HELP! I'm having such a crap day. Teachers advice needed too!

[tryingtobemarypoppins]

What a rubbish day. First thing this morning I send my boss (primary head teacher) an email to ask about the first day back which is an INSET day. It is on a day I don't work, Thursday and so asked him if he wanted me to attend and if so I would put a pay claim form in.

He sent the rudest email back saying that although I work Mon-Wednesday I needed to attend all INSET days and just 1 this year is on a day I work so the others I would have to go unpaid! I am too pissed off to email him back, but phoned my union who said he was way out of line and had to pay me or give me time off instead. The childcare costs would be £120 if nursery could even help me out!

Trouble is it?s the sort of school where you get an outstanding observation if you conform to these mad systems and a crap observation if you say anything out of his dislike! AIBU and should just keep my head down and hope family and friends can help out? I only have until Feb and I'm on maternity leave.

Oh and then just to tip me over the edge went to play at a friend?s house today and my toddler of 22 months refused to share and bit my friends son

He has never done it before I feel CRAP!

thesecondcoming- if it makes you feel any better, technically, I'm getting paid right now. For writing this.

And this

And this

IOnlyReadtheDailyMailinCafes I do have to pay for childcare in the hoildays, many do if you use a nursery etc.

I think what is slightly grating me is that there will always be teachers who do the extra without getting paid who feel they should. That's fine as often they don't have money issues or childcare, perhaps their children are grown up etc. This is the case with two members of part time staff at my school. This makes it even harder for the rest of use who do have to think about money and childcare etc. This is the reason why we have the teachers pay and conditions policy so it is just for all.

violethill I think your forgetting that these pupils have 2 teachers and so no they are not missing out. You could say they are advantaged by having 2 fresh teachers, 2 skill sets etc etc etc

I'm not forgetting that at all.

I was simply pointing out that there are potential disadvantages to having part time teachers if they don't turn up to parents evenings.

Two excellent teachers will of course be better than one mediocre one. Equally, one excellent teacher is better than two mediocre.

I work in Secondary, where the pupils all have around a dozen different teachers anyway. If you add to that extra teachers, because you spit a subject between two teachers, it can potentially be a disadvantage if one doesn;t attend a parents evening. As a parent you aren't getting the full picture.

I know most teachers work way beyond their contractual hours anyway, so I have no personal axe to grind here. I am just saying that from the pupil and parent perspective, it could be a disadvantage to have a teacher who isn't accessing all the training available and isn't there for all parent evenings.

I paid childcare as a part time teacher and accepted that I was extremely lucky to have a job that allowed me to have the holidays with my dd but in return there would be the odd time when I was out of pocket. Money was indeed tight for us but on a teacher's wage you are better off than many.

When you have children life is rarely perfect and compromises have to be made. I agree that we have pay and conditions policies but the reasons teaching is such a rewarding job is because it is a vocation, you put in above and beyond what is expected and get a lot back.

IOnlyReadtheDailyMailinCafes all true but not a reason for a head teacher to abuse the system.

It's one of those things that seems simple on the surface, but is more complicated than many people appreciate.

If you have two part time teachers, each 0.5, and a parents evenings, one of them attend because it's 'their' work day, and the other will have to be paid extra for attending on their day off. Therefore, the situation is costing the school more than if a full timer was doing the job, as they would attend whenever the parents evening fell.

And in principle, part timers should not cause an additional burden of cost to the school. It won't seem a big deal to the teacher claiming the occasional evening or training day, but multiply that by however many part timers you've got, and then put it in the context of the strapped-for-cash school budget......

Just not as straightforward as it appears.

No it isn't simple one of the reasons the school I teach in does not offer many part time contracts - which has mixed side effects on the school. Every year young female teachers leave in order to get another job so they can ve flexible terms after maternity leave.

violethill:
"And in principle, part timers should not cause an additional burden of cost to the school"

The cost implications are for the school to decide when considering part time applications for posts.

Teachers should not work for free to ease the schools' budget problems- where do you draw the line? Budget issues should be addressed to the borough, and we need to think as a society about the amount of funding education receives if the only viable situation is for teachers to work unpaid. And we need to ask why the school is strapped for cash- ie, why the education funding in this country is so pitiful.

There is no way teachers-or anyone- should work for free. If you are being paid on a 0.5 basis, and you work 0.6 of a particular week, you should be paid as such.

I don't think trying to make teachers feel guilty for asking to be paid is reasonable.

I appreciate that there are many professions that are more poorly paid than teaching; however, I believe that to be indicative of the need for a pay rise in those particular sectors, rather than trying to pay teachers less- it's not the best paid profession!

violethill:
"And in principle, part timers should not cause an additional burden of cost to the school"

The cost implications are for the school to decide when considering part time applications for posts.

Teachers should not work for free to ease the schools' budget problems- where do you draw the line? Budget issues should be addressed to the borough, and we need to think as a society about the amount of funding education receives if the only viable situation is for teachers to work unpaid. And we need to ask why the school is strapped for cash- ie, why the education funding in this country is so pitiful.

There is no way teachers-or anyone- should work for free. If you are being paid on a 0.5 basis, and you work 0.6 of a particular week, you should be paid as such.

I don't think trying to make teachers feel guilty for asking to be paid is reasonable.

I appreciate that there are many professions that are more poorly paid than teaching; however, I believe that to be indicative of the need for a pay rise in those particular sectors, rather than trying to pay teachers less- it's not the best paid profession!

posted twice to make a point

Teachers should not work for free to ease the schools' budget problems- where do you draw the line? Budget issues should be addressed to the borough, and we need to think as a society about the amount of funding education receives if the only viable situation is for teachers to work unpaid. And we need to ask why the school is strapped for cash- ie, why the education funding in this country is so pitiful.

In an ideal world that would be nice but it is hard to say no when you are aware that saying no will mean that pupils will miss out. I taught in a school that could not afford the staff it had, we needed a hig staff to pupil ratio because of the vulnerble nature of our pupils and their complex needs. Many senior staff did not take payrises or responisbility money because we knew that by not taking the money the school could afford to employ more teaching assistants. I regularly worked extra days if I was needed and was not alone. We also bought resources from our own money, paid for pupils to go to the prom, bought uniforms. In certain types of schools this is usual. Of course I would like to think that if we did not do it the LEA would pick up the bill, but it is unlikely and the students who need things here and now would go without.

I adore my job and tbh do not connect what I do every day with my pay. I would work for much less money if it was necessary.

Ionlyreadthedailymailincafes...

I work in a very similar school to yours by the sounds of things (secondary PRU), and I take your point- all the things you have said are things that my colleagues and I do on a regular basis.

My point is that we do all these things out of goodwill- to be required to do them is just plain wrong.

I agree with you about loving the job, but I do not think teachers (or other school staff for that matter) do not therefore need to be paid for the work they do. Other countries do not rely as heavily on staff goodwill as we do here.

I want that ideal world!

Yes to be required to do them is wrong, although we were expected to do things like buy prom outfits and tickets tbh. You certainly stood out if you did not. I no longer teach there and now work in a school that has the funds to pay for everything. I was told off last term for buying laminating sheets. It has been a huge culture shock.

I do think though that you are paid a salary to do a job and you do what is needed to do that job. I would imagine most professions require you to do above and beyong your contract.

tethersend.... I think you have entirely missed my point!

I am not suggesting that any teacher should work 'for free'. Obviously as a salaried position, most teachers work way beyond contractual hours, but there should never be any issue of anyone working 'for free'.

My point was that situations can arise whereby two part timers cost more than one full timer. Such a situation would be where, for example, two 0.5 teachers attend a parents evening and one of them has to be paid because it's a day 'off'. Therefore the school is paying 0.5+0.5 (ie equivalent to one full timer) PLUS the additional parents evenings/INSET days for each part timer whenever something falls on their day off.

Yes, I entirely agree that schools are underfunded. Schools have a really difficult task managing their budgets. So what do you do in a situation where employing two part time equivalents to a full time post is going to cost you more?

My point is that the question shouldn't be addressed to the teacher- it should be addressed to the school/borough/LEA/Government.

If they choose to employ one full timer instead of two part timers, they are within their rights to do so.

It is not the teacher's responsibility to- effectively- work for free because otherwise the school will pay more money for such situations arising (and I agree they do arise).

I do get your point, but just gave a really long-winded answer, which in all honesty has probably hijacked the OP completely

What a rotten day! Headteachers can make things very hard. Its easy to say these are your rights but its not always that simple in practice is it.

You do only have to do INSET days in proportion to the number of days you work. I had this issue and asked my head teacher. She was very reasonable and has agreed to pay for extra days. She has also prioritised the INSET days for the whole year so that we can decide which ones to do which is very helpful. Is this something your head could do.

Hope tomorrow's a better day.

In schools where I've worked parents evenigns have been on two seperate days. Parents could then choose which day and which teacher to see. No need to see both teachers as long as communication between teachers is good.

As for going above and beyond, we all do at some time I think, but teachers are people too and some of us are quite strapped for cash.

i just wanted to clarify -

legally part time teachers DO NOT have to complete any INSET, they only have to attend on their contracted days.

However many leas/schools/heads/even PT teachers presume that you will complete a pro-rota amount of INSET. This may be written into your contract or may just be a presumption. This is because we are also legally obliged to maintain our professional knowledge & the Head is obliged to ensure that we recieve appropriate training to do so.

==== There is no way teachers-or anyone- should work for free. If you are being paid on a 0.5 basis, and you work 0.6 of a particular week, you should be paid as such.

I disagree. If you are a salaried/professional member of staff, you have to do what it takes to get the job done. This is how it is in industry.

You don't see PE teachers asking for more money because they have Saturday fixtures, or music teachers asking for more because of concerts.

Paying for childcare when you aren't getting paid yourself sucks, but on that front, teaching is one of the best professions child-care wise as you don't have to school holidays, which is a herculean task for most working parents. You should take the good with the bad and count your blessings.

I agree vinblanc.

vinblanc and IOnlyReadtheDailyMailinCafes this may be your thoughts but the point is its not in any teachers contracts and for any head teacher to pressure staff to work and be over £100 out of pocket is wrong.

This kind of reminds me of the arguement that its ok for hard working nurses to be paid next to nothing as they do it out of kindness - total crap!

Level of pay is another argument, you know what the job pays when you sign the dotted line.

My sister is a nurse and does not seem to be particularly poverty stricken and I have never heard her complain about the wages.

Just to be clear vinblanc- aiming for how it is in industry is not my goal.

200 years ago, how it was in industry was to send small children down mines and under looms; the fact that it was in industry does not make it ethical.

PE teachers receive free meals (they are entitled to in any case). Not a great perk, I grant you, but there it is. I believe they should be paid for Saturday fixtures, whether they ask or not. Ditto music teachers.

I appreciate it's all going a bit Marxist, but I don't think pointing out conventions that leave the worker worse off in other industries is particularly helpful.

If what it takes to get the job done is work an 90 hour week when you are only paid for 35, that's exploitation no matter which profession you work in, or conventions surrounding it. (That's an extreme example to make a point. I am not claiming to work an 80 hr week)

I have never heard of PE teachers recieving free meals.

I often work weekends do after school events, it would not enter my head to ask for extra pay. During term time I dont work 80 hours but I certainly work far more than 35 but again there is no such thing as overtime. We are not paid by the hour we are given a salary, you work until the job is done.

Perhaps we should not be aiming for industry but quite a few teachers would get a shock if they went into industry.