Schools should close early on a Friday

[Goolagoo]

I know this will be very mixed opinion - especially for working parents .

But , I’m a teacher . Over the years I have seen so much in schools regarding PPA time and really unfair practices . I have seen , and experienced , teachers having PPA taken away due to staffing issues . I once saw a teacher have a day of PPA ( a whole day because she wasn’t having it the week after due to staffing issues so would need to plan 2 weeks work in this PPA session ) taken away - it was a Friday too so she was supposed to be having that day to plan for lessons beginning on the Monday . It was taken away due to staffing issues and she was in tears - she had plans that weekend that she had to cancel so she could plan for the week ahead ( I didn’t work in that school , she’s a teacher friend ). I have also had PPA time taken away from me before and I also have never had a class that didn’t get upset at me not being in class and having a supply or a Ta cover . Usuall work that’s done during the cover whilst class teacher is out on PPA isn’t ‘important’ work - it’s a lot of filler work , or work that doesn’t go in books . A lot of children also get anxiety over their class teacher being out and children with SEN especially suffer with this .

I read about a school that decided to close at 1pm every Friday to allow teachers to all have their PPA time . They said that they made the time back with a slightly later finish time / slightly earlier start time and they found that behaviour improved massively. Fridays are usually the end of a long week and filled with behaviour issues and this reduced along with attendance improving . I know some schools around the area do Finish at 1/2 on a Friday and I wonder if this is the reason why .

It seems like it would really make sense !

Maybe even , as TAs don’t get PPA time as they don’t plan , they could offer a kind of after school club ( until normal pick up time ) where the TAs watched the children who’s parents couldn’t do an earlier pick up time .

I have no idea what PPA is.

Who is asking for more money? And how is it 4 months?!

my DS attended special school, and they always finished at 1 on a friday so the school could all use friday afternoon for PPA.

The college he currently attends have every other wednesday to do it.

Some holidiay is paid as it is a legal requirement in the UK to pay 5.6 weeks per year so presumably teachers don't get paid for about 7 weeks a year. Do you work out your pay as 46.4 weeks a year or do you include your legal entitlement to 5.6 weeks holiday and work out your pay as 52 weeks?

Where is that? It isn't standard school holidays in England, where I am some schools have 6 weeks in the summer and 1 in October, others have five in the summer and 2 in October. Only 2 weeks at Christmas and Easter. If you think about it bank holidays are generally in school holidays e.g. Christmas/New Year/Easter/the late May bank holiday. I can only think of the early May bank holiday not being in school holidays.

@Tippexy

Sure. No chip. Your Maths doesn't work and you didn't compare anything, you just made goady and inaccurate comments.

If you think teachers have it so great then be a teacher.

In English state school kids are in for 190 days/ 38 weeks and the ages are contracted for another 5 days as training days so 39 in total.

That logic is totally irrelevant though . Yes if you look at is as “ 39 weeks is part time , if you divided the salary by the 39 weeks to get a weekly amount and then added on 13 weeks to make a FTE it’s a lot more “ but that is not possible - schools are closed for 13 weeks of the year - so it’s a pointless comparison, it means nothing . It’s like saying “ I earn £50,000 a year for a full time 52 weeks … if I worked 65 weeks a year it would be a lot more” …. Yes it would but it’s impossible

As always , a post about teachers has been divided into “ teachers have it easy” and “ teachers work harder than any other profession “ . No , it’s probably not the hardest job in the world but that doesn’t mean it isn’t hard and it doesn’t mean we aren’t overworked ! There is a reason teachers are leaving the profession in vast numbers .

I want out , desperately. For me it isn’t about money . I’m looking at jobs at a pay cut . I think the money is fine actually … a pay increase would not make me want to stay . It’s the work , the pressure and the treatment of teachers that makes me want to leave .

What’s the point of money if you have no life to live around work

Please don't engage with Tippexy, there really is no point.

Its been explained again and again, yet some people refuse to understand how teacher's pay works.

My idea is not foolproof . I did say , there would be an effect on working parents ( myself included ! ) … I don’t have the answers , but on paper in general the idea , I think , is good .

The idea of things like forest schools coming in for example be amazing - have some more focus on other aspects of the curriculum ! Maybe HLTAs having classes on the afternoons ( HLTAs can take classes and do a lot for PPA anyway ) . Just some guaranteed PPA every week and a little less stress for the children on a Friday

She has included the half terms and most of the bank hols.
2 weeks Christmas.
2 weeks Easter.
5-6 weeks Summer.

3 x 1 week half terms.
Most bank hols are within these weeks and are not extra.
Total 13ish weeks.

Except you COULD work in the holidays planning etc .

oh and you could have all your teacher training days too.

Laughing at TAs don't plan. Yes many do plan. And many teach. And many resource lessons.

Used to be Wednesdays half day in Edinburgh according to DH.

They’re not asking for more money now that they rolled over and accepted the pay rise after all their strikes last year.

‘We’re not striking for us, we’re striking for the schools to receive more funding to pay us more. We don’t want it taken out of the existing budget, we want the children we teach to have better resources’…..

Pay rise offered, but to come out of out of existing budgets…

‘oh ok then, if we must’..

I actually think that secondary school hours should change. Teens don’t work well in the mornings.

Teachers could retain their start time as is and use it as protected time. Kids then stsrt school at ten and finish at 4.15. Although teachers would theoretically have what on the surface looks like a longer day, they could then be encouraged to leave on time and NOT work into the evening, preserving a semblance of better planned work life balance. In theory. And teens might take more in.

In my personal experience - yes TAs work very hard and are stretched far and wide , I have the upmost respect for them and I personally could not cope without them in class , they are worth their weight in gold and not paid enough ….. but I don’t know of any that plan to the extent of a teacher and what they do plan is done in the school day , I don’t know of any TA in any school I have worked in that stay late , and I don’t know any that work from home either

@Hellodarknessmyfriend after school club for the youngest, like vast majority of working parents

@Itsmyshadow - troll 🙄

Unless you are trying to increase the amount of directed time teachers have it won't work and you would end up paying teachers more.

There's a joker on this thread I think....

I'm in Scotland and my secondary school dismisses pupils at 1.10 on a Friday. We're one of the later schools to finish though; my daughter's school ends at 12.15! The Council staggers it across the city.
Make no mistake though, it's very much a cost saving exercise.