Primary school teacher training

[greentea72]

Any primary school teachers out there who can explain their training requirements, so far this year my ds F1 teacher has had an average of 3 days every half term off on training courses. This seems a lot to me, I don't meant to sound difficult, but is this usual and what sort of courses do you do. Most professionals I know (myself included) have to do about 30 hours cpd a year - A lot of this in our own time) this is equating to about half a day a week out of the classroom which seems an awful lot (this is not including teacher training days).

It really depends on her role in school. Most of us have a number of roles on top of classroom teaching. I'm Child Protection Officer so I have to complete training for that role to keep up to date with current requirement, I also have to attend court and conferences in that role, I'm also SENCO which requires time commitment ...literacy coordinator ... assessment .... plus frequent changes to the curriculum and the introduction of new initiatives ...

It depends, is she an NQT? In which case she will need courses on just about everything! 3 days a half term is quite a lot but as long as the Government con tinues to chop and change with what we are expected to teach then we will have to be trained. As an example, I've just had two days training on Sex Education because this was something previously covered in my local authority by the School Nursing Service. This has now been withdrawn and I have to teach this myself.

PS> The teacher training days ARE in our own time-they were taken off our holidays so that's 30 hours there

There's a lot of SENCOs out there having to do extra top-up training as it is now a requirement. Same for other roles in the school, ASTs for example. Several of our teachers are out for an afternoon a week, or a fortnight.
What do you suggest as the alternative? Most training used to be twilight and weekend courses, but the additional paperwork required from teachers on a daily basis now means that few would be able to take evening classes on board as well.
I'd be more bothered about how the class is being covered.

We can't be experts in everything that is demanded of us without additional training and updating.

I've just completed Maths specialist teacher training ( which took on average 2-3 hours per week of my own time) yet maths is just one of approx 12 subjects I currently teach.

Teachers are entitled to release time for 10% of their weekly hours. If she is an NQT, she will also get 10% for this.

For a full time teacher, this will be a full day per week, between PPA and NQT time.

When I was an NQT, I had every Wednesday afternoon out of school. This wasn't my choice- my borough organised training in their professional centre for all the NQTs.

She might also be doing a masters' degree, or SLT training. Or a million and one other things.