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??

"senua Many teachers are working parents"

What is your point, mrz? I would have thought that such teachers, having experienced the problems for themselves of being a working parent, would be the first to support an organised structure (whether fully blown child-care or just a list of contact names).

stoats because I work through it. My PPA usually gets eaten up by SENCO or CP issues.

Sensu you said "if you are a working parent" I was merely stating that many of us are working parents and know the problems that go with a job and children

"know the problems that go with a job and children"

so ... does your school do anything about it?

My DC's school runs a breakfast club. We set up a parent-managed after school club. I would suggest that parents could get together and organise a holiday club if they perceive a need. It isn't straightforward of course. But it isn't expecting other people to organise things for you.

yes we give them at least a years notice of days the school will be closed and we regulary consult with parents on the need for other services but there is no demand for the type of service from our parents. In fact when we have provided crèches for events in school there have been more staff than children with our max attendance ever being 3 under 3s.

I think it's easier having the kids home on the summer on the whole easier to entertain them .I think my dc spend long enough at school as it is and then if you hot shorter holidays you then have the price of holidays driven up by the supply and demand where everybody trying to get away at the same time

I'm surprised mrz. What's your demographic then? Are they all SAHM, have huge extended families, pay for help or what??

Most use childminders, private day care and lots of PT workers who arrange working hours round school hours.

As a DC I loved the long summer holiday and I love it as a parent-you can forget about school completely-4 weeks doesn't give that sort of freedom.Childhood is so short -they never get that amount of free time again. You still have to cover the same amount of days off-I don't see that the timing matters.

really, fivecandles, your whole argument is very specific to families where both parents teach. The majority view INSET days in the same way as other school holidays. I actually think it's pretty irresponsible to take your own dcs to work, but then mine are only 4 so maybe I'll feel differently when they're older. Refusing to take time off even though it's perfectly legitimate is YOUR choice and, in my opinion, totally invalidates your other arguments and pleas for sympathy that there is no one to help you.

It is just like a school holiday-if they were taken away they would be back to the holiday they were taken from! They are fixed a year in advance-I really don't see a difference between finding childcare for an INSET day or finding it for half term or finding it if your DC wakes up with a raging temperature and rash.

Not necessarily. There have been two suggestions on the thread to lengthen the school year and adjust pay accordingly. I would much rather have the extra time than the extra money TBH.

God, me too. Time spent with ds is precious.

My dh is a teacher too. We purposely chose a childminder when ds was tiny so that we could be in work for 8 and home at 5, and know that when he went to school he would be looked after on training days.

I would have the extra time-it is far, far more important than extra money. I don't teach full time as it is because I want a life!

I think the annoying thing with INeST days is when the school doesn't communicate to parents when they are going to be.

It can be especially annoying if you have different children at different schools (as can easily happen in areas where infants and juniors are still separate)as you end up having to cater for inset days tagged on to either end of each half term.

Around here it is very difficult to find child care for such days. Holidays are catered for by holiday clubs, but the INSET days aren't. Which can leave a parent taking a a days holiday at short notice from work, or absolutely begging a relative or friend to have a child. (Funnily enough, no one ever wants to have all three of my children at the same time.)

Now, school isn't just a free childcare facility by any means, but it would be nice if childcare was easily available to cover inset days.

And I do tend to laugh when teachers say "I'm at work from 7.30 until 6pm every day. Erm, yes, like lots of other people, who then don't have as many days holiday.

It would make more sense to me if training days were taken within the pupil's 13 weeks holiday, and teachers pay was altered accordingly.

Training days were taken out of the 13weeks holiday-you can't take them twice! If you don't know when they are ask the school for the dates in September.

Yes - that would be adding 5 days to the school year. For the children, as well as the teachers. The teachers have already had the days taken out of the holidays. I would not be happy to lose another week, but more importantly, I would not be happy for my children to lose a week.

So you want 14 weeks holiday then, Lynette?

I've yet to come across a school that doesn't set training days at the beginning of the academic year, at the very latest. There is no reason at all why they should ever come as a surprise.

Lynette most teachers do acknowledge that other people work long hours. Our pay is adjusted because of our holidays.

I think that the children really need the holidays-they get very tired by the end of term. I don't think it really matters if they keep the long summer break or make it more even, but it is very important to have 13 weeks free. A lot of childhood is eroded as it is. The school year should be the best combination for the DCs-not to keep their noses to the grindstone to give parents free childcare.

You can't take them twice, but you can re-jig the calender, so that they are in even blokes with out days on the end.

Yes, ask the school in September! Because our infant school didn't declare they were taking last Thursday and Friday, only Friday until a couple of weeks before. (They hadn't yet sorted out whether the training would be available) So we have the Junior school saying they are taking the Thursday and Friday, even though they may well change and only take the Friday, and the infant school saying they are only taking the Friday.

It didn't really matter to me on this occasion, but I really would like more than a couple of weeks notice that half term was going to be eleven days rather than ten. It could have proven to be a childcare headache from hell.

Communication is the key.

Feenie, 14 weeks holiday would be fine by me, as long as I know when they are, and the holiday clubs are operating.

Go on the school website and you can find them for the whole year-they are not sprung on parents! If you can see that there is one on 18th June you have plenty of time to get your act together!