Last day of term

[tazmaniandevil]

Why on earth does school have to close at 13:45 on the last day of term? What is the purpose of this? Confused!!!!

Well said Studentwife.

I have so many well reasoned and articulated responses but I fear they will fall on deaf ears and will be a complete waste of my time. So may I regress to being a complete child myself and say I am thoroughly looking forward to what looks to be a splendid six weeks off. Oh, apart from two days of incredibly well-paid Summer school.

Well if the Government carry on cutting funds, you might find all state schools closing at Friday lunchtime every week!

Dd's primary shuts at 12.30 on Friday and ds's secondary shuts at 12.

By 1 I will be counting down the days until September

Spot on @MaisyPops

It's like a member of SLT I once knew who said that "anyone can teach English, we all speak it don't we?" Merit point to the first person who can guess his subject....

I started as a TA, poor pay.
I got my HLTA status, promotion followed. Better pay, got to go home on time a lot of the time.
Did PGCE, teaching for five years.
Better salary than HLTA.
Hourly rate, less than HLTA, because I usually work, on average, sixty hours a week.
Do I prefer teaching? Yes, absolutely.

Maths?

I work in secondary school and yes we finish at 1:30 on the last day of the year, yes we do go to the pub for a jolly good piss up; why? we need it after dealing with a year of spoilt, rude, unappreciative teenage brats!

MSLehrerin
That's how I feel when schools try to plug the gaps in English departments with non-specialists.
It wasn't PE was it?

Oh sorry, I forgot that we're babysitters

My daughters state primary did close early every term (they are now in secondary-which also closes early) and I think most state schools in this area do, so DrMadelineMaxwell you are mistaken. State schools have a set amount of teaching days which they have to do, and will have done if they are able to offer half day on the last day they will have taught the other half at another point in the year. So it is understandable that you are irritated by not knowing, but the number of days/teaching hours is fixed..unless your children are at an Academy in which case they are a law unto themselves. For our school the term dates and times are on the website, but it is expected that the last day will be shorter.

Excellent guess @Cary2012

The Merit Point and Star of the Day award goes to @MaisyPops though. Well done. 😃

@Gromit78 well said. And their parents too.

CattyMcCatface
Teachers DON'T get paid for 52 weeks per year.
Neither do TAs.
PPL have told you time and time again that pay just gets spread over the 52 weeks.
In actual reality, as a TA, I get paid for 43.1 weeks per year, that includes 22 days paid holiday. I think teachers are contracted for a bit longer but it's still DEFO well short of 52 weeks.
In addition, most schools these days don't pay the lunch hour, yet many TAs are expected to provide lunchtime cover on some days. So, a TA doing a full school day Mon-Fri will typically only get paid for between 27 and 31 hours per week. And I know this isn't everyone's experience, but in my last job before maternity I had to do extra work in the lunch hour (unpaid, remember), stay behind AND take work home.
Teachers have to do much, much more unpaid work than I ever had to. Which is why, if I ever do re-train as a teacher, I'll only ever be able to do job share because I want to see my kids.

Also consider this:
In France, many schools are closed Wed afternoons, and many primaries shut for all of Wed.
In Germany, school day typically finishes between 12 and 2pm.
In Spain, there's a 2-3 hour siesta in the middle of the school day.
In Russia and many parts of the former USSR, there's a different number of lessons on different days of the week so a different finish time each day. For primary, it could be anytime between 11.30 and 1, for secondary - between 1 and 3.30. They also have long summer holidays, from around the last week of May - first week of June to the 1st of September.
The UK has a pretty long school day compared to most of Europe, and the age kids start school is one of the youngest anywhere in the world.
Working parents really don't have it that tough here in terms of "free childcare"

I'm going to wear my gold star with pride MSLehrerin one of these days I'll say anyone can teach their subject because it's just chasing a ball around

There's no point giving sensible, factual replies to CattyMcCatface. They just want to live in a bubble where teaching is an easy job, 9-3, long holidays. There's no talking sensibly to people who are like that. Any attempt at rationally defending the facts only gets taken as us being defensive.

My son (13yo) just told me that today in double cooking lesson they all cleaned the the cooking room ready for summer then they watched ratatouille. In English lesson they watched Moana. In maths they did work. In science they watched a documentary.

We are not childminders, as PP pointed out.

This happened a few weeks ago:
Year 8 girl, let's call her Abbie.
Me: You ok Abbie? You are very pale.
Abbie: No Miss, I was chucking up all night. And on the loo. Both ends.
Me: You need to go home, you're not well. Go to Medical and they'll phone mum.
Abbie: No point, mum's at work and said I have to be here, She'll ignore the call.
I send Abbie to Medical, where she stays all day until home time.

Two days later I phone in sick, both ends...Meanwhile,
Abbie's back, cover supervisor takes her class in my absence.
Upon my return, angry complaint from Abbie's mum regarding the quality of the covered lesson...

Ours are on DVD and games week. Reports are out, it is hot and only 3.5 days to go. Good for them, they love it and the school year is long.

My kids have a fun week

They go on a trip outside school

Then chooses

Army day Yoga Dance Streetwise defence cooking crafts creative writing pottery film making face/hair makeup -

Lots of community involvement!!

It's the last week -

I wish my daughter's school closed early on the last day of school but instead it's a normal school day.

I am a Secondary teacher of 15 years service. I also don't see the point of early finish on the last day. Most kids (and staff) are demob happy in June, nevermind the last day. To those detractors who believe teachers holidays are too long and life is cushy in our trade ; come and give it a go. Such a cushy life that no fucker wants to do it any more !

Why has this thread even been created?!?!?! It's mostly just people teacher bashing. Like someone else said if you want more holidays become a teacher 😂😂 teachers are f#*king AMAZING!! Just think they have to put up with your little darlings day in day out!

Cary2012
That's dreadful, that's why I have so much respect for what teachers are meant to be doing. Your jobs are first and foremost teaching our children. I get that parents work, but I just don't understand how some send their ill children in to school, no respect for the teachers or the the other children who end up picking up these bugs too and clearly no concern for their own I'll child(ren).