Did any teachers have it easy over last 11 weeks?

[PicaK]

I nearly lost my shit yesterday with someone who insisted most teachers have had an easy life and not doing a proper day's work during Covid.
I'm not a teacher but many friends are and I don't know any who haven't had a full workload. It's absolutely not the message that's coming across on social media either. Most teachers saying they've done more work.
But then I wondered if my snapshot was accurate.
Does anyone personally know any teacher who has coasted/had an easy ride? (I am not talking about your kids' teachers who you have opinions about but friends or family where you have more insight.)
I'm hoping it's a no tbh and I feel justified for feeling so put out.
Aibu
Yes - yeah the teachers I know have had it easy
No - you're right all the ones I know have worked as much if not more.

Parents also need to remember that home learning will be, and should be, taking less time than school based learning.

The videos etc are the teacher input. This is being done without distraction and without interruptions of questions from other children. There is no time being lost for coming in to the room, settling down, getting out equipment, This is usually a fairly small amount of a lesson. The rest is the children working on tasks with the teacher supporting those who need it, walking round the room, etc.

So a one hour school based lesson will be half that if done at home. Depending on the lesson content the teacher input part could be far less.

At infant level the times are reduced even more in Reception and often hear 1 there is a lot of free flow child led activity where the teacher and TA would be monitoring and making observations, joining in with play and asking the children questions. This simply can't be replicated with home learning. The teacher input in reception - the formal sit at the board and listen bit - is really a very small part of the school day, minimal some days. Even at key stage 1 it's no where near half the school day.

Just because your child is normally in school for 6-7 hours (with maybe 5 hours of lessons after taking off playtime and lunch, registration, and assemblies) a day they aren't sitting down listing to the teacher input for anywhere near that amount.

We are providing each day - English, maths and phonics sessions, produced by our own staff. We then post two other subject tasks a day, though these may not have been produced by our staff. Weekly we provide a PHSE lesson and also some intervention stuff - these go our generally though in school they'd be specific children. But there is so much of school we can't replicate into home learning.

It's fairly clear that some teachers (schools) are providing a lot and doing a lot. They're feeling justifiably irritated is anyone suggests they aren't. Meanwhile some schools (teachers) are providing close to nothing and those parents feel justifiably irritated that they could be doing more. It doesn't seem that the correct group of parents are talking to the correct group of teachers in most cases.

I know 3 people who work in 3 different provate schools - Neighbour teaches there - workload heavy as usual. Friends work as accountants there, they said the Teachers hit the ground running and are working hard delivering as full a curriculum as they can manage. The two accountants have kids in state school and the provision is very poor - so if the local state school teachers are working hard it’s not on this years lessons!

It obviously completely depends on the individual/school/students.

I do have one friend who teaches primary and she is very busy on the days she is working, but I think that's mainly because she also has a 2 year old so she's juggling.

SIL and BIL are both teachers (secondary) and are doing very little. One is head of year too, still doing very little.

As mentioned other SIL is primary and has said she's bored on the days she isn't in a hub.

A friend is primary 3 days a week and is loving lockdown and says this must be what it feels like to win the lottery. She is doing bits of work here and there but certainly not flat out as I imagine she usually is.

Completely mixed and there's no one answer.

As others have said what about other professions. I suppose the reason people are flagging teachers is that the majority are surely still on full pay, whereas other jobs, people may be expected to have their pay reduced or use annual leave. I stand corrected if any teachers have had to take a pay cut though.

As others have said what about other professions. Our staff are wfh as normal - they submit a weekly timesheet detailing what they''ve spent time on...and if they are not working they are on holiday.

@tempnamechange98765

Some schools have furloughed staff, but I think it's rare.

I'm on full pay. I have friends on furlough who are still being paid more than me.

Just oughing through all the responses - on p3. Just wanted to firmly state this is not a goady or teacher bashing thread at all. Not from me anyway.

It’s a lot easier than being in school

My SIL is a primary school teacher - doesn't have a set class ( she specialises in a subject) and she admits she's had hardly anything to do. She hasn't been on the rota to care for the key worker children and won't be going back when her school reopens to the year groups next week - she has children with asthma ( not shielding) and her headteacher is allowing her to stay at home to minimise risk.

Our teachers seem really busy, putting together great work on google classrooms, answering questions quickly and returning marked work within the same day. Whether they're as busy as usual, I don't know, but I feel they are trying their hardest and I feel very grateful to them.

DS is a secondary teacher. He is on a rota for covering the children of key workers. He provides all his lessons to the normal timetable including every class having one live lesson per week plus feedback to work produced or guidance by email or phone. The lack of need to deliver the non live lessons means he is not as busy as he would usually be.
Like most teachers he would normally do many more hours than he is paid for including Saturday revision classes and various after school clubs so I don't think he feels too badly about not working flat out. He does feel that he wants the pupils to get the best he can provide in the circumstances and misses his classes. He also knows that as schools open again that there will be lots of challenges facing teachers and their pupils which will no doubt mean working a significant number of extra hours for many teachers.

It's all relative.
I've still worked every day from home, been in 1-2 days a week for keyworker children, answered endless emails, planned lessons, prepared quizzes, had Zoom staff meetings, uploaded daily content to the school website, done online CPD, written a weekly newsletter etc etc.

However, without the constant marking, school improvement work, lesson visits, learning walks, meetings and general scrutiny that is normal life in school it's felt like a holiday in comparison. We were due Ofsted and the pressure in school was enormous. I'm dreading going back to 'normal' for that reason, although I am back in now with my year 6 'bubble'.

I’ve been teaching Zoom lessons for 4 hours a day. I’ve been doing registrations as normal and still have full pastoral responsibility for my form. I have Zoom meetings every afternoon. The Zoom lessons take a LOT of preparation. I’m knackered, tbh.

I work in a school. Most of the teachers have been furloughed and done naff all for last few months. They claim to be missing it to the point of tears and wishing they were back at work. Why considering they usually spend the rest of the year complaining about how hard it is to be a teacher I feel like saying "which is it - you love teaching or you don't".

I just think some people are determined to never be happy.

Teachers are at the mercy of instructions from Heads and education authorities if they have little to do that is because provision has not been made for a work schedule. Some friends have great heads, others not really.

I don't have an opinion either way but my sister is a Teacher, Year 3 Primary. She (from her own mouth, several times) has told us she does at best an hour or two of 'checking' online work a day, and otherwise the only work she had was to do her school reports, but only as it coincided with a time period in which they were already due.

She went into the building 1 day every two weeks as a volunteer, and most days went home as uptake for key workers children was very low. Clearly everyone's situation is different- it is not a slur to indicate some teachers were paid full salary to do very little as obviously there are some that were. This doesn't mean others did not work as normal or indeed much much harder during lockdown.

I was privately somewhat disappointed by how my sister chose to talk about it during lockdown. Lots of gloating about job security and 'free holiday' and how little workload she had, how much she was loving lockdown. She was livid when she found out she wouldn't be carrying it on throughout summer until September and had to go back June 1st. Now she is back there are barely any students at school (under 30 for the whole school, for this first week). We usually get on superbly and i of course love her but her attitude did shock and disappoint.

Once again with my year sixer googling how to do something (find the whole when you are given just a percentage). Sent worksheet as usual with no instruction or guidance so I’m left flailing round trying to work out how to do this whilst my terminally ill clients have to wait 🙄

Scottish secondary teacher here. I'm working 6 days a week as usual. Sundays off (apart from replying to any urgent emails)

Friday, Saturday & Monday are MANIC! Fridays and Saturdays I'm preparing my resources for all my classes (mostly made from scratch or at least adapted to suit levels). I can easily sit at my desk for 6-8 hours both days. Some kids submit their work during the week and they get instant feedback via email from me. Most wait and submit over the weekend (mostly on Sunday) so Monday is spent replying to all of those emails with detailed feedback and maybe links to resources online that would address particular issues pupils are having. Then I've got to fill in the school 'engagement' spreadsheet - who's done their work and who hasn't. This all takes most of my day. This Monday I worked from 10am - 9.30pm with an hour off for dinner. The other days are spent doing CPD, answering the bajillion emails bouncing around from my department, SMT, kids needing help and all the other (pointless) bits of paperwork that are constantly demanded of you. We have 2 dept meetings a week. They should last an hour but the shortest one so far has been 2.5 hours. Every third week I'm the 'on call' teacher for approx 100 Higher pupils which means almost constant questions all week which I'm responsible for answering. Oh, and a bit of curriculum development when I can fit it in.

I've spent easily over £300 of my own money on resources to enable me to make lessons and videos for my pupils. The LA are providing us with nothing and we've just been told as our purchases have been made from non-approved suppliers we won't be getting any reimbursement. I'm knackered. So very tired and so worried about my pupils and their progress. I've cried often. The constant teacher bashing on here and in the media send me into fits of rage. I CAN'T WAIT for the summer holidays when I can actually have a rest.

Y4 teacher here. I teach in a one form entry Primary. The first week of lockdown, we were asked to provide a week by week list of activities for parents to access on our school website. I have also been on a rota to work in school one day a week with the keyworker children.
Apart from that, I haven't had to do anything else.
We have to contact parents every fortnight and that's it.
For the first few weeks, I organised my planning and resources, made new resources, sorted out the subject I lead etc
To be honest, I have absolutely loved this whole time.
No marking, planning, assessment etc
I have had so much free time, it will be hard to go back to normality.
I have seen the teacher bashing threads on here, and know that in many schools teachers have been working hard but I haven't. That's the truth!

Polo least you honest 😁 hope dds teachers enjoyed the break they are great teachers don’t begrudge and guess they following school instructions but as parent feel abit hung out to dry especially as my sisters kids at private having a very different experience...!

I know- I do feel guilty if I'm honest but as other people have said, staff are directed by their Head and ours has given us minimal work to do.

I have teacher friends who have a lighter workload but they’re hating it. They’re teachers because they want to teach, face to face, and support the pupils. Having less work doesn’t mean it’s easier. It’s just different.

glummy Glad I don’t work with you. You sound like a charmer.

@PicaK, You didn't set out for it to be goady or teacher-bashing? And you had no idea how it would inevitably turn out.
Thank you so much. This is just about going to tip me I've the edge today.

Governor and trustee here.
Yes I know many teachers who have had it easy. I can even say the same of some hts.tbh.

Yes.
In work for 4 days every 3 weeks.