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??

OP stated she was a new parent with her elder child just starting school.

it is eminently possible that the information from the school did not explain that an inset day means that children do not attend. I hope she mentions to the school that this needs to be clearer in the initial joining information. She sounds like a capable person who would have easily made alternative arrangements had the education jargon been more clearly explained.

I agree with the various posters here who say that training days should be co-ordinated (and perhaps consolidated into an extra week at autumn half term), so that playschemes etc can bear some of the load for working families.

Or the training could be phased so that it is not necessary to close the whole school: that is what happens in medicine, where there is a mandated amount of vitally important professional development required (for individuals and teams) but where the facilities do not close.

Re: my remark about people whingeing...

"and then this is slapped in our faces."

"Why can't they do these training days in the evenings or even Saturday morning?"

"Surely with the number of weeks off they get it wouldn't be too much to expect a few days to be put towards training?"

"This is really going to get right up my nose."

Doesn't sound like a reasonable complaint to me. More like whingeing, and guaranteed to put the backs up of most hard-working teachers at the end of a long and stressful half term.

I find your post incredibly offensive mrz.

Your school should have before and after school clubs and holiday clubs or have an arrangment with another school/s to provide these services because this is the 21st century and most people do work for their livings.

Bully for you managing to make arrangements for your kids' insets but not everybody is so fortunate.

Are you saying that it is somehow their fault that people don't always have grandmothers or friends or nannies to look after their kids during INSET days?????

I am a teacher who makes use of before school clubs and holiday clubs SO I CAN TEACH other people's kids.

But when they have INSET days sometimes I have no choice but to take them into work with me and have them at the back of my class.

It would be much better if my kids' school could provide childcare during these days and there are many many people who would welcome this work esp the people who currently provide the before and after school clubs.

What objections can there possibly be to this?

clam, I AM a hard working teacher and so is my DP.

I am not 'whingeing' about the lack of provision for children during INSET I have a very legitimate complaint about it given that DP and I can't exactly leave other people's kids to get on with it while we look after our own for 4 or 5 days a year.

Come off it.

'She sounds like a capable person who would have easily made alternative arrangements had the education jargon been more clearly explained.'

FGS it doesn't matter how capable you are or how much notice you get some people just don't people who can look after their kids during INSET days.

DP and I sometimes fit this category and we are both teachers.

onimolap the idea of INSET is for all staff to receive training to improve the school. The people providing the training charge the school by the day so paying twice for the same training out of a tight budget isn't going to help anything.
As a lot of training is provided by national/international consultants schools have to arrange INSET around their availability I'm afraid.

As several people have pointed out, training often involves input from other professionals, who can't be in more than one place at a time, so if all schools need that training, the training days must be different

And from the evidence of this thread alone, it is obvious that having training days 'at a convenient time' means different things to different people....

But a lot of the consultants are a load of rubbish and a big, fat waste of money. Quite often teachers sit there wishing they could get on with their real work (either teaching or paper work).

fivecandles read my post. It was aimed at the OP, not you.

'hard working teachers at the end of a long and stressful half term' - well teachers do work very hard. So do police officers, NHS staff and firemen. Of course those people don't get to take 1/2 term three times a year plus Easter plus Summer plus Christmas. They get 5 weeks holiday maximum and they fit all their training in around providing a service. Only teachers get to say that they won't be providing a service today at all as they are 'training' to provide the service. I reserve the right to be pissed off about that. I know the inset days were taken from holiday - good. I also know they work very hard in the evenings etc - so do many people in many professions - doesn't make them special.

Your school should have before and after school clubs and holiday clubs or have an arrangment with another school/s to provide these services because this is the 21st century and most people do work for their livings.

You still haven't explained why fivecandles?
We don't provide it because when asked our parents said it wasn't a service they wanted provided by the school. As I say they are able to make their own arrangements.
Do you think in the 21st Century we should employ people to run a club no one wants or needs?

Only teachers get to say that they won't be providing a service today at all as they are 'training' to provide the service.

I'm afraid you are incorrect teachers are told they have to use five of their holidays for training which is what INSET days are.

The reason you'll find so many teachers pointing out how hard they work is to try to counter the widespread belief by some that it's all long holidays and going home at 3.30. I don't profess to a harder lot in life than other professionals, but it hacks me off when poeple appear to assume that INSET days are a jolly invented by teachers (from precious curriculum time) just to piss off working parents.

Oh God, people.

Mrz - the teachers at dd1's school have said just that - by packing up at 2.30 every other week all year - and yes it does bloody annoy me!

You honestly need me to explain why schools should (and most do) have before and after school clubs??

So that children can go to them so that their parents can work.

If, at your school, there is not a single parent who needs that service then that's great but that is extremely unusual.

And please do not assume that everybody is lucky enough to have the sort of support that you have.

Well, that's the thing clam teachers often resent the INSET days just as much as working parents do.

And I'm speaking as both.

And yes, we do get those holidays BUT WE ARE NOT PAID FOR THEM, as I stated further up the thread.

NothereisnobodylurkingbehindU as others have said this isn't normal have you asked why?

Look - I have an awful job trying to sort out childcare for my children on their INSET days because I work in a job where you cannot take a random day's holiday (teaching), my DH works away a lot and we have no family close by. And most of my friends work too. I get that it's difficult, and for teachers not to get that seems odd, as we are clearly working parents too.

I don't get NothereisnobodylurkingbehindU's post at all. You say you know that it's taken from our holiday but you still reserve the right to be pissed off about it because...? Because it should be taken off our holiday? I don't get what you are saying. Or do you think that it should be done at weekends rather than the holiday?

fivecandles it means just that - getting on with it - using kids club or my husband takes the day off work or I take DS2 with me to work.

You honestly need me to explain why schools should (and most do) have before and after school clubs??

As I have stated we have asked our parents if there is a need for these services and they have said no should we force them to use a service they don't want?

As a working parent I wouldn't have used these service either and they certainly weren't available.

Much of the continuous professional development for medics is also provided by large consultancies or at international events. It is also vital - life and death vital - that all members of teams are trained to work together to the highest possible standards.

This is achieved without closures of medical facilities: the providers of CPD can and do alter their delivery to meet demand.

Oooh - send me to an international event for some CPD please!!

TheFallenMadonna I do have sympathy for parents I was a working (widowed) mother with two small children so had to be organised with childcare.