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)

As Hiphoray is new to MN, I think they're having a larf.

As Hiphoray is new to MN, I think they're having a larf.

I hope so too, otherwise I wonder how sympathetic Hip would be to a member of her team who was struggling with their workload.

I’m a teacher - have taught for 20 odd years.... my family, friends and colleagues who are teachers are leaving in DROVES... we work long hours in the week (finish at 3pm I wish) , weekends and holidays periods...anything to make staff happier and help stop the droves leaving .....

I said that ,too, ice. Most of the details are credible. The arriving at 8.30 not so much. Most secondary schools begin first lesson or form time at 8.30 and often have briefings before this

I do have a colleague who arrives at about 8.20. It's just her choice . She is not a morning person. She stays til 6 quite frequently , though, and is also not unstressed simply because she arrives later than most!

Sometimes it feels like time has stopped when I’m teaching Y9

Ha! That made my morning....double with the bottom set today!

I’m amazed about the £55k as well! I’m top of UPS-been teaching over 20 years and am on less than 40-our deputy head isn’t on £55k.

I wonder if the Christmas shopping is a distraction. If the headline were...

‘Boss implements nice things to support staff wellbeing and morale, as retention has been identified as a severe issue’.

Would that have a different response?

Where DH works, they all get given a day off on their birthday. That’s lovely-I’m not jealous or seething that he gets this and I don’t. Some people see any thread about teachers and start to froth with abandon in their race to the bottom.

There is a serious problem. If something isn’t done-there will be no qualified teachers left to teach our children. That head is just trying to do one small thing to try and make his staff feel valued. Good on him for trying. He won’t have the power or budget to do much else.

Did anyone see the School series on TV? Do you want your kids to have a maths teacher?!

I’m amazed about the £55k as well! I’m top of UPS-been teaching over 20 years and am on less than 40-our deputy head isn’t on £55k.

I was on just over £51,000 when I retired in July after 35 years service: UPS3, TLR for Head of Department role plus Outer London weighting. Maybe £55k possible with Inner London weighting / independent school?

I'd still like to see @Hiphooray outline how they manage to meet the demands of their leadership responsibilities yet still manage to arrive and leave at the hours they do. I'm highly sceptical.

I’d forgotten about the London weighting-yes.

Still, 500 posts about whether teachers deserve one day off that their boss is happy to provide cover for him/herself.

@Hiphoray123 any jobs at your place?

I'm not holding my breath on any meaningful updates from Hiphoray123

I’m a secondary head of department. I’m on £55 000 a year. I get into work for 8.30 and leave at 3.30pm unless I have a meeting or inset. Occasionally I might do some marking for an hour or so after school otherwise I do no work at home. I also do no work during weekends or holidays.

Which subject do you teach?

You sound like you must be a marvellous role model and great support to the others in your department.

I’m a secondary head of department. I’m on £55 000 a year. I get into work for 8.30 and leave at 3.30pm unless I have a meeting or inset. Occasionally I might do some marking for an hour or so after school otherwise I do no work at home. I also do no work during weekends or holidays.

Do your subject colleagues get all the KS3 classes?
HODs have a lighter timetable compared to main scale teachers.

If you only teach KS4/5 your job will be very different to a main scale teacher with a load of KS3 classes AND KS4/5.

Sticking to teaching only the older students (and following a syllabus) contributes significantly to the ease of your job  and pisses everyone else in the department off.

Yes it's a good idea but maybe other people should get it too in different occupations.

When I was nursing, many years ago we used to get this but not nowadays and now we are expected to go in on days off for mandatory training and often work late on shifts and forgo breaks on a regular basis.

Stress is a part of most jobs nowadays in some form or another and so much more needs to be done to retain staff. An odd day off per year won't really cut it.

As an illustration of what you get if you treat your staff right:

I am PT in a very supportive Outstanding school. I didn’t think schools like this still exist, but they do.

I am taking a group of students out to an enrichment activity that I think they will really benefit from next week, on my day off. I’ve had to arrange for extra childcare for DD and paid for the competition entry fee myself because there wasn’t enough left in department budget.

Lots of staff at my school do things like this, often giving up evenings and weekend to run trips, awards evenings, pay for resources out of their own pockets.

The head at the school mentioned in the OP know what my head knows. Teaching is a vocation and if you treat your teachers well you will get back more than you ask for.

I wish more heads knew this.

My last head didn’t and there are still lots of empty posts atvthat school.

To adress your responses.

I didn’t say that no one else had said that there weren’t numerous professions who also work hard. Like everyone else I’m giving my opinion which is that many professions and workers would benefit from this.

I did not say it happened as standard I said on the contrary, that I CAN’T see it happening as standard (ever). This thread discusses if teachers (which I mean to take as all teachers) deserve this time off. I don’t believe that this will ever become a standard (I never said it was).

The managers in my department could well cover shifts as they are clinically trained. However this wouldn’t be deemed to be prudent or viable. I would argue th same with a headteacher, they are paid more than teachers to perform tasks which would be considered out of the remit of a teacher. Would it be appropriate for the teachers to cover the headteacher so they could also have a well-being day?

The lack of breaks is a representation of the current state of the NHS, and it means that those of us on the front line are burnt out and over worked on a day to day basis. It’s not as simple as blaming managers. When there are not enough staff and there is no one to call, you can’t walk out and leave those in your care at risk or alone. People are slow to thank those who do make these sacrifices which are ultimately to keep people safe and ensure that they receive appropriate and safe care.

I work Christmas because it’s a requirement of my job, and because people don’t stop needing the NHS at Christmas. That doesn’t mean to say that those of us who do work, to look after others, don’t deserve appreciation or recognition for doing so. I can assure you we don’t do it for the money.

We talk about teachers receiving time off to prepare for Christmas but there are so many workers out there in the same boat. Many who don’t get time to prepare or even get to be home for the main event anyway.

It would wonderful if we could all have emotional well-being days. I’m sure everyone could use one from time to time, not just teachers.

I refer to the NHS careers in my post because this is what I do. You could easily fill the gaps here with any public service job, or probably most jobs.

I thinknitnwoukd help to recognise how the organisation of the working year in schools differs to that of most industries and how this facilitates a little bit of flexibility which isn't available in other industries.

So schools teach 195 days a year. Exactly when those happen is a bit flexible - some schools start term and end a little earlier or later. It is possible to cover all the days and all the training requirements and still take a day off in term time, in a busy term where people are exhausted. Staff will still need to do all their non-contact work which happens in evenings, at weekends and in holidays. They might even choose to do it during that 'day off' so they don't have to do it that night or spend a weekend day on it. The school year and the fact there is both contact based work and lots of non contact based work does create some flexibility.

Other industries don't have this. The NHS needs to provide hospital services 24 hours a day 365 days a year. Staff always have to be there and most of the work can't be taken home. Lots of businesses have much or all of the work done during 'open' hours and staff need to be there to do the work.

Schools and teaching are just a bit different and there is some flexibility about exactly when to do the non-contact work for both school managers to plan and for individuals. It can work in schools where it might not in other industries.

Because it cannot or is less easy to make work in other industries, should schools and teachers therefore not use this model? There is no reason why not. Shouldn't we hope ALL industries find ways to improve the situation for their workforce and that these are particular to the industry given its unique circumstances?

Schools have found they have a recruitment and retention crisis and that due to severe funding cuts, teachers are asked to deliver more with less which result in them working longer hours and being more stressed. Head teachers cannot boost their pay or do much to reduce workload or stress, but some have found one small way to help and make a gesture which can give a bit of a reprieve in a busy term, without reducing any child's access to the teaching they are entitled to or the training staff need to receive. Calling it a 'shopping day' probably want wise, and actually I think wellbeing was the term used but the media and critics have jumped on it and turned it into a shopping day. Why not make this small step to help in a very difficult situation?

Of course a wellbeing day won't change the funding crisis or reduce the demands placed on teachers which are causing them to leave in droves....but perhaps in some schools it will just keep some staff feeling a tiny bit more positive for a little bit longer......and wouldn't that be a good thing, when you consider how few experienced teachers there are likely to be in schools still within the next 10 years.....or are all the objectors happy with the idea that in 10 years their kids might be taught in much larger groups by TAs and teachers who nearly all have less than 3 years experience because no-one hangs around longer and schools can't afford to pay teachers and certainly not experienced teachers.?

It would wonderful if we could all have emotional well-being days. I’m sure everyone could use one from time to time, not just teachers.

So, because this particular means of providing a touch of wellbeing wouldn’t work for you in the nhs, you think head teachers should not be free to make gestures like this to their own staff in their own way in their own school?

They finish work just gone 3!

Talk about completely and proudly unenlightened

ChocolateWombat

That was an excellent post.

I used to work in the NHS which suffered similarly to schools in that there was very little that individual ward sisters could do to improve our working conditions - they couldn't pay us more, or employ more staff, or lessen workload, turn patients away etc. We had to cope best way we could.

The ward that I worked on, in theory, was one of the most difficult in the hospital due to the nature of the patients and their disease, the heavy workload etc yet despite this we bucked the trend for staff sickness and turnover that the rest of the hospital suffered from. Why? Because the ward sister did what she could to boost morale - we celebrated birthdays, she provided a huge buffet all over Christmas when the canteen was closed, at weekends staff on an early could leave as soon as late staff came in. They were just little gestures that made us feel appreciated and pulled us together as a team. Yes, a pay rise or more staff would have been lovely but realistically they weren't going to happen but actually feeling valued in your job goes a long way.

There was a thread on her recently asking how much people earn. I was surprised at the number of teachers who posted they were on c£50k+ so it clearly isn’t as unusual as some might think.

There have also been a number of teachers on this thread saying they don’t work the long hours others describe. I know from family and friends in the profession that they also don’t works those hours so it clearly isn’t everyone.

I’m sure, just like in any sector, there are those who do work long hours but anyone who has posted on here with a different experience eg confirming they work nowhere near the hours others are saying are either ignored or are called liars. Obviously their experiences don’t fit the narrative.

It annoys me to be honest.

I work my arse off everyday. We all do when we have jobs but I can't see my boss letting us swan off for the day to do our christmas shopping. We'll have to fit in around the weekend like everyone else.

Yes teachers get a crap pay deal, but there are lots of us working, just making ends meet, missing out on this and that and we don't get any extra help. Unless we've got holiday left, then we can't just take a day to shop.

the number of teachers who posted they were on c£50k+ so it clearly isn’t as unusual as some might think

Round my way that’s SLT money. If they’re inner London you get paid much more than the rest of the country, but still you’d need additional responsibilities to break £50k.

I would love to see a breakdown of the pay of current teachers and what percentage are
MPS
UPS
Leadership scale.

That would be very interesting!

Does anyone remember that ad campaign from last year that received loads of complaints!’ Great teachers can earn £60k!’

Yeah.

Max pay for unpromoted teachers in Scotland is 36 and a half thousand.
Head of large department or depute head could get 50+ maybe. Perhaps I should move? I think our conditions are slightly better though.

At least when I was at school they actually had the guts to call it teacher’s Christmas shopping day!

But, that said, I know plenty of employees who work a lot more hours than teachers, and they don’t get a day off to go shopping!

Let’s not forget that most teaching staff get 13 weeks holiday EVERY YEAR, and guaranteed weekends off, and while some may start at 7am, most are out of the workplace by 4.
They are also not the only workforce who take work home with them.

But everyone else seems to cope ok!!

And yes, I work in a school!