School says I have "No right to take my child out of school during term time"

[Easy]

Okay, first I understand that school is important, and I don't necessarily intend to take my ds on holiday during term time but .....

We have just received the bumf from school regarding ds's first term next Sept.

In amongst it is a section on absences which says "You do not have the automatic right to take children on holidays during term time. The school must agree to this beforehand"

Now I feel that the school does not have a "right" to tell me when I can have access to my own child, I find the wording somewhat heavy handed, to say the least.

I'm not disagreeing with the principle involved, I just feel that the way it's being done is wrong. Is it just me who feels the 'Nanny state' interfering here.

Paid more in Industry that is! And I was never called a Bitch in industry. And none of my mates were headbutted by a kid, or had a knife pulled on them, or they car entered by a kid, or their bag gone through, or told to Fuck Off whle I was in tertiary education or industry.

Don't get me wrong I truly love my job. But it isn't the walk in the park that people think it is.

I couldn't be a teacher - I have soo much respect for their patience and attitude - the way they get treated by lots of parent s and pupils alike would see me up in the dock for assault charges!!

Big cheer for all the teachers (good ones anyway!!)

My SIL had a child left with her for the weekend! Honestly!!!! You can't make this sort of thing up. The mother fancied a weekend clubbing so left her kid in school with my SIL....who had to call social services.

My friend has never had to put up with any aggro from a parent. If she thinks she might get hassle she hands it over to her boss who deals with it. Seriously.... She must be the least stressed Teacher out there!

Easy

but all parents have to sign the "Home-school Agreement" which has this document laid out in it, so I'm assuming they would have read it!

As an aside - wouldn't be a teacher for all the tea in China! I think they deserve a medal - I went on DD1 (year 3) school trip last week and there were a couple of them who quite frankly I wanted to belt the living daylights out of them!!

Spoke to the teacher on the trip - she said that she had recruited the most parent helpers (18!!) for Year 3 that she has EVER needed - purely to keep the "core" group separated.

(seriously p**ed off with one of them at the moment - DD1 class is studying Ancient Greece - my mum had some really nice pots from Greece so DD1 took them for the display. One of the little gits lost his temper yesterday in class - so got up and threw one of my mums pots against the wall DD1 is distraught, the teacher is mortified and I'm lived. Teacher told me this morning and I have to face this kids mother tonight - and I'm bubbling!!)

Jeeeezzz - sorry this has gone WAY off topic and into a mini rant

Oh Slinky tha's awful. You must be furioue!!!!angry{}

(angry)

Goodness slinky what a little sod!!

Toothache - I want to teach where your frined does!

Honest I actually quite enjoy teaching - sadly diminishing recently, but after some time out doing a bit of supply and variety I will be back on track I'm sure!

i'VE TAUGHT AT TWO SCHOOLS - ONE TOP OF THE LEAGUE AND ONE NOW IN SPECIAL MEASURE. hAVE TO SAY THAT i DO HAVE TO WORK EVENINGS AND WEEKENDS, AND HOLIDAYS. nOT AS MUCH AS i USED TO WHEN FIRST QUALIFIED. mORE EXPERIENCE MEANS i XAN DO THINGS MORE QUICKLY,A ND i KNOW WHAT TO FOCUS AND PRIORITISE MORE.

Opps - sorry!

I think most teachers do have to do this work outside of schools. When else can they plan and mark??? To domy job properly I have to anyway. I don't know?

I have also had to deal with parents and pupils on numberof occasions. At both schools this is. Parents at first school were often very pushy - what grade will be pupil get? What extra work can they get given? etc... At this school, some has been very aggressive - how dare you give my child a detention, etc.

Pupils - only had aggressive ones at cureent school. Child of 13 hit me with a chair hen I was 7 months pg It is not uncommon in this school to be verbally abused by pupils and parents, physicaly abuse is not rare but not common also.

As I say on the whole I enjoy teaching but it isn't dead easy. For example, did you know how hard it xcan be for a teacher to get life insurance or for critical illness? Difficult - teaching is in the top category for stress related illness. Very expensive!!!

But teaching has its benefits too - like every job
But there are some great benefits. Holiday time is fab for me and fits in with DD, especially when she starts school. That is why I am staying in teaching for the long term. I did consider leaving earlier this year when I was deciding to resign from this job.

Now multiply little sod by 7 and you have my middle set Y7 group!! I'm almost glad to be voiceless to miss them (joke!)

Can a teacher please tell me exactly what is done during inset days. Are they where teachers go on courses and further their skills or are they simply holidays? Never understood.

INSET days are in service training days. They are not a holiday for the teachers. We are expected to be in school at the usual time, although we can wear casual clothes! Most INSETs will have a theme, for eample you may get a series of lectures on assessment techniques. You may get information of prefered learning styles that children have. It is a way of keeping teachers up to date in new techniques and government initiatives. So we have had some on the new KS3 policy.

You can also have departmental INSETs where each departemnet looks at the issues it wants to address and works on them. The last one we had was on how to best implement the KS3 policy in science, teachers who had been on courses set us work to do! Then we went on to look at pupil self assessment and what to do about implementing it.

It is a change from having to work with the kids, and these days can be fun and team building, but they are not repeat not extra holidays for the staff!

Oh and they are run in school, no no extra cost via booking facilities etc but we do get a free school dinner

Inset Days

Depends on school focus. In ours this year we have had:

SEN information (autism spectrum, impaired hearing) from outside speakers]

Lots on teaching and learning stuff, since the school went into Serious Wesakness and now Special Measures - so strategies, planning ideas, discipline stuff, etc.

Departmental time for moderation of coursework, and planning for future

etc. Some are more useful than others. Teachers don't often at my school choose the focus of the INSET, the SMT do. They are mainly whole school things, but with some departmental time built in. I wish there were more departmental ones to be honest as I find these most useful.

Courses are different and at this school they are usually subject specific. they can be anyway. My school is in Doncaster so my courses can bethere, Sheffield and Leeds generally. Some are further afield - London, Birmingham, Manchester, etc. My courses this year have been to do with the new National Stregy for KS3 ICT, the moderation meetings for the GCSE and GNVQ, Key Skills planning ones, etc. Some are full day, some half day. For me, courses are normally few and far between, but always full of information and vital.

To qualify the stuff to as we are in SM (and SW before) we also have regular after school meetings - from 3:30 till 4:45 or 5pm to do other INSET type things, especially teaching and learning. This is on top of normal meetings, and well in excess of the Teachers Agreenment. I do most of these.

Thank you for the clarification hmb.

hmb - they stopped our free dinners this year We usually try and nip to the local pub for a snadwich this year in our lunch hour.

ARRRGGGGGHHHH moderation meetings. My least favoured way to spend time. I'd rather have my teeth filled!

...and hulababy.

Poor you Hula!

Actually our school meals are good, always cooked on site. Their quiches are wonderful

Note, we don't get free meals each day, just in INSET

Our school meals are okay actually. Not exactly healthy - well, depnds on what you choose - but not bad. Mind you, the pub does a mean hot baguette as well

I suppose, with the national curriculum, if you take a child out of school for a week they will miss a part of the curriculum and there may not be time to teach the child that bit separately. And anything they learn from the holiday itself won't be that part of the curriculum that they have missed. I do think the wording could be pleasanter, though.