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!!!!

paxillin
I hate the fact that these threads bring out some odd marry complex for people justifying holidays based on how many hours they work in term time, but I can see why it turns into that.

People love sticking the knife in (usually based on a fundamentally incorrect view of our contracts) and then staff reply with 'actually I'm contracted for x days and y hours but routinely do more'.

Personally, I'm at the point where if people wish to be ignorant of teacher contracts and think it's a jolly then I just smile and inwardly remind myself that if it was so easy then they'd retrain.

I love my job and also have things thay I complain about, a bit like anyone else in other jobs.

@MaisyPops yes, I think the only reply to how easy we have it is to suggest retraining. There are plenty of vacancies after all.

I work in a school and i think the teachers deserve their holidays the shit they have to put up with from parents and the children...i have one child and they are hard work imagine dealing with 30 of the little darlings.

I am so sorry user about your DD- I really am. it's just a shame that it's the children who are sacrificed to find this out.

It isn't just children who are sacrificed-many teachers are leaving the profession in droves with severe mental health issues and in some cases physical ones. I have not left the profession but I have spent time in A and E with injuries such as a dislocated shoulder from a student, which 7 years later still causes me problems.

There are huge issues with education and we all experience it differently. But just because some teachers post on threads like these, defending their jobs, doesn't mean they don't care about situations like yours and no one has said every teacher is holier than thou.

Your experience shows that not everyone can teach: it's not the walk in the park some believe it to be and we have a great responsibility to our students-which is what I think most are trying to say here; most of the time, descisions such as half days on the last day of the academic year are made with the students in mind-not to piss the parents off.

Good luck in home educating your DD and I hope you both heal from this

Exactly kitty.
There are good and bad people in any line of work. Pointing out where people are simply wrong about our contracts, pay and conditions is not saying every teacher is holier than thou. It is just pointing out that when people chat about our holidays and pay etc, often they haven't got a clue.

@user whatever you and your child have been through must have been absolutely horrible. But you are right, some teachers cannot do their job, I have come across many. The sad thing is, to be good at your job (teachers) their day must never end. The work load has changed. Repetative paper work. Tedious tasks, which are no longer done by support staff as there is no funding for them. It's quite difficult to come across good teachers, but they are there, they work hard and should definitely be praised. Unfortunately many give up, for some the accomplishments of their job just isn't enough. I for one feel like I have given up to a certain extent. I don't feel like I'm delivering the best teaching that I can.

And in saying that it makes me realise even more what a tough job teachers have. People have no idea how much funding has actually affected teachers. No support staff. No new resources. Buying resources out of your own money. Making your own resources. Pay freezes. Any more to add?

Kitty what a lovely post. I was one of those damaged teachers as you know but your post is measured and compassionate, acknowledging all the complexities.
User I too am so sorry and hear your anger. I hope too that you and your daughter heal, as I have.
As an aside I do hope destructive people stay away from the prison service. There are, as I well know, many already damaged and vulnerable people within its system.

Don't for get that teachers are often parents too. So all those inconveniences- half days, inset days, not being able to take children away during term time etc that many blame on teachers for some reason, affect teachers too.

User - sympathies over what your daughter has been through. Unfortunately there are bad apples in any profession.

But this: Makes you wonder why they're in the job if it's that bad!

makes it sound as though you don't believe it is that bad. That teachers are lying or making unjustified claims about the job being hard.

Lots of them are not staying in the job. One of the reasons why kids like your dd are more likely to have to put up with a bad teacher or an unqualified or inexperienced one is that there are not enough teachers to choose from when schools recruit. And many of the good ones don't stick around.

The best way to get good people into teaching is not to vote in governments who increase their workload, impose crazy and unattainable targets, micro-manage them and devalue their profession by letting academies employ unqualified teachers. Oh and not slag them off constantly on social media.

People can disbelieve teachers' complaints if they want, saying it's no harder than any other job, and continue to smirk about long holidays, but the recruitment and retention figures speak for themselves. People will be smirking on the other side of their faces when their kids have no decent teachers left. You can't persuade teachers to stay in teaching by telling them they are wrong about their jobs!

At least you get a set time.

Our secondary school are finishing "early" on the last day of term.

Which means nobody has a fucking clue whether the kids will need lunch, let alone what time we are actually supposed to go and pick them up.

I think the phrase 'red rag to a bull' springs to mind. If the OP doesn't want teachers to go on about how hard their job is then don't write a goady type of post, that is certain to wind them up. And it is certain to do that, particularly at this time of year, when we're coming to the end of term and they're undoubtedly exhausted! Although it would be annoying for working parents too, if they weren't given enough notice of an early finish, I get that.

Ok, your initial post wasn't all that goady, but the post 'I want the real answer' was bound to lead to this kind of debate where teachers and parents attack each other.

Re finishing early, we've never had that; it would be nice actually, it would give us a chance to get away on holiday early. IF there was enough notice!

Is disdain for teachers unique to this country? It's fucking weird.

I don't know about unique, but certainly prevalent. I've read about other countries where teaching is apparently a respected and sought-after job .

It just boggles my brain when I hear parents up in arms and wanting to go and rant at their child's school about all kinds of bollocks, defending their child's appalling behaviour rather than the school's efforts to do something about it, whinging about INSET days, demandung their child should be in such-and-such a class, flout the uniform rules, etc etc and then moaning about there being no consistency because their child has had 5 different supply teachers that year. Do they not see the connection?

If the government and parents (and kids) treat teachers badly, teachers will continue quit the profession in their droves.The pay isn't actually that bad and the holidays are good, but neither of those things are currently enough to compensate for the rest of it.

breaded we've all had enough of experts here, innit, donchaknow.

@eolian it's nice to see the pay has actually risen over the past few years. A NQT started in my class 3 years ago and was on 24k. When I looked at the job bulletin a few years ago, most teachers were starting on 26k. Now I can see a lot are advertised at 28-38k. Nice to see

Are you in London, Lally? M1 in inner London is 28k, but out in the sticks it's 22.5k, and that's definitely what NQTs at my school start on.

breaded Disdain is even worse in Ireland, where we get 3 months summer holidays! But funnily, I've never ever had a parent say anything to my face about it! It seems to be limited to the media and the keyboard warriors...

To all the teachers on here, enjoy your holiday, you deserve it (but especially state school teachers) 😉

@noblegiraffe yes I'm in inner London. 22k 😮😮😮 unacceptable

Yup, it's 22k in most of the country. Even in places where the cost of living is comparable to London. I started on 18k in Reading in 2002. DH works for Essex police and they get outer London weighting. Teachers don't get anything. I really should have based my teaching career in the north the money would go a lot further!

22k is totally unacceptable. May I be cheeky and ask what children/parents are like, in outer London. It is probably the same. I find it quite a large struggle with 70% of my keychildren having EAL. A lot of children have behavioural issues. Many with SEN (too many for a non specialised school to support) Parents clearly don't think education is of importance and expect us to do all the teaching. Many coming from disadvantage backgrounds. Is this the whole country or more so in London?

@Lallypop it varies. We are getting an increasing amount of EAL and SEN in recent years for a variety of reasons. But nowhere near what you have other schools locally have more. Coastal schools are probably worse off than London schools due to years of underinvestment compared to London schools.

I'm probably going quite off the subject here. I've been in my same classroom for 5 years. No new resources have been bought. All the activities have missing pieces, essentially setting the children up for failure as they can't physically complete a task.
The EYFS playground has been improved but the upper school have zero apparatus.
I think it's a mixture of government funding and also poor handling of the little funding they receive by financial departments.
The current state of schooling in London is dreadful. These children, including mine are the next generation, and are not being properly supported by their government. They are failing the children, the teachers and the teaching system. I know I am absolutely rambling but it is so frustrating to see this unfold in front of my eyes.

Schools need to be open a set amount of hours/days a year. Simple

If a school does half days they are usually for end of full terms, so end of school admin etc can be completed (and the kids see it as a nice treat)

School is not free childcare, it's not there to be convenient for you. It's also not deliberately trying to make things difficult, but have set rules to follow.

People who claim they did not know & get no warning of early finishing times?! Seriously, I bet it's been in the schools calendar and news letters all year, have a look :)