4.5 day week.

[Chippy_Tea]

This has been suggested for schools to give teachers time to mark work in the school day for better work life balance and staff retention.

Remember all those families who took their kids on a weeks holiday outside school holidays because it's a lot cheaper and we're fined because their kids missed out on education.

How is it OK for the kids to lose 2 days education a month so teachers can have a better life away from the job but it's not to lose 5 days a year due to rip off holiday price rises,?

How many weeks paid holiday do they get a year?

 

[An Ankoù]

Suggested by whom?
How do kids lose learning time? Does the school close for half a day?
Sounds like a load of old nonsense to me.
I see people are falling over themselves to become teachers. Don't all rush at once.

I suggest that children are only taught in school from monday to wednesday. This would make parents more responsible for the upbringing and formation of their verminous offspring and some might even get to know their kids.
Teachers would have more brewing, allotment and general chilling out time while kids could learn once again how to play with each other. Homework should be a thing o the past: kids don't like doing it and teachers are too busy to mark it and it's all AI generated anway.
School inspectors would be redirected to inspecting parents to ensure that they are making the most of the extra time with their grubby urchins by taking them to football or rugby, doing forest rambles and nature days and generally communicating with the little shi'ites, instilling discipline and a sense of responsibility.
Teachers would be given a substantial pay rise as they now have a bit more time to enjoy the good things in life.

 

[An Ankoù]

It has been suggested that schools are only open for three days a week.
Shock, horror, probe!

In the meantime, let's find some teachers and lynch them.

 

[Stu]

I’m going to stick up for teachers seeing as 3 of my siblings are teachers.

People who have no clue think they work from 9 x 3:30 and get 13 weeks holiday.

My brother is head of department, so let’s look at his day.

He is in school usually around 7:45 to prepare for the day. He then teaches through to lunchtime where he is often expected to monitor young people. If not, he’s marking in his classroom. He then does the afternoon before running after school clubs. He usually finishes around 6 by the time he’s packed up and goes home. He eats and then has to do marking usually until around 9. He keeps Saturday free, but Sunday normally involves more work and planning.

In the holidays, he has lesson planning to do. Christmas and Easter holidays, he’s spending maybe half the working week doing it. And in the summer holidays, he spends around 3 weeks planning the 2 music and drama productions he’s expected to produce and run. In addition, he’s helping A level students with their UCAS applications and dealing with exam results.

On top of all that, as a 50+ year old, he doesn’t earn stupid money, despite having 5 years at university and slogging to become head of department. He also can’t take any time of during term time, even by paying a paltry fine like parents can.

Even if you think he does get 13 weeks off, he still does 55 hours a week compared with the average worker who only gets 6.4 weeks off (5 weeks plus 8 bank holidays)

Yes, he chose to do it. No, it’s an absolute slog of a job. Constantly on your feet and having to deal with absolute a**eholes of kids who are being dragged up by chavvy parents.

 

[LeeH]

^^^My friend is a teacher, I concur with the above.

 

[xozzx]

^^^ but these facts dont rile up gammons and sell papers / improve click rate.

 

[Laner]

My Daughter was a teacher until I forced her to see sense.

Minimum 65 hours a week for less than £30k a year, most of her annual leave taken up by working on lesson prep and all to the detriment of her own child. I was earning significantly more than her for 37 hours of sitting on my arris watching water run down a drain.

Wouldn’t recommend teaching to anyone who wants a life!

 

[Leon103]

I am a teacher and don't do none of that.

 

[Laner]

I am a teacher and don't do none of that.

Hopefully not teaching English Language

 

[An Ankoù]

I am a teacher and don't do none of that.

Glad to hear it. What do you do, then? Time must weigh heavily, innit!

 

[Chippy_Tea]

Suggested by whom?
How do kids lose learning time? Does the school close for half a day?

I assume the teachers union have brought it up.

The kids lose time because they go home at dinner time on Friday leaving the teachers the afternoon to mark work etc so as I said two full days a month.

 

[Chippy_Tea]

Btw this is not a dig at teachers I am having a go at the hypocrisy where they are saying you cannot take your kids out of school in term time because they cannot lose 5 days education but it will be ok to lose 2 days a month if they bring this in.

 

[An Ankoù]

I assume the teachers union have brought it up.

The kids lose time because they go home at dinner time on Friday leaving the teachers the afternoon to mark work etc so as I said two full days a month.

Sounds like nothing to me.
Kids have their "games" lessons on Friday afternoon supervised by PE staff, who shouldn't be setting homework anyway. Non-contact time is pushed over to Friday afternoon for the rank and file and nobody gains or loses anything. It down to to head to organise his or her school. My idea was much better: giving parents the opportunity to learn that they are ultimately responsible for their own progeny,

 

[An Ankoù]

Btw this is not a dig at teachers I am having a go at the hypocrisy where they are saying you cannot take your kids out of school in term time because they cannot lose 5 days education but it will be ok to lose 2 days a month if they bring this in.

Any parent who can't work things around this should have paid more attention at school.

"Oh my little Fifi is having a bit of a mental 'elf issue. I'm sure a couple of weeks in Florida would do her a world of good."
"Sorry to hear that, Mrs Smithers, certainly. Young Fifi and Felicity Jones are inseparable, aren't they? I'll have a word with the Joneses to see if they can't go together."
"Thank you headmaster"
"Good day Mrs Smithers."

Job done.

 

[Donegal john]

with the average worker who only gets 6.4 weeks off (5 weeks plus 8 bank holidays)

I think the reality is the average worker only gets 28 days holidays including the bank holidays.

 

[Stu]

I think the reality is the average worker only gets 28 days holidays including the bank holidays.

https://www.peoplehr.com/en-gb/resources/blog/uk-annual-leave-report-by-industry/

It's now 33.9 apparently on average. It's gone down. Was 36.7 in 2022.

 

[Stu]

As an aside, I'm interested in how other countries do things. I've worked around Europe and got to know colleagues who have children.

In Belgium, when you go to High School, you can pick a more technical or vocational stream. So for those that are never going to university, other than doing the usual Maths, French/Flemish and PE, you can choose a technical school, for instance.

So the education, say, of an electrician or plumber at 18 is going to be considerably higher. For instance, if you want to be an electrician, at the Spectrum School in Antwerp, you start doing 50% of your studies at 14 years old (link is in English)
https://www.spectrumschool.be/en/opleidingen/elektriciteit/voltijds-bso-elektriciteit/#meerinfo

In Poland, they have a different way of doing things. There are a lot of traditional old families who rely on their children to help with say the farming or running their businesses, as they would have done a hundred years ago.

So they've taken a different approach.

Many schools are 8am-2pm. Sometimes earlier if they don't have a lunchbreak. One in Katowice where I was working finished at 1pm.
At which point, most schools offer extra curricular activities. So if you want to what would be regarded as vocational subjects in secondary school, you'd do those in the afternoon. My colleague's kids were doing all kinds of things in the afternoon. Orchestras, gymnastics, swimming and so on. Apparently some cub/scout type activities are often in the afternoons.

What that means is that those in rural areas don't have to worry about running their kids round in the evening like us Brits do. Rural children are far less likely to miss out in the UK.

 

[An Ankoù]

The whole idea of keeping all in school or training until 18 is a ridiculous idea designed to keep unemployment figures down.
Half the kids need to get their butts down to building sites learning to lay bricks or wire up houses if we're going to build another million and a half before easter.
Starmer hasnt got a clue. Reeves is worse.