Coping with Teacher Training days

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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??

'I am feeling very grateful that my DC's school has an attached breakfast club and after school care facility that is open 50 weeks of the year (closes over Christmas I think). '

This was Noah earlier for example.

What is it with some people? They ignore any sort of positive stories and just like to put ridiculous problems in the way of solutions.

This was stoat yesterday

'Our OOSC has been set up independently of the school (although it is on the same premises), and uses no school staff. It runs for all inset days. It only closes on Christmas hols and for one week in summer.'

I notice the Mrs Negatives on this thread just completely ignored these comments which show that it's not beyond the realms of possibility to set up out of school care on INSET days.

As I said, I do wonder how some of you get anything done. I do hope you don't sit on your school PTA or anything with your little clouds above you raining on anyone's sensible suggestions.

But you are actually doing the same thing you are accusing us of- simply pointing out all the problems which mean you can't work out a solution for your own children.

You may not have any friends who are not teachers, but are all the parents at your DC's school teachers? Surely some of them will be taking a day off to look after their own children and could have yours too, in return for you having theirs on a day during the holidays? That's what I did when I was needed in school on an inset day when my DCs were young enough to need care.

You may have a reason you feel you can't do this, of course; but don't worry, I won't accuse you of 'putting ridiculous problems in the way of solutions"

I didn't make assumptions fivecandles I merely stated the fact that often TAs run before and after school care I didn't at any point say all before or after school care is run by TAs. I do know for a fact this is the case in our neighbouring authority's 84 primary schools because a friend oversees the service.

FGS, this is MY SOLUTION.

The thing is instead of each parent sitting at home worrying about what to do there could be ONE SOLUTION for all of us.

Obviously there would be no compulsion but there would be the option for those who need it.

Why can't you see the bigger picture?

My difficulty with childcare is part of a bigger national problem for working parents so instead of me just finding a solution which works for ME we could have a solution which works for everyone in my position which is an awful lot of working parents.

It's more of the I'm alright Jack attitude instead of realizing that we could actually horror of horror support each other.

I notice the Mrs Negatives on this thread just completely ignored these comments which show that it's not beyond the realms of possibility to set up out of school care on INSET days.

Of course it is possible and we have privately run child care on site (not in the school) but they couldn't offer care for the whole school because they simply don't have the number of staff required to meet legal ratios.

But mrz or rather Mrs Negative, it wouldn't be the WHOLE SCHOOL that would need the service.

More ridiculous problems.

It can work and does work.

This may be a mantra that some of you find useful in other areas of your life!!

This is just going round in circles now....

Not going to waste any more time on it.

'Of course it is possible'

Well, Hallelujah.

But this is the first time that you've actually admitted this.

What I've heard here is a thousand ridiculous reasons why it's impossible.

And a complete lack of acknowledgement of those people who say it is already working for them.

Together with a whole load of hosility for those parents who say they are finding it difficult to manage (who are assumed to be 'irresponsible' and 'disorganised' and 'incapaable' and 'pathetic') and dare to suggest that there could be a better way.

Rusty, actually it's not going around in circles. We've reached a point where actually it's been acknowledged that it is possible to have out of school care during INSET days.

A cause for celebration, indeed.

But I really, really hope that some of you might have a slightly more positive approach towards working parents and their problems in future.

but it isn't possible/practical/necessary for every school which is what you won't accept.

The post you quoted already had the service on site run privately ( perhaps the original poster could elaborate)The service runs 51 weeks a year not just for INSET days so I would also conclude they are private day care and have permanent customers with relatively few spaces for parents who want occasional care for INSET days... again perhaps the poster could let us know if this service is available to every pupil in the school or just to a few ???

fivecandles

I find your comments incredible

Schools, as you well know, provide education for 190 days per year ... that, and that alone, is their role

It would be great if local communities came up with childcare solutions for before/after school and/or INSET days ... I imagine that most schools would be happy to provide space for these community projects

I do not teach in my own community ... within my own community I worked with other working and non-working parents to find appropriate systems of childcare for our children when it was needed ... I never expected the school/teachers to make these arrangements but we were grateful for their support when we needed it

You seem to be saying that it is the school's job to solve these problems ... I disagree ... it is the parents' job to find solutions

Fivecandls - the "I'm alright Jack" attitude that you so obviously detest is, in my view, just the way that it has to be in these sort of situation. No one solution will suit everyone. So the obvious answer is that everyone sorts themselves out.

I do not see sorting out childcare for my DTDs as shifting the responsibility - that's a ludicrous, and frankly, insulting suggestion. DH and I have a number of options, which we use as and when. These range from asking my parents to come and stay with us (they are not close enough to pop over) to paying a babysitter (I see that you and your DH are teachers - primary or secondary? I use one of my sixth formers as a babysitter) to one or the other of us taking a day off. DH can take holiday, and if that fails, I can ask for an unpaid day. AFAIK, employers are not allowed to deny parents time off to look after their children if other solutions cannot be found -obviously there is no obligation to pay someone for that day, but teachers are no diferent from any other working parent in that case.

Fivecandles, I think you're being unnecessarily dramatic, and that you've dug yourself into a ridiculous hole, which started with you moaning about the fact that your DC's school won't look after your DCs on days when you want them to (and why the hell should they? Given that you're a teacher, your "schools are childcare" attitude baffles me) - IMO your moan that schools should be open for kids on INSET days is shifting the responsibility whilst my sorting out childcare is not. Now you're trying to dig yourself out of the hole by trying to claim that you're speaking for the masses, and that the rest of us, who deal with our childcare issues on a necessary personal level, are somehow selfish.

Am feeling somewhat excited to see my post from the early hours of this morning has been quoted by fivecandles both in the negative and positive sections :)

Yes, the school my DC go to has out of school childcare.

But that isn't going to work for all schools. And setting up such facilities on an ad hoc basis isn't just as easy as finding a spare room and putting children and careworkers in it.

What do you actually do when your children have inset days and you don't fivecandles? I haven't been able to work it out (although it may have got lost somewhere in here).

As for saying that eviltwins, in working out how her DC are going to be looked after is making someone else take resposibility, I really can't understand your reasoning.

Hello everyone! I will elaborate

Our school has about 350 children and the separate OOS facility provides before school, after school and holiday cover (including inset days). It is a not-for profit organisation, and is run by a committee. The committee bears a shared finanical burden should the club fold. Staffing can be an issue because of the funny hours, but it offers discounts for employees' children, which helps.

The club runs in the dining room at school, and uses some school facilities (ie. field, hall). It pays a rent of several thousand pounds a quarter.

The service is available to everyone on site to a maximum of about 45 children. On Friday (an INSET day), when I went in to do some work, there were about 25 children there.

The holiday club opens to children from our school and children from local schools.

Thank you stoatsrevenge your situation is similar to that I've seen in other LAs

'You seem to be saying that it is the school's job to solve these problems '

I don't think you have read my comments very carefully.

I have said many times that I do not necessarily expect the schools themselves to organise or provide the service themselves. They could employ an outside agency or team up with other schools or the LEA as many already do to provide holiday clubs and before and after school care.

It makes absolute sense for everybody to use the school buildings though.

Honestly, as I keep saying, it's not rocket science.

In fact, incredibly, many schools already seem to manage it!!!!!

'it is the parents' job to find solutions'

This IS a solution.

This would be a solution for many parents.

Eviltwins, when someone else is looking after your children - whether that's your parents, a sixth former or a friend - then of course you are giving responsibility to them for your children.

You must acknowledge that not everybody has these options and yes, you are quite fortunate, if you have someone who can look after your children during these days whom you can trust.

DP's parents live 300 miles away. Mine are too ill to take care of my kids. My friends who live locally are also teachers. This is nothing to do with my lack of organisation or responsibility or everything else and crucially I am not the only one in this position. There are many people on this thread alone who are in a similar posiiton and I know other teachers, like me, who end up having to bring their children into work with them. This situation is replicated all over the country. Society has changed in the last 100 years such that many thousands of parents struggle with childcare particularly during these INSET days which are uncoordinated and when there is often no organised provision.

An organised after school provision at the school where there is INSET or at a nearby school where the provision could be shared would help many parents. There are actually no disadvantages although people here are at pains to invent them. There would be no obligation to use it if people could find alternatives with which they were happier.

'the "I'm alright Jack" attitude that you so obviously detest is, in my view, just the way that it has to be in these sort of situation'

Why????????

Clearly, as it works in other schools, it doesn't.

Imagine if we had this attitude about everything. Why bother with before school clubs and after school clubs, why bother with holiday clubs. In fact, why bother with schools at all?? Or any sort of social structures at all. Why doesn't everyone just 'sort themselves out'?????

EvilTwins, I can only think that you're not reading my posts, not understanding them or deliberately misinterpreting them.

I do not have a ' "schools are childcare" attitude at all.

I am simply saying that since there is a need for childcare provision during INSET days why, as a society, are we not providng that need and using school buildings to do that??

Do you see the difference

And, once again, what exactly is unreasonable about that suggestion?

Your attitude is quite frankly bizarre.

fivecandles you quoted stoatsrevenge and she has clarified that out of 350 pupils the school can accommodate 45 ...really works

That's 45 children whose parents can go to work feeling confident that their children are being well looked after.

Those parents are earning money to care for their families, providing jobs for people who may not otherwise be in employment, paying their taxes and possibly making a hugely valuable impact in society in their work (if they are nurses, doctors, teachers).

Great. Let's replicate it.

Believe me - I'd rather be in front of a class than sitting with an increasingly numb backside on a too-hard chair suffering death by Powerpoint on the latest daft initiative that will be quietly ditched within 2 years.

Added points if the Powerpoint is on the nice topic of children's concentration spans and how we shouldn't subject them to powerpoints for extended periods - but it's ok to drone through reading off the powerpoint for 2 hours at a go to a room of teachers.