Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Flexible and made to last.

Meet the Other Phone.
Flexible and made to last.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Teacher wellbeing days for shopping

786 replies

ForAMinuteThere · 24/11/2018 09:00

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)

OP posts:
MyNameIsNotSteven · 28/11/2018 08:34

Ah yes echt but that's not what some posters want to believe so they will ignore you. AND THE REST IS TOIL!!

KittyVonCatsington · 28/11/2018 09:12

I do not agree with shopping days, there are plenty of professions that work just as hard, nursing for example who will not get a day off for shopping.

But do you agree with the principle of TOIL? This is essentially what this is but doesn't make for 'good' headlines.
"School offers staff a TOIL day to help with chronically low wellbeing, if they work a certain number of 'Twilight' sessions beforehand" doesn't rock the boat as much does it, as most professions work like this but schools historically have not?!

Avegemitesandwich · 28/11/2018 09:44

Wow. I work in healthcare. What is give for an afternoon to do my Xmas shopping or even go and see my daughter's Nativity. Anyone who works full time has a juggling act to get stuff done

Come and be a teacher then! I mean, you get days off for shopping here there and everywhere, you are always allowed to go and see your kids nativity play or sports day, finish at 3pm, it's a piece of piss! And it's so great that no one is leaving the profession, NQTs aren't jacking it all in within a couple of years and the morale amongst the people who spend most of the day with your children is sky high!!!!

Oh wait.....

Dorsetdays · 28/11/2018 14:16

It’s more than simple TOIL though in this case because the HT covered the classes so it was an extra day off.

Is the HT going through a quiet patch work wise currently to be able to cover approximately 15 people’s days off during December? Confused

noblegiraffe · 28/11/2018 14:24

Other people work hard so I don’t see why people should get any perks in their profession whatsoever.

No Christmas bonus
No bonuses for meeting targets
No company car
No healthcare
No shares
No biscuits at meetings
No free tea and coffee
No anything that isn’t their basic salary because it ISN’T FAIR.

Weetabixandshreddies · 28/11/2018 14:31

It’s more than simple TOIL though in this case because the HT covered the classes so it was an extra day off.

You are not making sense - obviously if a teacher is getting TOIL their lessons will need to be covered.

What do you suggest, give them TOIL in the evening or at the weekend or during the day but leave the students unsupervised?

The HT is clearly keeping this cost neutral by covering lessons rather than paying supply or a cover teacher.

Good on the HT.

Dorsetdays · 28/11/2018 14:33

TOIL means time off in lieu ie taking hours off that you’ve already worked. In this case the teachers hadnt worked extra hours to enable them to take the day off, the HT covered their work that day to facilitate it.

MiaTancred · 28/11/2018 14:37

This reply has been deleted

Message deleted by MNHQ. Here's a link to our Talk Guidelines.

Hohocabbage · 28/11/2018 16:18

Dorset spectacularly missing the point about the extra hours teachers work

Dorsetdays · 28/11/2018 16:28

HoHo. How so? Weetabix was saying the wellbeing/shopping day was as a result of TOIL (in response to Kitty explaining the TOIL came from twilight inset hours).

Just pointing out that it wasn’t, it was an extra day covered by the HT as a gesture. If they were twilight inset hours the HT wouldn’t need to cover them as the school would be closed for an inset day based on the twilight hours the teachers had already worked...

Still not sure how the HT has 15 days spare to cover all the days off he’s granted though...as nice it is I’d be wondering how he managed that.

MaisyPops · 28/11/2018 16:47

Other people work hard so I don’t see why people should get any perks in their profession whatsoever.

No Christmas bonus
No bonuses for meeting targets
No company car
No healthcare
No shares
No biscuits at meetings
No free tea and coffee
No anything that isn’t their basic salary because it ISN’T FAIR.

Don't stop there.
No flexible working.
No on site subsidised childcare
No shift swapping to help colleagues out
No occupational maternity pay packages
No union protections
No fighting to protect pay and conditions in case someone has it worse
When we leave the EU, we best make sure that none of the protections we get from EU law get kept.

In fact, let's have a race to the bottom as quick as possible. Nobody should do or have anything nice in the workplace because it's mean and unfair.

What's sad is that the fat cats in charge have managed to get workers attacking each other and pushing a race to the bottom whilst they sit pretty knowing they will win from worker against worker in fighting.

Hohocabbage · 28/11/2018 16:50

Toil does not by definition have to come from twilight inset though does it? In other jobs it’s just referring to extra time worked. I have a friend who would get this if she has work to do at the weekend, or has to travel overnight.

Dorsetdays · 28/11/2018 16:52

Hoho. I never said it did, it was previous posters saying that. I was just clarifying that this wasn’t an inset day and therefore the TOIL didn’t come from twilight inset hours as others were saying.

Still don’t know how a ‘manager’ (HT) manages to fit 15 days in to cover other people’s jobs as I don’t know anyone that would have the capacity to do this.

Tw1nsetAndPearls · 28/11/2018 18:15

I am a teacher and think it is daft.

  1. you can shop at weekends or dash from school on the bell
  2. it is a gimmick so head teachers can tick a wellbeing box without actually doing anything that will have long term impact.
  3. education is in crisis- I want my headteacher tackling that not martyring themselves so I can get a Boots 3 for 2 and a nutmeg cappuccino rather than teach 9e5
Weetabixandshreddies · 28/11/2018 18:30

I wonder if the HT asked staff for ideas to improve morale/well being and this was a suggestion?

I was a school governor and we surveyed staff and asked what we could do to support them. Yes the big things came up (that really we had no control over) like pay, more staff etc but there were some surprising quick wins like a toaster for the staff room. What we could do, we did and of course it didn't solve all of the problems but the staff appreciated that we were bothered and that we were trying. It's very difficult when you can't just find money for a pay rise or extra staff or even paper for the printers but I think it's important for staff to be recognised and thanked for what they are doing.

homebirds · 28/11/2018 18:33

This is bizarre! I can't see how teachers workload is any harder than many jobs. Surely it's just different. The only thing I can maybe see is that someone going into teaching imagining a 8.45 -3pm day might be disappointed.

ohreallyohreallyoh · 28/11/2018 18:54

This is bizarre! I can't see how teachers workload is any harder than many jobs

What’s bizarre is a 25 page thread which slags off teachers, their work and pay conditions, their workload dismissed as fantasy and the stresses they are under utterly ignored....because one headteacher has done something to support his/her staff at a time when teacher morale is at an all time low and qualified, experienced staff are leaving in their thousands.

Perhaps you’ll begin to understand just what is happening in education when it’s your child who has had a succession of 13 couldn’t give a shit supply teachers over the two crucial exam years at GCSE.

ohreallyohreallyoh · 28/11/2018 18:57

And I say that as Someone who was last year that 13th supply teacher who did give a shit but who couldn’t do a thing to help two classes of year 11s who had done the same part of the exam spec at least 5 times as far as I could tell from their books.

It is a disaster. Happening right now. And 25 pages are dedicated to what fucking dreadful people we are for hoping we might get a little perk just once in a career.

Holidayshopping · 28/11/2018 19:01

Other people work hard so I don’t see why people should get any perks in their profession whatsoever.

Yep, well said. No one should get anything that someone else doesn’t get.

Maybe we should also have this Head teacher sacked.

londonmummy1966 · 28/11/2018 19:07

Having finally got the school to respond to an EdPsych report 6 months after they were sent it (see my other thread....) I don't think that teachers should get shopping days unless all correspondence more than 3 weeks old has been dealt with but perhaps I am just being a bit grumpy tonight...

BoneyBackJefferson · 28/11/2018 19:37

londonmummy1966

Yes its not as if teachers have ever spent month after month trying to contact a parent about their child only to get no response at all, or a shit load of abuse when the parent accidentally answers the phone to you.

foxyloxy78 · 28/11/2018 19:39

They should just take a mental health day if they need a break.

echt · 28/11/2018 20:06

They should just take a mental health day if they need a break

The teachers haven't said they need a break. The HT has given them break.

Piggywaspushed · 28/11/2018 20:07

What is a mental health day??

Piggywaspushed · 28/11/2018 20:08

I mean, obviously I'm not stupid. I can figure out what it means. I have just never heard of this.

Which just rather proves that other professionals are (as this thread has often illustrated) treated better in so many ways.