve two of these problems at the drop of a hat. No more school trips (voluntary) and no after school sports (also voluntary). The snow is harder, I propose we have no snow days ever and children come in in dangerous conditions and sit in the hall watching DVDs.

Would be nice if you didn't have to deal with it though, wouldn't it?

I know it seems like a small thing, but it's one of those niggles that can grow to have a greater impact. Take my 25 days, for example. We're only in July now and I've had to use up several of them on all the bits and bobs that parents do - kid is sick/dr appointments/household emergencies etc. (it's been an unlucky year). So the likelihood of me being able to take the leave I've booked for the week before Xmas (including Xmas Eve when there is absolutely no childcare provision locally, no clubs, no childminders, nothing, but still a working day for me) is already vanishingly small, and on top of that I've got to take a random Monday off in November for bloody inset because, again, there's no childcare provision for that day. When you're dealing with no wiggle room at all, it is very annoying to have these random days slotted into the year, especially when (as I have learnt from this thread) if things were done differently, there would be no need for them.

A data seating plan, Euphemia is a diagram of the classroom with each student's name, previous/current/target/effort levels (traffic light colour coded so you know if they're doing OK or not), their ethnicity, SEN status, whether they get FSM...

I pointed out that we couldn't actually display it to, er, show the kids where to sit, because of the amount of personal data, & so now we are expected to also have a redacted version that er, just has their names on.

It's a bit like what we dinosaurs used to call...'a mark book' . Except that it enables the Ofsted inspector to see at a glance which feckless underachieving numpty to sit next to & ask searching questions about the quality of your teaching...

Spaniel eyes - great minds

I count verbal ticks on inset days. Winner gets an extra week off. That was a joke.

You think teachers deliberately come back late from sports matches?