Teacher Training AIBU 😡

[Traineee]

Hi, I have NC for this, it might be long and confusing so please bare with me.

I'm currently doing my teacher training through a schools direct programme with 9 others on the course. We have a "home school" and will be going on a contrasting school placement soon before returning to our home school from Easter onwards. We have been given a calender that outlines all our training days, holidays etc.

Today I have found out that my second placement (staring school) has different holiday dates than my home school. This means that two of us students will have a week less of Easter holidays as our second placement breaks up a week after everybody else's and we're expected to return to our home schools when they do (a week earlier than our second placement).

Our second placement has a 2 week half term which we'll miss out on because we'll be back in our home school which is fine. However one student will end up having 4 weeks off between Easter and half term, the majority will have the usual 3 weeks and 2 of us will only have 2 weeks!

AIBU to think think this is completely unfair and not on. We have a dissertation due straight after Easter and we need those 2 weeks off. That's why the deadline is after Easter! So we have time to do it without too much school work.

This year is exhausting and stressful enough without being treated unfairly too!

Sorry for the long confusing post. Any advice?

Could you ask them to change the placement schools?

Otherwise the only thing you can do is lay out that you need that time for essay writing and the system allows some more time than others. State your desired outcome and they may address it.

Life is unfair.

Talk to the person coordinating the placement or accept that sometimes things balance out in the future.

I would probably say I had booked a holiday one of those weeks, assuming that I had it off.....

My husband did it last year, some ended up with 1 week less and my husband ended up with 3 weeks because of how the different holidays fell. He kept quiet and hoped he’d get the 3 weeks but the people with only 1 week complained and attention was drawn to the different holidays so he ended up having to do an extra week in the home school after the Easter break. They should make it so you all get your 2 weeks at Easter, that’s what his course did.

I have known this happen before and the university honoured the 2 week easter break and just placed them at one of the schools for a week less than originally timetabled. Address it will your professional tutor ( or whatever they're called) I wouldn't complain about the person getting 4 weeks off though that would be a bit petty

Would it be feasible to ask for a week extension on your dissertation?

Is the schools direct programme through a university then? When I did schools direct it was independent and wasn't up to them re holidays.

Sometimes, it's just how it falls. It's only for this year and, whilst it seems very unfair on you, it may be that you don't have a choice. Hopefully, you can speak to the provider and sort something out so you have the time to do your dissertation, but if not you may just have to go with it.

That's life. Different schools have different holidays. Your getting more valuable hands on experience than those who are off.

This happened on my course too, people just sucked it up and got on with it.

Talk to your supervisors - there could be ways of lessening your workload at the time your dissertation is being done. I agree too that an extension would be fair. Ultimately though, I think you’ll just have to suck it up.

There were other differences also, I started on the first day of the September term and finished on the last week of the summer term. Others finished three weeks earlier than me and started a week later.

You need to speak to your uni tutor who will have the programme oversight (assuming this is a normal SD programme and not a SCITT) if it is a SCITT then you will have a programme coordinator in the lead school who you should speak to. They probably know about the situation but haven’t put plans in place to make it fair and they need to. You need academic time to get on with your work and it isn’t fair if some get extra and you don’t even get the usual amount of break. This is an intensive and exhausting year and you no doubt feel you barely have time to breathe between planning, marking, ova etc. It isn’t on to just suggest that is the way it is and the uni will not want you to be disadvantaged- after all they are responsible for their students’ results.

I think any other assignment I’d say suck it up but dissertation is different. So glad our dissertation deadline was before final placement and not the other way around!

You need to suck it up. Teaching us a job that requires hard work and resilience, which they will be looking for you to demonstrate. It's one year.

I'm doing SD too and I am in the exact same position. I get only 1 week Easter holiday, but we finish mid June so can't really complain when we get that long off over Summer

I don't see what complaining would achieve, I'd assume its too late now to swap, all for the sake of 1 week off too seems a bit tedious.

I did SD a few years ago. Talk to the co-coordinator about the deadlines you are struggling with. Otherwise though, just take advantage of the fact that you are getting more experience and will have clocked up the minimum amount if days sooner (plus more of a safety net if you are ill).

I know it doesn't seem fair, and it is a stressful year, but try not to feel too bitter about it. If you worry too much about what you are doing vs what others are doing, you won't find teaching very enjoyable at all.

Exactly what stripyhorse said.

I would echo other posters. If you cant organise yourself around this then you will have a tough time in a teaching job with a full timetable and half a ton of planning and marking each week.

This happened on my teacher training. I got to finish a week earlier than others in the summer. Do mention it and do stress that you wouldn’t be bothered if it wasn’t for the dissertation.

It's tough, and I do sympathize. I lecture in a university and DS(5)'s primary school holidays rarely coincide with mine. And yes, it does make life extremely difficult; not least because I have a 100 mile round-trip commute and still have to be back at school pick-up time 2-3 days a week when I can't get a childminder. I can't let my students or department down - it's as simple as that - they have a right to expect I'll turn up and deliver lectures as contracted, plus provide additional tutorial support and assignment guidance. Not to sound harsh, but that's the nature of working in education.

I understand how hard dissertations are. It's also pretty much standard policy in universities that they have to be seen to ensure their students all compete on a level playing field. None should be disadvantaged owing to circumstances beyond their control. Do you have an academic advisor or personal tutor who can look into whether you'd quality for additional time to equal what you've lost owing to the holiday situation?

Good luck with the training.

You need to raise this with your professional tutor. Quite apart from the unfairness, ITT usually has a minimum attendance requirement and the students who are getting two weeks’ extra holiday could well find that any further absence (eg due to illness) will tip them below the minimum number of days and mean that they can’t be awarded QTS.

Teacher here. YANBU at all. PGCE year was by far the heardest of my 13 years of teaching, you really need any holidays to recover, catch up and prepare.
Those saying “That’s life”. It’s not really though, is it? You wouldn’t be moving between two different schools in the middle of terms in real life, unless you were doing supply, and then you’d be paid for the extra week. Why should some have it easier than others but be judged by the same standards?
Raise it with your uni, they should adjust the time you need to be in school in accordance with their holidays - you are their student after all, not employed by the school.

Of course raise it! You need to make sure everyone has only 2 weeks, it would be so unfair if some had more weeks.

Would you question it if you had 3 or 4 weeks though?

Of course she wouldn’t question it if she had three or four weeks, the problem is that she doesn’t have enough time to do a hefty piece of academic work, if she had more time that would not be an issue. Of course it would be for others who were then the ones in her situation but they would be the ones to question it then. I hate the ‘suck it up and get on with it’ attitude. It only ever seems to apply to those in education, I know of very few other professions where you would be routinely expected to work when you weren’t contracted to (as many part time teachers find themselves doing so they aren’t seen to be ‘rocking the boat’ by failing to attend parents’ evenings or inset on their day off) and it is being inculcated from the very start of people’s careers by situations such as op’s. I was the SD coordinator for a large group of teaching schools in my previous job and I would not have found it acceptable for my students to be in this position. It was often the case as my school was the other side of the county boundary from the university but we always dealt with it.

I think others having 4 weeks is irrelevant and I would leave it out when making your case, stick to the fact that you have less time than what has been originally allocated and this places you at a disadvantage.