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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

NOT TEACHER BASHING but do why do teachers have to do hours of planning every day?

379 replies

mostwonderfultime · 29/06/2020 14:24

If the syllabus is the same every year which it is, do you not just use planning from previous years?
I'm sure I'm being naive but just read this on another thread.

OP posts:
TabbyMumz · 29/06/2020 19:27

"I'm curious as to why you want to know all this though. Even OFSTED wouldn't give so much of a toss about hours as you seem to..."

Eh? Come again? I havent asked anything?

spanieleyes · 29/06/2020 19:27

For someone who claims to know an awful lot about primary, you seem to know very little!

CreditCrackers · 29/06/2020 19:28

@Appuskidu I have never seen a post where a teacher says they work much harder than everybody else
As I said in a previous post, my husband is a teacher and I trained as one so we have a fair few teaching friends too. From my experience, teachers who have never had any other job seem think that teachers work harder than anyone else and work more hours and it's the hardest job in the world. On the other hand, teachers who have had other jobs before teaching massively appreciate the holidays and the freedom of being able to do marking and planning on your own time at on your own schedule. This isn't always the case but it's pretty common (from my experience) that those who became teachers straight out of uni think teachers are martyrs.

TabbyMumz · 29/06/2020 19:30

"What, because Primary teachers just play all day and are shit?"

That's Quite a strange thing to say? Why would you say that?

FlapAttack23 · 29/06/2020 19:32

Teaching children in front of us in a classroom is probably the least time consuming part of our job 😂

hashtagbollocks · 29/06/2020 19:34

OK, to the more "defensive" teachers.
What job did you previously do and for how long?
or did you go straight into teaching?

CallmeAngelina · 29/06/2020 19:37

@TabbyMumz

"What, because Primary teachers just play all day and are shit?"

That's Quite a strange thing to say? Why would you say that?

Not strange at all. Do you not understand?
BertNErnie · 29/06/2020 19:37

In my primary school we teach English and Maths daily, phonics daily (R-Yr 2) and in the afternoon we usually have a non core subject that needs marking. If we do spelling that's on top of the above and yes that's easy to mark.

There's no such thing as a tick and flick marking anymore so each piece of work has to be marked against the success criteria and often you have different coloured markers to make against the criteria and then you have a personalised comment and often a green pen question to move the learning on.

When marking you often realise what you hoped the children would get out of the lesson was either too hard or easy so you have to adapt the following days plans to ensure all are making progress or are addressing misconceptions before moving them on. Depending on your assessment schedule you often have to mark this off against the curriculum objectives. This also takes a bit of time, depending on how many lessons you teach that have to be logged down.

PPA is 10% of a timetable. That's almost 3hrs per week and the majority of time is spent planning for the following week. This isn't enough time so they you finish over the evening or the weekend and then you have to make the slides or PowerPoint etc. Preparing lessons and tweaking lessons takes some time. You might have the same topic, but the children are completely different and you have to adapt plans accordingly.

Making resources also takes a lot of time. Cutting and laminating often happens in front of the tv with a glass of wine.

Prep for the following week often includes sticking things in books. This takes time, particularly if you have 3 lots per child each day.

Photocopying usually happens early in the morning before someone else gets to it and you then have to wait ages until they hare finished.

Weekly meetings after school for CPD also take time. Usually an hour - 1.5hrs per week.

Some schools have a 30 min briefing daily which is a pain in the arse and take up valuable time you could actually be doing something in.

Emails after work take up a lot of time. Parents have our direct emails and we spend time after work replying to these and also to other professionals.

Subject leadership also takes time. Every teacher apart from the NQTs at my school lead a subject. They have learning walks, action plans, scrutiny etc to complete across the school. They usually have something to do towards their action plan each week that also takes some time.

Early years settings sometimes have special books in paper form. Photos and pieces of work are printed off and stuck in individual books. Observations also need to be written up daily.

That's just a few of the things primary teachers in my school do daily. The car park is usually full between 7:45 and 8:00 and I've never seen anyone leave earlier than 5 and lots of cars still parked at 6:00pm when we are kicked out.

Then there's the time spent teaching or doing playground or lunch duty which means you run around like a loon before your next lesson.

I'd love for someone to volunteer with my team for a week to see what it's really like before making judgements based on lack of experience or anecdotal stories.

RavensNest · 29/06/2020 19:37

Oh do piss off @hashtag why should people answer your goady questions. Troll off somewhere else.

spanieleyes · 29/06/2020 19:37

I didn't start teaching until I was 44 so definitely not a straight from uni teacher! Prior to that I worked in the Dof E Permanent Secretary's Office as a policy advisor.

CallmeAngelina · 29/06/2020 19:38

@hashtagbollocks

OK, to the more "defensive" teachers. What job did you previously do and for how long? or did you go straight into teaching?
Erm..... None of your business? What's it to you?
BertNErnie · 29/06/2020 19:39

I don't work until midnight every single day but I have on lots of occasions. When it was ofsted, I slept a total of 6hrs in 48

hashtagbollocks · 29/06/2020 19:40

*None of your business? What's it to you8
because a pp said that in her opinion the people who go straight into teaching think it's really hard work whilst people who have joined from other professions don't.
hence wanting to know if that is right.

spanieleyes · 29/06/2020 19:42

So I came from a different profession and think teaching is really hard. It's also great fun too!
What does that prove?

hashtagbollocks · 29/06/2020 19:42

spaniel and do you think your previous job was much easier?
if so, would you not prefer to go back to it?

hashtagbollocks · 29/06/2020 19:44

8spaniel* doesn't prove anything; was just wondering if it's right that people with no other work experience think they are harder done by in teaching than those who have other work experience

gingganggooleywotsit · 29/06/2020 19:44

sorry but what a stupid question op.

spanieleyes · 29/06/2020 19:44

No, of course I wouldn't want to go back to it.
Neither job was " easier" or " harder" than the other, just different. I just prefer my current role!

ultrablue · 29/06/2020 19:44

Reading these threads makes me worry, the constant slagging off of teachers, where will we all be if in a few years down the line no one wants to teach?..

Luckily for you my DD1 is adamant that she wants to teach seniors, she knows the difficulty.. her mantra is "I went to a bad school by choice, I want to make a difference" She choice to go to the worst performing school in our city because she felt comfortable there. The teachers went above and beyond for the kids there. One of her A level choices was Ancient History, no one else chose it, rather than tell her no a teacher stepped up and said I will teach her, so for two years he taught an A level syllabus to one child, he could have refused..

DS really struggled with sixth form to the fact it made him physically ill (different school) rather than boot him out which it got to the stage of, it was one more missed lesson and he had to leave.. his teachers believed in him supported him to the hilt and is (hopefully because of covid restrictions (he has to move to Wales) he secured a place on course that only accepts 30 students in the of the whole UK.

In my opinion teachers go above and beyond and it P**s me off when they get slagged off

hashtagbollocks · 29/06/2020 19:45

and another nice response to the OP's reasonable question

spanieleyes · 29/06/2020 19:48

And is being told that you are lying a " nice response" too?

sunfundone · 29/06/2020 19:48

I teach secondary. Non core subject.
I would say on an average week, I work around 50 hours. More on weeks we have parents evenings or open evenings, at the end of each half term when we run assessments and during exam/mock exam periods.

I am exceptionally efficient and have great time management skills. I'm not boasting, this is my personality and it has been commented on in previous roles (I retrained as a teacher a few years ago from another sector) so I can see how some people work insane hours.

I hope this thread has broken down the elements that make teaching so time consuming. Parents/the public really don't see the half of what we do.

I love my job. I get to teach a subject I adore to amazing young people. No two days are ever the same. But it is not easy and I more than make up for the long holidays in the extra hours I work during term time.

Just get off our backs please. And if you think you can do better, train as a teacher and enjoy your £23k starting rate while the world tells you how lazy and shit you are.

isitorisntit · 29/06/2020 19:48

Ha ha ha ha ha. Wouldn't we LOVE that. Oh yes we would. Now tell the powers that be, please, and let us teach.

BertNErnie · 29/06/2020 19:49

I worked in a bank before teaching. It was much easier than teaching but prob a lot easier than other jobs too.

To the poster who talked about having a job where they have to go home and cook etc, that's exactly what we do too.

I drop off at breakfast club at 7:30 and rush to work and often run from the building at 5:30 to get to the after school club in time or else I get a £15 fine and then £1 per minute. I then get home, cook sort kids, sort stuff for following day and then sit down to carry on working after they go to bed. Sometimes I work for an hour, sometimes it's 2 or 3 depending on what's happening.

I don't think I necessarily work harder than anyone else but I do work hard.

FrippEnos · 29/06/2020 19:50

@ultrablue

I think that it shows just how little posters/people understand about what a teacher does.

It also shows just how many have bought in to the various myths, misinformation and bullshit spread by politics and the media to get cheap hits.

The new term for it would be clickbait or possibly false news although that seems to have fallen out of favour.