RANT school non-pupil days!

SnowWhiterThanWhite

Hi,

Everyone I know with children at school complain about the non-pupil/baker/teacher training days.

If it isn't difficult enough already trying to balance work/family, the schools make it twice as hard!

I have 2 children at different schools (in the same area), every academic year, my OH and me, between us, have to cover 10 of these days, taking time off work.

The other rant I have is not only have we got to contend with these ad-hoc days, but also the actual days they choose to have them - for example, next Easter (2011), after having almost 3 weeks off school, my DD returns on Tuesday 26th April only to have a non-pupil day on the Friday of that week!

My final rant is that it seems perfectly acceptable for the schools to force these days on us, but when it comes to requesting time out of school to fit in around my time off, it's totally unacceptable! (I know that's a whole new ball game & everyone has got very strong opinions about this!) HOWEVER, I was totally gobsmacked when my DS bought a letter home from school last week TELLING me that the headmaster was 'standing down' lessons next Wednesday because of the football!!!

Other schools in my area (although under a different council) have at last got together & have added all the training days into a whole week, which I feel, would be much preferable from all the one-offs?

Just really wanted to have a moan & would appreciate any comments - Have any of you actually managed to change the way your school has their training days?

Cheers

Rolandtheroadie

Apparently these days were taken from other term holidays and placed throught the whole year so the total number of days off remains the same.

SnowWhiterThanWhite

scotsman4th wrote: »

Apparently these days were taken from other term holidays and placed throught the whole year so the total number of days off remains the same.

I'd be happy with that! At least there would be whole weeks rather than odd days

peachyprice

SnowWhiterThanWhite wrote: »

Other schools in my area (although under a different council) have at last got together & have added all the training days into a whole week, which I feel, would be much preferable from all the one-offs?

That's where they go the days from in the first place, they took them off the summer holidays.

PinkLipgloss

I wish I had a pound for every time I've thought, "If only parents could do my job for a week..." I suspect it would have a huge impact on many parents opinions about schools.

It would be highly impractical for schools to bunch all of their non-contact days together.

mumps

PinkLipgloss wrote: »

I wish I had a pound for every time I've thought, "If only parents could do my job for a week..." I suspect it would have a huge impact on many parents opinions about schools.

It would be highly impractical for schools to bunch all of their non-contact days together.

My nearest school has an extra week added onto October half-term holiday by using five of these days. It is very popular, we live on south coast and lots of families who have hotels, restaurant, holiday park jobs take their fortnight in October to get a holiday abroad when they can get the time off without problems getting kids out of school, although to be fair local schools seem to understand that lots of families cant take holidays in main summer period.

impy78

SnowWhiterThanWhite wrote: »

Hi,

My final rant is that it seems perfectly acceptable for the schools to force these days on us, but when it comes to requesting time out of school to fit in around my time off, it's totally unacceptable! (I know that's a whole new ball game & everyone has got very strong opinions about this!) HOWEVER, I was totally gobsmacked when my DS bought a letter home from school last week TELLING me that the headmaster was 'standing down' lessons next Wednesday because of the football!!!

Other schools in my area (although under a different council) have at last got together & have added all the training days into a whole week, which I feel, would be much preferable from all the one-offs?

Just really wanted to have a moan & would appreciate any comments - Have any of you actually managed to change the way your school has their training days?

Cheers

My heart really does go out to you. I can't believe the school aren't organising the school year around your hectic calendar and directly consulting you before arranging training days.

It isn't as though they have hundreds of children to educate or anything, is it?

I'm sorry, but if looking after your own children for ten extra days a year is too much of a burden on you, then maybe you should reconsider whether being a parent is for you.

Prior to teacher training days, teachers were paid for 192 days work per year, as these training days were actually part of the holidays anyway.

Then their salary was spread accross the year, to prevent a gap during the summer months.

"Baker" days were introduced in the 80s for which teachers did not and still do not receive any extra pay, despite working the extra five days.

Also one of these five days is used to moderate coursework - unless of course,you don't wish your child's work tobe moderated.

Food for thought.

Foggster

I strongly disagree with having all the PD days together - total waste of time. Changes to curriculum/legislation/policy happens throughout the year and PD days are a good opportunity to be able to convey these changes to staff so bunching them altogether is a waste of time.

Like others have said and many more will agree, your children are getting the same amount of teaching days as every other child in England and Wales (sorry I dont know for certain the Scottish quota).

Paul_the_Painter

It sounds like what is needed is for a.) the school to notify these days at the start of the school year and b.) sharing the care with other parents. Your children must have 4 friends each - each parent does one day a year.

There should also be some rules that the school should have to follow, nothing unreasonable or difficult.

Adding the days to the end/beginning of school holidays/half term/bank holidays would be a start. There may be the ODD occasion when that is not possible, but no more than 1 per year.

Schools need to appreciate that they might have 1000 sets of parents of children in the school, and 50 teachers. So if something causes 1 unit of difficulty to each teacher, and the alternative 1 unit of difficulty to each set of parents - the former causes 50 units of difficulty and the latter 1000 units of difficulty

Why not co-ordinate with at least all the schools in the same county/authority area - give the parents a chance - the teachers may even get something out of it, have 1 or 2 of the days getting 2/3/4 schools together to do a bit of networking, and see what each other are doing.

Some of this may be already being done - I hope it is.

peachyprice

Paul_the_Painter wrote: »

It sounds like what is needed is for a.) the school to notify these days at the start of the school year and b.) sharing the care with other parents. Your children must have 4 friends each - each parent does one day a year.

There should also be some rules that the school should have to follow, nothing unreasonable or difficult.

Adding the days to the end/beginning of school holidays/half term/bank holidays would be a start. There may be the ODD occasion when that is not possible, but no more than 1 per year.

Schools need to appreciate that they might have 1000 sets of parents of children in the school, and 50 teachers. So if something causes 1 unit of difficulty to each teacher, and the alternative 1 unit of difficulty to each set of parents - the former causes 50 units of difficulty and the latter 1000 units of difficulty

Why not co-ordinate with at least all the schools in the same county/authority area - give the parents a chance - the teachers may even get something out of it, have 1 or 2 of the days getting 2/3/4 schools together to do a bit of networking, and see what each other are doing.

Some of this may be already being done - I hope it is.

Some schools do adopt those 'rules' themselves, my DD's school does, as best it can. We are given the dates at the beginning of the school year and they are usually added to holidays. My son's school is a bit more random, but being a secondary school isn't so much of a problems as most children by that age do not require the same level of day care.

Some parents would obviously rather have teachers that were not in touch with the current curriculum changes, policies etc than be inconvenienced with looking after their own children, but hey ho.

sarahg1969

Our have all been put together this year. They had two weeks off at half term in May.