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?

My dd is doing a pgce. They were warned at the start of the year that Easter was variable by la this year and to work on the assumption that they may get no time off.

All those teachers here saying “well if you can’t hack it then you’re not cut out for teaching.” And “that’s just the job so toughen up”

Well done, you’re helping destroy the hearts of the new recruits who fuck it off within the first five years.

It’s not the other teachers that make so many leave a few years after starting.

There are loads of professions where the expectation is that you work beyond the contracted hours. Equally, postgraduate qualifications where you are working at the same time as writing dissertations are not unusual. I certainly had to work and complete my dissertation for a post graduate qualification as did my husband in becoming an Architect.

Talk to the organisers. It's not an even playing field to complete the accademic work. My PGCE cohort was granted an extension on an essay that was needing completing within school time at a point that we had heavy teaching workloads and a large number of people were struggling to balance both.

Mismatched holidays are a PITA. I live near a long county boundary where spring term dates frequently differ. During a supply teaching phase, one LEA was trying a fixed spring/ Easter holiday and when Easter fell particularly late or early the holidays fell completely out of sync along with Feb half term. That meant 50% chance of work/ pay and if you did want to make any plans, rejecting the opportunity to work which affected a window of 6 weeks. The LEA abandoned the fixed holiday after a few years as it was so inconvenient to so many families/ teachers affected by being out of sync with other family members/ schools. They're still not perfectly aligned, but not as badly affected.

Its a long time since I graduated as a teacher but we had months if not the whole academic year to get our dissertations done. Losing a week at the end shouldn't make much difference if you plan for it now.

I would say that’s grounds for an extension, especially if you all join together and all ask for the same thing.

In terms of having less holidays, it sucks but that’s the way it goes sometimes, I know on my pgce they had real difficulty finding placements and had to take what they could get.

Yes I would have mentioned it had I been getting 3/4 weeks off because I need to be in placement X amount of days and need opportunity to get evidence for my file etc. I'm not bothered if anyone else gets 4 weeks as long as I get the 2 weeks that every teacher in state schools are getting including the other 7/8 trainees.

Mention it. It'll happen regularly and they'll have plans in place

Are you on a paid school direct placement? If so you'll have to just suck it up.

If you are on an unpaid placement speak to the placement coordinator and see if anything can be done. E.g. could you finish one placement earlier so that you still get 2 weeks for Easter? (This would probably be easier for the school to deal with, rather than missing the first week back)

Sorry but do you want to be a teacher? Life’s tough sometimes, just suck it up.