Teachers given lie-ins and extra days off

[LaughingPig]

The Guardian is reporting today that state schools are offering perks in an attempt to attract and retain teachers. These include lie-ins, whereby teachers will start later one day a week, a day off each fortnight and even the chance to work from home.

Clearly there is an issue with getting enough high-quality teachers into the profession and keeping them there. However, I’m not sure how these initiatives will go down with taxpayers on the back of successive teachers’ strikes, schools closing for months during lockdown and now inflation-busting pay rises.

Would you be happy with your DC’s teacher arriving to school late after a relaxing lie-in or logging on from home?

YABU- teachers deserve lie-ins
YANBU- teachers should be in class teaching DC

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I’d quite like to be able to take my own son to school every so often

Ideally with the classroom windows open, so that I can walk past and make sure they're not squandering my hard earned money.

I don’t see an issue with it, it’s like any job…they are struggling to retain and get people to do the roles so they have to add more incentives. That’s pretty normal for all jobs isn’t it?

All my teacher friends work insanely hard for very little money. Most get up around 5.30am and have extra work to do every single evening and weekend. I'm a bit flabbergasted that anyone would begrudge them an hours lie in and the odd wfh day.

Do you spend much time checking your neighbour’s movements, sleep patterns etc? I suggest a hobby.

@ATenShun way to show you're not a teacher and don't know any. Pre kids I used to get in at 7.30 and leave at 5. A 20 min morning break and 45 mins lunch, often officially on duty, running a club or clinic or waylaid by colleague or pupil on way to staff room so no coffee or sit down for me. Do those maths perhaps. How about factoring in the mental stamina it takes to effectively improvise on stage for six hours a day every day whilst simultaneously dealing with low and high level disruption, distributing resources, managing any SEN, keeping everyone on task and supporting any who need help. Also responding to emails about a tutee's emotional trauma or poor behaviour. At the same time as teaching because there's no downtime. Shall I go on? I bloody love my job and I'm in a very "easy" school but your breakdown is pathetically ill informed.

‘Value’? You think they’re not getting value? Teachers do over and above. They work for hours and hours after school, during the holidays and at weekends. They buy their own stationary, resources and sometimes even food for kids. If they come in later one day, believe me tax payers will still get that hour. The work will still need to be done and they will do it

A LOT of teachers on this post then. 8am Crazily early? err no, real world a normal start time. I agree we need incentives to train and retain teachers but if this is what they come up with then I think most dedicated teachers would prefer additional pay. Reduce MP's income, raise teachers pay - booya! problem solved.

The school I work in has Saturday school so I already have a late start on a Thursday morning in lieu of that and, to be honest, it make SO much difference to have a lie in mid week (and it really is a lie in for me because I'm single with no children). I look forward to it and it keeps me going for the rest of the week. Sometimes there are events or pressured times of term that mean I have to go in early and I then really feel it. So yes, I think it's a great idea - for everyone though, not just teachers.

I wouldn't be on board with the day off a fortnight thing though. We're never more than 7ish weeks away from our next holiday as it is so don't need more days off.

I think the OP is misrepresenting the situation. Teachers get half a day per week planning time and the government has said that it is acceptable to do this from home. One day "off" a fortnight would be achieved by putting these two planning times together.

Teachers do far more than half a days planning for the 20 plus lessons they teach - planning each personalised for different children, marking, evaluations, meetings, risk assessments for trips etc.

I saw this in the news and said to my husband "that sounds great - it might mean you can attend something at the kids school" but he reminded me it's not flexible so only if the event fell in the PPA slot. It's very difficult for a teacher to attend any of their kids special days at school which is pretty poor while they spend such a lot of energy sharing the class children's achievements with their parents. Luckily my partner is part time so he goes to anything that falls on his days off.

A couple of floating days to use as leave each year would go a long way to help teachers e.g. they could attend their kids sports day - something that a lot of people take for granted.

Not a teacher, but it's going to blow the OP's mind to learn that some of us never close the curtains so even if they're open someone might still be asleep in there 😂

And I currently have my living room curtains closed because I'm working on my laptop and need to stop the reflection from the window.

People are ridiculous - my best friend is a primary teacher and she's pretty much always working.

We have well being time once a term where we can start at 10 or leave at 2.30, the time we are away is covered by Senior leadership.

We can also have our PPA at home.

It's the school environment which will keep staff- our head encourages us to finish early (out the door as soon as we can on Friday) and tries to reduce our workload and planning and doesn't give us necessary things to do/complete. These help more than the well being but it's the overall holistic view of caring for staff, as we are a high needs and stressful school environment.

Pupils attend school at approx 8:45 for registration. Leave at approx 3:30pm. That is a working day of below 7 hours. During which time most schools will have around 1 hour of breaks within it, bringing the working day down to 5.75 hours. While the rest of the country are in for 9 hours if they want 1 hours of breaks a day. says @ATenShun

I am not a teacher, I got to school this morning at 8:00 (half an hour before I start being paid but that’s school life for you). All our class teachers were already in school. One was on the telephone in my office talking to a concerned parent. One was in the head’s office reassuring a parent about their child’s homework. The deputy head and two teachers were in the staff room sorting our “food bank” into bags for some families desperately in need. Other teachers were preparing their classrooms and sorting resources for the day (we can’t afford many TAs and for the money we do pay them most come in for their paid hours only - some have cleaning jobs before school starts). At 8:40 the teachers open their classroom doors and deal with more parent queries, lost books, lost uniform etc. before closing the doors at 8:50 to start teaching. Part way through the morning there will be breaktime. Teachers accompany their classes onto the playground and take turns to watch one another’s classes while they each visit the loo and grab a drink. At lunchtime they take their class to the hall and STAY WITH THEM while the children get and eat their lunch. (We can’t afford to have midday supervisors any more). The TAs get half a hour for their own lunch and then go onto the playground to watch the children while the teachers get their own lunch (they get 40 minutes), the TAs are supported on a rota by office staff (like me) and the Head and Deputy also doing playground duty. During this lunch “break” the teachers often come to my office to return calls to parents etc. There is no afternoon break. The children are collected from 3:00, the teachers will then have more parent questions to deal with, phone calls to return, late collected kids (this is a constant) to be “baby sat”. Today there is the weekly staff meeting starting at 4:00 - this will finish about 6:00pm. Then of course there’s marking etc.

Then there’s recon for trips (this has to done outside school time so most teachers do it at weekends). There is a residential trip for Year 6 (24 hours a day for the duration of the trip - no extra pay or TOIL).

It is NOT an easy or low hours job! There are tougher jobs but no one should be fooled into thinking a teacher works from 8:45 to 3:30 with lots of breaks - that’s laughable.

Do private schools struggle to recruit and maintain teachers? If not why not? I don't think it's purely a question of pay.

We should be looking to properly fund education (not some shit populist ill-thought out VAT policy) to make ALL schools as successful as private ones.

• smaller class sizes
• more TAs to support at primary level
• addressing behaviour so that teachers are not also providing 'therapy' and interventions
• Less ridiculous 'new ideas' (usually off the back of a masters that the Head has done) that involve loads of document production but have zero impact on pupils
• (nationally) centralised lesson plans and resources - it's ridiculous that there's a national curriculum but teachers are reinventing the wheel for each lesson
• more widely, social deprivation and disadvantage needs addressing - reinstatement of surestart centres, a proper CAMHS service etc

How very dare of teachers to have responsibilities outside of work.

I don’t actually think teachers are underpaid though. School budgets are shocking and asking for bigger rises is unsustainable
@Gremle those two things are not connected. School budgets being shocking does not mean that therefore teachers are paid enough for what they do.

Good grief.

I do get that teachers should be offered flexibility where possible, but I do think they already have a lot more than other workplaces.

Teachers can leave site not long after after 3pm, which is not the case for most roles. DH works near a school and says he has counted no cars in the car park at 4pm some days. Equally, teachers do have far more holiday provision than virtually any other jobs.

We do need to think of ways to attract and retain teachers, but the money doesn’t exist for large pay rises and it is a reasonably well-paid career as it is (classroom teachers in London can earn over £60,000). Innovative ideas like partnering with other public organisations to offer discounted gym memberships or free bus travel could be an idea.

I work in one I don’t need to. Lots of them have their own children (including me). We then work when they are in bed as lessons need to be planned and books need to be marked. You don’t need to be in the school building to work extra hours.

You are missing making teaching a respected profession and better behaviour from the kids.

Telegraph or Daily Mail?

I've been a primary teacher for over 20 years. I think that greater flexibility would keep people in the profession more than further pay rises, especially as a large proportion of the workforce are working mums. It's not workable with the state primary schools are currently in. PPA time is covered by TAs so very basic tasks are left so as not to leave an information burden. I work in a small primary school with no staff who are not class-based other than the Headteacher. I have to do my PPA on-site in case any issues arise with my class that I have to deal with. We barely go on training courses etc because of lack of funding for cover. Teachers often have to step in at lunchtimes because of a skeleton lunchtime staffing arrangement that falls apart if someone is off.

I fondly remember the days of proper teachers covering PPA and plentiful dinner ladies. I think arranging flexibility would be easier in those circumstances.

Is your DH @ATenShun?

You and your husband do love to monitor things, don't you?