Teacher wellbeing days for shopping

[ForAMinuteThere]

Nope - this isn't a bash. I saw an article in the Fail about it and wanted to add some support for the teachers of this world.

I am a non teacher. It looks hard. One day off for shopping is a nice gesture.

I expect mixed responses but personally, I think teachers staying sane and feeling worthy can only be a good thing.

(This isn't my first post, have NC)

Sorry haven’t read the whole thread I stopped at the completely stupid no idea comment of teachers finish at just gone 3!!!!
I am a teaching assistant and don’t get out till half 4 at least and I am in for half 7. Plus all the stuff I do at home extra

Also I want to yell at people if it is such an easy life BECOME A BLOODY TEACHER THEn

That's silly, who'd empty the bins

We've got a teaching staff of about 90. We'd have to start with SLT doing their cover from September to get them all a shopping day by Christmas!

I am also the Cover Manager, who also hates Christmas anyway, so I'd be grumpy everyday from the first day of term to help facilitate this. Usually, I'm only grumpy 3 or 4 days a week! I'm a joy to work with, me!).

Teachers do an amazing job, long hours , high stress for not particularly high wages. I am not a teacher, but have upmost respect for all of those that tale on the work of teaching our children and Young people. I can't believe some people think teachers finish at 3pm !!
Anything that can support ( one day is hardly excessive) them has a big thumbs up from me as a parent.

I always think the holiday issue is a misnomer. Yes it's 13 weeks but that includes all the bank and public holidays. More importantly there is no choice about time off. Who really would chose a week in mid February as a holiday?
Before I went into teaching ( various jobs) many times my annual leave was accused and have to be taken before April. I hadn't needed it all. Even with only 20 days leave plus bank holidays you could have a long weekend ( Thursday night to Monday night) every other month and still have 2 weeks off in the summer. Plus a few days for appointments, weddings, watching the kids sports day etc.
In teaching you are forever counting weeks until you can get the car serviced, go to the dentist. as well as " holiday"

My son's school closes the last Fri in Nov - we take the day off with him and go to a christmas market. It is lovely for us but not so lovely for those who are unable to take time off and or have to pay for childcare..

Teachers with their own children never get a day off without them. Single parent teachers never ever get a day without their children unless they have childcare available to them.

Doing things like Xmas shopping is really difficult as you either have to take your own children with you at a weekend, ruining their concept of Santa and a surprise, or you have to find childcare. This isn’t an option for some parents.

Other professions can take their annual leave whenever they like and can use a day to get their shopping done which teachers can’t.

Nobody will win this argument but there are valid points on both sides.
The way I see it is that it's really nice that some employers are offering staff a "day" (who's going to ask to see reciepts to check they actually went shopping?)
Perhaps this should be encouraged amongst other employers/companies and then we can all feel a little more valued and appricated in this busy, busy world.

Continuallychargingmyphone- I am a teacher and I was working in an academy where we were contracted to work 8.15-5.15 Monday to Thursday and 8.15-4.30 Fridays. I’m not contracted to work 8-4.30 Monday to Friday so similar hours. Currently not an academy but will be next year.

Now not ‘not’ grrr.

My daughter's last day of term is December 13th. Plenty of time for shopping then...

Indeed it would be, if that’s when your school finished.

Which most don’t.

Everyone’s job is hard. Sorry teachers, it’s a no from me.

a) Not all jobs are hard
b) Teachers don't think they have the only hard job
c) Teachers didn't ask for the shopping day and lots of us on this thread don't think it's a good idea.

If you did a survey and asked teachers what they wanted to make their lives/jobs less stressful, approximately ZERO teachers would say "Give me a day off to do my Christmas shopping". Their answers would be "Cancel that pointless meeting, reduce my unreasonable class size, give me a TA to help with the violent/unmanageable children in my class, don't blame me for the poor exam results of the children to whom I've given hours of extra help but don't give a shit, stop judging me on meaningless data rather than the huge effort I put into my work... etc etc.

My daughter's last day of term is December 13th. Plenty of time for shopping then...

That's a very early finish date, most schools around here are 20th / 21st December.

Actually, I don't agree knittink. I would love a day off for Christmas shoppong instead of a soul destroying INSET day of zero value. I would love to be able to go to shops when they are quieter, and be able to park and wander around and go to Costa, and be like a real person. Sigh. Just once.

We finish on the 21st. In fact all schools round here do. I’ve never had a shopping day off either- sounds fab though!

Can I just repeat Penisbeaker's summary:

50hrs week (easily) x 39 weeks per year = 1950 annualised hours.

1950/52 = 37.5 hrs per week with no paid holiday.

Teacher bashers can do one. Not gnat we get a Christmas shopping day.

Definitely going to keep those hours in check looking at it that way.

They finish work just gone 3!

Please tell me you don't seriously believe that, sonly. How do you imagine lessons get prepared and work gets marked? My teacher DSis gets into work at around 7 a.m. and leaves around 6 pm with a large pile of marking still to be done - and that's when she doesn't have to stay in school for meetings, parents' evenings, school productions and concerts, school fairs etc.

Most parents who work and have school age children take their annual leave in the school holidays don’t they? My parents where teachers and they never had the stress of covering school holidays or could holidays together. When our children were young me and dh could not take annual leave together at all in order to cover it all. Teaching is not an easy job and the hours are long just like in many other jobs where people work a lot of overtime. I really don’t think teachers need a shopping day more than any other professions but if the school covera the lesson then that’s up to them.

It's not about time to shop. It's about making staff feel valued so they stay.

1 in 10 teachers quit teaching last year, with higher rates leaving in shortage subjects like the sciences and maths.

The government is woefully failing to meet its recruitment targets.

The country is running out of qualified teachers. Many pupils are being taught core subjects by unqualified teachers, a series of supply teachers, or good old PE teachers, even in Y11.

I don’t think people understand just how dire the situation is, simply because there’s a warm body at the front of every classroom. If the kids were sent home every time they were due to attend a class for which there wasn’t a qualified teacher in that subject available, then threads like this might go a bit differently.

This newspaper article lays it out clearly.

Our local grammar advertised three times for maths teachers and in the end sent an email out on the last day of the term to all parents explaining the situation and asking if any parents knew anyone who could teach maths. Things are at rock bottom.

But hey, let’s not do anything to try to motivate and retain the few teachers we have left. It’s not really going to matter for our kids, is it? Anyone can teach after all.

Of course anyone can teach.
As long as the person in front of the class has a pulse and provides childcare that's OK with many parents.

I don't think a lot of people realise how bad the recruitment and retention situation is.

noble raises an excellent point. I teach in an outstanding school yet many lessons are not taken by subject specialists. I don’t think parents realise this. Watching the bbc documentary ‘school’ they showed how one particular school couldn’t even get supply teachers for certain subjects and it was left to a cover supervisor who wasn’t even a qualified teacher.