Any teachers out there ? - what actually happens on "Inset days " ?

ILW

davidlizard wrote: »

Many employees in "professional" jobs typically are expected to do any necessary training, upskilling, keeping up with current legislation and the like in their own time and often at their own expense.

I suspect teachers get these "benefits" (for want of a better word) as they have very effective trade unions who won't take much nonsense from the government.

Personally I think Inset days are great - I take the kids to places like Theme Parks which being on a school day are very quiet - last autumn I took them to Chessington and we went on over 40 rides. Friends who went a couple of weekends earlier went on no more than 5 due to the queues.

That is the odd thing with teachers.
They say they should be treated and rewarded the same as other professionals. But do not act or take the risks that true professionals do.

Notmyrealname

walby1993 wrote: »

In response to varies posters on this thread:

Yes, taxpayers do contribute towards teachers wages, I am sure, along withdoctors, nurses, police officers, firefighters and all manner of councilworkers wages, plus a large amount towards benefits and into the pension’s pot.I would also like to point out that teachers are also taxpayers - I myself havepaid out over £2700 in the last year in tax plus another £1600 in NI payments.

You may pay tax but the tax you pay out of your wages is money you are paid out of HM Treasury which is funded by taxation, therefore you are merely refunding some of the money you've been paid out of the taxation on the private sector, not actually making a contribution.

Example:

Public Sector Worker and Private Sector Worker both on £25k.

Public sector worker paid from Govt - gross cost to HM Treasury, £25k.
Tax/NI=£5466.40, net cost to HM Treasury, £19,533.60

Private sector worker not paid from govt, gross cost to HM Treasury, £0
Tax/NI=£5466.40, net income to HM Treasury, £5466.40.

Notmyrealname

gingerdad wrote: »

As some one who is married to a part time teacher, she has spent the last week in school preparing her class room, planinng and sorting, all for 4 mornings work.

She must be new. None of the four members of my family who are teachers spend anything like that time. One is a head of year, three have been doing it for 20+ years, one for 8 years. My brother, the one doing it 8 years said that in the first year or two you do spend a lot more time doing preparation until you work out how to do it and start reusing material from previous years.

Mrs_Arcanum

Never understood why the local primary schools that are used as polling stations never used that Thursday as an Inset day. We have elections every year locally.

Agree that a proper review of the school year should be undertaken. So often with long terms the children are exhausted let alone how the teachers must be absolutely shattered.

As for discipline, with parents no longer supporting teachers and in some cases actively working against them, is it any wonder behaviour in school is worsening. All too easy to blame teachers who are more and more constrained as to what they can do.

Acc72

ILW wrote: »

That is the odd thing with teachers.
They say they should be treated and rewarded the same as other professionals. But do not act or take the risks that true professionals do.

I agree, it is rather odd.

They want to keep all the good stuff - long holidays, shorter working days, pensions, sick pay, other "soft benefits" (eg. maternity and child/friendly policies), effective job for life etc. etc. but then instantly go on the defensive and moan about working additional hours.

Guess what, the rest of us also work additional hours for no pay, have to undertake training in our own time, do not have the employment protection that teachers enjoy, do not receive annual pay increments, do not receive receive the same pension entitlements / holidays / sick pay / maternity pay / time off etc. etc.

If you ask a teacher why do they teach and not do another job they invariably say that they want to teach etc.

This is fair enough, however it is also interesting how on threads such as these the teachers who reply rarely mention their pupils or enjoying their job and just moan about working what they percieve to be long hours etc.

whitesatin

I daresay some teachers would give up a couple of weeks of holiday for the extra money they would have to be paid, but it is unlikely that it will be offered.

I came from a family of teachers and we all worked hard for a living. That said, I would not want to be a teacher these days, the joy has gone out of it due to the lack of balance between paperwork and teaching time. I feel that I got out just in time and I am so glad that I was able to experience teaching as it was. I have guided my family and friends away from teaching and I have no regrets.

Idiophreak

Notmyrealname wrote: »

She must be new. None of the four members of my family who are teachers spend anything like that time. One is a head of year, three have been doing it for 20+ years, one for 8 years. My brother, the one doing it 8 years said that in the first year or two you do spend a lot more time doing preparation until you work out how to do it and start reusing material from previous years.

Your brother must work in a fairly old-skool school. It used to be the case that you could re-use resources from one year to another quite easily, but that's not the way teaching methods are heading. My wife's been teaching for 5 years and this one, her sixth, will be the first time she's reused a *single* resource from another year. It's a fantastic way for the children to learn, but it makes a lot more work for the staff.

davidlizard

Mrs_Arcanum wrote: »

Never understood why the local primary schools that are used as polling stations never used that Thursday as an Inset day. We have elections every year locally.

My daughters school had an Inset day scheduled, but later the school was to be used as a polling station for that vote on PR. When the teachers found out about this, they cancelled the Inset day and moved it to a week later. A lame excuse of "they did not want interruptions" was offered.

Also on Inset days, we notice the staff car park is empty. So whatever training they do, its not held at the school anyway.

GillyR-J

Can I just put my two pennies in as a teacher and also a governor of an Academy.
The five days that teachers do as INSET are organised usually by the school. In my last school we did them as 'twilights' which ran from about 3.00pm until 6pm,three equalled a day's inset. The fact is as so many people have said is that currently the school year is 190 days organised in three,four or five terms.
Schools/academies have begun to realise over the past few years that they have a real part to play in 'out of school provision' for after school and holidays, continuing intervention work with reading for example throughout the year and not just in term-time and providing sport and art opportunities along side forest school type activities and not just for parents who require child care.
We also realise that children arriving back in the classroom in September will have slipped in attainment from the end of the Summer term and will need to re-visit key aspects before they move on.
I think as the academy primary schools become more established you will see a variety of approaches to this and summer 'holidays' and 'terms' will merge with some staff working on 'in school' teaching and others working on 'out of school provision'
Its all very new and still at the planning stages but we are currently working on how we could make this work in my school.
Finally a last word on teachers. Its a stressful job made far worse by the constant tinkering by which ever party(ies) is in power. In Scandinavia ,education is not a political football and we really need to take it out of manifestos and talk collectively on how we want it to move forward.
Primary and Early years teaching is not simply being in front of the children in the classroom which is essentially what they do 9.am until 3.30pm,its the planning of the activities to ensure continuity and progression,its producing teaching materials and resources for children to use and its carefully assessing the progress each child has made and what the next steps are, its speaking to parents and colleagues.
You may well see teachers leaving early from school but that does not mean their work is at an end.
Many schools to save money are cutting back on cleaning services and schools are no longer open in the evenings for staff to continue working beyond 5pm. So they work at home,preparing lessons on their own laptop and bringing the work in.
At the end of the day it is not where they do their planning but that they are actively involved in effective teaching which ensures children make or exceed the expectations that have been set for them.
As a PS, I should say I am returning to teaching on supply after nursing my elderly mother. I have paid for the current early years courses I have attended myself and have spent about three weeks planning some activities to take into schools.

davidlizard

Idiophreak wrote: »

Your brother must work in a fairly old-skool school. It used to be the case that you could re-use resources from one year to another quite easily, but that's not the way teaching methods are heading. My wife's been teaching for 5 years and this one, her sixth, will be the first time she's reused a *single* resource from another year. It's a fantastic way for the children to learn, but it makes a lot more work for the staff.

Last year, the vast majority of the handouts and worksheets in my sons school work folder we had seen before 3 years earlier in my daughters folder. So much of the material is regurgitated. Certainly in that school.