RANT school non-pupil days!

Storck

SnowWhiterThanWhite wrote: »

Thanks for all your comments, it is very interesting to hear how different parents/teachers cope with it all!

I still personally think that as per the above post, these training days could at least be added to half term weeks, rather than slap dash anywhere!

I was talking to another parent today whose husband works in a primary school nearby-He has all his training days tagged onto the october half-term, which just seems all together more sensible, but then I guess whatever the schools decide, will never, ever suit everyone.

Another reason that hasn't been brought up about why all Baker/In-set days are not tagged onto holidays is that that would mean that all schools had them on the same days. This would cause problems with booking people that do the actual training of the teachers as they can only do one school at once and therefore they need the schools to have the days on different dates.

gregg1

Jojo_the_Tightfisted wrote: »

What? The opportunity to get a good rate of pay, a regular income every month which enables me to get a mortgage/credit on the basis of having secure employment, then all that time off when I am free to either enjoy it or take as many short term positions as I feel like, with the guarantee of the properly paid job back in September?

I don't see the problem.

But then again, I have actually worked as a real temp, where the job is only secure until the moment the employer says it isn't. So your job is permanently precarious, income is uncertain from one day to the next - you might be sent home early or be told when you get there 'no, don't need you today' - and most employers expect temps to do unpaid overtime above that agreed with the agencies, threatening that claiming for it will lead to them demanding someone different.


Whilst I do appreciate from having teachers in the family that it is hard work, I do not accept that teachers work far harder than everyone else and suffer more than everyone else, which the impression some tend to give. The ones that don't complain about how hard their life is, having to deal with other people's children (well, isn't that the point of your job?) tend to be the better teachers.

No. What is actually happening is that teachers are continually being forced to defend themselves against the common held belief that they have a cushy working life when the reality is that they work as hard as the next person even taking into account the holidays (before anyone brings that old chestnut up AGAIN!)

alison999

I had a letter from my DD's school earlier in the week to say they are breaking up from school for the summer holidays 1 day earlier because of some work theyre doing on the school which aparently cannot be done over the following 6 weeks.

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

gregg1 wrote: »

No. What is actually happening is that teachers are continually being forced to defend themselves against the common held belief that they have a cushy working life when the reality is that they work as hard as the next person even taking into account the holidays (before anyone brings that old chestnut up AGAIN!)

Oh, get over yourself. Everyone with a job works hard. And dealing with the requirements of your job is easier because of the conditions, holidays, union involvement and pay structure/security.

Try adding insecurity, poor education, poverty and unsafe working conditions into the equation. That's what many people have to deal with.

Abbafan1972

All of our teacher training days are usually tagged onto the beginning or end of the holidays.

The thing that gets my goat the most is voting, the school is closed for that.

custardy

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.

could schools in one region liase to make them the same days though?

alison999

Abbafan1972 wrote: »

All of our teacher training days are usually tagged onto the beginning or end of the holidays.

The thing that gets my goat the most is voting, the school is closed for that.

My DDs is too but I think thats down to the council not the school itself.

Also, tbh i dont think id want random ppl walking around school if kids were in there so im glad its closed

peachyprice

custardy wrote: »

could schools in one region liase to make them the same days though?

It depends on the training. In our school cluster they do have some training days where they will use the largest school and all have the training together, but it's not always possible.

PinkLipgloss

Jojo_the_Tightfisted wrote: »

Oh, get over yourself. Everyone with a job works hard. And dealing with the requirements of your job is easier because of the conditions, holidays, union involvement and pay structure/security.

Try adding insecurity, poor education, poverty and unsafe working conditions into the equation. That's what many people have to deal with.

I think you'll find we can add some of those into our equation.

We sometimes need security when speaking to parents as they are known to be aggressive/violent and members of staff are not allowed to talk with them alone under any circumstances. Some pupils themselves have various "issues" which cause them to be violent (hence unsafe working conditions).

There are parents out there that are poorly educated and cannot read/write/look after their children correctly (e.g. think its a good idea to scream abuse at them, slap them around and feed them a packet of chocolate biscuits and a can of coke for breakfast).

Some pupils are basically brought up in poverty as their parents manage what little incomes they have badly (e.g. on drugs) and cannot, thus, afford to give their children breakfast, snacks for break time, money for trips/special event days.

InaPickle

Jojo_the_Tightfisted wrote: »

Oh, get over yourself. Everyone with a job works hard. And dealing with the requirements of your job is easier because of the conditions, holidays, union involvement and pay structure/security.

Try adding insecurity, poor education, poverty and unsafe working conditions into the equation. That's what many people have to deal with.

Really? So you think that teachers aren't at risk in the recession as well? I seem to remember the Conservatives threatening to cut lots of teaching posts if they got into power (although what will happen now that the Lib Dems are riding on their coat tails is another thing): holidays aren't half as good as they are supposed to be according to what I hear (I am reliably informed that half terms are pretty much a write-off due to preperation and marking and that the last and first week of the summer holidays are spent cleaning up and finishin off after the departing year, and preparing for the forthcoming year respectively, and most people in non-teaching positions may cop some earache in their jobs, but don't have to listen to Little Johnny or Little Sally's mother coming into school and having a go about X, Y or Z, whether they are right or wrong, and rarely paying attention to what is said in return.

It's a great life, isn't it? Not all bad, it must be admitted, but enough to put off many people who might have otherwise considered becoming teachers because not only do they cop it from the parents, but from (in many areas) increasingly abusive and violent pupils.

And no, I'm not a teacher. But in other times, I might have considered becoming one.