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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Our PPA room is a cupboard, literally that! I measured it and it's 95cm deep and 1.35m wide, you can't sit in the " room" with the door shut. There's no heating ( doesn't really need it as it's generally boiling hot!) and a bare lightbulb. Given the choice between working in that or at home, guess which one I'd prefer?

As for the principle of taxpayers seeing teachers working for their wages, the taxpayer has had a bloody good deal off teachers. They are underpaid and overworked and that's why there is a recruitment and retention problem

Exactly, well said. Clearly the OP feels we have not already extracted enough value and more from teachers! We hear and read accounts all the time about teachers suffering burn out, so something needs to be done. As a society, it is about bloody time we started valuing teachers, as well as carers, delivery drivers, nurses, cleaners, etc, all the people who are so vital to the country and yet are consistently under valued and exhausted. It seems we learnt nothing from the pandemic when these people kept the country on its feet.

I know exactly what you mean and in the ideal world this would be totally unacceptable, as it literally undermines discipline.

However, as a state school product of a state school ages ago and a stupidly gullible private school parent, who 'was sold a private school dream', I can tell you that the only requirement I think I would have to a teacher now is their ability to teach.

I naively thought that working all the hours and paying for the school I would get a good result. The teachers in our dc private school were on time, they had no lie-ins, they were immaculately turned out, but they did not care at all. My dc were embarrassed to alert me to it, but the teachers underperformed and most parents hired tutors yet said not a word by way of a complaint because they were worried of a bad reference for uni. In this private school important subjects such as maths and chemistry were split between different teachers in the same class because of time-tabling issues, most teachers had a PhD (what a stupid idea that a PhD can teach, it cannot) and if a pupil was inadequately coached by their private tutor, those teachers were bullying pupils into dropping the subject, because they were worried about their performance tables.

I personally had a physics teacher who sometimes turned up to lessons clearly drunk. But the way he taught us!!!!! I remember most of the stuff now and helped my dc with the subject. When dc expected the same level of support from me with chemistry, I could not help - we had a useless chemistry teacher.

The main thing is - can they teach?

Fgs. People have flexi-time in other jobs. Would you be pearl-clutching at the idea of a non-teacher 'having their curtains closed on a weekday morning'? I seriously doubt it. If someone has a day a week when they don't start work unti 10, they can do whatever the hell they like during that time, no?

I left work at 4.30 today. I'm currently sitting at the table marking (apart from last 10 mins when I've been distracted by your awful ignorant post about teachers). I will probably mark until about midnight. Just spoke to my husband and said I need a day at the weekend to finish this pile of A level marking (we do a mock exam with year 13 in September).

Will you be checking in the teachers in your area to see if they are still up working late tonight, or maybe see if they are marking / planning in the garden Saturday morning.
Your post is one of the worst things I have read regarding teachers in some time and it is clear you have no idea about our roles.

I know exactly what you mean and in the ideal world this would be totally unacceptable, as it literally undermines discipline.

How on earth does it undermine discipline if schools give their employees flexi-time one day a week?

I agree, the press calling it a ‘lie in’ is emotive

Fucking hell. You sound awful.

I would rather have an education system where the role of a teacher was respected and an attractive job to intelligent, caring, hardworking people.

I would rather there be a big enough pool of candidates that a school could positively choose someone to appoint to a vacancy...rather than having to have one to do one of the following.:
Make do with an unqualified / non subject specialist teacher
Appoint someone who is shit..but they are breathing
Cancel a whole course or part of the curriculum.

But you do you and think about the fact someone, whilst still performing in their role, has had their schedule adjust so they get a breather.

Teaching is a professional job with a high degree of responsibility. It is also very inflexible and there is a tendency to ride rough shod over planning time and to treat teachers poorly. Allowing teachers to wfh when they have a planning period is not rocket science. However schools typically prefer to not allow this so they can call on teachers to cover for absent colleagues with no notice. Every single minute of my day is controlled by SLT. Schools give the minimum they can get away with in terms of ppa. This leads to people being burnt out, exhausted and seeking a way out. It also means new teachers are out of the profession within five years. The job needs to change if you want properly experienced and qualified people in front of your kids.

I’m all for flexi working where possible. I would have no objection to this, or anything that makes teachers’ lives more bearable.

It will cost the taxpayer far more if schools constantly shell out to shark supply agencies as teachers keep quitting because more and more have had enough of the ever-increasing workload.....and if the result of experienced teachers leaving is poorly educated children.
Also, all teachers are 'hardworking' and many are 'hardworking parents' as well! I know I am....

Do you police everyone you see out and about during the day? Ooo! Look at that accountant not in his office! Look at that nurse not in a hospital!

If you want good, well-qualified teachers in classrooms teaching your children, then accept that they need better working conditions and less sniping from people who seem to know bugger-all about it.

Well “Laughing pig” if you don’t work in the teaching profession how about you stop your faux concern for “tax payers” about whose curtains are closed or what not and focus on your own life. Your husband can do the same with counting cars in the car park as well.

I’m a parent and a tax payer and welcome this. I think I understand enough about teaching to know that not every minute of the working day needs to be, or should be, spent standing in front of kids or on school premises. Likewise I understand that for many people working at home is far more productive than being onsite with lots of interruptions.

As for a lie in every so often, good on them, for the amount of extra hours they do a bit of flexibility and autonomy can only be a good thing.

Not sure why anyone would have a problem with it.

It's a stupid and irrelevant question. None of this has anything to do with what teachers "deserve". It has to do with what's necessary to recruit and retain the number of them that are needed. What would the OP suggest instead - sending a press gang around to abduct random individuals and force them through teacher training at the barrel of a gun?

As for the creepy spying on teachers' home addresses (which are none of anyone else's damn business) and reporting to the Work Ethic Police when their curtains are closed - EWWWWWWW! 😳

As a teacher who has tried compressed hours, it was horrific. I'll take 5 hrs PPA spread throughout the fortnight over one day off every time (even though it costs me £2k extra per year in childcare)

If they mean actually reducing the teaching load (I very much doubt it) then I would be all for that. I might actually get a chance to plan some great lessons. But I would still rather take that time spread throughout the week, personally.

Ps there's no chance I'd ever "enjoy a restful lie-in" if I know I've got bottom set year 10 period 2. Teachers don't even enjoy sleeping most of the time full stop - we spend hours worrying about various kids, and various things we haven't done, and if we do manage to fall asleep, anxiety-ridden teacher dreams are a very real thing.

Reality is, many teachers never actually left education. Went school, Uni and back to school, so many don't posess the ability to time manage which is essential in the private sector.

I do wish that posters wouldn't post this BS.

Agreed. And thank you, for everything you do. It doesn’t go unseen by those of us who know the value of it.

We have a friend who taught with me. He was Head of Science. He was sick of dealing with the appalling behaviour, rude parents, ridiculous marking burden, heavy lesson prep, schemes of work rep, constant testing, meetings, performance management routines, OFSTED, exam pressure, staff absence, teaching classes of children designated Most Able or 90+% AEN. .
He now teaches in France. Every test is marked out of 10 with no other requirement. He only goes into school to teach his lessons, goes home to prepare work. There are no breaktime duties or lunchtime duties, no before or after school supervision times, he is not expected to deal with poor behaviour- teams of support staff do all of that. Staff meetings are rare . No GCSEs or A levels. Lots of school-based awarding of grades for IB. Parents are expected to deal with their children appropriately and are held to account. Marking is simply ticks nd only tests as marked- as above. He says it is another world and that he will never teach in the UK again.

This.
Whereas many other hardworking taxpayers are happy to clock on and off according to contractual obligations, were teachers to apply a similar work-to-rule approach, the education system would grind to a halt. Education relies on the goodwill and altruism of teachers who routinely go above and beyond in order to fulfil their job descriptions. It doesn't work otherwise.

OP's idea of free gym memberships as some kind of compensatory measure etc is risible: as a teacher and a mum I barely have time to parent my own 2 DC and run my household, or see my friends and family, let alone attend the gym. It's a good thing for my figure that I easily get my 10000 steps in during a regular day in the classroom, and never have time to grab any lunch.

I don’t think you get it. Teachers don’t start work 5 minutes before school opens. My school starts at 8.45am. Teachers arrive around 7am, some as early as 6.30am. So, a lie-in for these teachers could be as simple as not having to be in school until 8.30/9am. Hardly a life of degenerate slothfulness, is it?

The children wouldn’t be sitting in class twiddling their thumbs waiting for their teacher. The class would be covered just as it is for PPA (planning time).

Teaching is a hard job. No wonder people are leaving in droves: long days, working endless hours a week; weekend work; new time-wasting initiatives every five minutes, etc etc - and thankless parents.

You can tell that Mumsnet is made up of 77% teachers

Utter and complete bullshit. Every full time teacher I know works for hours and hours outside of school time every single week. There is not even remotely enough time to even plan and mark within the school day, never mind do all of the other stuff.