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

Although I do think if the holidays don't attract teachers, I don't think starting a bit later sometimes is going to incentivise much

Who are you? The fucking curtain police?

I am curious from a teacher point of view - what would help the retention?

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.

Snap.

I think a lot more research needs to be done into how schools operate in other countries-looking at workload, job satisfaction/burnout, things like numbers of teachers leaving with NDAs, length of time in the classroom, contact time, inspection regimes, subject expectations, hours spent working etc

I have a vague recollection of a few previous Tory Ed Secs going to visit China and saying 60 to a class or long days looked like a good idea, and looked like they were planning to cherry pick all the worst parts of different countries’ systems (without any of their infrastructure being in place here) and produce some hybrid monstrosity.

Look at what is making teachers leave-

micromanagement
workload/hours spent working
Ofsted
managing older (expensive) teacher out,

We need to look at these things in other countries where there isn’t a retention problem and see what they do. If it isn’t affecting their results/pupil wellbeing, can’t we cherrypick some tips?!

How do they feel about the teachers arriving home at 21;00 from work or looking through those open curtains on a weekend and seeing them mark work?

will they be thinking that they are getting value out of them?

@VimtoVimto I didn't get lunch breaks in my last job for the 10 years I worked there. This is quite common. I've found unless you work for a large company a lot of people don't get lunch breaks

Everyone is busy. At least teachers get like 13 weeks holiday a year to soften the lack of lunch break on a busy day

If they can have some flexibility give it to them, make their jobs as good as they can be. It's bloody hard work being a good teacher (I'm not a teacher!).

Sorry, this was a conversion to USD rather than sterling! But the principle is valid.

Don't forget hard working parents usually do upto 40 hrs a week work. When was the last time a teacher did less than 8 hrs a day?

100% agree. It is meant to be protected but it very much isn’t! I’d love one day where I could do my marking from home.

Primary School teachers have the same level of qualifications as secondary school teachers.

@LaughingPig

🤦🏻‍♀️

Gosh thank goodness most people are supportive of teachers the OP must be disappointed this thread hasn't quite gone the way they wanted. Coming in a bit later is exactly what most other professional do as they are allowed some flexibility to fit in their home life around their work life. For example when a gp surgery wants patients to ring at 8.30 this is just not possible for teachers. Giving professionals a little flexibility to work smarter is small gesture. More needs to be done to encourage anyone into teaching nowadays.

I would support anything that attracts and retains teachers. I want my children to be taught by quality teachers who enjoy their jobs. Late starts and a couple of days off probably isn't enough though!

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.

Teachers then have additional pupil free time within their working week to deal with marking and lesson planning. I believe face to face teaching accounts for around 22.5 hours. Base that on a 40 hour week which is the norm for most workers, and they have ample time to get the work done.

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.

Now lets look at the 5.75 hour working days multiplied by days in school 195 which is 1121 hours. Divide that into the average rate of pay which is roughly around £38k. Teachers on average are getting paid nearly £34 an hour. Not many careers out there offering that type of pay.

I used to work in a school (primary) where the teachers had a day at home each fortnight. Instead of having half a day PPA time in the staff room (all full time teachers get half a day per week non contact time for planning etc) they got a whole day every fortnight to do their PPA at home. So long as everything necessary was done there were no questions about what they actually did that day - they could have done their PPA by working until midnight the night before and then have a lie in, a leisurely breakfast and then go to the museum, or maybe do the school run with their own kids for a change.

The fact is that it is hard to recruit good teachers….

I doubt many schools will be giving teachers ‘extra’ time off as the school would have to pay for cover. Even TAs have to be paid extra to actually COVER a class.

"Successive teachers’ strikes," All legal, above board, with a ballot. Why are they striking, because schools are a utopia?
"schools closing for months during lockdown" I think you'll find that was the law and not a decision made by teachers. Millions of businesses closed globally, not just British schools. This was not a benefit to 95% of teachers.
"now inflation-busting pay rises." When was that then? Inflation busting? Not in my lifetime. There was a pay freeze for about 10 years.
Old-fashioned, ignorant and a shocking attempt at trying to rile up the general public & incite teacher bashing.
Teacher's curtains 🙈 What do you think will happen? "Hey Betty, I don't know if you noticed that Miss Smith's bedroom curtains were still closed at 8.30am!"
"Oh I'm not having this our Janet, they'd better not be closed when I walk down her street. Let's go and have a look and if they're still closed, I'm going to put it on the Facebook parents group, have you put it in the chat on WhatsApp?"
WTAF?

all teachers have degrees, teachers in secondary schools have post graduate qualifications

Do people really think secondary school teachers have post graduate qualifications and primary teachers don’t!?

I have a degree and a PGCE. Just like a secondary school teacher.

Sixth form colleges have been doing stuff like this for decades! That's partly why they attract teachers ... many moving from secondary schools

Ah yes. All those lovely long holidays which are actually unpaid and throughout which they are often working. Those holidays.

They need more pay. Personally I believe that the responsibility of around 30 children's learning and welfare should attract nothing less than around £50k basic. The only reason they are paid so little is because they're majority female and all female dominated professions are underpaid.

Yes - if it’s PPA of course they should do it where they want - and if they decide to spend that half day weekly, or full day fortnightly in bed, or at the cinema, of wearing leather pants drinking tequila and do their actual planning in the evening/weekend then who cares !

I don’t actually think teachers are underpaid though. School budgets are shocking and asking for bigger rises is unsustainable.

I’m afraid you’re very much deluded if you think we rock up at 8:45 to teach our lessons and then go home at 3:20.

I won’t bother telling you about the realities of the job as I can tell by your tone you have already made your mind up.

How do you work out 13 weeks holiday? Teachers still do work in holidays not much but a bit. They also work longer hours on average during the week. The poor me, I didn't get a lunch break is a bit silly, because all it shows is that you didn't want your lunch break. That's why Teachers unionised, tomake sure they got their legal breaks. You didn't, that doesn't make you special.

Pupils attend school at approx 8:45 for registration. Leave at approx 3:30pm. That is a working day of below 7 hours.

You do know that teachers have to plan and mark those lessons, don’t you? You do know that has to be done when the children aren’t in front of them? How long do you think it might take to plan 3-5 lessons a day? Then to make the work produced? You do know their ‘working day’ isn’t just when the children are there?

That is without any of the other things the job involves.