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!

[IOnlyReadtheDailyMailinCafes]

Infact not only do I do the weekends, dp does them with me also voluntarily.

[tethersend]

That's presuming that I have never worked 'in industry'

[cascade]

Vinblanc:Im a PE teacher and yes we do get paid for saturday fixtures, so that kinda blows your argument. We dont get paid extra curricular after school as that is part of our daily job.

[IOnlyReadtheDailyMailinCafes]

Although just asked dp and he thinks I should be paid for working weekends. Not sure he would want to pay the extra tax to fund it though.

[cascade]

and no we dont get free meals. well not in any of the schools ive worked in.

[IOnlyReadtheDailyMailinCafes]

Do you really cascade? In the state sector?

[cascade]

yes in the state sector

[vinblanc]

Teachers are not hourly-paid employees on a wage. They are salaried and professionals.

The difference between salaried and hourly-paid jobs is that you don't nitpick about how much you have to work to get your job done or about how unreasonable your boss is. We all have 'unreasonable' bosses (and they had/have 'unreasonable' bosses too)!

Teaching is not a brilliantly paid job compared with your qualifications going in, but for a mum who doesn't have to worry about childcare in the holidays, it must be an absolute Godsend. There are loads of working mums who are just coming to the end of paying for 4+ weeks of extra childcare in this stretch (~8 weeks over the whole year), who really don't get the quibbles about 5 days.

[tethersend]

Sorry cascade- I checked further and it was a borough wide policy to provide free meals for PE teachers.

I'm afraid you must be very disappointed! None of that delicious food....

[cascade]

OOh I want to work in your borough. But saying that the school dinners at my present school are bloody awful.

[cascade]

Going back to the contract issues what is wrong is they stipualte you must work for example 0.6 contract, when going part time always get the burser to put in contract what days you will be working. Then there is no confusing over legalities. Well thats what they advise on the NUT website.

[tethersend]

So, the logic is.... you take a salary, and you are completely subject to the boss's demands, no matter how unreasonable?

I think employment law would disagree with you on that one.

Christ, vinblanc, where do you work?

NB- most teachers who use nurseries are required to pay for 52 weeks' childcare a year

[IOnlyReadtheDailyMailinCafes]

I dont think we are badly paid tbh, my family want for nothing and we are content. We have a good pension, immense job satisfaction and fabulous holidays. I do earn much less than most of the people I went to university with but once you pay te bills you only need money to buy stuff to make you happy. I am happy thanks to my job so don't need a wage to compensate.

AT the end of the day I spend my days talking to young people about a subject I love and I get paid for it. I have done other jobs and know where the grass is greener.

[cascade]

Yes vinblanc but again your argument doesnt stand up as most of the teachers who have young children use nurseries and you have to pay them all year. My dd is in school now, but I still have to pay half fees to childminder in the holidays. So the only gain is half pay for 13 weeks which really isnt that much of a saving.

[IOnlyReadtheDailyMailinCafes]

I used the nursery that was attached to the secondary school I taught in, I did not have to pay for holidays. I was also free to pop in and see her during my non contact time, often had dinner with her.

Of course not tethersend but most teachers could do another job if they wanted to, we dont because we know we have it good.

[vinblanc]

You work what is 'reasonble' to get your job done.

Going to an Inset day sounds 'reasonable' to me.

[IOnlyReadtheDailyMailinCafes]

But it does benefit you cascade when your children are at school and you dont have to pay childcare fees over the holidays. It saves you a small fortune and a lot of stress.

[cascade]

its only reasonable if YOU agree to it. Its unreasonable if you dont. The point is if HT asks nicely and gives you a choice, then most people would agree. When HT demand, thats when it gets peoples backs up.

[vinblanc]

If that's the arrangement you have come to...

When I was on maternity leave, I used to pay my childminder for something like 4 hours per week (I can't remember the details now, but it was something like that), and I used them. She was happy to view this as a retainer, and she was able to get plenty of ad hoc work to cover the rest of the week.

Had it been school holidays, she would have had no trouble filling the space with school--aged children.

I do believe that lots of childminders have special arrangements for teachers because their break from the childminder coincides with plenty of other business, as well as her own holidays.

[cascade]

But I do have to pay half pay in holidays, so a saving of a few hundred quid. and yes your right no stress in the holidays which is a benefit.

[vinblanc]

It is unreasonable for teacher not to do professional development, especially at the rate that education changes under this government.

[cascade]

yes i wish I could find a CM who is only term time round here, but all of them I spoke to want retainers in the holiday ( and yes they still fill up with other children in the holidays) but Im not bothered cause she is a fantastic childminer and my dd loves her.

[KembleTwins]

IMO, teachers do plenty outside of "normal" working hours, and it's very difficult to say no to requests, particularly if the classic emotional blackmail style "but what about the pupils..." argument in brought into it. I do not think that attending an INSET day on a day not normally worked is reasonable. It is highly doubtful that anything will happen during the INSET day that the teacher in question will not be able to pick up or find out about on the next normal working day. I think that the headteacher mentioned in the OP is completely out of order - no wonder you want to leave marypoppins I don't think I'd have lasted too long at that school - I've always been a bit of a unionist... IMO, teachers do plenty, above and beyond contractual obligations, for their students, and that sometimes, they have to look out for themselves. If I was in your position, marypoppins, I'd say no - I'd find the correct info in the pay and conditions documentation, check it out with my union rep (and I'd go for county rep rather than school rep, just to have a name with a bit of clout behind it), put it all in writing, take it to the head, explain my position, then go home and put the kettle on. If the head then tried to "manage me out" of the school, I'd fight it. But then, I've never been overly popular with SLT...

Before anyone jumps on me, by the way, I'm a drama teacher, so I do spend hours and hours of my own time doing extra curricular activities, putting on performances, taking kids to the theatre etc etc. I don't just work 9-3.30 and then go home. Oh, and cascade, we get free meals if we do lunchtime activities too. You're in the wrong LEA...

[cascade]

arhhh you get a free meal, well i get paid for saturdays, beat that KembleTwins

[KembleTwins]

OK. When I worked at a really awful school in London, the head was desperate to increase provision for enrichment activities, so she condensed the timetable to give us "free" Friday afternoons, during which enrichment actvities were planned. Any teacher who chose to run an activity was paid for it. It was a genius plan, as the kids loved it, the teachers loved it, and the whole school benefitted as a result. Not to mention my Friday night wine fund