Teacher training days

January20

peachyprice wrote: »

I wish, the school my sons go to pick random Thursdays, Tuesdays, any old day really not tacked onto anything, thank goodness they're old enough to not need childcare

If they always picked a Monday or a Friday then people would say that it is so the teachers can have a long weekend :rolleyes:
And if they picked any other day of the week, there would still be people complaining!

Mini_Bear

We have this problem too at the mo, stepson has half term this week and then next mon-wed off as its teacher training. as its not half term we cant get any childcare/sports clubs so partner has to take annual leave. its ok but when you work full time and only get 20 days a yr its a bit annoying.
im suprised the training days cant be durin easter or half terms.

peachyprice

January20 wrote: »

If they always picked a Monday or a Friday then people would say that it is so the teachers can have a long weekend :rolleyes:
And if they picked any other day of the week, there would still be people complaining!

Oh, I'm not complaining, although my boys do when I make them get up for school and don't realise it's an inset day until we get there :rotfl:

It's not the school's fault I have a tendancy to not write things down

peachyprice

Mini_Bear wrote: »

im suprised the training days cant be durin easter or half terms.

When are the teachers supposed to have their holiday entitlement then

DigitalJedi

I have a lot of respect for teachers. Honestly I do. But sometimes I do wonder if they realise how they are being perceived by the rest of the population.

Firstly holidays....yes great you work hard. I bet there's a lot of people who work longer hours. Yet you get more holidays! Good for you that your holiday's are written into your contract. Heaven forbid the rest of us with our 4-5 weeks off a year dare to wish that an inset day be when our kids are off anyway rather than us having to take a day off. Contracts aside, surely the logical thing to do is for 20-30 teachers to do inset day during a school holiday rather than forcing 1200 parents to either pay childcare or lose a day off.

Next are payrises, whilst most of us are either losing our jobs or worrying if we'll still have one. How do you think demanding a 10% payrise this year makes us feel? Like you don't live in the same planet thats how. (source:http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/7900259.stm)

Oh and how about the new style "parents review day" where I have to take another day off cos my child has no school, so we can meet her form teacher for 10 mins who is telling me how my daughter is progressing yet unable to answer any detailed questions as he doesn't actually teach her!

Oh yes and lesson plans. I understand that in other countries like Sweden that they get the best teachers to design lesson plans and every teacher then follows them. Having each teacher plan each lesson just sounds like your reinventing the wheel. My aunt has been a teacher in Hong Kong for over 20 years but for some strange reason they don't need inset days or lesson planning days off. Guess when they have their "training" days? Yep thats right, during a school holiday! She's expected to go into school a week earlier. Shock horror! How dare they!

The thing is that to us "parents", we're sick of the apparent double standards where it seems to be one rule for you and another for us. Yes I know you work hard but so do I! Just because you are a teacher doesn't mean you have a monopoly on hard work!

Don't get me wrong, I'll be the first to support teachers where I see its in my childs best interests. But it seems like there's less and less time actually teaching being done nowadays.

PolishBigSpender

DigitalJedi wrote: »

Oh yes and lesson plans. I understand that in other countries like Sweden that they get the best teachers to design lesson plans and every teacher then follows them. Having each teacher plan each lesson just sounds like your reinventing the wheel.

I would be frankly amazed if such a 'one size fit all' approach worked in the UK. There's just no way with such a diverse population that you can do such a thing - what might work for poor black children in London might not work for rich white children in Surrey, for a start.

Lesson plans by their very nature have to be tailored for a specific class.

milliebear00001

needtoearnmoremoney wrote: »

The other name for these days is "Baker Days" as they were introduced by Kenneth Baker when the conservatives were in.

That's right, and they used to be part of teachers' contracted holidays (and children's)...until Baker decided to remove them from us and do training on them instead!

hieveryone

DigitalJedi wrote: »

I have a lot of respect for teachers. Honestly I do. But sometimes I do wonder if they realise how they are being perceived by the rest of the population.

I'm not sure why people seem to have such 'hatred' or dislike against teacher holidays, teachers working hours etc etc. (not singling you out, but the 'rest of the population').

Things like school holidays are unavoidable, as our country has decided that's the way our schooling works. So some may say that it is a 'perk' of the job that we get 5 weeks off in summer and paid for it. So what? Teachers chose to do the profession for multiple other reasons, unlikely choosing it just because of the holidays. I might think it's unfair that a car salesman gets a free car to drive while I need to pay for mines, he may think it's unfair I get 5 weeks off in a block.

Different professions have different 'privileges'.

Moaning about inset days or training days etc to the teachers themselves is pointless because we have no control over it. Moaning about the job itself to teachers is pointless because

a) we do enough of it ourselves in the staff room and
b) you are moaning to the wrong people.

dizziblonde

PolishBigSpender wrote: »

I would be frankly amazed if such a 'one size fit all' approach worked in the UK. There's just no way with such a diverse population that you can do such a thing - what might work for poor black children in London might not work for rich white children in Surrey, for a start.

Lesson plans by their very nature have to be tailored for a specific class.

They tried this with maths a few years back - brought out unit plans... then decided teachers were following them... so took them away again. The wonderful world we live in.

I wonder about a world where people hate those who are teaching their kids so much. If you think it's a cushy number - come on, try it. There are all those lovely well-presented children in the adverts just waiting for you to earn 35 grand a year for a bit of witty banter (hint: that figure's completely unrepresentative of what the vast majority of teachers earn). Otherwise - I'm not sat here telling you your job is awesomely easy - so why are the constant unrelentless pot-shots at teachers acceptable?

I'm incredibly sick of it - usually it washes over my head but this site seems to be teacher bashers r us at the moment.

Apolgies for typing errors - I've got a migraine about to start so I'm having to squint around the spots in my vision (which are always exactly the bit of the screen I'm wanting to see) before the headache bit gets going in earnest and can't see the words I'm typing very well.

hieveryone

dizziblonde wrote: »

. There are all those lovely well-presented children in the adverts just waiting for you to earn 35 grand a year for a bit of witty banter (hint: that figure's completely unrepresentative of what the vast majority of teachers earn).

Hate these adverts with a passion. In Scotland starting salary is £20,937 at the moment. Take home pay of roughly £1320 (NI, tax, student loan deducted). Considering teachers in Scotland complete a 4 year honours degree to get to that point, to have team leader positions in the call centre I work in being offered at £22k, it's a little insulting. :rolleyes: