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

Link

Of course you are one of those ones who think teachers had a holiday when the schools closed in lockdown. I am a teaching assistant and the two lockdowns were two of the most stressful periods of my life. We were trying to work with the key worker children in school and doing the online learning. We were driving around in our off time delivering resources to people's homes. Plus there was the stress of worrying about keeping people safe. We were constantly disinfecting things. We had to keep all the windows and doors open in bloody January and February. Plus we were at extra risk as we were working with the children of nurses, paramedics etc who were at greater risk of becoming ill.

I would be delighted to know that schools are planning timetables with teachers' work-life balance and wellbeing being taken into consideration. It is in the interests of taxpayers, and indeed of society as a whole, to attract good people into the teaching profession and to retain them. I believe that children will do best with teachers who are healthy and happy in their chosen profession, and I see no social benefit whatsoever in working teachers into the ground.

Just thought I'd report this as it's a really good post with lots of common sense.

OP... hold on to your pearls. DH is in the Army....

And he works from home 1 day a week most weeks. Sometimes 2 days. Sometimes... the whole week.

I suppose he should be busy Marching up and down the square so it's visible he's doing paid work....

It’s not really a great look for hardworking parents to see class teachers heading off home during the school day or walking past a teacher’s home to see the bedroom curtains closed on a weekday morning.

Do people really think like this? A teacher, or any worker of any profession, can be contracted to work a variety of days/hours. It’s no one’s business when they have their time off or what they do with it (inside the law!). I don’t think you’re serious.

There’s a teacher at my children’s school who works 5 days but negotiated to be only in school for 4 and use the fifth day as admin for a main subject (that she does a lot of initiatives for) and also her PPA. Im
a teacher and at first I was jealous and slightly miffed she gets to be paid 5 days and works only in school for 4. However, she’s a really amazing teacher and school do very well out of her being there so the negotiation was clearly worth it because it means the children get a dedicated teacher who goes way beyond what the job entails.

I would have thought reducing the hours they work outside school hours would be better.

I'm assuming the working from home is when they are doing their PPA time, which would normally be done perched somewhere in the staffroom or an empty classroom, so not reducing their hours at all (and obviously the allocated PPA time is not actually sufficient to do all PPA work)

Teacheris already work evenings and weekends. All that has been offered being able to have your planning time at home. no big deal

you sound utterly mad, and what's more, it seems like you care about it A LOT.

Would you rather your child have:

a) Teachers who you think have too cushy a job
b) No teachers

Because at this point, those are the choices. Despite the short working hours, high pay and wonderful conditions that teachers have, for some mystifying reason no-one wants to be them and those that do are leaving.

Luckily, that means that you too can train for this very easy and relaxing job and there will be plenty of posts when you have qualified. Have fun, and do report back on how much fun you are having as you log off from home working at 3:30pm, counting all your money ready for a big night out, knowing you can lie in tomorrow and the long holidays are stretching out in front of you.

I'd like to know how "hard working parents" have the time to check people's curtains.

If you have time to check when a teacher is at home with them closed you are doing exactly as they are

Stop stalking teachers would be my advice to you.

Teachers can do and do do plenty of work that doesn't involve being in an actual classroom such as planning and marking! Don't be so narrow minded to think they just stand in front of a class all day pointing and writing on a blackboard.

One of the issues in teaching is that it's so inflexible. Yes you get holidays but it's hard to get any time for appointments/events etc. during the term. Pitch that against peers who are WFH all day and you can see why people are leaving the profession or not entering it at all. Anything that gives teachers just an ounce more flexibility will be a game changer.

And yes OP your messages are a bit inflammatory/ backward. No one is expecting a class to be left unattended. Plus you’re very “daily fail” about teachers having to be seen to be working- surely we should be looking at outcomes for kids rather than whether the curtains are still drawn at 9.15 (I suspect a lie in for teachers is probably still an early-ish morning for others)?

Or would you prefer that we parade teachers around the streets with placards advertising that they are a cost to the taxpayer I bet you probably would ?

Hmm your posts are very antagonistic OP. Are you trying to whip up some teacher hate to get some sound bites for an article you're writing?!

Many professions have some flexibility to eg work from home. If teachers can complete some tasks out of school, for example, planning or marking then I think it's a great idea. There is, after all, a teacher shortage.

Sounds like a good idea. I'm sure the children won't be left to fend for themselves. I've never understood why teachers cannot have their PPA time at home.

Well, if it’s the same houses where the lights are on at 1 or 2 am because teachers are working late, then good on them is what I’d think.

LaughingPig....how apt

It won't be a lie-in. It will be the one day in the week they can do their child's school run and have a quick word with their child's reception teacher. Or the one day in the week they can go and queue at the doctors surgery in the hope of getting an appointment. Or just the day when their commute takes half an hour instead of a whole hour.

I worked with one colleague who had been exempted from having a tutor group, in order that she could take her own child to school. Without that arrangement, she would not have been teaching, and we'd have had another vacancy. I'm also reminded of a friend who has regular therapy for MS, and this sort of arrangement might make it possible to fit that around their full-time job.
Some schools are desperate for staff, and if some flexibility fills the vacancy, so be it.

Teachers have 10% non-contact time, so putting that all on one day a fortnight doesn't change the amount of work they are doing. Some may prefer having their non-contacts spread through the week, but the option of a late start or two would still go down well.

What kind of weird stalker parents would walk past a teachers house and observe the state of their bedroom curtains??! You’d have to be next level batshit for that 😂

did you want more vitriol towards those pesky, lazy teachers with all their holidays on this thread and you’re not quite getting it OP?!

Are you and the other worried taxpayers equally concerned with a nurse or policeman having a lie in but then working into the evening because this is essentially what teachers do. Most currently do it without the lie in however. It's not a closed shop and the sector is desperate for new recruits so get your application in if you think it sounds great.

Sounds good to me.

Are they though?
Minimum teacher's starting salary £31,650.
Average graduate starting salary in the UK £25,531.

The trope that teachers and nurses are underpaid is way outdated, but the unions persist in peddling the myth and many fall for it.
Engage critical thought would be my advice.

@LaughingPigplease do train as a teacher, work in the inner city for a few years, and come back and tell us about your lie-ins.

This proposal would give teachers the flexibility to work from home, doing some of the vast hours of planning, preparation and assessment that happen outside their classroom contact hours, in what is already the non timetabled part of their week.

You have no idea what you are talking about.

Good idea. Teaching is very inflexible and that contributes to them burning out, so it would be great to improve that.

I am a teacher (not school) and have loads of flexibility in comparison, no presenteeism, and much smaller classes and less paperwork to deal with. I certainly would not begrudge teachers some small parks of their difficult jobs.

Everyone knows that teachers have long holidays in which they do nothing except go on holiday, that they are paid for holidays, that they earn a very good salary and that they work short days.

They also don’t care about their pupils, strike at the drop of a hat and generally have an easy life.

Oh wait………..