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

ViolaLass

thegirlintheattic wrote: »

The kids leave at 1 maybe, after all the last day is pretty much a lost cause in terms of teaching but staff often do not. We stay in school for a meeting which this summer lasted until 4.

But blatantly we all sit around eating cookies and compiling lists of 'top ten good-looking parents'.

No? Just me?

walby1993

Notmyrealname wrote: »

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.

Whatever way you wish to reword it, I am still a taxpayer. As I was when I paid out thousands in tax as a private sector worker. As my husband is, paying out thousands in tax as a private sector worker. My point was that people go on about the fact that they as taxpayers are paying our wages but we are also taxpayers. And let us not forget the benefit that thousands of taxpayers get out of it - a "free" education for their child(ren). If we really want to discuss who contributes least but gains most from the Government, let us not consider teachers in this category - there are plenty of other types of people I would consider as far more worthy of this title.

And to the poster who mentioned education being used as a political football - you have got it exactly right. I am fed up of governments (particularly our current one) using teachers as an easy vote winner - they know the public view of us is that we work 9am-3:30pm, we have 13 weeks holiday a year, any idiot could do the job and we get a good wage. And so they continue to beat us with any political stick they can think of.

Notmyrealname

thegirlintheattic wrote: »

The kids leave at 1 maybe, after all the last day is pretty much a lost cause in terms of teaching but staff often do not. We stay in school for a meeting which this summer lasted until 4.

Wow, 4pm eh? After starting at what, 8am? That's nearly a proper 8hr working day.

Tumbleweed101

I think the main problem is parents aren't told the inset days are part of the original 'off school' days for the children. I never knew that until reading this thread.

I'm fortunate in that my day off is a Monday and that most of my kids schools will have the inset day on the Monday following the 'holidays' which means I don't need to worry about childcare.

I'm sure most parents would find it easier to have an extra week on one of the holidays than finding childcare for random days. And yes, we chose to have kids but in the real world two parents now need to work in order to pay essential living costs. If the gov wants both parents working then they should make sure school provision is constant within a local area. ie all inset days should be the same day in local areas to allow for parents to arrange childcare or days off on the same day if they have several children.

I think another perception is that there are five random days on top of the school hols for teachers to use but that parents get fined if they want to take their kids on holiday outside of school hol time (when they have to pay triple the price). We've not had a holiday since the kids started school because of price and many parents will wonder why it's ok for teachers to choose to take random days off for training outside the huge amont of holidays avaliable to do training in while they can't.

I know this thread has explained a lot of that but it isn;t common knowledge for parents. Maybe school heads need to make it clearer. It would help parents to support teachers I think.

Idiophreak

Tumbleweed101 wrote: »

We've not had a holiday since the kids started school because of price and many parents will wonder why it's ok for teachers to choose to take random days off for training outside the huge amont of holidays avaliable to do training in while they can't.

I know this thread has explained a lot of that but it isn;t common knowledge for parents. Maybe school heads need to make it clearer. It would help parents to support teachers I think.

We don't have much in the way of holidays since my wife started teaching, either. Remember that teachers have to pay peak prices for holidays, too...

As for heads making the INSET days clearer...I don't see why there's a need...the problem isn't that schools don't advertise this fact...it's that parents can't be bothered to ask and prefer to start beating on people before checking their facts. Like it or not, before you read this thread, you just assumed (like most parents) that the horrible mean old teachers were doing you out of five days a year of free babysitting, didn't you...it never dawned on you that, in fact, the teachers were in school working in what used to be their holidays. You never thought to ask about it, and just assumed you were the one being hard-done-by. This "us" and "them" mentality between parents and teachers is what really needs to change. Like you say...more communication might help parents support teachers...but this is because parents, by default, seem to take the position of not supporting teachers and need to be talked into it...

kingfisherblue

Tumbleweed101 wrote: »

I'm sure most parents would find it easier to have an extra week on one of the holidays than finding childcare for random days. And yes, we chose to have kids but in the real world two parents now need to work in order to pay essential living costs. If the gov wants both parents working then they should make sure school provision is constant within a local area. ie all inset days should be the same day in local areas to allow for parents to arrange childcare or days off on the same day if they have several children.

Inset days are training days. In some cases, that means that a trainer comes into the school to train the teachers. Trainers are often booked up if they offer a popular course. They cannot be in more than one school at the same time. Therefore schools cannot always have exactly the same days off.

The Inset days should be scheduled in advance, so you should have sufficient warning to sort out childcare, even if the children have different days off. If you are not given the dates in advance, ask why.