So - how much work have you got to do over half term?

[petalpower]

Are you going to manage to get a break or is there just too much to catch up on?

Thanks petal. It's been blummin hard work! The problem is, it only looks like it's going to get tougher over the next couple of half terms. Then the examining starts...

Done all mine, had two pieces of writing to APP and a load of APP reading plus calculating some reading assessments. Actually I haven't done that yet.

But I have been ill and spent most of half term in bed so feeling very cheated of my half term so far

Hopefully will be better tomorrow!

Philoslothy my worry, aside from not giving students assessments back and having nothing to teach, would be that other teachers are also relying on me for what they teach too. It's not the kind of school where I could wing it. I have in the past, as I'm sure many of us have, but not this time.

Make sure you take some time out now to get better if you can KinkyDorito. It will be difficult once you get back into term again.

Oh Xpost kinky get well soon too.

Reporting back to keep me on track and motivated:
Updating my maths - yes
and science assessments - not yet
marking 60 pieces of independent writing and updating APP accordingly - not yet
planning for next half term's topic sessions - started but not finished
starting MT plans for new curriculum ready for September - NO, decided that will have to wait until Easter.
update my IEPs and provision maps - done
analyse whole school assessment data and progress towards summer targets - almost finished
spend/order subject resources from my budget - decided what stock is needed but not yet ordered.
put three new displays up in my classroom and corridor - discovered I can't get in my classroom this holiday, so that is out.
writing LT plans for my subjects across school - done
writing a new subject policy - done
undertake self-evaluation for my subjects - two subjects done, one to go
planning and prep for first week back - Not yet
AND SLEEP! - definitely done.

Feeling I've been fairly productive, but keep finding extra jobs to add to my list.

Wow Gruffalo - that's an impressive list!

Well done, Checkpoint. I'm going to be doing mine at the weekend yet again. And if I don't, Philosophy, I'll just have to spread it out over the first week back. Everyone is so dedicated and admirable.

I am not criticizing the people on this thread, they are clearly well meaning. However if you are working long hours in term time and then working in the holidays that is unsustainable and in the long term you are not helping, other teachers will simply refuse to work those hours and leave ( schools lose potentially great teachers), they will burn out and leave ( schools lose potentially great teachers ) or they will become dull and lose their love of the job ( schools some potentially great teachers).

Trouble is if I don't get on top of that list in holiday time I'll have to find time to do in term time on top of the 60+ hour week or get really stressed because it hasn't been done.

But perhaps what you are being asked to do is not realistic but by working over the holidays you are covering up that fact. Again not a personal criticism , I can see that you are all trying to do your best.

So what do you suggest we all do - teach substandard lessons, assess inaccurately, refuse to lead a subject?

You are completely correct Philoslothy and I agree with you. In my situation I am too new to my job to change this yet. I think the whole climate in teaching at the moment expects far too much of us and people are leaving. Do we all down tools though? The school I've moved to is hovering above special measures and if we don't do it, we might not have a job to go to. The school I was in for nearly a decade before was outstanding and I was made to feel if I slipped remotely, I would lose my job. The expectations are vast, pressured and relentless wherever you are.

But yes, in these circumstances it is very hard to keep my love of the job. I've not met a secondary English teacher who loves their job in ages.

I think you are all primary,so I am not going to pretend to know what you need to do.

In a secondary scenario things we have done to reduce teacher workload have included:
Using inset and department time to produce schemes of work which are used by all staff
Planning with other schools, rather than schools individually creating schemes of work and lesson plans
Regular logging of hours
Anonymous feedback on working hours
Each department has a member of staff who is not a senior member of staff to monitor working hours and feedback about problems
Less assessment
Peer marking
Using meeting time for marking sessions

This process started with staff just saying " no, I can't do that"

I think if I said "No, I can't do that" it would go down very badly.
I am in a very small (3 class) primary and the workload is huge.
It sounds as though your school is really helping to monitor and reduce workload Philoslothy.

I'm secondary and I have encountered none of the measures you have written about in the last decade.

We do use peer assessment, but are still expected to mark every book once a fortnight with a target.

You are very, very lucky and you can PM me with the name of your school!!

I'm secondary.

we do the common SOLs. However, you are expected to produce detailed, differentiated individual planning to go alongside it...

& we are explicitly prohibited from using meeting time for marking.

I'm secondary. I'm a department of one. I actually quite enjoy the planning. Good job really because over the last 2 yrs I've started a new GCSE course and the BTEC spec has changed drastically. Philo - what's your subject? Some are easier to use generic SOW for than others.

I'm marking this week because I've ignored it all whilst doing the school play. That's my choice though - I choose to do the show and I bloody love doing it.

Our books are marked once a fortnight by most staff, in certain subjects where the students are seen more often the books are marked more and where they are seen less often they are marked less.

However not everything needs to be marked by a teacher. if feedback has been given from students , with guidance from staff - there is no need for feedback to be given from the teacher. If I give verbal feedback in a piece of work, there is no need for a written comment to be given ( it might be but it need not be)

We have detailed differentiated schemes of work, teachers are under no pressure to add to that. Sometimes we need to but it not the norm or expected. Sometimes my marking will inform me that I need to go back over something and then I would plan but most of the time I use the lessons on the scheme of work which were planned by relaxed talented teams of staff sharing their ideas, not overworked individuals who are seething with resentment at their work loads

Our teaching staff have iPads, they download the schemes of work onto their iPads and then import the relevant scheme of work sections in their planning app.

If the most pressing thing to be done at the time of a meeting is marking exams - that is what we do.

I teach History and a few other linked subjects. All of our departments work this way.

I like planning lessons, however I like my family and free time more. There will be times when I want to plan an individual lesson and that will then be added to the shared resources. But that happens when I have time .

I have not always been a teacher, I am not a teacher out of a sense of vocation - I want to earn a wage and see my family. Most teachers do have an admirable sense of vocation and we need to keep those teachers but we need to prevent them from burning themselves out. Those sort of teachers try to produce the ideal scenario but idealism is just not practical.

I suppose that is where KS1 is different. When you teach English and Maths every day there are both books to mark nightly. We are expected to write AfL comments and then at the start of the following lesson give time for the children to respond to those comments. Each lesson must be planned in response to the one before, so even ST plans need adapting each day. As they are young peer and self assessment is only an occasional activity and has limited value (plus is hugely time consuming in lessons). Every member of staff is a subject leader for at least one subject, and as such has to monitor quality of teaching and learning, assessment data, lesson plans, etc. of their subject across the whole school, with little or no time to do so.

I'm a secondary English reacher and I love my job! I am part time tho, that helps... I'm also v lucky in the dept I work in - my hod fields a great deal of crap from the head teacher and prevents it reaching us, I'm also something of an A level specialist and in our dept that means little or no KS3 and only smaller, low attaining groups at KS4.

Can't help with the Lear and Chaucer stuff btw, sorry.

gruffalo are you a year group leader? You have a mega list.
I am in ks1 too and have so far actively turned down Leadership roles because I think it would be too much. I feel for you.

But you are right, I am a subject leader of a massive subject and am taking on a much more senior role next year. I am terrified but it feels right. Teaching is hard.
I am hoping my new role will open up opportunities that will allow me to leave teaching in the next few years. It's too much, and I have only been teaching for ten years!

Bugger!

You do sound lucky though sassy.

I'm FT English, teaching and writing every single lesson for Year 13, 12, 11, 10, 9 and 8 as I go, with the accompanying marking, and then SOW for the whole dept too and all the admin extras. I am a very experienced teacher with plenty of expertise, but I still need to plan and write the content of my lessons based on what my new boss wants me to teach. I'm trying to adapt things from what I already have.

Knackering.

I would like to say it will ease off when it's embedded, but we all know that National Curriculum changes are looming once again.