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Original poster

Coping with Teacher Training days

606 replies

bacon · 19/10/2010 17:05

I'm new to education, DS1 in reception DS2 19 months old. But this is really going to get right up my nose. Teacher training days tagged onto half terms. 1st one Friday just before the weeks break.

How do mums cope? Ive got something planned - booked months and months ago and have to leave really early and now just checked diary and DS1 is home and I'm paying for DS2 to be in nursery!

Why cant they do these training days in the evenings or even Saturday morning like the rest of us? Why has education have to be so disrupted? Surely with the number of weeks off they get it wouldnt be too much to expect a few days to be put towards training?

Struth, we are self employed here, hubby never hardly gets time off, when we were farming we worked well unto the night, expected to get up at the crack of dawn, 7 days a week, working when completely exhausted and so hanging and no paid holidays!

So many families are struggling with childcare, trying to hold onto their jobs, and then this is slapped in our faces.

Surely this doesnt happen on the continent??

OP posts:
mummytime · 19/10/2010 17:21

All English state schools have 5 INSET days per year. (Sometimes they get more, eg. an extra one for curriculum change or 5 I've heard of for a school merger.) It is the law, to help compensate for the continual training that schools have to do now, especially with every new government directive.
Lots of teacher's are in school 7:30 to 6, five days a week. They may also be working quite a bit during the holidays.

When in school in front of a class there is no down time. It is a full on commitment, with no time to mark books, plan or anything else. These tasks are fitted into non-contact time, and after school sessions. Major whole school planning or training needs to be fitted into the 5 INSET days.

Yes other people work hard, but teachers also have families, who are often neglected during the school term.

Also you will find that teachers are also doing extra training in the evenings and weekends. They also have issues with INSET days. But most people prefer them to be tagged onto school holidays and weekends.

Feenie · 19/10/2010 19:04

The five days were actually taken from the school holidays in the first place, bacon.

So sorry our training interrupts your free childcare.

vespasian · 19/10/2010 19:06

We choose the 5 days to cause you maximum inconvenience, after all we are teachers and therefore have no desire to do good. We spend INSET days booking cheap holidays and drinking tea

deaddei · 19/10/2010 19:06

Our school announces inset days in the summer for the coming academic year- can't believe you didn't know about yours op.

amothersplaceisinthewrong · 19/10/2010 19:07

Lots of people in all sorts of jobs work 7:30 to 6pm and do not have 13 weeks holidays.

bigTillyMint · 19/10/2010 19:09

If you think teachers have it cushy, don't you become one? Smile

DinahRod · 19/10/2010 19:10

it's really cushy, amothersplaceisinthewrong, I invite you to train

EvilTwins · 19/10/2010 19:11

I love INSET days. We usually go to the pub and laugh about how disruptive it is for parents.

Both the school I teach in and the school my DTDs attend published the dates for INSET days last summer term. They were available on the school websites, well in advance. Which is good, as it gave me lots of time to plan what I was going to have for lunch at the pub. Grin

Sorry, OP - it's just part of the deal once your children start school. Have you also realised that DS1 is going to have two whole weeks off over Christmas? That was done to deliberately disrupt your plans too.

onessa · 19/10/2010 19:12

School is not a childcare facility.
Surely it is easier to make some flexibilty in your working week when you are self employed anyway??
Take the day off and enjoy the time with your little ones, for all too soon they will be grown up and you will have lots of time to work without having to worry about looking after them.
It might also be worth speaking to the headteacher to ask if it is possible to give you a list of training days in advance so you can plan ahead.
Good luck.

vespasian · 19/10/2010 19:14

Actually Bacon I am hacked off as it is the end of term and I am knackered.

I start work at 7am, I finish work at around 11pm. I take a quick break to cook my child her dinner and try and do her own homework. This week I have 2 events in school which means I will be working past midnight.

On a Friday I get to finish early and work from 7 am until 6pm. Forgive me if i don't attend training as I would like some time with my family.

I give up a number of weekends a year to run trips but also work most of the day one day of my weekend.

When do you want me to do my training?

I don't mind my job, infact no I love it which is why I work as I do so I resent the fact that you want me to do training in the evenings.

I have school holidays which I love, they are my time to be a proper parents. I am required however to be in school for at least one week of the summer holiday and am often on school trips for at least a further week. We are required to be continually updating our qualifications, either an MA or a second degree for example. Because my term time is so pressured that often happens in my holiday.

I will now get back to ignoring my child and marking books

BellaBearisWideAwake · 19/10/2010 19:15

"Surely with the number of weeks off they get it wouldnt be too much to expect a few days to be put towards training?"

They WERE taken from holidays.

Isn't it better that they are tagged onto holidays than bang in the middle of weeks and terms?

I don't know a single teacher who uses all 13 weeks as holiday.

Panzee · 19/10/2010 19:15

If it wasn't training we'd be on holiday.

Google 'Baker Days'.

childrenofthecornsilk · 19/10/2010 19:16

Funny how all these hard working teachers are all on the internet ready to defend themselves...

ramonaquimby · 19/10/2010 19:18

training days on saturdays or in the evenings?

haha, that will never happen

check out school dates well in advance

SandStorm · 19/10/2010 19:22

I'm a TA, not a teacher but I'm expected to work on INSET days too. I actually find these really difficult in terms of childcare for my own DD as my friends seem to look up when these days are in advance and tend to do things as a family. Maybe I just have very organised friends?

stressheaderic · 19/10/2010 19:22

Teaching is the most intensely difficult job I've ever done. You literally do not get a second to scratch your arse most days. It is very, very rare I get the chance to go to the toilet even once or have a hot drink on a school day. Until you've done it, you'll never know.
I bloody love INSET days. Can wear my jeans, eat my lunch at a normal pace and actually talk to my colleagues - bliss.

DinahRod · 19/10/2010 19:23

bah, I don't know why I bother

Dh was there 7.30am-10pm x2 last week, he's working with students two days over half term, he does the occasional Saturday. I don't do this personally as we have small dcs but work til 11pm at home after the children are in bed and it all starts again shortly before 6am. Our wages are reflected in our pay re hols, teachers are not paid for them. You have be at the top of your game all the time you teach, you can't slack off as students take no prisoners and the prep to ensure all goes smoothly is plentiful, although my marking load is more. The holidays are a boon to be sure and I knows other jobs are tough, my grandfather was a farmer, but you post out of ignorance about what the job entails.

DinahRod · 19/10/2010 19:24

am allowed - am putting my feet up on mat leave Wink

vespasian · 19/10/2010 19:24

Grin children of cornsilk. I was on google typing in phrases from a child's essay that I just know has been pinched form somewhere.

Many schools do twilight INSETs instead of one or two of their full INSET days which are sessions after school. I am not sure how useful they are as people tend to be too tired to think properly. I am assuming of course that the purpose of an INSET is to raise education standards rather than just prevent someone from having to arrange childcare.

vespasian · 19/10/2010 19:26

Dinah I am trying to get pregnant which is why I think my workload keeps increasing, it is the head's way of stopping me having maternity leave.

I don't want to say that teachers work harder than anyone else, I am sure other professionals work similar hours espcially when you take holidays into account. We just do short intensive bursts

Anyway back to wikpedia on a plagarism hunt

Panzee · 19/10/2010 19:27

:o childrenofcornsilk - I'm not working! [hgrin]

EvilTwins · 19/10/2010 19:36

Me either [hgrin]

AND we've done twilights this term, so I get Friday off whilst my DTDs are at school. AND I'm not going to spend the day working - I'm going to visit my very best friend and her teeny tiny baby.

Then I will spend at least 3 days of half term working solidly.

Feenie · 19/10/2010 19:51

Oh, and I will tell you how I 'cope' - I pay for childcare on my son's training days like every other full time working mother.

swill72 · 19/10/2010 20:26

My son comes to school with me on his Inset days, the lucky devil!

vespasian · 19/10/2010 20:31

To be fair though Feenie some parents will struggle to pay for or find one off childcare