Why can't Teacher training be done in summer holidays

[daffodil10]

Why do summer holidays need to be extended by 3 days to cover inset days when teachers have had 6 weeks off. And before I get shot down I realise they may have been in school over the holidays etc. But what is the point in going back to school on a Thursday

^^ do not accrue during mat leave.

Another one who thinks that the British education system should be arranged to cater for working parents' childcare arrangements. Jesus wept.

Pp I see your point I suppose but you have just proved the point a little that parents judge school as free childcare. They are done in September so new policies strategies guidelines are introduced and put in place not to annoy parents.

Winebomb

Well all I know is I am on a paid holiday tomorrow because it's my child's first day at school

What a shame that your child's first day at school seems such an inconvenience for you. Many parents who have sent their kids off to full time nursery from early on find to their surprise that schools are not simply convenient free childcare and that they actually need to be engaged with their children's school. Some parents strangely seem to resent being asked to support their children's education.

I have had zero engagement from his teacher since June/July, and neither has he.

As others have pointed out she's on holiday. You his parent are the one who should be primarily engaging with him, though I suspect in your case it is his nursery workers who spend most time with him.

She will be surprised when he doesn't want to go into the class tomorrow because he is scared (I have taken him to the school fair (teacher phoned in sick) and just to look around the grounds to get him used to the place.

She won't be remotely surprised because all reception teachers are aware that many of their young charges will be scared and nervous to be starting school. How odd that you think a teacher wouldn't be aware of these things. It's almost as if you have no respect for them at all.

Stop being a twit. They finish their training, have lunch as they see fit then go back and work until at least 7 unasked and unpaid. Clearly too many words for you to work that out in the last post.

LOL!! Bloody read!!! The teachers dont ask for these days! As for not needing extra training days - maybe not but I have no idea how things worked behind the scenes back then I was a kid and a kid back then had much less understanding of what a teachers lot was compared to most kids today. Tho it would seem their parents are as clueless now as when they were kids. When do you propose the training that teachers do need today - the job is vastly different to what it was just 10 yrs ago and demands seem to change every year takes place? Prep time already gets eaten into and if that were used when would teachers get to prep for the day to day stuff? When would teachers have been trained for the changes to GCSE marking? For sure my friend did not receive that training when doing his PGCSE - neither did the NQT for that matter!!

I get so confused by these threads. I'm quite very old and I'm pretty sure that back in the day there were inset days when I was at school. I don't understand the angst. It is what is it.

I have to email one of DS's teachers tomorrow about a school trip. A FIVE DAY school trip at the end of Sept. FIVE EARTH DAYS spent with years 8, 9 and 10 . The kids don't go back to school until weds due to inset days but I want to email her before I go back to work myself and forget. She told me I could as we had an outstanding issue before the holidays. I'll get a reply too, even though I'll tell her not to worry.

Secret INSET days! Teachers sneaking into school so as not to alert parents that the holidays are over and this is a different type of holiday for their kids - one where the school gates are open!!!

No lights on. Blinds down so that the pale light of a child protection PowerPoint can't be seen from the outside.

Sshhh everybody, don't go advertising our training!

Well to be fair noble you could all be having an INSECT day. Which is what DS thought they were when he was at nursery. We had a long and very confusing conversation about that until I realised what he was talking about. He thought all the staff went in wearing fancy dress as insects, had a party with party food. He thought that was a very good idea .

Training day today included:-

A detailed list of every child that is new to the school who has issues/needs. So that covered the visually impaired, the wheelchair bound, those with ADHS, Autism, Dyslexia, Asthma, Allergies, Hearing Impaired, etc. For each child the SENDCO gave a handout - and went through the strategies that would best allow each individual child to access their learning.

We also had safeguarding training. The Safeguarding Officer went over exactly what every member of staff needs to do if a child comes to you and tells you they've been sexually abused. Or raped. Or that someone is knocking them about. If they are not being fed properly, or neglected. How to respond. Who to report it to.

We were trained in the use of epipens. So that the children who have various allergies don't die through our ignorance. We were talked through the symptoms to be aware of for the severely diabetic children in our care - and what to do if they collapse into diabetic coma whilst in a lesson.

Does any of this sound like it might be - dunno - important? Or worth giving up a day of your 'holiday' for?

I don't remember any of them needing extra training days....they all passed their PGCEs at uni so pretty much knew what they were doing when it came to the actual job.

Yeah. We've all got a PGCE - it's the requirement to teach. And so we all 'pretty much know what we're doing when it comes to our actual jobs'.

Jesus would weep if he saw the struggle for working parents.

I don't see school as 'free childcare' and find the comment that working parents see school in such a way as insulting.

What is wrong with having an inset day away from a school holiday? I know of schools which do this with no problems.

It means that children with working parents are more likely to get to spend the day with their parents... surely that's a good thing?

No all my teachers were lovely, but I don't remember any of them needing extra training days....they all passed their PGCEs at uni so pretty much knew what they were doing when it came to the actual job.

The vast majority of inset days have nothing to do with 'doing the job.'

They cover

1. Government initiatives
2. Changes to the curriculum
3. Safeguarding
4. More government initiatives, often reverting to the same initiatives adopted 10yrs ago and disgusted 5yrs ago.
5. More changes to the curriculum, again cyclical. If you've been in the job long enough you'll have seen them once or twice already.
6. More safeguarding

I think all you teachers are absolutely brilliant!!!!

zzzzz, it will say Mon start on the council website as inset days will vary from school to school. The school website should say Mon 4th-staff inset, Tue 5th-Pupils return

My 4) above should read, discarded 5yrs ago.

I still don't get the teachers aren't paid for the holidays thing and why it is relevant. Will someone please explain it because I can only see two possible scenarios:

Advertised teacher salary is £24K, but they are not paid for 13 weeks of the year (holiday) so the £24K is pro-rata'd and their gross pay is actually £18K split into 12 equal parts?

Or

Advertised teacher salary is £24K but as they aren't paid for 13 weeks of the year, this actually represents a salary of £32K which has been pro-rata'd.

Surely, it's one of these. I can't see a third option. And unless it is the first option (and therefore a teacher's gross salary is 75% of what is advertised), I can't see the relevance of the argument. Genuinely confused.

Off to bed now but hoping to be enlightened in the morning.

Teachers do an amazing job. The hard work done by the fantastic teachers at my DDs has helped her overcome some really tough issues.

The goverment constantly changes the goal posts... teachers continue to rise to the challenge...

Inset days are needed to help them do their job. They just need to be spread out a bit to help working parents do theirs.

I love this time of year. It's when parents like the OP realise how much they dislike prolonged periods with their own children and wish they were the teacher's responsibility again.

ittooshallpass and what do you suppose teachers with children have to do on inset days? Lock them in the cupboard until they get home? Nope they have to arrange childcare too

OP
Why don't you and I get docked pay for every time we do training?

Ooh, because it would be a fucking stupid idea, that's why.

50p in the fuckwit meter

Love this.

why tell us, why not just say first day back is X which is 1 day later to account for the training which we don't actually need to know about?!
Because schools have some autonomy on when they have the inset days. So council term dates are basically when teachers work but 5 inset days need to come out of that. Some schools put two at the start of Sept and some one. Some put one mid term some don't.

@NancyMulligan it's the second one. Teachers' salaries are lower in practice to make up for having extra holidays. This is why teaching pays less than many graduate jobs.

The comment about there being no holiday clubs in an inset day baffles me. There are no holiday clubs at all in my area (and no breakfast or after school clubs) and our summer holidays are nine weeks long, not six. I don't imagine I'm the only parent in the UK with no access to holiday clubs, there must be hundreds of thousands of us, maybe millions, and yet we manage to cope.