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!!!!

Apologies for stray question mark.

cardi
Maybe it's because schools aren't education environments. Really, we're just free childcare.
deliberately misses the point

Last year, 18 teachers left my school at the end of the summer term. All 18 made a speech. Good job we started at 2pm or We'd have been there all night. It finished at 4pm by which time I was gasping for a gin and tonic.
I finish tomorrow- I'm completely demob happy!!!

Classrooms have to be stripped, all surfaces cleared and in some cases teachers are swopping classrooms which is quite a task. My dsis school has returned to a full day now though and have said that the children can help with these jobs

I think it's so there's no lunch that day and the kitchen can be deep cleaned...? Also tradition?

tazmaniandevil it's because we're all lazy fuckers who went into teaching for the short hours, lack of accountability, and excellent work-life balance. Oh, and the marvellous pay and gold-plated pension.

Happy now?

Maisypops I don't think you meant to say that you won't be going into your classroom until September. Surely all teachers do massive amounts of work over the holidays.

My school finishes at 3. I have to take half a days annual leave to cover that which I really would prefer to use to cover some of the other 13 weeks school hols. If you work full time it's not a "treat". As for secondary, not every child can get home, we live rurally so my kids need taking and collecting from school.

I will give you an actual solid reason for the school dh works in

It's to prevent the burden on the police and lower gang and knife crime and fights in the streets with 'rival' schools

So they all get 'released' at different times

HTH

It's to piss off parents. Everything schools do is to piss off parents. PTA donation requests, expensive trips, non-uniform days, competitive sports days, non-competitive sports days, healthy eating policies, uniforms, after school detentions, parents evenings, INSET days, 6 week holidays. All of it.

It's because no one will do any work really on the last day (tho I would if I had yr 10) so it might as well be a short day to reduce the agony. Also for a staff leavers do as others say. Hth

Nice one noblegiraffe

Well I for one am convinced by the reasons given and plan on adopting a similar stance prior to my two weeks (NB TWO) off this summer. If my boss questions why I'm fucking off at midday on the Friday before, I'll just tell her that I don't feel like doing any more work so there's no point in being there and so ta-rah.

One of the perks guess..I broke up nearly three weeks ago. It is bliss!!!

This arming if you resent only having two weeks' summer holiday, train to be a teacher. 'Tis a doddle as a job. Everyone knows that.

Thisarmingman or just become a teacher and get 13 weeks off a year

Oh I couldn't possibly be a teacher. You all work too hard for me. I'll just try, in my own little way, to emulate your admirable work ethic by leaving half a day early before I have my holiday.

Thisarmingman Have you read the thread? The purpose of students leaving early in some schools is to allow teachers to get on with other work, prepare for the next term and, sometimes, undertake training.

(We didn't have time for training at the end of term so went in for 4 days at the start of the holidays).

It's always been an early finish at 12:30 or 1 on the last day of term - for years.

When I worked in an office before I became a teacher, we had flexitime where you could build up your hours then come in late or knock off early if you fancied it.

DD finished yesterday but she was most affronted that school day ended as normal at 4pm and she had to work in geography...

Thisarmingman
Nope I did mean it.

I preloaded next year's planning to my laptop from the school system so do work at home for some of it, but the summer break is my time and unless I've forgotten something I'm not going in.

I work through half term and Easter I'm in doing revision sessions etc. Summer and Christmas are my time where I carve out family time.

noblegiraffe
I had a similar arrangement in my previous career before teaching.

Flexible working seems fairly common with friends as well.

The way I see it, our holidays are the balance for what we do in terms time (and the fact we are only actually contracted for term time only, which lots of people seem to forget when they complain about our holidays).

The actual reason will vary School by school. The reason at our school (secondary) is that the afternoon of the final day in speech day. Only those with prizes attend. Students whose parents want them to wait in school for the school bus are supervised by lucky teachers who don't have to sit through boring speeches. Most go into town for a couple of hours (5 minutes work). Lovely day even if the speeches are dull.

Where I worked we also had a flexi time system, you could have alternate Friday afternoons off all year if you wanted.

We also closed at midday on Christmas Eve.

Some secondary school kids may need lifts too and from, but most also have friends they can go to for the afternoon, or are capable of sitting quietly somewhere with a book for a couple of hours.