To feel that this email is intrusive

[Thornyrose7]

I am due to start a new teaching contract at a new place of work in September. I am not new to teaching, I have been doing it on and off for 15 years with breaks and maternity gaps.
I have my new timetable and some details about the coming year which I am planning to look at the week before my contract starts and do some planning then. My summer is taken up with children's activities, weekends away etc etc.
I have just received an email from a teacher who is also due to start the same time as me. I believe that she is an NQT. We will be sharing responsibility for one course. This teacher wants me to send her my planning and scheme of work and wants to discuss next year.
AIBU to feel really intruded upon?
I believe that teachers holidays are sacred and if you want to work over summer that is a personal choice.I am also annoyed that she has got hold of my personal email, when we have never met.
I don't want our working relationship to get off to a bad start, but I am not sure how to respond!

While I appreciate that you want to spend time with your child in the summer holidays, couldn't you just spend half an hour sending her an e-mail telling her that you don't usually do work in the school holidays but give her a little bit of guidance to make her life easier?

Personally I don't think it will be a good start to your new working relationship if you make a big deal out of this and refuse to help her.

Dp is a HOD in a good local school. He said it's an unwritten law of teaching that experienced teachers do all they can to help out NQTs due to how shittily hard it is to enter teaching.

He's been mailing a new member of his team regularly so far these hols to answer her qs and was a bit baffled when I just asked him if he found that intrusive. So I'm guessing not.

I'm in the private sector, get nowhere near the 16 weeks of leave he gets, yet my team know that if they're struggling and I'm off, they can mail or call me if they need to. I'd hate to cause anyone undue stress, if it's something I can resolve quickly.

I am not going to refuse to help her. I am going to email her on Monday. However ,I still think it is unreasonable to expect a detailed scheme of work and a plan from me when I have not yet started this job.I am going to send a topic list and a few pointers and explain that I will be able to collaborate more fully at X date. I am not going to be a horrible colleague, I will be more than happy to help more comprehensively when my contract starts.
I hope that's cleared things up.

I doubt it sorry :o
Have you cancelled the cheque yet? :o

Stealthpolar😄 love it. I needed a laugh.

Please keep in mind that it's possible it may take an NQT double the amount of time to plan one lesson as it does a more experienced teacher.

Personally, I would try to help as much as I can, but maybe state in the e-mail that you have other commitments during the summer & may not be as freely available but reassure her it will be different once school starts back. That way it gives you an "out" of having a continuous e-mail conversation over summer but makes you sound a bit more... Helpful?

Whirly your dh is in a position of managing those people. The OP is an unpromoted teacher.

I doubt it sorry grin
Have you cancelled the cheque yet?
I am confused, what does this mean?

I'm sure you'll reply with a few pointers for her on Monday, when you've vented here.

Good luck.

I just think you're being a bitch for no particularly good reason other than it is intruding on your time. Give her a few pointers and be on your way - won't take long and might really help her. You are clearly at a point in your career where you can knock off lesson plans at the drop of a hat - good for you - but you were an nqt once so think back to that time and find a bit of compassion.

Persona it was a joke from an old thread. Can't remember the details but op had paid something (I think she'd actually paid bank trnasfer) and there was a problem. She had a few suggestions of "just cancel the cheque" where she explained.
ten pages later people were still asking "have you cancelled the cheque yet op?" And it became shorthand for frustrating repeated comments from people who hadn't read the thread.

What was it about? Wasn't that long ago, this year I think.

It was the grabby wedding thank you wasn't it, saying they hadn't given enough? I think it turned out to be a troll.

Grabby wedding? No she wasn't a troll. She was regular poster before and still posts now. The thread going viral outed her though I believe. It's in Classics now.

Ah yes, the "do you want to up your contribution a bit?" Thread

I'm glad to hear that.

I understand why you are cross, however I was just thinking how I felt as an NQT and if you are sharing some planning, I think you should reply, sorry!

cancel the cheque doesn't really apply here

it was lots of people saying the OP should cancel a cheque that the OP had already said had been cashed already.

This OP is still saying that she will reply saying she will work with the colleague on the last week of the holidays, which people are still saying is unreasonable and will cause both of them stress and problems later…

so not really a cancel the cheque situation

I love how just because it's teaching, someone who has yet to start a job is expected to work, via her personal email address (which has been passed on by whom?) for free, before her contract even starts! Madness! Can you imagine a cleaner doing that? Or a barrister? Of course not! The OP isn't even on holiday from this role (though I can see why teachers would work over the summer if they're continuing in the same role). She hasn't started it yet. As I said upthread, if this causes problems for management, then they should pay her to start sooner. The teaching profession has worked on goodwill for far too long. If everyone stopped working for free, things would have to change.

I do understand that. However, teachers are normally paid from 1st September and if you have classes on 2nd September it is nice to know what to teach them.

Actually I would say in other professions it's very common to be expected to do prep before you officially start .I am an accountant we have two new staff in our dept this summer , both have taken holiday from previous jobs to attend meetings at new employer , also the people they replaced have done the same .I start a new role in October I am already being copied in on emails ( obviously not confidential ones ) .I would regard it as deeply unprofessional to expect to just turn up on the day . In my option this is the difference between a job and a profession .

Or the difference between allowing yourself to be exploited and not. The most professional of companies I've worked for would never have expected free work from potential employees before their official start date. I think it says a lot about your employer Yellow that they'd actually expect someone to do that. The poor new recruit probably has little choice in the matter, wanting to make a good impression and all that. Bad practice, I'd say, from your management. On another note - what happens to professionals relocating from overseas? It's not like they can pop in on a whim and the world still turns (proving just how unnecessary these pre-meets are).

This OP is still saying that she will reply saying she will work with the colleague on the last week of the holidays, which people are still saying is unreasonable and will cause both of them stress and problems later…

You sound like a right PITA Sandypantz...the OP is presumably experienced enough to know what she is doing, and what will and won't cause her stress. Whilst she could be kind and share planning with the NQT, she doesn't have too as yet, and neither should she have to do her planning to suit someone else's timetable.

As the Op presumably isn't in your employ/dept, what are you so indignant about; unless you are the NQT or her Mum?

Actually the new employees separately offered ,as did I for my my new role, .Why would you not want to get involved as soon as possible on relevent projects .Generally employers in many professions expect their employees to want to do this .I am not saying you have to do this but just pointing out that in many professions it is seen as perfectly normal for a new employee to want to arrive on their first day ready for action and fully prepared .

Who arrives saying " oh I've done no prep or research I can't be any use for several days because I only work from the day I start getting paid " fine for a job or lower level role but not for someone who claims to be a professional.

The OP has never said she would show up without doing any planning. The class shared with the other teacher is just one of her classes. I'm sure they can do some preliminary work to assess what they know already, get to know them etc if, heaven forbid, they have not had time to have a planning meeting before the first lesson. I'm sharing a class next year and I haven't even been told who I'm sharing it with yet. We will work it all out.