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)

I don’t want a day off for Christmas shopping. What I would like is for school budgets to cover all the essentials (pencils, paper, consumable resources) so I didn’t have to constantly pay for them myself. This week alone I’ve bought 2 bags of long grain rice for a sensory tray, green food colouring for the rice, dominoes and a marble run for construction corner, 13 tubs for Ikea for new STEM activities (all my own resources I will add. None provided by school) and plastercine. If I didn’t have to constantly fund the curriculum then when I went Christmas shopping at the weekends I could afford to buy more for my loved ones.

Yy to lack of awareness about the teacher shortage. When I went for interview for an MFL maternity cover at the (awful) 'outstanding' school I mentioned upthread, they begged me to teach some English too. On my start date in September I found that there was no head of English (quit) and that I was one of 3 non-English teachers in the English department. This leafy, highly-oversubscribed comp had been rated outstanding that July.
Primary and secondary schools regularly advertise teaching jobs and get no response.
Previous posters are right, I think. Lots of parents simply won't care until it directly inconveniences them or until they have some kind of run-in with the school about results or obvious lack of proper teaching in year 11 etc.

Teachers deserve it. A day off is nothing for the work they put in

Don’t teachers get as much time off as the kids?...long school holidays plenty of time for shopping. Stop whinging we all have to work full time then go home and look after the kids...no time off for me

Are you for real?
They only work 185 days a year which equates to 37 WEEKS

No they get five fewer days than the pupils.

I have no problem with it at all. Means that their weekends are for family. Many other industries expect staff to have the odd day for Xmas shopping & prep so why can’t teaching staff?

My sister is a teacher and works very hard (as do most teachers). It's a myth that they finish work at 3pm. The children may leave at 3pm, but teachers have marking and lesson plans to do. They often have to work at the weekends and in their holidays. Personally, I think they deserve a wellbeing day.

Would you think it an issue for someone working in any other profession to have time off in lieu? Someone is required to work in addition to their usual hours and in return gets the same amount of time off?

Why is it such a big deal then, that a head teacher decides to let their staff do this? (Because I am certain the teachers will have given up their own time at some point in the previous few weeks).

When I work in the evening in my job I get time off in lieu with my manager's approval. This is no different.

10 yrs into teaching
We don’t have shopping days!

We did at a charity I used to work for, and in a bank that I worked at and in fact in a clothes shop I worked at as a student. But unheard of by me and my teachers friends!

Just to add, in all my previous different roles we always got our staff Xmas lunch/dinner paid for.... again never in teaching.

In most other jobs you can book a day/half day annual leave to go into town at Xmas or at other times of the year have a fridge delivered, watch your own children’s Christmas plays/assemblies/sports days/help on their school trips. Can’t in teaching!

So anyone begrudging a few schools giving their staff who already work 60 odd hours where financial cuts have caused staggering numbers to leave due to stress, then I suggest you bloody sign up to teacher training yourself!
I doubt you’d last your PGCE year!
Which is exactly the problem.

We have a stay at home INSET Day later on this term and I've booked a massage and a hair cut because I have worked EVERY SINGLE Saturday 12-7 and Sunday 8 a.m. - 9 p.m. this term, I've not had breakfast with my children once and I've quite frankly bloody had enough.

But I will make up the time I don't work on stay at home INSET at the weekend.

Surely this debate should not be assuming the teachers deserve it because they work harder than anyone else, or that they deserve it more. Nor should it be a case of "my job doesn't give it, so its not fair".

It's a case of the education sector is in crisis. There is a huge recruitment and retention problem, but the root causes are beyond the capacity of individual schools to change. So some schools offer a small reward of a day off at what is a busy time of year. Its not what teachers really want (education funding, pay and conditions, etc), but that's out of the leadership's hands, and its at least a small token that they care about their staff.

It's not costing the school anything if it's covered I internally, it's not impacting parents as the children are still at school and it's not impacting the children as they are still being taught by qualified teachers. So why all the fuss?

I personally would rather have a more manageable work load, smaller classes and more time to individually feedback to students.

When I was a teaching assistant, none of the teachers I worked with ever ever ever finished when they should have done. They put in so much of their own time, and would sometimes still be at the school when I would come back for the night shift (in was a part boarding school).
I used to offer them a hot drink before my shift started but most of the time be so engrossed they wouldn't have even realised how much time had actually past. I think they should get so much more support, the odd shopping day is the bloody least they deserve. xx

Does that mean I get a day off from my employer too? I only get weekends off and....unlike teachers I have to work all over Christmas so don’t really get a break, fitting in my shopping can be difficult..... what a load of s*!t

Clearly no idea whatsoever.

Having watched two episodes of the School documentary - absolutely give teachers a day off. I had no idea that things were so stretched financially. I wouldn’t do it for a gold clock . My sons gone past school age now and went through many teachers along the way and almost without exception they were incredibly committed. Bravo to teachers I say.

This year term ends in our area on December 21st. Hardly any time to prepare for Christmas at home let alone wind down after the term. People who make negative judgements about teachers and their work load have no idea what the job entails. It is hardly surprising that there is a recruitment crisis in the teaching profession. If you want your child to be taught in classes of 35 plus then go ahead - criticise, because unless teachers receive more support and recognition for the job they do that’s what will happen and we can’t all afford to pay for private education.

As chosennone said.

All of that.

I'm leaving in December for all of those reasons. A shopping day at this point wouldn't cut it. I'm literally too exhausted to shop! I'm more concerned at the state of the system, not people having a day for shopping

I'd chat to your employers then supermum as I know lots of private companies that do this...no schools though.

Equally, perhaps you have flexibility to book holiday when it suits you?

I don’t disagree with employees being offered initiatives that support their wellbeing.

However not sure why anyone needs a Christmas shopping day? There are many jobs that don’t allow leave in the run up to Christmas and those people have to shop online or get themselves organised early (many probably who don’t get the last week of October off as they’ve used their leave up covering all the other school holidays).

At least teachers will get Christmas Eve off....for most of us it’s a normal working day so when PP’s say they don’t have time to wind down after the end of term it doesn’t help.

Yes we have a day ..wellbeing day its called most use it on appointments etc
Ever so grateful some use it for their childrens sports day,assemblies,concerts thats sort of thing its a juggle to get it sorted so it doesnt impact on the pupils
Every member has it from admin to caretakers as well as the SMSAs

Lonicera - Yes, I remember my London school having a Christmas shopping day. Whole school closed, I thought it was partly to give the parents a chance to take their children to see Father Christmas in a department store, otherwise there would have been lots of odd days of absence. When I moved to the Midlands the head thought it a brilliant idea. So we had one there too!

So are all healthcare workers going to get similar? How are they supposed to do their Christmas shopping if teachers can't, with their weekend and night shifts?

And no I'm not a HC worker but I think they deserve it more than teachers. Sorry.