to want some of the last week of term to be used for .. oh I don't know ... education?

[HedTwigg]

fun day all day
trip all day
in-class movies
party all half day of last day

what happened to partying on the last day only

the last week of term is for clearing out the old rubbish from the store cupboard and evenly distributing said rubbish amongst the children into carrier bags ,so their parents have to then keep said 'treasure' for at least a fortnight before binning it . I thought this was common knowledge

I can't download lessons in my subject, and we have to replan all the time becuse there are endless government initiatives to deal with all the time. Also a lot of planning is making existing stuff better.

Ive worked in industry with four weeks holiday per year, and in teaching which has lots of holidays. I would love to get back into industry. It is a whole lot less stressful and exhausting......

First of all I am not a teacher who moans about her hoidays it is a perk but a much needed and well deserved one. By the end of the school year the kids and staff are on their knees ready for a holiday.

As for what happens between 3.15 and five pm I am normally in some form of after school club or support group or once a week a staff meeting until at least four-thirty which gives me an hour and a half if I were to stay only until 5.30pm, the reality is more like 7pm. I also have an open surgery one night a week that keeps me until six and I run a family support group once a week until about half six. I also get into school for about half past six in the morning so I have 2 hours before school and time after school to do my prep and marking so over a week taking time out for meetings and groups I have about sixteen hours plus 6 hours of ppa time as long as I dont have to cover another teacher. In reality I have about 30 hours a week of marking to do and 15 hours of prep. Teaching is always changing so you can't just teach the same thing every year, you may want to link to current affairs and you often want to follow the ability and interests of your class. Being a reflective practioner I am always seeking to improve my teaching, raise pupil standards and embrace new ideas. I would also spend a few hours a week in admin, phoning parents, meeting parents etc. So in reality my wokring week is about 65-70 hours a week so the what are you doing between 3 and five argument does not really stand up.

I usually spend half my holiday working, this summer I am going away for two weeks and having another short break but I am moving classroom so I will need a week to chuck out all the crap that is in there , move in my new funiture, paint the walls do some repairs and do all my displays. I am also taking on a new management position which I have not factored into my hours, talking to colleagues who already have that position I am looking at about another ten hours a week although I will clearly need to make adjustments to my current working practice so I do get to see my family! But I am not moaning as I am paid well for it , but it will take me another week over the holiday to get ready for that. In our area we are making cut backs in schools so I am teaching three new subjects next year - one of which is English - so I will have to spend time over the summer getting ready for that and I have not even got onto my prep for my own classroom teaching.

I am not moaning - just pointing out the facts - as I think that I am paid well for my job, I have an excellent pension, great holidays as well as a lot of flexibility to have time to see my dd at her own school for things like assemblies. I also think that I am lucky to have a job thatI enjoy and that gives me the chance to make a difference, I know not everyone has this.

If I hated my job I would leave, I could earn more money and have less stress doing something else but I don't want to. I despair when I hear teachers in the staffroom moaning about how much they hate their job and they want to leave and that they have the hardest life in the world because it gives the impression that we are all like that. I tend to feel sorry for teachers who hate their job as it is a hard job and I think it must be impossible and soul destroying if you don;t enjoy it. I see every year at least two teachers suffer from a complete breakdown as a result of trying to keep going on that treadmill long after they left. I also feel for the kids who are taught by a teacher who (to put it crudely) has past their sell by date.

I know there is the argument that we are not paid for the holidays so we shoudln't have to work them but I don't agree , I do think that when you work in the public sector particalarly as I do with some of the most deprived families in the country you have the moral obligation to go above and beyong your contract.

As for try being single parent with three kids comment well many teachers are single parents - I have been and many of us have juggled other jobs, until I went full time in teaching I juggled it with a cleaning job and two childcare jobs.

My mum used to be a school caretaker (not live in) and the summer holidays were her busiest time of year. The whole place was cleaned from top to bottom, furniture washed, blackboards repainted, all the floors stripped of old polish and re-done. Of course she could pick her hours as long as the school was ready for the start of the next term but I remember she always had to be available to open up for the last week of the holidays as that was when the staff would come in and get the classrooms ready. Just thought whoever said something about caretakers needing holidays might be interested. Probably not .

teachers get loads of holidays - they accept they do with get defensive about it.

if bein a teacher - was that easy we would all do it - i personally wouldnt do it for all the tea in china - the pay is shit for a start.

so i begrudge not that you have loadsa holidays, get paid for after school ctivities as an additional and take in more money during hte holidys for marking - becuase i wouldnt do it. but you doget a lot of holidays - comparitivley

Pixel - I agree that the caretakers do work incredibly hard! at my dd's chool he is always there in the evenings when the school is being used for PTA / Brownies / ladies choir as well as being the school cleaner. He is a star and much undervalued - hence the reason he is getting a little pressie at the end of term too.

fizzbuzz do you work in a 6th form college, as I know their contracts are different to most schools?

I don' think the pay is shit, I would struggle to find a job that paid a comparable amount in my town. But i suppose the judgement about pay is all subjective as I am not a person particulaly interested in money as long as I have enough food on the table the odd pretty outfit, haircut and holiday I am fine.

I don't think we are denying we have long holidays we are just saying that they are not all holiday we are expected to work for some time of our holiday, I would say at our school people give about half - but it is definetly work on our terms and with hours that suit over the holidays and for that reason I don't complain. It is just rather naive to say that we come in at half eight leave at 5.15 and take twelve weeks paid holiday a year in which we do nothing but twiddle our thumbs.

I also think caretakers are underated, ours work all year round and are on very low pay.

No, I work in an 11-18 school......but try downloading lessons in DT A level (ROFL). Totally impossible......

I want my dd's to enjoy school and they both did that in the last week of term.

At my son's primary school here in Australia, the entire final term (Oct - Dec) will be spent preparing for the whole school concert/show that is held over two nights. All school work gets crammed into the 3rd term, so the fourth is free for this bloody gig. Thank god it's only every other year. I think the teachers are under immense pressure to get all the school work done in the third term, and the older kids are worked to the bone to get everything done. Yes, the eventual concert is great, but.......a whole 7 weeks of school.....can't be right. It's a state school btw.

Havent read the whole lot, but feel the need to defend us teachers!
The last week of term is a fun time. The kids know they are moving up, and so are high as kites, and NOT in the mood for formal learning. We do some teaching in the mornings (keeping it fun and active), but afternoons are more laid back - ICT, music, art. And trips and fun days still involve learning of some kind!
I don't condone endless dvds, but I always give mine a party followed by a dvd. They enjoy it!
And being a teacher IS hard work! The holidays are a definite perk (not the only perk I hasten to add - seeing the kids learn and become more independent is a definite perk), but the planning (each year group is different, you can't just use the same old plans), assessment, constantly changing government initiatives, making resources etc etc is a huge use of holidays and weekends. And most people I know wouldnt be teachers themselves, as they know the kids (and parents sometimes) behaviour is often awful...
so yes, YABU.
(btw I dont mind if parents take their kids on holiday on this week, or any other week tbh. That is another GOVERNMENT initiative. I think a week abroad with their family teaches loads more than a week in our education system )

lol. Having read the title, it says some of the last week of term!
it would be unreasonable to expect ALL of it to be used for education, but YANBU to expect SOME of it to be used for education (though maybe not formal education..)

have jst been into school for a tas leaving assembly
shewas in tears it was so sweet

the kdsi ahd done and oscars tyep ceremony wiht ehr winnign allt he awards

malorytowers - you are so right!
9-3 my arse! I do 7.45 - 4.30, and work in my lunch hour, at weekends and in the holidays.
I also love my job, and don't find it stressful.
But, as you say, if people think it's so cushy why dont they do it themselves?!

My mother was a teacher.

Yes, she got long holidays, in which she'd do a reasonable amount of work anyway (picking her own hours).

On the days she wasn't on holiday she also worked from 8am-5pm, then would have a couple of hours off and then normally do at least another three hours every night marking and lesson planning.

I think over the course of a year she put in enough working hours that she had a right to object to people whinging that the holidays were "excessive".

I think you can tell the which teachers just trained up for the job and do it and those who are instinctively good at it. They are the ones who get the best out of the children.

We had an oscars type ceremony in our end of yearassembly and I filled up when one of my naught boys got most improved

Malory where do you work if it isn't stressful, I sometimes get so stressed I feel as if my heart is going to explode. A big issue at our school across the staff.