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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

To think a 4 day week teaching is still basically full time?

100 replies

WhatEaglesWear · 19/08/2017 16:32

Yes I'd have 1 day a week off but every additional duty would be mine?

It wouldn't seem reasonable to ask someone who only taught 1 day a week to do reports or meetings, attend evening school events.

Does anyone teach 4 days and feel the benefit of the day off?

Primary, it that matters.

OP posts:

Androidsdreamofelectricsheep · 19/08/2017 21:45

I was .8 for the last year before I retired. I had to do all the planning for the 5th day, get the room ready, do all the marking, go to staff meetings apu. Yes, it was a con. (The .2 was the Head's best friend which didn't help.)

sonlypuppyfat · 19/08/2017 21:55

Sorry sooty

MSLehrerin · 19/08/2017 22:09

What sooty said. I get sick of people continually teacher bashing on these threads. The same names appear again and again. @sonlypuppyfat so all of your teachers made it their life aim to make you uncomfortable because you were quiet so you now despise and have no respect for the teaching profession because of this? Believe it or not, the overwhelming majority of teachers would never, ever belittle a child or make them uncomfortable- I know because I have worked in the profession for 25 years. If you're deliberately being a GF then please accept this as a token of my esteem

d270r0 · 19/08/2017 22:46

You should be doing 0.8 of all directed time. So get a copy of the directed time for next year and make a spreadsheet showing which 0.8 you will be doing. Ok it with your line manager/ head, be willing to change if they want you to but make sure you are doing 0.8 maximum.

drinkingtea · 19/08/2017 23:56

Primary and secondary are very different.

As a secondary school teacher doing 0.6 after my dc1 was born, my head refused on principal to give me 3 days per week because he wanted commitment to the school and loyalty so I got to pay for 5 days childcare and do my planning and preparation during school time - except that I was scheduled to cover absence during all of my unpaid 20% and told how fantastically it would demonstrate my questionable (due to having had my own child) loyalty to willingly cover, and how I could do my planning and preparation whilst the pupils did their cover work. Doesn't work like that though. Obviously. Which is why writers, for example, don't moonlight as supply teachers for the free money

I'm actually earning more now per hour as a support worker than I earned as a secondary teacher, and I earned more as a childminder than as a secondary teacher too, when you break down actual pay per hour genuinely worked (not contact time ,- which is like paying office workers only for direct client contact).

I was a secondary school teacher for 5 years in the UK, and have also done office work, taught abroad, and done care and support work - teaching is actually the shittiest job. The actual teaching is fine, but management in schools treat teachers like semi trustworthy pupils and teachers are paid per genuinely worked hours similarly to retail. Management in education is genuinely dreadful. It is the worst career ever.

I actually enjoyed teaching and continued to do it outside secondary education for 7 years after I quit my job as a UK secondary school teacher, but oh my goodness secondary school teaching in the UK is a shitty career choice and a badly paid per hour job.

drinkingtea · 20/08/2017 00:00

karate how do you suggest a teacher does 4 days compressed? Make the kids come in an hour early?

ComingUpTrumps · 20/08/2017 00:01

9 til 3 for 4 days a week is hardly full time

Ha, good one. Is that you, Gove?

pinotgrigio1 · 20/08/2017 00:18

I taught 4 days a week for a year and it was no different in terms of workload to working 5 days. The only difference was less contact time with the children. As others have mentioned, 3 days is far better if you can afford to continue.

frenchfancy81 · 20/08/2017 01:08

I'm going back in September for 2 days a week which is plenty. Return from Mat Leave by the way. 7.30 til 6 for those 2 days is definitely going to be the case and that's fine- and long enough with a one year old. I'll do bits at home too and that's fine as I enjoy it. I'm in Greater London and will earn 18k for what works out at 78 days a year...well worth it in my book and I feel so lucky to have this opportunity. Been at my school 11 years.
Good luck to you and make sure you do have that day off x

Darkblueskies · 20/08/2017 01:20

Sonly you are so tedious

TheOnceAndFutureQueen · 20/08/2017 09:08

I have worked 4 days in secondary for the last two years. I still did all meetings, INSETs etc and was generally doing 40-45 hours per week. It was really nice having a day off in the middle of the week to spend with DD but also felt like I was doing nearly the same amount of work as when I was full time but for a lot less money - I only had two fewer classes compared to my full-time timetable so same amount of planning, slightly less marking.

I'm going back full-time in September for a promotion but fully intend to request 0.8 again if we manage to have DC2 - on balance, I think it's worth it just for the mid - week breathing space!

Mammyloveswine · 22/08/2017 10:24

I teach nursery on a 0.7 contract and did 5 mornings (until 1:30 when they the children finished). In reality I stayed until 2 most days, even longer on days when DH was off to have lo! In September I will finish at 1pm 4 days a week and stay until 4:45 on the other day (staff meeting and ppa). I have the responsibility of a full class and all assessments/reports/planning and get paid a third less. However I have a precious afternoon each day with my little boy and it means he is in a brilliant routine. It's not ideal and after my second baby (currently 6 months pregnant) I would like to do a 3 day jobshare but not convinced it will be approved...

I envy my friends who are part-time and literally do their days work and that's it...however the holidays are the pay-off..I hardly do any work in the holidays now so that I can get a proper break!

PumbletonWakeshaft · 22/08/2017 10:48

The problem with 0.8 is that teaching is a job that is not finite - ie you could always be doing more. More planning, more research, more detailed marking, more detailed responses to emails, more creative resource making, more wall displays, more learning about your subject, more learning about SEN, more differentiation, more learning techniques... the list goes on. In my experience, doing 0.8 just means filling the day you are not being paid with any/all of the above so that you are doing a better job and keeping on top of things.

You would have to be the type of person who can be very strict with yourself about work-life balance and boundaries to make it work.

Loveluck7 · 22/08/2017 11:51

@sonlypuppyfat why are you commenting on this thread? You are not trying to help OP, you just have an axe to grind. I also find it a ridiculous idea that teachers would target a student for being quiet. You are either not telling the truth or miss-remembering.

sonlypuppyfat · 22/08/2017 12:46

loveluck you were lucky then and probably enjoyed school. I didn't is it such a stretch to not understand school might have been difficult for some. My teachers were on the whole sadistic and seemed to enjoy humiliating people who were not as ready as some to join in class "banter"

MSLehrerin · 22/08/2017 13:08

@sonlypuppyfat almost every teacher you ever had throughout your school career? As a teacher, I find this very hard to believe. I'd be looking at underlying issues and doing some resilience building with a child who felt persecuted by a large number of staff over the whole of their time in school.

Helliday · 22/08/2017 13:13

Sonly nobody cares, it's not the topic of this thread. If someone posts asking advice about their dog, I'm not going to join the thread just to keep banging on about how much I hate dogs. It's weird

OP I currently do 0.4 in primary and my job share is doing 0.8, which works really well because we get a cross-over day. Other teacher does cover one afternoon a week and we get PPA time together.

I think it greatly depends on your job share teacher and how much they do.

cantkeepawayforever · 22/08/2017 13:18

sonly

DD has been, since starting secondary, very very quiet in class. It is always mentioned at parents' evenings, though as a matter of information rather than criticism: 'littlecan't is quiet in class. Her written work is good'.

She is, however, very very articulate at home, and has thus been able to describe her school experience to me in great detail.

No teacher has ever teased or belittled her, or humiliated her for not joining in 'banter'. One - and only one, in 3 years - has made the mistake of considering reluctance to contribute answers verbally to her being unable to do the work [that was rapidly, and quite entertainingly for the onlooker, sorted by her vastly outscoring all her classmates in the first written test]. The vast majority have included her in direct questioning, to ensure that she always contributes, and have simply recognised that she prefers to show her understanding in written form.

Uokbing · 22/08/2017 13:25

I had the most miserable time at school. I was a quiet child with teachers that thrived on making you uncomfortable in class

Ah, you are one of the 'i know exactly what a teaching career is like because I once went to school'.

Noted.

Uokbing · 22/08/2017 13:27

I know a couple of teachers who sent from full time to four days. They had school age kids and it was precisely so that they could get all of their work done on their day off and have the weekends free.

I don't think it's worth it if you have pre school children. Stay full time or go to 3 days.

Butterymuffin · 22/08/2017 13:29

I know a secondary teacher who does 0.8 and it works well. She has some health problems so uses the other weekday to recover from the stress of the teaching days. She was going to quit without this so it's kept a teacher in the profession.

BabychamSocialist · 22/08/2017 13:41

AngeloftheSouth84

I'm in school for 7 most days and don't leave til gone 6. Some days I'm there for 6:30. If it's a parents' evening or an open evening, I'm lucky to get out of there for 10pm. There are also field trips and other events which mean you don't get home before a certain time.

Do you genuinely think teachers work 9 til 3?

Blondebombsite83 · 22/08/2017 13:55

I'm going back 0.6. If you use the extra day to do marking and planning then you are working full time! You get half a day ppa on full time so you may as well work the extra half day and get paid! I think anything over 0.6 is just taking a pay cut tbh.

Uokbing · 22/08/2017 14:22

I'm going back 0.6. If you use the extra day to do marking and planning then you are working full time! You get half a day ppa on full time so you may as well work the extra half day and get paid!

Yes, but then she has to use the weekends to catch up on school work, whereas at least if she gets that done in the week her weekends will be free. All teachers do plenty that they are not paid for, you might as well do it in the week rather than at the weekend.

BoysofMelody · 22/08/2017 14:34

Those who say teaching is a hard job, I wonder what you are comparing it to

Spending their time making moronic and goady comments on a subject they clearly know fuck all about?*

*And no, I am not a teacher

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