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)

What about the Amazon workers who aren't allowed to take any leave in the run up to Christmas and instead have to work compulsory overtime?

Or all the other people in other tough jobs but without the status of teachers? People are disparaging about refuse collectors, but if they weren't here we'd all be screwed (and probably kicking off).

Why don't we value them or their needs or their contributions?

I have no issue with schools doing this for their staff, I just take issue with the narrative around it.

Re the teachers finish at 3 thing, it's such a gigantic failure of imagination as well as intelligence, isn't it. Do people really think our kids are taught with no preparation on the part of the teacher, and that homework gets marked by a magic marking fairy? It reminds me of people who think academics get three months off in the summer, as if the only thing that happens in a university is teaching 18yos. How do these people think the knowledge they get taught is generated? Research fairies to go with the marking ones? Feckin' idiots.

I think it also depends on the school this term alone, I have been granted half a day compassionate leave to drive my dad to a cancer appointment. Ive also been coveted for an hour to attend my dd7's special assembly. If they can cover a teacher, they usually will. 2 years ago, I was given a day compassionate leave when dh's grandmother was dying and we had to find a way to get his parents from the airport. All of which was paid. In the corperate world, I might have been asked to take annual leave for these things. A good head teacher/well being person ensures that things like this are normal. As for shopping, our staffroom currently looks like an amazon warehouse - we all have our shopping delivered.

No one is saying teachers only work until 3.

I am saying that with the exception of meetings, there is some flexibility after the children have gone home.

@Chosenone

"Schools are scrabbling around for ideas on how to retain staff and keep qualified people teaching. This is probably not the answer.
More lenient marking policies, a supportive behaviour support system, less data driven meetings and less scrutiny would!"

This x 1000 . So accurate.

hmm I'm not convinced that this is what it seems. I'm a teacher and used to work in a state school where we'd have a 'devolved INSET day'. This meant we would stay for three 2 and a half hour inset sessions over 3 evenings during the year which were compulsory. This meant that the INSET day in November was already being done over those three evenings and we could have the day to Xmas shop or whatever.

It's not just a freebie.

Also laughing at 'finish work just after 3pm'. Good story.

continually No one is saying teachers only work until 3.

Yes they are, Soonly said it earlier in the thread.

sonlypuppyfat Sat 24-Nov-18 09:07:17

A day off for shopping? They are very well rewarded for what they do! They finish work just gone 3!

DH is a teacher, works in school from 7.30pm - 6pm Mon - Fri and spends most of Sunday at home marking and planning.

He needs a break, that's for sure, but if he had a day off, the last thing he'd want to do with it was shopping!

What's this flexibility you're talking about, continuallychargingmyphone? I'm intrigued to know.

They finish work just gone 3!. No they don’t. They finish routine curriculum pupil contact time at just gone 3.

this

Before I retired in July, I was always at my desk by 7.30am and generally left the building between 5.30pm - 6pm. And no overtime for parents' evenings, open evenings, etc.
If you arrived at my school after 8am you'd have trouble finding a space in the carpark.

Or all the other people in other tough jobs but without the status of teachers?

The status of teachers? 😂

The children go home at half three. I don't finish work til gone 11pm every night and continue for most of the weekend.

In theory a shopping day off is a nice idea, but I know I'd spend it catching up with school work. A whole DAY to do school work! That would be really useful.

Also, our head is great with wellbeing. We are able to take time off for our own children's Christmas Concert and sports day which is brilliant.

We had this once in my previous school (we had gone through a couple years of hell, this was our last year being open as we were going to be taken over by another school and despite closing we were facing a final OFSTED).

There was a rota so school stayed open, lessons were covered so no learning lost - it did more for staff morale than anything I've experienced before/since

What's this flexibility you're talking about, continuallychargingmyphone? I'm intrigued to know.

There is some flexibility after school, meetings aside. If you have to, you could leave at 4, it would just mean having to make the work up another time at home or whatever. However, there are increasingly plenty of other jobs where that is possible anyway.

Perhaps a survey could be carried out of teachers who had a 'day off' like this to see how many hours they still worked that day or over the weekend it was connected to? Perhaps the Daily Fail should publish that too - to show that teachers probably more than double the hours spent in the classroom by the prep and marking and reporting and meetings other stuff they have to do - all of which would still be needed in a week where there was one day with 4 or 5 hours fewer teaching hours.

That's why presenting it as a shopping day is daft....and most schools wouldn't do that - only the Daily Fail. A day working from home is fine - but everyone should be very clear,no that very few teachers are going to manage to avoid all the tasks they would need to do as 1/5 of their working week - there will still be lots of work going on too, even if they do pop to the shops or sleep late.

Firstly, the STUDENTS finish at 3. NOT THE STAFF. Are people really that thick? I honestly can’t tell if that’s a joke.

Secondly, let’s not heap on too much praise for an inset day being used as a well-being day. Let’s remember the INSET days were actually taken out of holidays to begin with and no extra pay added to accommodate a week less of holidays.

It’s really irritating that when you say ‘there is some flexibility after 3’ (or whenever) or ‘I’m not in favour of this’ it’s interpreted as teacher bashing. It isn’t. I just think it’s a bit crap!

Also think of the prep required to set a day's lessons. I know teachers who'd rather come in sick than set cover.

I leave work at 4pm to collect my kids every day that I havent got a meeting, I do my planning and marking when the kids go to bed. There is some flexibility. I find it really frustrating when people talking about us 'having' to stay until 5/6pm. We don't. We still work 9/10 hour days, but there is flexibility. The holidays are great - no childcare to pay for, but yes, I always end up working a portion of them. I get 13 weeks unpaid holiday, I work a maximum of 4 of those weeks. That is still double the annual leave of most. It is unpaid, but I knew that going in. I am a head of year and a head of department (admitedly a small department). I have a large KS4 cohort though. I still manage to have a life and my GCSE results are great. The biggest danger and threat to my well being and to young peoples' education is the massive cuts this government have made to education, policing, mental health services and local authorities. A well being day will not solve this, but better funding would.

You can leave early yes but I actually would get a lot of anxiety about doing that as some tasks can’t be done at home and would mean I was marking til late. But yes it is certainly there in theory.

Why can’t they do their shopping on Saturdays like the rest of us? For those non-teachers with kids, you’d have to request annual leave during holidays as well, but most don’t have enough to cover all days, unlike teachers, so they can’t take days off during term time, just like teachers. Teachers do an important job teaching our children, but there are lots of professions that are just as crucial and stressful, but don’t have the public profile like teachers do and get forgotten.

chocolate makes a good point. I had a very very sick parent this term and school allowed me to leave early one day to rush to hospital. And i was leaving at 3 on the other days to rush to critical care. Except my workload didnt change, and all it meant was working until midnight in the following weeks to catch up. The learning walks and observations didn't stop. I still had to stick to the school’s marking policy. So it wasnt kindness to allow me to be with a very sick parent. It was a change of when i completed working hours

Never accused you of teaching bashing, continuallychargingmyphone, I would love to know what you mean by flexibility after 3. Avegemitesandwich, you're right, they can leave if they have an emergency or need to be somewhere, but their workload doesn't get left behind at school!

Just told my OH about this thread. His first response was to echo what ProfessorMoody said - he'd use the day off to play catch up on work.

Honestly, the teachers working until 11pm nightly and then some time at the weekend, you’re doing it wrong! Not all schools are like this, not by a long way.

How anyone survives without some work/life balance is beyond me!