I'm a teacher not a bloody babysitter!

[Rosieeo]

So SO annoyed by the guy on BBC News 24 just now who suggests that if teachers can't get to the school they teach at because of snow, they should go to the nearest school and set up 'some kind of a crèche facility'!

How much would you pay a person to look after thirty kids for five hours a day? £8 per hour, per child? Then fantastic, bring it on!

Are teachers simply glorified babysitters? Am I being unreasonable to be so annoyed by this?

But rightly or wrongly you are not paid to work at home when a teacher. You are paid to work at home in evenings, weekends etc which is rewarded with long holidays. Thats the difference between teaching and a lot of other professions. Even if the school opened and only a handful of children turned up, at least the provision was there for those children and parents able to make it. For those teachers turning up and childless in their classes then they can do other things within school, which after all is where they are paid to be. My dh, teacher parts of my family and teaching friends would not share my view though!

Dont schools need the teachers before they can open, not open and hope some turn up?

sorry pointy i feel i didn't properly remember who made the silly suggestion.....I do apologise as it wasn't you!

It's the gin pointy....I am sorry.

We are not paid to work at home in the evenings and weekends. That is unpaid overtime.

But teachers don't get 'holiday pay'...
Here we go...

To quote:

This is an old chestnut - the "teachers get paid for the holidays" thing. That's not how it is. Teachers are paid a salary, ie. a YEARLY amount for their work. This increases annually according to the MPG (Main Professional Grade) scales which acknowledge that teachers deserve more as their experience increases. They also get extra pay for posts of responsibility which may be for organising subject curricular schemes of work; for having special pastoral care responsibilities; for dealing with special educational needs, and other areas of responsibility leading to senior management posts including deputy/assistant head and headteacher. Additionally, in common with other professions, teachers usually get an inflation linked addition to all salary levels every April.
Each teacher's salary, for pay purposes, is divided into 12 equal monthly payments. Because teachers are usually on holiday during the whole of the month of August, it would appear that they get paid for doing nothing during that month. When I started teaching (a long time ago) we were given the option of being paid yearly, quarterly, monthly or weekly. (For the latter choice we had to fetch our salary warrant from the education salaries office.) All teachers I know are paid monthly. If you work part time then you are paid pro rata. So, if you work 50% of the week, you get paid 50% of the full salary, paid monthly. Supply teachers are also paid monthly but usually a month "behind" the month in which they worked (work done in March will be paid for in April, for example)
Teaching assistants are paid in exactly the same way but some TA's actually are contracted to work during the holidays as their schools operate play-schemes, etc. during the holidays. They will be paid more per annum than class-based term only TA's.
So, technically, teachers do not receive holiday pay. Salaried professions, paid per annum, don't. It's just that some of the weeks of each year are holiday weeks.

Hmm, 30 kids who you didn't know from Adam...pictures the carnage.

Well I can assure you, teachers, that I willnot be sending my children in to be cared for by teachers who don't know them! Can you imagine- ASD kids and teachers not knowing how they react or the routines?

Er nah.But thanks anyway [wink. Trust me, am doing you a favour.

Seriously, from a practical basis in an area like ours (loads of cillages nestled around Newport) there'd be masses of teachers in the village schools where hardly any kids could get in, and a complete dearth of teachers at the inner city schools where most kids can walk in.

far too over simplistic a solution on a national basis, even before the technical bits are addressed.

Well I can assure you, teachers, that I willnot be sending my children in to be cared for by teachers who don't know them! Can you imagine- ASD kids and teachers not knowing how they react or the routines?

Er nah. But thanks anyway [wink. Trust me, am doing you a favour.

Seriously, from a practical basis in an area like ours (loads of villages nestled around Newport) there'd be masses of teachers in the village schools where hardly any kids could get in, and a complete dearth of teachers at the inner city schools where most kids can walk in.

far too over simplistic a solution on a national basis, even before the technical bits are addressed.

Sorry ,make that a dounble assurance

Oh and the ' but supply teachers manage' type comment...

Supply teachers go into a school where other members of staff are there for support/ to show them the ropes

Children can be removed from the class to go to another class if they are a problem

The children know the rest of the school is working normally

The children aren't already overly excited by disruption

And supply teachers can't always cope with the class

I thought I'd post this in case anyone cares...

I think for those schools genuinely with a lack of teachers who cant get in then fair enough - close because there is no option and I have no problem with that. But dh has just come in and saw the two of our class teachers in town shopping! The train station is centre of town and dh got to town from where the school is so why couldnt they get the other way. Thats two of the teachers out of a very small school. I know that one other lives very close - there is no way I am convinced it needed to close. And it is so difficult for those of us trying to justify time off to bosses. I have had to take annual leave now - three days!!! When I could easily have got to work.

And the supply teachers are often backed up by senco teachers and TA's with specialist experience of the most challenging kids

Many aprents willsend SN kids in if open becuase of work, but also becuase many are finding themselves the target of educational socialwoprkers for absences gained through SN hospitalisation.

Sounds like a nightmare to me.

Im happy with a supply teacher for one or two days regadless of how much educating gets done. The world needs to wake up to the fact that school is a form of childcare and cant randomly be abandoned! Somebody posted that the private schools and nurseries are open and I hadnt thought about that but its true. They manage and are perhaps more accepting that they are a form of childcare.

frogetyfrog - those teachers may have been able to get in, but there are probably more that couldn't, and schools need a ratio of teachers to pupils in order to function, so they closed.

My sister is a head teacher, she can't get her car out of her road and had to pay for a JCB to clear the site today. The local authority won't give her any grit to make the place safe.

Appreciate the difficulties you are having, but there's another side to this.

Frogety - you would have to ask them.. Maybe they could work, but others couldn't, so the school was closed? Maybe they were playing the 'system', maybe they couldn't go the other way/ maybe their school had heating problems and the closure was nothing to do with the teachers' ability to get to school...

Agin though private schoolsand nurseries- some are open.

very few of them here are,according tothe LEApage.

And the nuirseries- my sister works in one as manager and has taken as many kids as she can numbers wise. She achieved this by getting Mum tolook after her children,and sister 2 kept the vets open by also utilising Mum.... at some point Mum is going (I hope) to say no. Sensibly so, she's not 59 any more!. Once or twice a week across the family for babysitting she'shappy with, but she can't be default forever.

Mind I only think Sis 1 goes in so she can shout at the staff who don't make it. Would be just like her!

No heating probs - I called in earlier to pick something up and receptionist and caretaker there. All light and bright and warm! Maybe some other teachers couldnt get there - I accept that. But the snow is really not that bad here - only about 7 inches or so and everybody else is getting to work. My dh got home and goes past school from seeing teachers shopping - they could definately get to school! Im normally quite fair by nature but this is really annoying me as the private school on the same road hasnt closed once and my neigbours go there no problem. Nor has our old childcare nursery and that really is a nightmare to get to - single track roads ungritted. Apparently all staff got there! I know in my heart that some schools round here are playing the system and normally I am very pro schools and teachers as have lots of family and friend reasons to be so.

Why do you think the schools are playing the system Frogetyfrog?

Maybe the teachersdropped their kids off at a mates for an hour for a coffee, but couldn't get all day childcare?

I relaisethat would be solved by the all-report thing, but could simply explain today.

7" of snow is about what we have had and we'vebeen toldnot to shift the cars;nothing has been gritted around our road and its all downhill onto a blind corner on the main road. Ouch! As it happens thats OK for us,DH could work from home if deliveries could get inbut wouldn't take his smart car out to Uni i the valleys in this.

We took the boys out today and really, it wasn't safe- 7"of snow has become 7" of ice; the boys had 4 falls between them,and reminded me ofalst year when I decided to accept the offer ofschoolopen if wanted andas wecrossed the road some git skidded his car and almost hit DS2 and I as he couldn't stop. It's not just the schools,lots of things become more dangerous in the icew- roads in particular. Ofcourse,if like us you have a 100ft drop into a riverby theside of the road that adds to it masively naturally!

I dont know Pizza. I wish I didnt feel that as its an uncomfortable feeling. Its just that everything else apart from the schools is carrying on as normal - everybody going to work except those at home for childcare, shops open, buses running normally, trains normal etc etc. There just arent the problems here that there are in some areas of the country. I have been to work around my husbands hours where I can and am on call visiting residential areas - no probs. Yet all the schools are shut. My dh seen two teachers shopping in town. Our school closed but receptionist and caretaker in. Nobody off in our office and only one in my dh very large office. I wish I didnt feel it but it doesnt stack up. The only difference I can think of is that there is no negative to schools closing (no loss of trade, no pay docking, no annual leave taking required etc) that there is in private industry to encourage normality. Wish I felt differently but I just cant see it round here. Accept where they have had loads of snow etc there are genuine problems.

Many school sites are not safe, I know my sis has put an emergency request out to parents for grit. Even if the teachers are available, if a child has an accident there would be hell to pay and the school would get the blame.

Think we're all mixing up the issues here.
Schools have a duty to open if at all possible (i.e. having sufficient staff to cover etc..) in order to provide children with their education with as little disruption as possible. If it is felt that some are closing without enough justification, that is one thing.

But to say they should open regardless so parents can go to work themselves is a different thing. As the OP says, we are not babysitters. Nor did we make it snow. Nor did we invent all the regulations regarding H & S. Nor are we responsible for the councils' under-gritting of roads. If you have kids and need to go out to work, then you need to factor in backup for certain eventualities - e.g. child illness and snowdays.

I would speak to the school, froggety. It's probably due to risk and health and safety etc etc. Are the opening up on Monday?