secondary school after school clubs - do teachers volunteer or are they contacted to run them?

[hairnightmare17]

My sons go to state school. He's in the football team and they are supposed to practice on Tuesday after school. The pe teacher often doesn't come and if he does he just puts them into teams but doesn't do any actual coaching. Other times he comes and gives them a ball and then goes. If he does this my son comes home, as he says it is boring and isn't actually keen on the other boys. He's happy on the increasingly rare occasions the teacher stays and coaches.

Are activities like this voluntary qr is it part of the teacher's contract? I don't know if I can legitimately complain. Does anyone know?

A teacher shouldnt be leaving kids unsupervised on school site like that after hours. If he is a PE teacher, its an accepted part of the job. If they teach any other subject, involvement in clubs is voluntary. However teachers are contracted by a set number of hours per year so the answer is basically they do what the HT tells them to do! I would contact the member of staff who runs the club for clarification if its a club, if its stopping etc.

They volunteer but they can be "encouraged" to do so. They aren't generally getting paid for it and unless you are paying for the after school club it is a bit cheeky to complain. The teacher will probably just cancel the club and, unless another teacher volunteers, your son won't have one to go to.

It will depend on the individual school and that individual teacher. In most cases a teacher will not be contracted to do an after school club but with the advent of Academies it is possibly that running clubs could be included in teacher duties. You need to contact the school for more information. In the first instance try the releavant Head of Year or Form Teacher and ask for clarification.

At my school teachers volunteer.

They volunteer. Same happened with dd's netball team. Very little coaching, if any, cancelled all the time. She and 3 others play at a high level and the other girls just weren't brought on at all. The strong players played out of position as the girls who don't play for clubs 'can only play centre' or 'can only shoot'. In the end they only turned up for matches and dd and the other club players gave up. Such a shame. They could have had an amazing squad. On the other hand the teachers who run the basketball and football teams do an amazing job and are really committed.

We volunteer at my school (secondary). I wouldn't leave children unsupervised though and always have appropriate activities planned for the session.

It does irk me though that some parents use us as free childcare - one was outraged when the club couldn't run one week due to staff illness - her son could get home and was 13!

It depends on the subject and the school. I teach a different subject with similar expectations of extra curricular activities. I am required to run/assist with some of these but I get a free afternoon once a week. TBH I can't imagine anyone teaching my subject or PE who wouldn't expect there to be some extracurricular clubs/coaching to do as part of their normal workload.

I would be in very hot water with my SMT if I were to just leave my pupils to get on with the activity unsupervised week after week though.

The school is an academy.

The teacher either cancels it, turns up with a ball and then disappears again, turns up but doesn't do any actual coaching other than stand there, or occasionally he properly coaches.

I don't view it as childcare, my son just walks home, it makes no difference to me in that respect. He's a talented footballer and it frustrates me that the school is so crap in it's sport provision. He already does all sorts out of school and it would be nice to think the school would support it too.

I don't know how to word an email to ask if it is a voluntary without it sounding like I'm about to complain, which if it is voluntary then I wouldn't.