Primary teachers. Honest review of the hours you work each day

[StrumpersPlunkett]

Any the breakdown.
I am starting teacher training in September and know having been a TA that the teacher does masses more than the classroom work but how much is that?

My teacher has said she works most evenings but does have commitments 3 nights a week and she limits work to one day each weekend.
I will ask more detailed questions next term but what hours do you do? What element of that is lesson planning? Other admin or teaching.

Thanks.

Just asked my brother
He arrives at 7.45 and leaves at 4.45-5
He does an average of an hour marking and planning in the evening but that varies from none to 2-3 hours ie isn’t the same each day.
Two nights a week he has a meeeting for under an hour.
Lunchtimes he oversees two clubs and the other days catches up on stuff but says that’s relaxed and his choice.
Sunday nights he does a couple of hours prep.

Half term he has done a half day planning
Longer holidays he will do the equivalent of a couple of days

So his actual hours are similar to any professional job I’d say and he still gets the majority of the very generous holidays work free

Overall he works no more than any of us siblings plus gets amazing holidays.

He likes his job. Is secondary level.

At school by 7.20 and leave anywhere from 4-5pm. I don't work in evenings at all and about 3hours on a weekend.

I’m currently on a scitt secondary course and although only teaching 7hrs up to now.... I arrive at 8:15, leave at 4 (childcare limits) and do a couple hrs planning when dc are in bed. I’ll be working up to 12hrs by June and dreading how I’ll fit it in as I have quite a few frees in the daytime atm.

7am - arrive at school and prep/mark until 8:30 when gates open

Rarely work through lunch other than setting up for the afternoon

Club after school for an hour x1 a week
Staff meeting until 5pm x1 a week
SLT meeting until 5pm x1 a week
Go home for my PPA time x1 afternoon a week
The final day I leave anywhere between 3:30 and 5 - depends how the week's gone!

I only take one subject home to mark (1.5 - 2 hours), the rest I try to do at school, 'live' as much as possible.

Emails, data, planning etc - much better than I used to be, maybe an average of half an hour a day? Used to go in one day at the weekend but live too far away now. I just do things in dribs and drabs at home.

Huge variety here.
Thanks for replies.

It is a Scitt course I will be doing next year but infants.

I have childcare until 6 pm but although kids are older I have to pick them up. Am hoping that will be enough. I can get there at anytime in the morning as my husband does the mornings with the boys.

I work from 8 to 6 in school and rarely have a lunch break. I don't always work in the evenings but if I do it would be for no more than an hour. I probably do about an hour or two at the weekend too. I work at least 2 days of every holiday but May half term is almost completely taken up with report writing. I go into school one day a term on a weekend for a fundraiser and spend two evenings a term in school until 9pm because of a parent evening/ meeting

I’m on a PGCE at the moment, in KS1. I have nothing like the workload spaghettipeppers mentioned. Might be different on a SCITT I suppose.

A lot will depend on the year group you teach.
I work 7.30-5.30 in school and usually do an hour after the kids are in bed. I’m in a R class so most of my workload is preparing resources, building evidence of learning (lots of photos/captions!)
I have worked in year 6 for a few years in the past. The vast majority of time was spent marking, and keeping on top of subject knowledge.
Also it will depend on the attitude of your school. I’ve recently left a school where the marking expectations were totally unrealistic, and the headteacher walked around obsessing over displays which we were expected to change weekly. Staff morale was very low!

I teach primary. I'm usually in school by 8, do a little marking at lunchtime and always try to leave by 4. As I've taught this stage for a few years, I have most of the resources I need so don't need to plan a lot of new lessons, I try to take as little as possible home.

Depends entirely on your school too. Some expect you to stay a certain time, some want to see your planning etc. Speak to teachers you know at the school to help prepare yourself.

You cns make as much work for yourself or as little. I mark through lunch and break times to stay on top of things. Haven't brought books home for years.

I like to get to work about 7am because I work best early in the day. So I get an hour and a half done before school starts. I generally work through breaks if I'm not already on yard duty. I tend to leave about 4pm on non meeting days, by 5:00pm on meeting days. That said, I do spend a lot of time on holidays getting the term ahead organised, so that there's not huge amounts to do on weekends. During the term, outside of marking books, which I usually do on Friday night whilst watching TV, I don't have massive amounts to get done.

I have a very strict rule of no work between getting home at 8pm, as that is my time with DS. And I prefer to do my marking Friday nights after he goes to bed, so that the weekend is free.

The job will expand to fill as many hours as you are prepared to give it. There are always tweaks you can make to improve input and resources, more detail you can add to marking, more consideration given to assessments. It's up to you to keep a tight grip on the reins if you want a life outside school.

I am an ex primary teacher and never, ever got it all done. I taught in four schools and each was as bad for workload, but in different ways.

I worked 0745 till about 5.30 in school. I would then do about 90 minutes at home in the evening four nights a week. Nothing on Friday night or Saturday. Worked for most of the day on Sunday.

I hated never having a weekend. I was constantly behind. I hated the feeling of always having work that I should be doing. By seven years I was pretty much burned out and began finding it harder and harder to generate lesson planning ideas. It was as if my creativity had dried up. I carried on for another few years, but was probably quite lucky to avoid a breakdown or succumbing to unhealthy means of escape.

If I was ever looking to go into it again I would:

Pick a two-form entry school, as that shares out the workload both for planning and subject coordination, when that comes along.

Look closely at the school's approach to curriculum planning and swerve any school that talks about reinventing the curriculum every year.

Make much more use of published resources.

Controversial, but I would consider taking the occasional sick day at peak workload times such as report-writing. I once looked at the word-count on my class reports document: it was 30,000 words, all of which I'd had to write in my own time on top of day-to-day teaching.

@MaybeDoctor

What do you do now you’ve escaped!?

Prefer not to say exactly, but I work in the public/voluntary sector.

It is so, so much easier! In terms of stress levels, the hardest day in my new role is not much harder than an average day in teaching.

I do 7.15 till 5. At the moment in year 6 this includes boosters at breakfast club (twice a week), lunch (twice a week)and after school (once a week). A staff meeting till 5.15 one evening. I work most evenings for a few hours if I can't mark at lunch or after school. I do work at weekends for a morning or so, more when reports are due and parents evening is coming up.

Plus I have Easter revision and then the year 6 performances.....

My marking load is heavy though. Some schools it's less so.

I do work more at home than I did when I taught secondary, but in years other than 6 the pressure is less around Easter! Marking load is way heavier in primary, even compared to when I had a heavy year of AS/A2 and GCSE and nothing else.

Paperwork is a pain in the ass in both though, and takes up too much time!

Does depend hugely on what ridiculous requests your SMT have.
I have to say though, over 30 odd years, I reckon I've averaged around 12 hours per day worked, whichever school I've worked in. (ie 60 hours spread across the week when working FT, 36hours over a week when working PT, etc). The pattern of when I've put the hours in has varied a lot over the years, depending on home circumstances at the time.

In school for 8 and I leave by 6, sometimes 5. I don’t generally work in the evenings but I do have an hour or so to do at the weekend. I have a staff meeting once a week, run an after school club, have several twilight meetings and 2 lots of 3 nights of parents evenings, school disco 3 times a year and helping out with cake sales, book fairs etc. Not complaining but just letting you know some of the extras involved.