DH ranting again- can any primary teachers please give me a quick run down of the hours they do?

[Caz10]

I know I am not the only one in my school who suffers this, so can't be the only one on here!

DH and I having our regular quarterly argument where he criticises me for doing too much work, bringing too much home etc etc.

I work 0.8 over 4 full days, arrive late (IMO) at approx 8.45 every day (suits me to see dd etc), work through lunch apart from 20 mins, leave any time after 4.30, 5.30 about the latest, and finish off work 9-11pm after dd in bed. Often do this 9-11 at weekends too.

Compared to many colleagues who don't have children these are pretty slim hours- I do the bare minimum and have let standards drop considerably since going back after mat leave. But dh cant see this and seems to think it's my choice to do these hours!

How does that compare to what you do?!

Same as you pretty much exactly, except full time. But I wouldn't work weekend nights at all, the occasional Sunday perhaps. Like you, this is less than I did before I had ds.

Thanks feenie. How does this compare to your workmates do you find? Does your dh/dp moan about it?!

When I was full time I was at school 8am - about 6pm, although I didn't work through lunch. Generally worked at home in the evenings, esp at the weekends. And this was not when we were expecting OfSTED/coming up to the class production or Christmas/marking progress papers/writing reports, etc.

Now work 0.4 on two days with quite frequent extra supply. I am at school 8.15 to 5pm, work through lunch as far as allowed (we are expected to 'bond' in the staff room) and work every evening as soon as dd is asleep. Even so, I get way behind on the marking and failed my last PM on this.

DH also doesn't really understand - he teaches adults and has free paid time at work for preparation. I could not do my job with any less time and even at this rate I am not really doing all that I should.

The colleagues with dc do about the same, and those with no dcs or older ones do more.

Dh is an FE teacher, so is as busy as me, especially at this time of year!

Oh, I forgot governors meetings, starting at 6pm, and PTA meetings, often starting at 7pm, so that the 'p' element could feed their children. And the PTA then express surprise that the teachers don't attend their events.

Thank you for your responses! I'm just really fed up having to explain to dh that I am genuinely just doing the bare minimum at the moment! It really isn't do-able in less time, esp as I am in a new stage and we are introducing a new curriculum. I would do less if I could!!

Sounds abut the same as my friend who is a primary teacher - has 2 DCs as well - manages not to do much in the holidays and that the only compensation!

Get to school for 8am, leave by 6 on Monday and Thursday, and by 5 Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday.
Work around 2 hours at home during the week, usually 12-2am, and from 11pm-3am+ on Saturday night.
The difficulty for me is not to let the job leak in to conversation, and to not constantly look at things with an eye to how useful they'll be in school.
I do less than many other colleagues, I have a DS with additional needs who needs support with school work at home as well.
I hope your colleagues are supportive rather than bitchy about you having to juggle what you do, some can get very snippy if they feel a fellow teacher isn't pulling their weight.

UnSerpent - I appreciate your frustration, but please remember that in many cases the PTA parents are also working, and are coming to meetings straight from work too!

My DH who is a school governor has the problem that the Head always arranges Governor meetings for straight after school, and as DH works 100 miles away, he gets frustrated that he can't get to meetings that he would be able to attend if they started at 7pm.

One of the clashes with PTA/Governors is that for one side, it gives them a warm and satisfying glow to know that they are having a significant input into the lives of thier own children.
For the others, they are neglecting their own children again for the job.

At the moment I work 3 days and have an 'easy' role so I'm not doing long hours (lots of PPA cover with little planning/marking expected).

But when I was a class teacher I would be in 7.30-5, work through my lunch and then do about an hour a night, plus 2 or 3 hours on a Sunday. This is fairly standard for my school.

Have you calculated your hours over a normal working year? It makes a difference because you don't work as many weeks.

I don't know how you do it myself, hats off to you and I shall never question again why my school isn't concerned that dd doesn't do much homework.

'Have you calculated your hours over a normal working year? It makes a difference because you don't work as many week'

I didn't bother calculating what I do in the holidays, it tends to impact less on family and grumpy OHs because you are not trying to do the job at the same time. But record-keeping, planning and making resources are all year round activities.

GoblinChild - PTA and Governors work for the benefit of all the children at the school, including yours.

I did this once. It turned out that I was working the equivalent of 54 weeks, at 37.5 hours a week. And I honestly wasn't overestimating my hours, I could arguably have brought it down to 52 weeks by making allowances for all the nice, easy 'end of term' type days. But no more than that.

I'm on the PTA of my child's school, it's not the one I work at.
When Summer fairs clash it's a bugger.

' PTA and Governors work for the benefit of all the children at the school, including yours.'

Or were you meaning yours in the sense of my class? They are your children and my job. HTH.
Still means that attending an evening meet is easier straight after school rather than seeing the disappointment on your own children's faces when they think you are home and you aren't really. Just having a break to say hi before rushing back to look after other people's children's opportunities.
It's hard enough for a teacher's child as it is.
Neither of mine want to be a teacher.

I share your pain on the summer fete.

For the last 2 years, DDs dance exams have clashed with the fete, so I go into school and work 12 hours the day before helping to sort items. label prizes etc.

Then on the day send DH with DSs1 & 2 (both 6ft teenagers) to the school at 8am to set up gazebos and stalls. Then they are all volunteered to run a stall, then we all stay and clear up. There is no "warm glow" that day!

That's very commendable, but doesn't answer the issue of 'working for all children including yours'
On a previous thread about a similar PTA issue, I said that I'd worked in a very poor urban area, surrounded by wealth. I proposed that all the proceeds from all the fairs went into a pot for equal division between the schools.
Somehow that was considered unreasonable, but if we are all working for all children I don't see why it was not a good idea.
Unless you are all only working for the fruit of your loins and don't want to share the riches.
Sorry OP, off topic, but I get annoyed when parents go on about 'the children' when they mean 'our children'

Cross posted.

By my comment working for all children, I meant all the children in the school, rather than just my child. So your (own) children will benefit from the funds and work done by the PTA and governors at the school they attend, regardless of the school you work in.

I guess that as more school find it difficult to recruit head teachers, and federate with other schools, then your suggestion of fund sharing will start to happen.

OP - apologies for going off topic. But it does annoy me when you see how much work goes into organinsing a fund raiser for the school and then no teachers turn up to support it, and the excuse given is, oh well we've been at work all day.

Rant over.

Rant away. You won't see me at an evening event. Sorry.

Snap panzee. I feel the same way.

We go to the fund raisers at our children's schools.
I've been to a range this year, let my hair down and enjoyed myself without having every word, action and thought sliced and diced by the other adults present.
I love fund-raisers. Get the claws out for all the parents at your school who don't attend.

In the holidays, I do about a week at each end of the summer, plus two or three days leaving one classroom stripped and another three days setting up.
At Christmas and Easter, I work around three or four days, depending on the theme for the next term, new initiatives and resources available.
End of May half term is finishing reports, so that tends to take the week.