to be annoyed at schools and their demands on my time and money

[bogwobbit]

I don't post very often and maybe I am being unreasonable, but.....
I am beginning to get very annoyed at my children's schools and nursery's demands on my time and money.
For example, ds is starting secondary school after the summer. He has had 3 induction days for his new schools, which means he has to be dropped off there at 9:30 in the morning an picked up at 2:30 which would be fair enough if dh and I didn't both work about an hour away and have no family nearby who can help out. So basically it means taking time off work.
Also dd is starting Primary School and had an induction visit. Two days after she visited the school, she gets a letter through the post inviting her to the school for another morning's visit to watch a DVD 'Tour of the School' - yet another day off!!
It's as though schools don't actually realise that not all their children's parents either don't work or have jobs nearby that they can fit in with the various school activities their child might be involved in.
Also I have had to fork out thirty quid for assorted school trips for ds, plus dd's nursery trip plus money for assorted school and nursery photos; new uniforms;
It just seems neverending. AAAAgh.

Trips, concerts, plays, dressing up days these are all things done to enrich YOUR CHILD'S experience of education. Believe me teachers sure as shit don't do it for their own benefit.

Our 2 induction days are 9.15 'til 3.15 - hardly short. The kids must be dropped off and 'handed' to their primary teacher who will be there, and must be collected by an adult. To be at the school for 3.15 I would have to leave work at 2.30 - effectively 2 half days and 2 late starts. If this was just a one off, then I could swing it somehow, but it's not (as I posted earlier). It's just one of many, many demands made of working parents in addition to having to cover the scheduled school holidays. I've still got 2 school assemblies and one sports day to find time for in addition to this.

My induction 'day' at high school was one afternoon - we were bussed there and back, saw round the school, had juice and biscuits and were back at our primary school for normal going home time. And we all survived! And it was far less common for both parents to be working in the early 80s!

See my earlier posts about Friday afternoons...

Sorry what is PPA and why can't that be done after school finishes?

IT's not that I believe that schools should provide childcare but I hardly believe this new generation of children is suddenly so clever that they need less teaching time than my generation.

Why are dressing up days for the childrens benefit?

And the INSET days have increased in Scotland...an extra 2 planned for next year for Curriculum for Excellence in addition.

D'you know what - I'm sure that my child's expereince of education would be just as rich without sponsored skipping or making a tudor costume out of a plastic bottle in golden time on Fiday, which takes up most of the morning. Fridays are effectively a no education day.

See my post about teachers being entitled to 10% preparation time. It may be that your LEA has decided that all school should have it on Friday afternoon and that teachers for once should be allowed to work flexibly i.e work from home if they wish.

God forbid that the school feels that children might want parental support when transitioning from one school to the other. I pity your children that you see a major event for them as such an inconvenience for you. If you didn't want to have your working life interrupted then you shouldn't have had children.

Paolosgirl - As you are the expert I suggest you home ed. Don't know about scotland but in England INSET always comes out of teachers holidays.

Libras PPA is planning preparation and assessment. The vast majority of that is done outside the school day but due to the huge increase in paperwork over the last 10 years or so the government agreed that actually teachers needed a bit of time within their working day in which to carry out some of their PPA.

londonone..."dressing up" days are a pita...i have complained to our school about them.

"If you didn't want to have your working life interrupted then you shouldn't have had children."

Yes you're right, stupid poor people shouldn't be allowed to have children, and if there is only one parent because of unforseen circumstances then the children must be handed over to the state immediatly. Maybe having children should be means tested? FFS.

Why isn't this preparation time done between after school and 5pm?

It is libra plus for most teachers an extra few hours in the evening at home and on the weekend.

Its no better at private schools.

Request today to provide tmbola prizes for sports day, we wiil be going on Saturday. Then another request for cakes for something else. Then a request for £20 for a trip to a butterfly farm. Then a request for another £10 for somethng else. Spent a morning a few weeks ago being tour guide for 4 hours on open day.

It never stops.

daftpunk - Dressing up days aren't popular with teachers IME either!

Sorry londonone I don't know why all this paperwork/planning etc can't be done during school holidays. Yes all working people are entitled to time off but you do seem to have quite a lot of it. I suppose the real answer is to increase teachers salary and make them work during the school holidays apart from 5 weeks allocated holiday.

What is a school day for a teacher? i.e. when they are contracted to be on site?

Please don't think I think teachers have cushy jobs - I don't.

The trips and dressing up days and skipping workshops and so on are the things which my children like most about school, it's what keeps them going through the more boring bits.

We both work but are quite cavalier about not going to everything that's advertised. I certainly wouldn't imagine escorting an 11 year old to induction days, given that my 7yo walks to school alone already. What would they do if you phoned and said you gave permission for your child to arrive and come home alone from the induction days? That works at our school - they have rules about picking up but if the parent insists it's ok, they waive the rule.

Teachers work on average the same hours over a year as most people. It just gets crammed into term time. Most teachers do work during the hols as well.

If teachers don't like dressing up days either then why have so many?

I can't see the children are honestly too worried either way. Most of them do dressing up at home anyway if they feel like it.

Also the work can't just be done in the hols i.e planning and marking has to be done as you go along.

then why have them?...i nearly got divorced over my sons last dressing up day..i had to make a traditional indian custume....i was so stressed out...my ds went to school looking like a cross between an arab and a greek waiter..

TSARchasm - Because generally the children enjoy them and it helps bring subjects alive for them.

custardo "another is presentations and homework in junior school and making costumes etc...

then they tell you that you have to read to them, fill in the reading book and sign it - leaving comments, do a maths /english/istory sheet on top of this weeks spellings

exsqueeze the shit out of me - i thought the school was there to teach them this stuff

i am supposed to parent. - but no. the school system is so busy doing my fecking job it doesn't do it's own. " ...

I totally, utterly, 100% agree with you. I have been ranting about this very thing all half-term. You're not me in disguise, are you?

As I said because the children enjoy them. Teachers and schools plan around the children they teach to give them the best educational experience they can. Parents convenience is not necessarily the schools priority as I said they are educational establishments, not babysitters to take your kids of your hands.

Libra
"Why isn't this preparation time done between after school and 5pm? "

it would have to be a paologirl's school

"because b)a whole load of them troop over to the local pub for a long leisurely lunch and because c)another load of them power walk on Friday afternoon and becuase d)a lot of the others also live locally and are at home looking after their own children."

But the dressing up thing is nearly every term it seems. It's terribly difficult for parents to keep coming up with costumes. I don't have access to the BBC'S wardrobe dept. I disagree that in reality it makes that much difference. A good teacher can bring a topic alive.

mummydragon and custardo - many parents like to be involved in their children's education. Many do not give a shit, the outcomes for the latter group of children are not great.

Silly me for having children - I wasn't aware that I had to have a certain income level or that I could either workhave children. What a daft statement to make, especially coming from a teacher, but also rather worrying that a teacher takes this attitude.

What I'd suggest is that teachers should be allocated the same holidays as the rest of us public sector workers - 33 leave days (after a certain number of years service), 8 public holidays, and the rest of the school holidays would be spent on your lesson plans and inservice days. Many other working parents, myself included, take work home in the evenings after a 5pm or later finish, so your marking and so on that you take home is really in line with your fellow professionals