To not want schools to give up summer holidays

[littleblackdress04]

Just read in papers that it’s been proposed that kids go back to school in July/ August

I think this is a rubbish idea - if it’s going to be that long then just let them have a ‘normal’ summer and go back in September.

Kids have been cooped up because of this- I’d want to take mine to the hills, go camping & let them have some freedom. Then start school in September. This isn’t a holiday for them - it’s a horrible stressful period of being cooped up & not being able to live their normal lives.

While school gives a structure and is important, so are proper periods of holiday.

I’m really against the idea but aibu? Be interested to hear other thoughts. I’ve not been particularly worried about the kids education- they will catch up in time and it will be fine

Totally agree with tootiredtoconga! Well said!!

Also I cannot believe someone has suggested that children should be schooled full time! That has to be a joke - no sane person would say that, and if they actually did think that way, why did they have children in the first place? You have to feel sorry for the children of anyone who thinks their chikdren should be schooled full time!

*children

I agree teachers are decently paid. And loads of jobs you need a degree for are not well paid. But everyone should have their contracted holidays.

Namechangedforthisreply7
Pay scales are easily found.

Yes, well done.

£25k starting, up to £40,500 for longer servers. Those with management resps are on more.

No, £23K to start, up to £35K , for a standard teacher.

UPS ranges include whole school responsibilities. So not just teaching

This pay is for a quarter of the year off. So if you scale it up, roughly, for a normal year’s work (52 weeks plus statutory hols) it’s the equivalent of a starting salary of £32k up to around £50k for long servers.

Why are you scaling it up? It just shows that you are desperate to have a go at teachers.

Not bloody bad.

No-one has complained about their pay. just that if they got paid for the holidays or worked for the full year it would cost more. So thanks for pointing that out.

We work 45-60 hours per week, depending on school/ year group/ primary/ secondary

We more than make up that quarter, (plus some!!) Not a moan (I love my job) but an observation. We are good value for money.

Unless, of course you’re one of those people who like to think we throw the kids out of the door and run home at 3!!

Those arguing for schools to open are saying that we would not be allowed to take holidays in the UK or visit family. How does that make sense? Kids can go back and be crammed in small classrooms passing corona around and taking it back home, and we will not be allowed to drive to the countryside and hire a cottage for the summer? I know which option is far riskier in terms of myself and DP getting corona.

Teachers are paid an annual salary so it wont alter, many will tell you they work a lot of the 'holidays' anyway. Plus not all are working now, certainly non are full time now. For me there are parents who right now are going insane with children cooped up and those with special needs need the routine they had with school.

Teachers always say ‘we don’t get paid to do X and Y’ but actually the salaries are pretty decent and even more decent when you consider that it’s for 3/4 of the normal working year. It casts a different light on the ‘we’re do badly paid’ mantra. They are not.

I agree they should get their contractual holiday and I have no doubt that those who do not will rightly kick off and unions step in. I just think the ‘I’m so busy, I’m so hard done by’ line really needs to be tempered in this current when everyone is so busy, everyone is hard done by (or redundant, or furloughed, or all holiday cancelled, or working way over contracted hours whilst juggling their kids). Teachers complaining about being busy when they are doing very few hours in school over Easter (teachers I know are doing one day on rota over the fortnight, some doing none at all if they have kids/haven’t volunteered/don’t want to - you could predict who would be going in and who wouldn’t a mile off) and simply doing the same sort of hours as everyone else is to pull us through this crisis.

Know your audience.

What is your point, pollyanna?
Our annual salary is for 195 days, plus 5 weeks (I think) holiday.
You're saying that we should work an additional 6 weeks for nothing, under the umbrella of having a salary? Is that how it works for every other salaried employee, no over-time because they're paid already?

Also, I'm not sure why some parents not coping with their own children being "cooped up" means teachers are to be expected to child-mind them for free.

I am guessing they want the schools open during the summer as that means the children will spread the virus to their parents etc over the non flu season so the hospitals won’t be full of both flu and the virus patients - just virus patients. Maybe then when they think enough of the older people are dying they will lock everything down again over the flu season later in the year.

The only times teachers "complain" about being poorly paid, hard done-by, or working insanely hard is when ill-informed idiots on here start slating them for doing fuck-all. It's pointing out the actualities, not complaining for the sake of it.

I really hope not. They need some freedom and fun after this lockdown. They've studying really hard with the work the school's been sending. It has been nothing like a holiday

CallmeAngelina

Still no 5 weeks holiday here.
It could be different in private/indie or academy, But state school teachers in England don't get paid for the holidays.

Namechangedforthisreply7

Maybe if people stopped bitching about teachers these threads wouldn't happen.

I know that its a radical thought, but maybe people should stop and think before posting rubbish about teachers.

@pollyanna1962

I feel like a broken record!

I get paid for 32.5 hours per day, 39 weeks per year. No holiday pay detailed in contract or wage slip.

If you think we’re paid too much per hour that’s a different argument. I personally don’t, considering the number of hours I work for free. I get paid 32.5 hours per work, but during term time generally work 50-60 hours. Not complaining, I love my job.

Out of interest, what do you think I should be paid?

*per week

When you look at the salary - comparable to many Full time, whole year jobs - yes you need to suck up a bit of extra. We are all working way more and differently than our contracts say, all of us. So we have jobs to go back to afterwards.

Teachers are no different but perhaps a bit complacent because your jobs are always going to be there. You don’t have to make any effort and, by the sounds of it on here and in real life, many of you are taking advantage of that although many of you are not. It’s a shame those going above and beyond (both on here and the unsung) are being tarnished with the lazy and complacent contingent. And you can say all you like about what YOU are doing, it doesn’t change what my kids teachers (or those of my friends and family) are not.

I don’t think anyone should work six weeks without being paid, but the odd day over Easter? Yes. I’ve done more than that every single week since lockdown just to get by. And getting kids back to their friends and some kind of structure over summer, when real life will not be anywhere near normal, is absolutely in their best interests. I agree you should be paid but does that trump your contractual right to a month and a half off?

Someone said it would cost 7500. Can’t do the gross figures (including employers NI, pension etc) but even on the highest point of £40k, an extra month over the summer would cost just over £3000. It would be worth it tii ok kick start our economy and get everyone back to work and real life before a predictable second wave lockdown later in autumn/winter.

but the odd day over Easter?
The briefest of glances over this site alone over the last couple of weeks would have shown you very clearly that the vast, VAST majority of school staff are doing that and MUCH MORE.

Or are you being deliberately obtuse goady?

If the schools do go back in September then the lockdown has to end and places begin to open in July/August. You can't go from no social interaction to being in school all day. Children and staff would drop like flies within a few weeks. Much better to start building up immunity before they go back.
Obviously we can only do this it's safe but going straight back to school seems a bad idea, which is why I'm against schools opening this term.

I don't think I'm working any harder than anyone else name change. Comments like 'You don’t have to make any effort' get people annoyed and make them start justifying what they do and why. I am working hard, schools aren't open for all children so a lot of what I'm doing has changed, probably like you in whatever your job is. Trying to do my job with a toddler at home, like lots of us. When I go into work my husband takes unpaid leave as I have no childcare. I don't feel like teachers are all that different to anyone else but I csnt understand why I'm working to this level and still read shit about what I'm doing all over mumsnet.

Namechangedforthisreply7
When you look at the salary - comparable to many Full time, whole year jobs

No-one has said otherwise.

yes you need to suck up a bit of extra.

And teachers are. You don't seem to want to see it.

We are all working way more and differently than our contracts say, all of us. So we have jobs to go back to afterwards.

As are teachers.

You don’t have to make any effort and, by the sounds of it on here and in real life, many of you are taking advantage of that although many of you are not.

this just shows how little you actually know.

It’s a shame those going above and beyond (both on here and the unsung) are being tarnished with the lazy and complacent contingent.

what a fantastic way to "tarnish" those that are arguing the opposite point to you. You have no idea what anyone else is doing.

I don’t think anyone should work six weeks without being paid,

Yet that is what you and others have implied throughout these threads (yes plural)

but the odd day over Easter?

Which is what many of us are doing. But you are changing your narrative.

Yes. I’ve done more than that every single week since lockdown just to get by.

And so have teachers, not everything that is being done is being done in schools.

I agree you should be paid but does that trump your contractual right to a month and a half off?

Its the same point that is being made just from the otherside.

I’m a appalled at the attitude of some people on this post.

I am not a teacher but have the upmost respect for them, i trust them to Care for my children and have done for the last 14 years. They teach, care, hug(if needed) and look out for my children as they do with all our children yet when the shit hits the fan like this huge pandemic that has stretched around the full world some parents feel they have the right to disrespect them, bring down and talk badly of the people they normally are quite happy to leave their children with.

Why would you leave your child in the care of someone you would happily slate, if you don’t appreciate or respect teachers then now Is the time to homeschool your child and see how well you get on.

Schools are not a babysitting service they are to educate our children,

I Follow a few teachers from my daughters school on twitter and one teacher said when she gets back to school her priority will be to fix broken friendships, and children’s mental health.... not catching up on missed work... surely that’s the the kind of teacher we all hope is in our schools teaching our children.

@CallmeAngelinaThe ‘vast majority’ are not. A few on this website are. General consensus does not support that teachers are working any harder than anyone else. Many are not going on any rota over Easter and many are posting a few worksheets off twinkle and bugger all else. I can (and am) doing more for my kids on top of a full time job (for part time pay) and no teaching experience, which is why it galls me. If I can grab a topic off the internet, or a bit of the curriculum, and make it fun and engaging and more educational than a bloody worksheet, why are my kids teachers not doing that? Surely those in the profession must see how that looks to the outside world?

I’m not being goady. I’m genuinely fed up of working my ass off with my holidays cancelled and with no real effort going into my kids education and with (by teachers’ own admission) key worker care being babysitting not education to be told that teachers are working so much harder than anyone else. No you’re not.

Namechangedforthisreply7

No one has said that teachers are working "so much harder than everyone else"

And your "general consensus" is just this website.

I just think the ‘I’m so busy, I’m so hard done by’ line really needs to be tempered in this current when everyone is so busy

I would hazard a guess that it’s that teachers merely defending themselves against people saying things like teachers apparently...

don’t have to make any effort
Are taking advantage
need to suck up a bit of extra
The summer hols were made that long for children of farming families who needed their children at home to help with the harvest (untrue and a very lazy line often trotted out by people who know nothing about the history of education)

I haven’t seen any other jobs attacked on here since lockdown like teachers are. I’m sure if others were attacked for being lazy when it wasn’t true, they would object, too.