Inset Days vs School Holidays

Willowpop

I have a primary school aged DD and I absolutely LOVE inset days. We always go out for the day to places we tend to avoid in the school holidays as they are jam packed. We have lovely days out on inset days.

AnxiousMum

Inset days are 'floater' days off. The academic school year consists of 195 days, of which, 190 are 'teaching' days. So, on the 190 teaching days - they are the days where you cannot take kids out on holidays. The inset days are not taken out of the alotted teaching days - so it's not really the same thing.

GobbledyGook

AnxiousMum wrote: »

Inset days are 'floater' days off. The academic school year consists of 195 days, of which, 190 are 'teaching' days. So, on the 190 teaching days - they are the days where you cannot take kids out on holidays. The inset days are not taken out of the alotted teaching days - so it's not really the same thing.

plus no-one gets fined for taking their child out for 1 day.

duchy

Willowpop wrote: »

I have a primary school aged DD and I absolutely LOVE inset days. We always go out for the day to places we tend to avoid in the school holidays as they are jam packed. We have lovely days out on inset days.

Inset days are great for that so long as you have one child (and not another one to pick up who is at school that day )and are not employed .....otherwise it gets sowhat more complicated....but at least someone is happy

gregg1

daisiegg wrote: »

Not exactly. Headteachers are not required to recognise unions. Doesn't mean they don't. Our school became an academy and our head made it very clear she would still recognise the unions the same as always.

That is interesting. It's not the case in my OH's academy school which is unfortunate.

daisiegg

gregg1 wrote: »

That is interesting. It's not the case in my OH's academy school which is unfortunate.

That is unfortunate. Our terms and conditions etc have also all remained exactly the same. Nothing has changed, not even the name. The head made it very clear the only reason for converting was to access the small amount of extra funding available. But then, we are an outstanding school usually in the top ten state schools nationally for results (sometimes top five) so I suppose if it ain't broke, don't fix it!

duchy

gregg1 wrote: »

And yet you also claim to be speaking from experience never having been a teacher:question:

!

I have worked in the field......I don't think sleeping with someone who is a teacher gives you quite the same perspective which is apparently where you are claiming your "experience" comes from !!

It's a bit like saying if you flatshare with a teacher you have more insight and understanding than someone who works alongside them (not that I think anyone on a forum has any more or less say- it's a forum you'll get many perspectives)

Not that your sniping is adding any value to the discussion. You'd get more credit saying "I don't teach but from my perspective which is a farmer (or whatever) married to a teacher I see X & Y" rather than dancing around what you do or don't say. Sulking or sniping because someone doesn't agree with you isn't helpful or persuasive.

duchy

daisiegg wrote: »

That is unfortunate. Our terms and conditions etc have also all remained exactly the same. Nothing has changed, not even the name. The head made it very clear the only reason for converting was to access the small amount of extra funding available. But then, we are an outstanding school usually in the top ten state schools nationally for results (sometimes top five) so I suppose if it ain't broke, don't fix it!

That makes sense ...Did TUPE also have a role in this ?
I was under the impression the NUS were advising members whose schools were "converting" that union status and recognition was standard. I can see why in a failing school that wanted to clear out staff and start again it might not be as desirable (to management) though .

Carmina-Piranha_2

duchy wrote: »

Inset days are great for that so long as you have one child (and not another one to pick up who is at school that day )and are not employed .....otherwise it gets sowhat more complicated....but at least someone is happy

If the other one is at high school then they can get themselves home from school, surely? If the other is at nursery it's not compulsory, so take them out for the day.

Workers get holiday, and everyone knows there will be INSET days. As long as you're given enough notice it's usually not impossible to get the day off work for an INSET. Maybe not all 5, but if there are two of you you could take turns.

My husband takes an INSET day each year from his annual leave because those days are the best ones for a family day out to somewhere that's packed the rest of the time. An INSET day at Alton Towers is equivalent to three normal weekend or holiday days, in terms of queueing times and the number of rides you can go on in a day.

Last year he took the eldest for a father-son day out during a high school INSET, and I stayed behind to do my usual volunteering and to pick up the youngest. I took the youngest on a day out on one of his INSET days. They are great for having bonding time and making each child feel special, if there's an age gap between your kids or they have differing interests.

I appreciate that some might need their holidays to cover the school holidays, but for my family we think INSET is more valuable than a normal day in August.

I'm in the lucky position of working mainly term-time though, with unpaid school holidays. There's a private nursery that runs in conjunction with my youngest's primary, so they open on the INSET days if my other job (in a college) requires me to work, or the holidays don't match up.

I love INSET days, they're great

Janepig

Carmina-Piranha wrote: »

If the other one is at high school then they can get themselves home from school, surely? If the other is at nursery it's not compulsory, so take them out for the day.

Workers get holiday, and everyone knows there will be INSET days. As long as you're given enough notice it's usually not impossible to get the day off work for an INSET. Maybe not all 5, but if there are two of you you could take turns.

My husband takes an INSET day each year from his annual leave because those days are the best ones for a family day out to somewhere that's packed the rest of the time. An INSET day at Alton Towers is equivalent to three normal weekend or holiday days, in terms of queueing times and the number of rides you can go on in a day.

Last year he took the eldest for a father-son day out during a high school INSET, and I stayed behind to do my usual volunteering and to pick up the youngest. I took the youngest on a day out on one of his INSET days. They are great for having bonding time and making each child feel special, if there's an age gap between your kids or they have differing interests.

I appreciate that some might need their holidays to cover the school holidays, but for my family we think INSET is more valuable than a normal day in August.

I'm in the lucky position of working mainly term-time though, with unpaid school holidays. There's a private nursery that runs in conjunction with my youngest's primary, so they open on the INSET days if my other job (in a college) requires me to work, or the holidays don't match up.

I love INSET days, they're great

It's swings and roundabouts for us in terms of childcare cover - inset days eat into what we can take off in the actual holidays, although we just about manage to cover it between us, we're only having one week off together this year. However if it's a fact that those five days would not be teaching days anyway we're no worse off.

But I agree that inset days are a joy in a theme park or somewhere similar. We went to Legoland two years ago on an inset day that fell on the Monday after Whitsun half term and what bliss it was. We'd gone the year before in August and it was hell on earth but it was more or less empty when we went on the inset day. Walking onto rides, no queueing, did everything. Joyful. I'd love to go to Alton Towers but when I do it will be when there's an inset day and we can stay over on the Sunday night, and do the park on the Monday. We're just holding on until DS is tall enough to do all the rides. Might be a bit of a wait!

Jx