Teacher Training days........

[joeluke]

............What I want to know is what do teachers actually do on the increasing number of 'teacher training days' that tend to pop up each term?

Yes, I know the obvious answer is 'teacher training' but why can't these days be incorporated into the quarter of a years hoilidays teachers get each year?

Working parents have a hard enough job arranging childcare during the aforementioned quarter of a year school holidays without having to arrange more for these days

[modeller]

As an ex-teacher I was surprised that nobody mentioned lesson preparation . I was a science teacher and I spent every Sunday preparing work for the following week . Plus having to mark more than 100 books every day, plus writing up hundreds of school reports for parents evenings.Which occurred in my school every month.
Just think about it to just read through an essay and mark it properly even if it takes only 2 or 3 minutes, and it can be much longer, that amounts to several hours of work every day. When do you critics think it is done ?

[factor-fiction]

I mentioned it!

[joeluke]

science teacher

You sound like the kind of teacher that many of us probably wish we'd had

[Old_Geezer]

It matter little when work ouside the classroom, is done, or by whom; the thing is that the system should allow sufficient resource for that which needs to be done. If it does not, it is failing.

And that has little to do with the initial question which was about why the education system thinks it can take days out of the normal school schedule when it opts not to teach the children it is supposed to be teaching. Never happened when I was at school, no excuse for it now.

If there is no need to have the teacher away from the classroom, then there should be no training days. If a need can be shown for teachers to have more time away from actual teaching to cover other tasks that they can not fit into the agreed normal working hours, then a supply teacher should be taking over the teaching.

It is pointless to squabble about whether it is teacher's fault or the parents', or whether this away from the classroom work is necessary or superfluous, the system is clearly failing one way or another, and ought not be defended.

[EngTeach]

So ultimately this whole thing is that the school does not give notice in a timely manner. That gripe is then with the the school, district or administration and really has no bearing on what we do or don't do as teachers on those days. What do the parents do when a child wakes up vomiting? Surely the child does not give notice. Isn't part of being a parent to have contingency plans in place the same way I must always have a plan to teach. Often I am told I will have a speaker in or an assembly for a certain class or classes.More often than not that plan falls through. I am then expected (and rightly so) to TEACH. "No notice" would never be a viable excuse for being unprepared in a school, why then is it acceptable for a parent?

[B00]

he point being EngTeach, whether a teacher can justify, us as parents having to book time off work for these teacher training days. Frankly I don't care how much notice I'm given, the fact of the matter is i've to use some of my own precious 4 weeks (yes, thats 4 weeks total) holiday entitlement for the odd day here and odd day there.

[factor-fiction]

I'm not sure whether old geezer's point is correct.

Is it suggested that school children now have more holidays than they used to because they now get days off when teachers are attending training days?

I'd be interested to know whether that is really the case? I just don't know. If so when did it happen- surely it's been like this for at least 30 years (I remember Baker days).

[Mosaic]

Boo, maybe you want to address your terms and conditions of work instead of knocking those that teachers have at present. I agree you should be given time to care for children, that parents, especially mothers, are penalised and made to sholder the economic strain of raising kids. But you won't solve that by getting at teachers. We (and this includes you) work longer hours than any other EC and have fewest holidays. BTW teachers have chidren, too, and we have to make childcare arrangements.

[factor-fiction]

Hi Boo- if you are a full-time worker you will get 28 days' holiday.
You are entitled to a minimum of 5.6 weeks paid annual leave (28 days for someone working five days a week).

[Old_Geezer]

Kids falling ill is not something that is controllable. It is something that has to be coped with.

A school opting not to teach, which is its function, is a deliberate decision.

So the 2 things are not really comparable. If there were the same debating technique could be used to justify all sorts of extreme situations.

it's not a case of giving notice, more a case of it is wrong and ought not happen at all.

[Mosaic]

I don't think you'd find any teacher disagreeing with the abolition of compulsory training days.

[Old_Geezer]

What's a Baker day ?
Do they come in batches of 13 ?

[annie0000]

I think the point here is that there are good teachers and bad teachers just like any other profession. My kids had one teacher that was really dedicated and put in the hours and had an interesting and exciting curiculum - they had another that went through the motions, brought out the same lesson plan every year and left before the bell. Most people in the UK work extra unpaid hours - it's part of the culture. It is unfair however for councils to expect parents to be able to take extra days of work at the drop of a hat so that they can train the staf that we pay for. I have to do training in my working hours and still do the work I need to do, or do it in my own time. I get paid a reasonable salary to do a job so therefore I do what's expected of me. Teachers earn a salary to do a job, not a wage based on hours worked. Theres a difference.

[science_teacher]

I think we should do training days in the last week of school. Kids refuse to do any work any way so stick 'em in the hall with a couple of babysitters, er I mean fully qualified teachers and stick on a video. I don't have kids (well not ones that come from my own gene pool) but I can see how it would be an annoyance to have to take off single days here and there. I think we need to realise that the problem is the people in the penthouse offices who make these decisions and not the teachers who are basically doing as we are told. What am I supposed to do on an inset, refuse and call all of the parents and say send all of your children to me. It is kind of turning into a teacher bashing now (and in return a little bit of parent bashing) while at the end of the day if the government or council decide no kids today there's not much we can do. As I'm sure I said before I would much rather be in front of 30 kids than in a room full of teachers (some of them are quite boring you know) making lists of good and bad stuff about stuff.

[factor-fiction]

The argument has been restated that pupils are having to take extra days off to allow teachers to attend the training.
This may or may not be true. My question about this hasn't been answered.

I asked: "Is it suggested that school children now have more holidays than they used to because they now get days off when teachers are attending training days?
I'd be interested to know whether that is really the case? ....If so when did it happen- surely it's been like this for at least 30 years (I remember Baker days). "

Anyway at my school training days are tagged onto the start/end of a holiday so ineffect for the pupils and parents are part of the holiday. I think that's the best way for parents and teachers. If schools don't do that but instead throw in odd days at short notice in term time then parents should complain to the Head/LEA

[annie0000]

science teacher - that's what happens anyway - I don't know how many dvds my kids saw over the last couple of weeks of term. Both my kids had perfect attendance, but sometimes I wonder why I bother. I pay extra to take them on holiday after school finishes so as to not disrupt their education and then they spend weeks watching dvds and colouring things in.

[EngTeach]

Contractually, I have 3 weeks "vacation" and some "bank holidays" during the school year. My work is seasonal. I am LAID OFF in July and August. I can't work when there is no school. Some places have mandatory shut downs the week between Christmas and New Year, I have heard some places in Europe shut down for 2 weeks in August. These employees are forced to be off then like I am in July and August.

Suggesting that training days take place over a vacation week is crazy. I don't see many other people giving up their vacation time to do the "behind the scenes" work.

This has been an argument I have fought many times in my 18 years as a teacher. I made the choice to be in debt to achieve my "highly qualified" status as a teacher with multiple degrees. Other people made a choice to have children. we all must deal with the effects of such decisions.

[joeluke]

EngTeach.......move to England to teach, you'll have never had it so good!

[chattykathy]

I just love it when people get worked up about teachers! Just to have my penny's worth - when I was a primary teacher I did a 60 hour week, gave up holidays and weekends to take the kids camping, skiing, ferry kids to athletics, football,netball when the parents couldn't be arsed to get up on a Saturday morning etc etc, the list goes on!
By the way, INSET days are part of what was once teachers' holidays. The Tories took 5 days off us to undertake training so although they are tagged on at the beginning or end of a holiday they are still days the children would be off.
Hey, if it's that easy why not go to Uni for 4 years and become a teacher?????