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

It’s clickbait that will make no difference to anything.

I’ve had two lodgers, one a primary school teacher and the other current a secondary school teacher.

It came as an absolute shock the hours they work beyond the time they’re in the classroom. When they were striking I encouraged her to work out what her actual hourly wage was given the hours she did at home and afterschool and it was appalling.

Sadly it’s time that schools advertise an provide a proper wage for the hours teachers work, or accept that actually “full time” is 60 hours a week and therefore they are going to struggle to attract and retain any teacher, let alone those with other options.

Fuck it who'd be a teacher in the U.K. these days?!

Inflation- busting pay increases.... have you been reading the Daily Mail again?

Teachers are underpaid and over stressed.

Parents no longer parent their kids, they don't respect teachers.... it's a low status job with low pay for what it is

No lie-ins will remedy this

Education and healthcare are free and that is great, but it also means the public do not seem to respect it. Nobody respects what they get for free it seems

On our INSET day at the beginning of the last school year, I was 'asked' to cover my teacher's PPA. It wasn't really a request as the first day I would need to cover was the very next day and they had already timetabled it. I was told I would be paid a HLTA rate while I studied for the qualification. I had to do it in my own time. Getting the qualification was for the school's benefit not mine as I had never been interested. I was never paid any extra for the afternoons I covered a class on my own. I complained every month but I never got a penny over my TA salary. I eventually quit my job in the January for several reasons but one was the absolute piss taking of getting me to teach on a TA's salary. Of course this was necessary as they had been unable to recruit a teacher to cover the PPA. This school year the same school has had to make their classes bigger as they couldn't find a replacement for a teacher who left.

Unfortunately the attitude of I pay your wage needs to be kicked out. Not only is it insulting but it's not even accurate. You wouldn't say that to a firefighter so why say it to a teacher. Fee paying school parents don't think like that so why on earth do state school parents ever think it's acceptable. If I came up to you as a parent and said I pay for your kids clothes and look they are unclean, then that would be humiliating to you, but in reality that's just as true. You will be receiving some financial support directly or indirectly from the gov, I.e. tax money. You must care otherwise you wouldn't have created a post on here. 'Large pay rises' get a grip. These people are having to educate, parent and provide social care for your offspring.

I'm ok with anything that keeps teachers happy and in schools, doing their very important jobs.

Personally, I'd favour lower workloads (teachers in other countries don't work the hours that teachers in the UK do), higher pay and a bit of annual leave. But if a lie in or 9 day fortnight helps then great.

"Would you be happy with your DC’s teacher arriving to school late after a relaxing lie-in"

That sentence is click bait nonsense.

If a person arrives ready to start work at the time that they are rostered to start then they are not late. If they are due to start later than the official school start time what makes you think they will use it for a relaxing lie in? They might, for example, bring their own kids to school that morning. What they do with their personal time is none of my business.

As for working from home, if there are exams or homework to correct I don't care where it's done from.

IMO teachers aren’t paid enough for the work that they do…hence why so few people want to do the job and why even fewer actually stay in the industry for very long. If you have the qualifications to be a teacher, it’s easy to get a better paid, much less demanding job elsewhere. It’s crazy how much we undervalue the teaching of children, it’s literally investing in the country’s future.

This just seems like a cheap and gimmicky way to get out of investing in supporting teachers to be able to do the job long-term without burning out. So if taxpayers complain about it I’d tell them to have a go at being a teacher themselves if they think it’s worth so little and so well paid.

I’m sure most teachers would prefer to just have better working conditions and more support on the job rather than a ‘lie in’. But hey this seems like it costs next to nothing and we probably can’t afford to anything that might make any real impact…so why not!

I'm not daft enough to think it matters whether I'm happy about the workings of supply and demand or not.

The current terms and conditions aren't sufficient to recruit or retain teachers. That means we either change them or we cope without them. I prefer Option A. Open to argument about what the best incentives are, but we need to address this.

What the actual fuck 🙄

I wouldn't mind this - they do a difficult and challenging Jobs.

Teachers also pay taxes.
Teachers are also sometimes parents too.
You sound a bit jealous - why not become a teacher yourself?

Well tbf they wouldn't be late because they would be contracted to come in later on certain days

Also as I understand it, they do often work late into the evening marking and lesson planning

Same here. They have a very hard job.

It's interesting the way that, over the past couple of years, so many people have struggled to get their heads round the idea that it doesn't actually matter what they think of other people's terms and conditions of employment. Whether it's pay rises in the NHS, remote working or other incentives.

They are not reducing the directed time just compacting the directed time onto fewer days and allowing marking and prepartion to be done at home.

As others have said bearing in mind the thousands of hours of unpaid time that teachers give to their students over their careers, the fact that there are so many better paid things you can do with a degree, and the massive recruitment and retention crisis in education I really don't know how you've the nerve to complain. Do parents what teachers available to teach their children or not??!

They’re not late if they don’t start until 10.30 though. I doubt a lot of them will be lying in, a lot will have children themselves they need to get ready and get off to school. Not that it makes any difference how they spend their time when they’re not working.

Nobody gives a shit what time I start or finish work as long as the job is done. As long as children are educated, the school is appropriately staffed during school hours, what’s the problem?

This!

Sounds fair to me. As long as they don't mind the students having a lie in once a fortnight and working from home. Oh wait...

I do not know if it has been stated - schools only get given a certain amount for staff pay. When the government states teachers should be paid XYZ more - the money has to be found in the budget. They are not given more money to fund the extra money. Teachers do not get to decide if they want to take a day off because they cannot be bothered they have to go in. Teachers have been used, along with civil servants, as the media's whipping boy. If you think you would make a great job as a teacher retrain and then come back and tell us how lazy teachers are

I think it’s ridiculous - when do I get my lie in then? Also what about the students - leading by example so are they all allowed to opt for a later start so they can have a lie in.

Haven’t read the whole thread but how about they give them more manageable workloads, cut the ridiculous paperwork and give them the equipment they need to do their role. Much more needed I'm sure but I don’t see how starting later will alleviate the issues currently facing teachers.

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.

Here is a list of reasons I don’t open my (bedroom or living room) curtains, even if I’m not having a lie in:

• the room is a mess and I don’t want anyone looking in
• I was in a hurry to leave for work and didn’t have time
• keep the heat out
• It’s stormy out and the lightening freaks my dog out
• My kid has ruined another outfit but I can’t be arsed putting them in clean clothes so they’re just running around naked
• I didn’t go in that room
• I’ve had a margarine and light sensitivity
• I’m watching a film
• We’re away
• I actually keep my bedroom blinds drawn most of the time because it’s quite overlooked

Of all the things to be concerned about at the minute, whether a teacher opens their bedroom curtains is the very bottom of the list.

I’m sure all the hardworking parents get a lunch break which often isn’t the case for teachers.