Inset Days

Raymond Lin · 19 Mar 2011 at 11:59

vicisthebest said:
I'm newly qualified. Having to make and plan everything from scratch means it goes with the territory, or seems to be for every NQT I know. Think it will be better next year when I can re-use some stuff from this year.

Also the reason for the low pay.

That's for most professions where you are just qualified, same with junior doctors or even Barristers. Teachers are not the only profession and I know and when you say you work from 7:30 til 10pm, not all of that is at the school, a lot of that you can do at home I bet, and you can reuse your material next year, which means lesson planning gets easier. And the year after that gets easier.

But you do get 6-8 weeks off in the summer, and 4 weeks off at Christmas. No doubt you will argue you got less time off than that but I got 2 days off over Christmas last year, was actually in the office the rest of the time. I bet you got more than 2 days off. Actually make that 1 and a half, since I had to go in on Christmas eve for half a day, and New Year's eve too.

Overall, teachers have more holidays over the course of the year, and that is a fact.

vicisthebest · 19 Mar 2011 at 13:03

Raymond Lin said:
Overall, teachers have more holidays over the course of the year, and that is a fact.

Absolutely agree with you. Just trying to bring a bit of balance to the argument by putting a teacher's perspective. Like I say, it's a perk of the job.

XeNoN89 · 19 Mar 2011 at 13:07

Robbie G said:
It's not just the teachers either. It's caretakers and other support staff you'd have to pay and persuade to come in on the last Friday of the hol.

I work in a school as an IT tech and we have to work through holidays anyway, as do caretakers. Only teachers and general admin staff get the time off on half term and holidays

Castiel · 19 Mar 2011 at 13:09

vicisthebest said:
Absolutely agree with you. Just trying to bring a bit of balance to the argument by putting a teacher's perspective. Like I say, it's a perk of the job.

And 12 weeks instead of 13 would still be a substantial "perk" at the same time of addressing the need for more stability and class-time for children and the various economic arguments inherent to Parents needing to take extra days in lieu of childcare etc.

Destination · 19 Mar 2011 at 13:15

It was my understanding that when we were young 'uns prior to baker days being introduced we did 185 days at school a year, now kids still do 185 days of school a year just the teachers do an extra 5 inset days.

Raymond Lin · 19 Mar 2011 at 14:00

vicisthebest said:
Absolutely agree with you. Just trying to bring a bit of balance to the argument by putting a teacher's perspective. Like I say, it's a perk of the job.

And a BIG perk, so one day isn't that big a deal surely. But clearly it does since the union will surely have a fit.

Dave M · 19 Mar 2011 at 14:29

vicisthebest said:
These schools must have some slack headteachers!

Many teachers don't mark, they look at the name and give the grade they always do. I've experienced this and when my brother did teacher training he was told by more than one of the old hands that marking every piece was a waste of time.

They also used to teach the same lessons year after year, I'm not sure if the new requirement for lesson plans has changed this now.

So basically as a teacher you could get by (after the first year or two) by re-using the same lesson plans and only marking a few pieces and then just giving them the same grade through the rest of the year (or even whole time at the school).

steve-h · 19 Mar 2011 at 14:31

erm... don't question a good thing, OP. I used to love teacher training days.

Castiel · 19 Mar 2011 at 14:31

Hikari Kisugi said:
It was my understanding that when we were young 'uns prior to baker days being introduced we did 185 days at school a year, now kids still do 185 days of school a year just the teachers do an extra 5 inset days.

It's 195 days, with 5 of those being inset days.

Germany it is 220 days.

Japan 243 days.

Even Israel has 216 days.

Dave M · 19 Mar 2011 at 14:35

vicisthebest said:
But like I said before, if it was such an easy job then everyone would be a teacher.

Teaching is very stressful, mostly due to trying to control disruptive children who have more rights than you and set out every day to wind you up.

I'd end up killing one if I did it.

For the right kind of person though (who can actually hold a class's attention and control the unruly elements) it's a very good job.

starfighter · 19 Mar 2011 at 14:41

In theory although they work less hours and get loads of holidays they have lesson plans and marking etc to do at home so overall they work very hard apparenty.

I know a teacher and she is always marking work in the evening to be fair.

However whether all teachers do this is unknown to me

Participant · 19 Mar 2011 at 15:10

Castiel said:
How can any teacher seriously justify not allowing this, 12 weeks paid holiday is still way above what anyone else is entitled to.

Sorry can you make your mind up about what you're advocating, as here:

Castiel said:
If teachers has the same 5.6 week entitlement as the vast majority of other employees then there would be ample time for the 5 inset days to be taken during the school holidays.

you're on about 5 weeks?

Imo reducing their hol time by a week is perfectly reasonable, but give them just 5 weeks and keep the same pay and you'll simply get even fewer people training as teachers than already do. Not exactly conducive to quality in the education system.

the_jetsetwilly · 19 Mar 2011 at 15:14

@Raymond Lin :eek:

you have no idea buddy.

My mrs is a primary school teacher so i understand the actual workloads and stress first hand, if teaching was just teaching it would be great.

To the teachers in this thread, my respect and thankyou for teaching the next and future generations

I'd rather have you recovered and rested ready to teach children rather than run down and stressed out which is the mental and physical state you get to just before "holiday" time.

Destination · 19 Mar 2011 at 15:18

Castiel said:
It's 195 days, with 5 of those being inset days.

Germany it is 220 days.

Japan 243 days.

Even Israel has 216 days.

So?
We knew the standard and hours of Uk education was poor. It always has been, and that coupled with a low desire for results in many regions/areas/subareas doesn't help the over all result.
The amount of celebrities who use the phrase 'I was no good at Maths/Science/School yet I went on to do well and make $$' and these people being plastered over the covers of our magazines is hardly anything to aim for.
You could make the same kids do an extra 30 days of school a year and they'd still be thick chumps.

The situation appears significantly worse in England to Northern Ireland. We have a longer summer holiday, and less halfterm/easter/christmas time it would appear, for the same overall number of days.

It means when the GCSEs start in early May, the school closes for summer on 30th June usually, In England there are 2 maybe 3 weeks longer before closure. So for 5th years and Upper 6's you've lost may potential teaching weeks to the fact kids have already done the examinations.

I'd have schools open for lessons at 7.30, work to 1pm, and then have organised activites 4 of the afternoons in the week, sport, music, technology, whatever, the could be choice, and it would demonstrate school isn't just books or education, but its a damn important part of it.

Raymond Lin · 19 Mar 2011 at 15:20

the_jetsetwilly said:
@Raymond Lin you have no idea buddy.

My mrs is a primary school teacher so i understand the actual workloads and stress first hand, if teaching was just teaching it would be great.

To the teachers in this thread, my respect and thankyou for teaching the next and future generations I'd rather have you recovered and rested ready to teach children rather than run down and stressed out which is the mental and physical state you get to just before "holiday" time.

Please enlighten me?

Lets not put "stress" into this, all jobs have stress, it is a variable, a variable that is subjective.

We are talking about working hours. How many hours does a teacher do a week on average? And how many days holidays do you get? That's what we are talking about here - Re: Inset Days.

Dave M · 19 Mar 2011 at 15:31

Raymond Lin said:
Lets not put "stress" into this, all jobs have stress, it is a variable, a variable that is subjective.

Indeed, teaching a class of gobby teenagers is not something I would ever even consider, I'd rather starve or stack shelves in a supermarket.

But you may thrive on the banter and back and forth or you may be in a good (private) school where the kids are well behaved.

Any which way the answer is addressing the cause of stress, not giving people more holiday to get over it. That would be considered a **** poor solution in any other job.

Destination · 19 Mar 2011 at 15:32

Thats part of the problem with govt employment, moral and stress are never considered, and thus you end up with significantly more people off on stress leave than should be.

Take the Northern Irish civil service, a massive dump of an all encompassing body that is incredibly overstaffed in the wrong departments and understaffed in others, leading to departments where people have nothing to do, are not pushed, not stressed, and end up lazy with low moral and any attempt to change the sleeping dog collapses and dies of stress leave.
Massive addressing right across the board needs to be done, but having physically watched a class of educated (top 25% percentile) well brought up 16 year old break a teacher, actually break the man, a complete breakdown into a static state, I can see how stress fits into the role.

The younger generation of teachers are more immune to this, as they went through the education system in its current form, and thus know everyone is scum until proven otherwise, but its not a given.

j0s · 19 Mar 2011 at 15:34

My missus, sometimes gets in from school at 7pm, from the after school sessions, any county cup games that have happened, works saturdays, because of inter school cross country tournaments, plus more

So from my perspective, it doesn't bother me in the slightest how many holidays she gets in a year, it balances itself out

j0s · 19 Mar 2011 at 15:35

Telescopi said:
Indeed, teaching a class of gobby teenagers is not something I would ever even consider.......

Any which way the answer is addressing the cause of stress, not giving people more holiday to get over it. That would be considered a **** poor solution in any other job.

In some schools, it's not just gobby kids, it can also be physical attacks as well to the teachers.

Raymond Lin · 19 Mar 2011 at 15:40

j0s said:
In some schools, it's not just gobby kids, it can also be physical attacks as well to the teachers.

The police gets threats of violence too, as to prison officers, and Paramedics, social workers, Doctors, nurses...the list goes on.