Longer school day and shorter holidays, proposes Gove

[Morebiscuitsplease]

I cannot understand this man. Children need time out, teachers also need time to prepare and mark work, when do either get this with such proposals? We complain our children are obese yet suggest more time in school. I do not want any child of mine going to school for 7.30 and finishing at 5. They need time to play, pursue other activities and do homework. Your thoughts please!

It's not even about the educationally disadvantaged AThingInYourLife it's about the socially disadvantaged who all the targeted educational help in the world won't really help because they are going home to shit parents.

Why is working until 5pm to the detriment of their own lives

I work until 5/6pm everyday. So do most teachers. Or are you one of these people who think teachers are only working when the children are there?

But Heswall, as has already been pointed out, state school teachers have far less 'free' time than prep school teachers. There is 'a bit of thought' - but no money for more teachers to cover this.

You cannot complain that private schools have various advantages and then basically refuse to offer the state school children those advantages because it might mean more work for the teachers. Do you want to level the playing field or not ?
This is all a bit worrying for me as I've given notice to the prep school and been assured on other threads the kids will be fine in the local state, seems that's not necessarily true at all :-(

Heswall you don't seem to be reading the other posts at all. The MONEY isn't there to provide what prep schools provide.

Prep school teachers work basically the same amount as state school teachers, it's just that there are more of them so they can devote more time to teaching. When I was teaching I had a specialist teacher come in for music once every two weeks for 45 minutes. Apart from that I had to teach every single other subject. There would no possible way I could teach for an hour and forty-five minutes longer each day and still deliver lessons that were in any way up to scratch, unless I stopped sleeping or eating perhaps.

Don't forget though, fellow teachers, that we are supposed to love our jobs so much that we won't mind doing the extra hours! Where is your dedication?

I'm sure you'd have a good case for a pay rise if you take on extra hours.

I'll be home ed-ing if this happens.I want my kids out at 3.30.

Not all schools are huge rambling stately homes.Many are cramped,shit,cold and dull.God I'd get depressed sitting in school that long let alone the kids.

My kids have a life,I want to see them and they're knackered as it is.What about kids who do Cubs,dance,sports,music?There is no way a knackered teacher who has been teaching all day can compete with specialist experts fresh and energised.

He'll over stretch teachers and standards will drop imvho. They'll be too exhausted to function at 100% by Friday and will flop as will the kids.My kids are shite by Friday and shite by the end of each term.

Concentrate on making the hours they are in school at the moment better instead.

I'd be grateful for pay that vaguely reflected inflation, but there you go.

Of course we wouldn't get a pay rise. We're teachers. The nation's babysitters.

Wouldn't we all socks.

No payrise in two years and due to the amount of industry redundancies most have taken 50% pay cuts just for the pleasure of being employed.
Ho hum

I am so wildly against compulsory school attendance until 5pm.
yes, provide a range of good optional activities until that time, but if it becomes compulsory, along with shorter hols, that is the thing that would drive me, more than any ofter aspect of school, to consider home ed or private. (both would need us to llive in a hut - we can barely manage on our 2 incomes as it is!)

Why do our politicians always look to the least appropriate example? Why can't they look to Scanidnavia, or Holland.

I'm sure. I'm well aware of the situation in industry and actually think that my pay is not bad at all. But I am certain that none of this will result in any extra pay for teachers, no matter how much more work they pile on us.

The trouble is Blu the optional part allows those who most need it to opt out.
I'm no socialist but even I can see why this would help many children.
And many parents.
And if you don't agree you can always home ed or go private I guess, but mine would be required to attend school on saturdays if they were any good at sport.

'Not all schools are huge rambling stately homes.Many are cramped,shit,cold and dull.God I'd get depressed sitting in school that long let alone the kids.'

agreed - who wants to sit under artificial lighting all day?

So children with good parents should be prevented from going home to them as part of an nationwide campaign to separate other children from parents you deem to be shit?

Forcing children to spend even more time in schools that are barely performing their function as it is?

Just to keep them away from their parents?

How utterly vile, in every way.

and if you don't agree you can home ed or go private

i can't afford private, there wouldn't be enough places for every child whose family didn't pike it, and i can't afford to stop working so i can home ed (all said without even taking in to consideration whether home edding/private school would be the best fit for my children)

iit seems like a very cavalier attitude that betrays a fundamental lack of understanding of many people's circumstances

I imagine you also think that the solution to the probelms faced by people with mobility issues would be to amputate the limbs of healthy people

'I'll be home ed-ing if this happens.I want my kids out at 3.30.'

Me too.