Talk me through a teachers work load… why is it so hard?

[Mummame2222]

So, I adore my kids primary school teachers, they are all wonderful. I admire the work they do, I could never, ever do their job.

I supported all the strikes and believe teachers when they say they are overworked and underpaid.

I’m just curious how their time is spent. The holidays you have off each year does this average out your working week? So say you work 60+ hours during term time, what are you doing during half terms and school holidays?

Just trying to get a better understanding of how their job is so difficult, and like I said, I believe them and support them, I would just like to be better equipped and more knowledgeable when I stick up for them as the inevitable ‘yeah they get so much holiday’ argument always comes up when I try to!

This won't go well OP

Oh gosh, really? What have I done wrong?

Confused, do you work during your holidays op?

I have spent 4 hours today and 4 hours yesterday marking essays.

I'm one of the rare beasts who doesn't work in my holidays, except at Easter and June half term when I set deadlines for exam classes as normal and continue to mark. The first fortnight of summer is marking live GCSEs.

Oh come on, read the bloody OP. I’m trying to understand their work load and just wanted to know to effectively counteract that argument.

Im so their side, I don’t think they should work their holidays. I want to stick up for them and learn more. Jesus, I’m trying to be on side here.

Paper work for every child

Each hour they teach they need to plan- think about what they'll do, how this links onto last lesson, how previously learned stuff can be reviewed or linked in. Planning differentiated work for the 5-8 SEND kids in most classrooms and supplementary resources for them and the EAL kids. Marking the work that is done in the lesson. Parent emails. Parent meetings. Meeting with external professionals working with the children in class. Dealing with safeguarding and disclosures. Dealing with arguments. Planning class assembly and writing script. Emails emails emails. Internal staff meetings. Training.

What would you say your average hourly work week is? Term time?

I did read the OP
It says this :

I’m just curious how their time is spent. The holidays you have off each year does this average out your working week? So say you work 60+ hours during term time, what are you doing during half terms and school holidays?

I was answering this question.

Easter holidays for most of my teaching friends is writing the reports for the end of year. We finish in June and most schools hand them out in May.

Last summer holidays was my daughter preparing for her classroom. Name tags, wall signs. My friend's daughter in law had to scrub her classroom as it was filthy.

The Christmas holidays is prepping for the year ahead.

Even as an EYP my downtime isn't always my own. Constantly planning my next things, courses held on my day off.

It also says this:

I would just like to be better equipped and more knowledgeable when I stick up for them as the inevitable ‘yeah they get so much holiday’ argument always comes up when I try to!

PPA (the timetabled sessions for doing lesson planning) just isn't enough. Add to that zero time to do roles where you have extra responsibilities. If you added up the hours I do during term time and spread them across a 52 week year then it'd probably equate to a regular full-time job but in teaching, it's crammed into a much shorter period of time.

I get into school about 7.45. I'll work almost non-stop until 5. I do take a lunch (30 mins). Then I'll come home and work some more.

I've done no work so far this weekend but I'll have to later.

Are you like this with doctors, nurses etc? Wanting to know how they spend their holidays? Why is the job so difficult?

Teachers get about 5 weeks paid holiday (not to be taken during term time) the rest is unpaid.

I start work at 7 (train commute) and finish at 5. Work through lunch. A minimum of 4 hours marking at the weekend. More often 8.

Last week I drove and was at my desk every day at 7.30. The only day I left before 6.30 was Friday when I left at 5.30. It was a busy paperwork week. Still had the marking on top of that.

My daughter is currently training, so very early in her career, she spends Sundays lesson planning and evenings marking.

Much of her day is teaching but she also has to be hostage negotiator, Police officer, social worker, nutritionist, manage parents as well as children, and also keep up to date with ever changing rules, regs and curriculum.

Anyone else that requires a response is going to have to read the OP properly. If not they’ll have to get their MN argument kicks somewhere else.

Planning-at least 10 hours per week if not more (no schemes allowed)
Staff meetings-1 1/2 hours a week
Prep time (printing, trimming, finding the missing bulbs for science etc)-1-2 hours a week (takes 45mins to print just the reading for the week!)
Parent related stuff-1-2 hours a week
We've just done our residential which was taking 1-2 hours a week to organise
SEND related stuff (meetings, scaffolding, making extra resources etc)-2-4 hours a week
Classroom admin-1 hour a week
Paperwork including safeguarding-1-3 hours a week
Marking-1-2 hours a week
Data input can take 1-2 hours at the end of each half term.
That doesn't include report writing, parents evenings prep and the meetings, subject leadership (not optional in my school) related bits, clubs (we have to run 1 a year)

On top of the actual teaching. I get 2 1/2 a week PPA time to complete all of the above.

Wow that is honestly just incredible! I was already so grateful for my kids teachers but now even more so. Thanks for the informative post.

Unfortunately it seems some people are offended when one wants to educate themselves on the struggles of others. I’ll never understand this. It’s ok to ask questions and learn about what other people are going through, how else, and why else would anyone support them?

I've left the UK now but was I used to teach in England. So obviously you have your full day teaching (I taught Reception and Year 2 in successively).

Lunch break would be spent either getting resources ready for the afternoon lesson and/or marking/collating evidence for each child's learning journey.

After the students went home, I would then start getting my resources ready for the next day, setting up the different areas on the classroom or getting the materials they needed ready.

I would leave around 5 or 6 then go home and have dinner. Clean up after dinner and open the laptop. Maybe I would be making target groups for the children, tweaking planning or making resources. I would work til around 9.30pm.

Get up the next morning and get to work for around 8. Photocopy materials, set up activities, reply to emails, do fiddly bits that need to be done during the day.

Teach all day. Go home and repeat in some way. All day Sunday was spent planning, getting resources ready. Back then, I made everything from scratch.

There would be additional things too. Reports, CPD, moderation inspections, SATs preparations, planning, tweaking, making resources, looking for resources, buying resources! Running booster sessions. I remember that in the final week before the end of each half term I would be walking to school and feeling like I didn't have the energy to lift my feet off the ground, dragging them along and feeling dizzy with sheer exhaustion. Then every half term I would crash and end up sick!

Mist of the holidays for teachers are unpaid, as I'm sure someone will be along to explain.

I’m a secondary teacher. I’m long enough into the job that I am faster now! I work every evening, Sunday nights but I don’t work on Saturday and I (try) not to work in the holidays.
if we go with general:

I have EPQ’s to mark this week. I’ve got 8 in my EPQ group. They take about an hour each. My plan is to do 3 today, and then 2 on Monday / Wednesday / some before school.

I’ve got parents evening Tuesday night. Every appointment booked between 4pm - 7pm. Realistically it won’t finish until 7.30om.

lessons need planning. Not from scratch but checking / adapting. Say 15 mins each. I teach 21 lessons a week. That’s 5 hours of work.

the resources need photocopying. Let’s say 5 mins. That’s 2 hours.

I get 4 hours PPA in school. I’m already up to 18 hours extra work. So that 14 hours needs to be done as extra.

and that’s not including extra curricular clubs / sorting out my tutor group / the safeguarding issues that take 30 mins to write up and pass on / the 7 emails (one from each year head) asking for “just a few names” for celebration assembly / putting notes on ClassCharts for parents.

What would you say your average hourly work week is? Term time?

I'm a secondary teacher. My minimum is about 50 hours a week term-time. I work in school from 8:00 to 5:30, sometimes do more work when I get home, and always do at least a few hours at the weekend. That would be ok if I were getting everything done. What's kind of soul-destroying is the knowledge that to actually do your job properly, you'd have to do at least 60, if not quite a lot more. Either you do that, or you live with the constant feeling that you are failing to so your job properly. Well, that's my experience anyway.

, I would just like to be better equipped and more knowledgeable when I stick up for them as the inevitable ‘yeah they get so much holiday’ argument always comes up when I try to!

Holidays (beyond statutory minimum) are unpaid.

Good God. How do you do this? I just couldn’t… all of that with teenagers to deal with on top of it.

So, is the pay that’s being advertised on a teachers job advert Per annum? Are they being paid that full amount or is some deducted for unpaid leave?

@Mummame2222 on its day it is still the best job in the world. I genuinely love being in the classroom. But the actual teaching is such a small part of it.

I remember reading something about educational standards in Singapore and why they were so high and there seemed to be a suggestion that they were high because, for every hour you taught, you got an hour free to plan / mark / sort and therefore everything was done properly…

the one thing I have learnt is that good enough is good enough. And sometimes it’s enough to settle for that