Calling all teachers!!

[sahmtotwo]

My DH has been qualified now for 3 years. I knew the 1st year would be fraught with long hours but I expected it to have started to calm down now. He is in work for 8.00 and gets home in time to put the DC to bed (and not even that this week!!).Then he will have something to eat and proceed to do more work sometimes till 2 or 3 o'clock in the morning. He is a Science teacher at a 'challanged' Secondary school. Is this normal? Should he be doing all these hours? I have no one I can ask and wondered if this is the norm.

I've been a science teacher for 11 years. I have just returned full time and it is incredibly time consuming. However, I do work in a fab private school. Does he not have lesson plans he can reuse now? My 6th form stuff is the easiest as it is just reused each year. Does he know all the great websites to download ideas? Does the school use published schemes of work? There are lots of ways to make life a little easier - no point in reinventing the wheel imo.

At the end of last year they had to write up new schemes of work, so apparantly lots has changed. Oh! and guess who had to do the work on that? "because he is so good at that sort of thing" and he 'helped' the teacher doing the physics one. He has been given mostly new classes this year with abilities that differ on what he has taught before. He has taken on 2 extra jobs to. Can't really understand what they are about. But he took them on before he had finalised payment etc. They were talking upto £2000 extra and 2 free periods extra. He ended up with £1000 which is payable as a bonus at the end of the year and only if he has done the job to the hm satisfaction and 1 free period which isn't really as it is due to a timetable re-jig. I know he uses lots of diffrent websites but any you can give me to pass on would be very much appreciated.

I am afraid I am just totally fed up with it atm.

The 'different abilities' thing is a perenial difficulty. You simply can't re-use old stuff if the class is working at a different level.

It does sound as if he has a lot of extra duties.

I teach and 80% time table, effectivly I work 4 days out of 5. I am quick at planning and try to be 'creative' when it comes to marking. I work around 40/50 hours a week, more when I have the dreaded coursework......and I am a 'bog standard' classroom science teacher with no extra responsibilities.

We have no legally mandated maximum hours

I think teaching is one of those jobs where you can always do more, and if you're not strict on yourself you work all hours because you ant to do the best for the children.

IMO though teaching should be a part of your life, not your life (if that makes sense).

Just wondering - the £1000 bonus - does he know the criteria he is going to be judged on, because ime performance related pay is often talked about, but rarely with any firm guidelines.

I think he will cause himself no end of problems if he continues with so little sleep. I can't imagine facing classes after being up until three in the morning. His teaching will suffer.

It is completely inappropriate for him to have such a heavy workload.

I don't understand about the bonus thing. I was a HoD and got responsibility points (more pay) and extra non-contact time when I did that.

Which topics is he writing schemes of work for?

I also agree that the lack of sleep is a real issue.

I also don't understand the #1000 bonus
sounds odd - is it maybe the threshold payment that he can receive once he reaches a certain level and proves certain competancies? prob that more than a 'bonus'
sounds like he has to take a step back and stop letting the work take over home life. easy to say I know. It does take a few years though to get the work/life balance as a teacher 'in check'

Getting the kids to mark their own/each others work is a great advantage, but in cutting down marking and also helping them to learn. Self/peer assesment is a buzz phrase in education atm, following on from the 'black box' stuff.