to be annoyed about the end of the scool holidays?

[maxpower]

Only because I'm so sick of listening to and reading fb posts about all the poor teachers who are having to go back to work after 6 weeks off. There are many workers who don't get 6 weeks holiday for a whole a year never mind in one go. I've just read some drivel on fb about how - while I'm 'watching tv' - some self sacrificing teacher is writing a lesson plan to benefit my child. This the post stressed is unpaid. Oh woe is s/he. How about the 5+ unpaid hours I worked this week over and above the full time job I do? Oh and just to clarify, when I got home from work I spent an hour coaching my daughter for school entrance exams, when I discovered that all the amazing teachers she's had have not taught her about calculations involving 'parts' or indeed how to work out the area of a triangle.

So forgive me if I don't lament over how tough it is to have to go back to work (where the rest of us have been all summer long).

I would like to work closer to the amount I'm paid for. I don't mind unpaid 'overtime' as such as I think with a profession that's just part of it. The amount of work I do in the evening and weekend is ridiculous.
I am not thinking that teaching is harder than another job and I think everyone feels a bit sad when their holidays are over regardless of how long they are. I think if things like this annoy you, turn off your Facebook!

The amount of work I do in the evening and weekend is ridiculous

And that's what the Government constantly ignores. They have a massive head in the sand approach to this and keep saying 'it's fine, nothing to see, move on' approach.

OP You're back peddling with every new post! You say Interesting. And what would you say if I told you I was a teacher previously? (I was)
I don't believe you! Let's just say this is true for a minute though ... Why did you quit?

elodie

There have been several OPs in the last year who have come on with a vague teacher-bashing agenda and then claim to have been a teacher, or have lots of good friends who are teachers

I doubt them all now

Well OP if you used to be a teacher and you consider it such an easy job, go back to being a teacher then!

God this thread is so depressing....

Any teachers reading and feeling demoralised please know that there are lots of people who think you do an amazing job and are very grateful for the care and work you put into teaching. Before I get flamed, there are lots of other people / jobs I am grateful for too.

... And let's remember we're talking about a naff and cheesy FB post which probably wasn't posted by a teacher anyway! I've seen that one before- posted by a young woman who I know is in her 20s with 3 children. She's a SAHM

anyway, as someone asked, the thing I would most like to chance about teaching is the lack of balance. It's not healthy to work 50/60 hour weeks in term time, frequently never able to take breaks or lunch (and I appreciate in other jobs you often can't, but in teaching you're performing to up to 150 teenagers daily) and then to have long periods of time off. I don't need 6 weeks off. I'd prefer to have better work life balance all year round.

And of course the other thing which would make a difference is not to have the goal posts moved constantly by governments, and not to be held accountable for the things which are completely out of our control. If I spend hours and
Hours planning, teaching, mentoring a pupil who then doesn't show up for the exam, sits and writes nothing or whatever- I don't want to be held
Accountable.

But overall I still like my job enough to keep doing it- for now. As I said before, the pay is satisfactory. The work Life balance over the year, and the outrageous expectations on teachers aren't.

And as someone else said, there have over the years been loads of this type of OP, thinly veiled teacher bashing, often with the OP name-changing half way through the thread and morphing into a 'supporter of the OP who used to be a teacher' !!

change

I don't need 6 weeks off. I'd prefer to have better work life balance all year round.

I agree with this. Sadly I can never see it happening though as once the holidays are cut-the same insane level of work would be expected in those extra weeks.

When ppa came in-it sounded great. To be given time allocated to do your planning/assessment but then almost overnight-the expectation of what you were actually expected to do doubled!

If my time was spent preparing lovely resources and differentiating lessons, it would be time well spent and I would be pretty happy. Unfortunately, I have to spend so long triple marking in stupid colours, filling in planning sheets in ridiculous amounts of detail, triple mounting work for displays, photographing practical activities and sticking the photos in children's books (as apparently my SMT think that unless there is evidence of the children doing something, then it didn't actually happen) and tracking data-I don't have much time!!

I was being a bit sarky with my £1.25 - was not in a good mood after trying to get to grips with what the hell AQA are expecting of the students this year. It works out about £5 of take home pay per hour my husband tells me.
Oh and I worked in the 'real world' for 15 years. In the City, where I worked long days and was stressful. But not like teaching. And if you don't like teachers winging, that's ok with me. Cos my kids are almost done with education and so won't be affected by the lack of teachers. We are in unions but what can they do ? I don't agree with strikes as I went in to teaching to help students, and they are the ones that suffer if no teachers are there. It's very sad that teachers are leaving in droves and 50% of new ones last less than 3 years. It's your kids this will affect. I'm 49, I am old and cynical and tough skinned. But I am going part time as I would like to see my family once in a while. This is NOT about money, I have no complaints about the amount I'm paid for the hours I'm contracted to work. But it is not possible to do the job anymore - the teaching, planning and marking is no problem. It's the constant admin, changes and paperwork. I'm done.

Rollonthesummer- I'd add to my list of things to change- SLTs who demand the absurd amount of 'evidence' of planning and assessment which you describe. That level is not required by ofsted- it's down to individual schools and unfortunately some head teachers still belong to the school of thought whereby unless you've spent an hour planning and an hour assessing for each hour you teach, then you're failing.

The only answer is to get out of that school. I'm aware though that many of These SLTs have been so messed about by various govts and ofsted moving the goalposts that it's probably contributed to their paranoia about expectations

I agree Munster. Some SLT seem to have forgotten what being a good teacher means. I'm luck and only have to produce the 5 minute plan for observations, but I do have plans for each SOW that I update when needed (so everything this year ). Even with my lovely Head it's still bonkers how long it takes to do the damn reporting and deep marking. Just popped into school before tomorrow an found one of my lovely (bottom set) year 11s have left me a bottle of Prosseco. I had a little weep. They all got C or B and were predicted Ds & Es so they are my favourite class, and I'm so v v v proud of them. That's why I teach, I remember now.

And yes- the thing most people should be worried about is the percentage of dynamic talented teachers who drop out within 3 years of qualifying. The PGCE year and NQT year are horrendously tough - so this proportion getting through those and STILL preferring to move to a new line of work within a couple of years of that is deeply worrying.

Also the number of teachers I know who can only cope with the workload because They are part time (which in reality seems to mean working at home on their days off) it's unacceptable that a profession has droves of people who can only cope by not doing the job full time. These professionals are screwing up their pensions for the sake of being able to cope day to day

I'm so relieved my own children are past school age now - unless something radical changes then the crisis will worsen

I don't think parents appreciate how bad it's getting. Apologies for my lack of spell checking - I'm sitting in staff room with about 20 teachers all trying to work out the new exam specs we've been puzzling over this summer. We had a go at one of the English papers earlier - no one finished it ! These are the old and grizzled teachers who have gallows humour and know what's coming this year. We are due an OFSTED before Xmas and none of us care anymore. If they don't like what we do (which has produced massively improved GCSE & A level results) then tough poop. I'm feeling very grown up today

Also the number of teachers I know who can only cope with the workload because They are part time (which in reality seems to mean working at home on their days off) it's unacceptable that a profession has droves of people who can only cope by not doing the job full time.

Yet there are loads of posts on here by parents who can't bear jobshares!

Going back to the SMT-I think they are adding extra hoops sometimes just to justify their own pay and position! My primary has 4 assistant heads and 3 SENCos-none of which were in a class-and all giving us different forms to fill in and give back to them.
My old school on the other hand seemed to have no money and no management and things were very different! There was one deputy who only had 2 days out of class each week!

I wonder which is more usual!?

My DD's school has lots of job shares. Doesn't bother me at all and seems to work well. Yes, some other parents don't seem to like them. As parents themselves surely at least some of them understand that parents often do part time working for family reasons (or any reason!) .

Yes I completely agree that teachers have the right to request flexible working same as any other job, and as long as it doesn't have any negative impact on the pupils the parents have to just suck it up!

My point was more about the fact that so many teachers feel they can only cope by working p/t. I know a lot of teachers who reduced to p/t when their own children were born but have never felt able to step back up to f/t due to the workload. I'm talking about teachers with adult children!

Given that one of the big benefits of teaching is the very good pension, it seems wrong that so many teachers are compromising this (because p/t massively impacts on your final pension) simply because they couldn't do the job full time. That's a sorry state of affairs for any profession

Yep- I agree. I went back part time after having my first child 15 years ago and can't see myself EVER going full time again the way things are. There are actually now only 4 full time teachers at my school- all the others are job shares!

Ah ok, yes I see your point. Sadly the current government doesn't as it seems determined to destroy education along with the rest of the public sector .

As a parent I actually like job sharing teachers as long as the communication is ok. I think it reduces the risk of your child not 'gelling' with their one teacher as at least they might get on with the other one! My DD had 2 teachers for reception and it was great variety for her. Do parents not like job shares because they say there is no continuity? Not the original point of the thread I know, just curious now!

I've worked in a variety of roles; from stacking shelves at Tresco to being the lone engineer on call to cover ICU and PICU at a large hospital so I know the 'real world'. Teachers don't claim to be the only hard workers, the only ones to work in stressful situations but as we are constantly told that we only work 9-3 and have so much time off together with being blamed for all ills of society it is only natural that we defend ourselves.

The issues we are facing at the moment (constant changes, pay based on results for which is not fully in our hands, work load etc) means that despite what the government try to claim we are losing staff quicker than we can recruit; this is the worrying thing that the public should be up in arms about.

I shared a funny video about teachers going back to work - just as friends (non teacher) moaned that they had to go back work after a holiday it doesn't mean I want people to feel sorry for me as a teacher who has 6 weeks without standing in front of hundreds of teenagers every week but just a general grumble that I have to set my alarm again

And writing that post has reminded me to set my alarm!

And writing that post has reminded me to set my alarm

I always panicked about the first day back. Was it a training day or was it the first school day?

We always had a child turn up by mistake on a training day....

I sent DS2 in on an inset day; did not win mother of the year award

I fully realised the issue some people have with teachers over 20 years ago when I was teaching and had a 6 month old baby. I bumped into a woman from my NCT class who told me how lucky I was to be a teacher because of course I only had to pay for childcare 9-3 term times. She, of course, couldn't afford to pay childcare to work 'normal' hours. This was when I was paying nursery fees 51 weeks of the year, and actually paying double time between 7.30 and 8 in the morning as the nursery didn't technically open until 8am, which might be fine for most jobs but not teaching.

That was my moment of full realisation that some people just resent teachers for absolutely no logical reason!!