To not go on the residential?

[Youthiswastedontheyoung]

I've just started a new p/t teaching role. Towards the end of the academic year the whole year group go on a residential which is about 3.5 hours away, for a full school week.
I have a just-turned 4 yo and other academic commitments outside of school.
AIBU to say I can't attend the residential?
As an aside, my mum (love her) thought teachers got paid for any additional hours regarding this. She was surprised to learn I'd just be getting my standard pay!

I work part time as a university lecturer and when they go on field trips (which I am sure are nowhere near as tiring as with primary children) I often go for part of the trip.

I think that it would be reasonable to offer to go for part of the week (if there is a colleague able to split it with you) or say that you are unable to attend. At my children's school it normally seems to be a mix of staff from across the school that go and not always that year group's teachers.

Absolutely this. Can’t even be bothered to read most of the ridiculous comments and misinformation. Get it deleted and post it the staff room.

My advice is the same as a previous teacher poster - say no now, do them if you feel your family could support you when your child is older.

Although by the time they are, you might be peri-menopausal and permanently knackered!

They meant it isn't exclusive to teaching. Why are you so angry about your job? This type of thing is usual when in employment. Not sure why you think it isn't.

Also, just to add, the one we go to, from about 8pm the staff are the ones on duty until morning- they themselves prepare us a huge hamper in the staff room with alcohol, snacks all of that and we would go in there for a few hours for some drinks and food etc. I'm not really a drinker so would have one if at all but others would stay up really late and indulge! There were about 10 schools there and each one was in the staff area with their hampers having a nice evening! So yep that's what goes on , again, unless a dire emergency we don't have to monitor the kids during the evening so I guess if you were expected to also do night duty you wouldn't do this!

@Ladylalaboo1 where is this residential?! Asking for a friend… 😄

Nursing
Medicine
Police
Firepeople
Social workers
All other emergency services
Very senior management roles
Senior management roles
There isxa myriad of professions requiring 'extra' hours. That's professional, salaried roles for you
Extra is the norm. May not be stated explicitly in the job description, but, understood
So no, teachersxaren't special cases

Not a teacher anymore but at a school I used to work at, the teachers were expected to take turns to do the residential. So if you didn’t go one year, there was very much the expectation that the following year it would be your turn. This was fair and accepted by everyone (nobody really wanted to go).
As for the alcohol, most schools will have a policy in place regarding that, but it is true that you get to know your colleagues out of your school setting. This can be a good thing (I formed real bonds the year I went) or a bad thing.

I do this three times a year for Scout camps. I don’t get paid for that, or any of the six hours a week I spend on scouting, but I do it because I care about the children having these experiences. It makes me sad that a primary school teacher doesn’t share those views. You can’t do it because of childcare and logistics and that’s fine, completely reasonable, but your attitude absolutely stinks.

Haha it's robinwood centres!

I’m a community nurse a couple of our patients have severe learning difficulties and live in a communal type setting with 24 hour supervision from carers. They take them away, are with them 24/7 and are not paid for working above their hours or get time in lieu they are on minimum wage and have to buy their own food whilst away. Like others they care about their clients and want them to have new experiences. Teachers aren’t the only ones.
you clearly don’t want to go just say to the head and if asked just calmly say “sorry it’s not going it’s not convenient for me”.

I've done similar when working in residential care for people with learning disabilities. Didn't get any extra pay but I did actually enjoy it. So this isnt completely exclusive to teaching, it happens in care work too

But you clearly dont want to do it so dont. Maybe some of your colleagues may want to go for the experience.

To those (parents) saying, ‘what would happen if every teacher had that attitude?’
Maybe the government would stop expecting schools to be run on goodwill, and actually pay staff for the hours they do. Lots of teachers would do residentials / Summer camps if they were properly paid.

op, there is absolutely no reason you couldnt be paid as a full time member of staff that week.

Bit of a misrepresentation there - I went to Robinwood last year and was called on twice by the nightstaff (safeguarding and homesickness) and was officially ‘on call’ the entire time. Four of our children have asthma so we had to be at all of the activities with their inhalers in case. And our LEA bans alcohol anyway.

Did you not know that this would be part of the job as a primary teacher? There are lots of things that piss me off about being a teacher, but some things are just part of the job. Like pp have said, presumably you don't have to do it every single year. Or you just go when your dd is a bit older.

I've done residentials as a secondary teacher and they're knackering but rewarding. I also massively appreciate the teachers and scout leaders that have taken my dc.

Out of interest though - which other jobs require 24 hour duty for 2-5 days, maybe over a weekend, with no extra pay/time in lieu?

There was a whole other thread on this recently, where people patiently explained to teachers that jobs have different types of responsibilities, and that there are a lot of responsibilities I would have when I go on my work trips that a teacher wouldn't have. And no, no one is paid extra for going on work trips.

Have a read, rather than people having to explain this all over again.

Why is do parents not "thank" a teacher? http://www.mumsnet.com/Talk/academics_corner/5154293-why-is-do-parents-not-thank-a-teacher

It also reminds me of a recent thread where a SAHM listed out all the individual things she does during the day (including "put child in car", and "take child out of car", and then listed everything her pilot husband did under one bullet point, "work" 😂. Same vibe here. Try understanding that those of us who are not teachers work in jobs, where we do lots of different things every day, that everybody occasionally works outside of their normal hours, and that we don't get paid extra for work trips.

This isn’t true. Some, but not most. I’ve never had a job where that was expected. My DH is mid-level management in the IT/financial sector and gets a good overtime rate for weekend work and on-call. He doesn’t work evenings.
I work in a school in pupil support - so on a pretty low hourly rate - and was asked to go on a week’s residential. No offers of pay or TOIL. I’d have been working from 8am Monday to 1pm Friday with no time off duty for about £300. I said no.

Ok, I’ll bite. Do you do this on top of working a 60 hour week? If so, you are a martyr and it’s not sustainable.

If you don’t, your situation is not the same.

This. I’ve done plenty of trips away for work and not paid fully for all the extra time involved.

But they shouldn’t be doing that. Why can’t they be paid? Why are they agreeing to work so many hours for free when already on a low hourly rate?
We need to stop guilt-tripping women into doing this.

I used to work around the clock! Yes the salary was high but pro rata it probably wasn’t!

@Jessie3 fair enough, just giving my experience and that of the teachers that previously went! Obviously if we had children that needed additional support then the adults wouldn't drink but my experience last year was that they left a big hamper in the staff area and alcohol WAS an option - also non alcoholic items. Like I said I don't really drink anyway and on one of the evenings I didn't even bother going in there as was just so exhausted so went to bed early, so it's not that everyone takes part but it's there if people wanted to. Was just pointing out my differing experience to the OP who was saying that it wouldn't ever happen !

Oh christ. Teachers get paid a very high rate per hour and work few hours on paper. Yes, they need to work something closer to a normal working day in reality. For a good salary. The rest of us salaried workers work just as many hours per week, and of course we work for more weeks of the year, on a similar salary.

Travelling for work is not the same thing at all. Are you working 24 hours and responsible for vulnerable people the entire time? No.

There is such a weird thing going on with teachers though who will always find a way to believe that their job is uniquely dreadful and everyone else has it incredibly easy. Any attempts to explain it never succeed.

I’m sorry I really don’t understand what you’re talking about here.