[Closed] Many teachers 'working 60-hour week'

can we please not include travel time in working hours

Quite agree.

As I stated earlier, some of the hours claimed are totally unrealistic.

No lunch break? So when do you eat? Or do you have magic astronauts tablets?

Never mind Mike Ashley or Amazon, it seems that our schools are hot beds of worker exploitation.

Working Time Directive anyone?

gobuchul - Member

No lunch break? So when do you eat? Or do you have magic astronauts tablets?

You've never worked through lunch?

No lunch break? So when do you eat?

Lol, perfectly possible to eat whilst working!

Working Time Directive anyone?

Haha! Double lolz!

No lunch break? So when do you eat?

In between the fights in the canteen you've had to break up whilst on duty.

Lol, perfectly possible to eat whilst working!

Food in a classroom while teaching?

Food in a classroom while teaching?

Food in a classroom while marking, while the kids are on lunch.

You've never worked through lunch?

mate - I've worked 36 - 48 hr shifts in the past. I still sit down and eat at some point.

I'm not sure what these people are counting as "work"?

Food in a classroom while marking, while the kids are on lunch.

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A_A so you think the majority of heads don't care and are just interested in money. Really? I just don't buy it

No they are interested in gaming ofsted. And you dont have to buy it I couldnt care less. I note you havent answered my question.

No lunch break? So when do you eat?

No surprise teachers are leaving the profession and the volume of individuals entering the profession is low (compared to the need of the country) judging by some of the sentiments in this thread.. teachers are educating our young people and without them our society is ****ed.. so they should be given way more respect than they currently get...

Gobuchul is trolling.

Or a super-important guy who keeps the country running through sheer hard work.

Worked in many schools?

Out of interest, how many have you worked in AA and how many different types?

So lets think about expections here - a monopoly employer, heavy and constant government interference, a service provided free at the point of delivery, the absurd notion of comprehensive/mixed abilty approaches etc - and people wonder why the job is undervalued, underpaid and stressful? It's not rocket science is it. Most teachers are taken for granted. But as others have said, this is not unique to teaching.

I have mixed feelings about this.

Without a doubt teachers, like all public sector works (especially nurses and doctors), are convinced the world owes them a living.

On the other hand, having spent years working (yes, working and not travelling or eating) 60-100 hours a week, I know exactly how dire that is for your life. And all I did was sit behind a desk and make phone calls, attend meetings or draft and redraft documents.

I'm ignoring the anecdotal evidence and sample sizes of one in this thread (not statistically relevant) and look at the facts: poor money, permanently moving goalposts and daily pressure. And you get the blame when it doesn't go right.

No thanks.

Out of interest, how many have you worked in AA and how many different types?

comprehensive/mixed abilty approaches

Comps dont mean mixed ability classes in the vast majority of classes.

I'm sure the points raised in this thread are not unique to teaching but this thread is about teachers and itvseems funny to me that people ask about teaching and then complain about moaning when the teachers told them about it.

Without a doubt teachers, like all public sector works (especially nurses and doctors), are convinced the world owes them a living.

I am a public sector worker, I don't think for one second that the world owes me shit.
Sorry if that challenges your preconceptions.

Is there some special process with teachers that has the word 'no' expunged from their vocabulary?

Problem is that, like doctors and nurses, the job NEEDS doing.

4. One of the original academies, 2LEA and 1 of the more recent academies.

How did the experience differ?

Good job about avoiding mixed-ability teaching....

Well the first academy was the worst performing school in England at the time and I was training to be a teacher and then doing my nqt year. It had great facilities and money wasnt really a barrier. Christ it was tough though. The other 3 schools were all the same really. On a day to day basis for teachers you wouldnt know the difference.

+1 Molgrips.

The problem is that doctors, nurses etc. are taken advantage of, as most of us cannot say no, as if we do not do the job properly, it is not us that suffer, but patients or students.

I think that teachers and nurses would like to feel as though they are respected and feel valued, but at the moment due to government changes and government rhetoric along with the tabloids, they feel worthless.

I do not mind working the long hours, as I do the job because I enjoy it, what I detest is doing the pointless paperwork that is all about 'evidence' and arse covering.

well i can only say as i see and we overlook the local primary school where dd2 is studying...

first ones trn up just after 8 ( gates are locked until then) school closes for kids at 3.15 and i v never seen anyone there post 4.30. school holidays no one shows except for the last day of the holidays when about half the teachers carpark is full.

carpark this am had a range rover 3 beemers and merc. rest were mins ect.. not a bad do id say.. each class of 30 has one teacher and 2 ta in a school with 8 classes there is one head three deputies and 3 admin staff..

and i v never seen anyone there post 4.30.

Even on parents eve?
I think you are talking shite tbh. My experience is that primary teachers seem to do longer hours. I regularly see my sons teacher when I pick him up from after school club.

ourmaninthenorth - Member

Without a doubt teachers, like all public sector works (especially nurses and doctors), are convinced the world owes them a living.

They do absolutely essential and lifechanging work, they [i]are[/i] owed a living.

At my school the heads pa drives a porsche pan amera or whatever its called. Her husband works in the "city" apparently. So I'm not sure what relevance the cars have.

Some crypto-Tory scum showing their true colours on this thread.

first ones trn up just after 8 ( gates are locked until then) school closes for kids at 3.15 and i v never seen anyone there post 4.30. school holidays no one shows except for the last day of the holidays when about half the teachers carpark is full.

Entirely possible if the school's been PPI'd. School is charged if teachers are there outside core hours.

Without a doubt teachers, like all public sector works (especially nurses and doctors), are convinced the world owes them a living.

We really don't.

Without doubt private sector workers are jealous, lazy and full of shit.

mate - I've worked 36 - 48 hr shifts in the past. I still sit down and eat at some point.

None stop? Bollocks!

Primary school teacher here. PPA morning tomorrow so I have less work to do tonight. In my first year of teaching I calculated that I worked 600 hours more than I did in my previous job (37.5 hours a week, 23 days holiday a year), it's probably not that much any more . Currently earning about £10k less than my old job too. I didn't move jobs for the money, I did it because I wanted to do something more worthwhile and interesting. It certainly is more interesting.

I would say that 60 hours a week isn't too far off. I'm in work by 8am every morning and leave at 6pm most nights, sometimes later but rarely earlier. I normally do a couple of hours work every night and then a few at the weekend. I usually have 15 mins for lunch each day.

I know schools like totalshell mentions. If he's keeping that much of an eye on them he'all probably notice that most teachers are taking a stack of work home with them every night. I was getting kicked out at 5pm every night at one school I worked at. It annoyed me because I like to get as much done at school as I can and bring as little home as possible. Most of the other teachers there left early as they had young children to go and collect and worked most of the night once their little ones had gone to bed.

I do not mind working the long hours, as I do the job because I enjoy it, [b]what I detest is doing the pointless paperwork that is all about 'evidence' and arse covering.[/b]

Currently earning about £10k less than my old job too. I didn't move jobs for the money, I did it because I wanted to do something more worthwhile and interesting.

This kind of parasitic attitude is typical of these workshy layabouts, eh Ourmaninthenorth?

If it's got so bad then why don't you all get together and just stop doing the shite pointless stuff.

They can't sack everyone.

Without getting into any philosophical/political debate on the mindset of public employees versus private employees, my late Mum who was a committed primary school teacher probably did work a 60 hour week, with being in school by twenty to nine to do whatever it was she did, and leaving at about half past four or five in the afternoon, and doing some marking each evening, and then some work during part of the weekend, it would have been around 60 hours a week.

Whatever some people think of the 'mindset of public sector employees' she taught at a private school as it happens, and I think this point of view may as slanted as anything which humans think - rather than being some kind of objective truth, the issue of people needing adequate pay for working these kinds of hours still remains. If people keep leaving the profession the future prospects of the country may suffer.

km79: I think people stick in the job even when it's crap due to their commitment to being a teacher, that the better ones couldn't do anything else with their lives, so they carry on anyway. The partner of a friend couldn't do anything else, and my Mum was the same. You might say (the better) teachers need to teach - from it being their calling.

[quote=molgrips ]Is there some special process with teachers that has the word 'no' expunged from their vocabulary?
Problem is that, like [s]doctors and nurses[/s] lorry drivers, farmers, power station workers etc etc etc etc, the job NEEDS doing.
You'd be quicker listing the jobs that DON'T need doing. I'll start...

Manicurist

the issue of people needing adequate pay for working these kinds of hours still remains

Give or take a bit the pay isnt the issue.

Problem is that, like doctors and nurses lorry drivers, farmers,

Funny thing is my old man was a lorry driver and the law prevented him from working too many hours.

So, got to school at 8 this morning.
Did some prep first thing, then staff briefing and tutor group.

taught a 4 lesson day, with one free period (where I had to chase up some material orders that had gone astray on the system).

Break time I was on duty, and lunchtime I had some keen students in working on a project (DIY guitar with piezo pickup, if you're asking).

After school I held a dept meeting where we looked at progress and assessment, and targeted low achieving Yr10 and 11 students for intervention.

Home for 6pm, dinner and put the 3 year old to bed.

Working on and off, with a few tea breaks, until 9.30....general emails (cos when do I get the chance during the day!?), a bit of marking, and planning an staff INSET training session for next Friday.

So I make that about 11 hours today, and that's pretty typical. Though I am a Head of Faculty, and teach a pretty full timetable too.

Works out about 50-55 hours a week, not including any work I do at the weekend. Though last week was probably more, as I was at school until gone 8pm on two evenings - open evening and Yr11 parents evening.

I love the job (well sometimes!), but hours-wise it bears no comparison to any other job I did in the decade before I did my PGCE.

Finished a four day Gold DoE yesterday at 5pm for the school ( October hols up here) One parent was 45mins late collecting their child. " Oh well; it's an hour's overtime for you." was the comment. Even changing the lighting in the Bentley couldn't unboil my piss.

Right i'm at work, start the clock!

I'm not aware of any other profession where someone who has never done the job, thinks they know everything about it!

I've been a passenger on a plane, doesn't mean I know how to ****ing fly it!

Right i'm at work, start the clock!

Only when you stop surfing the net. Time spent on here when you are "at work" is essentially stealing off your employer unless you are self employed 😉

The breaks thing can certainly be true.

mrs rkk01 went weeks at a time without a coffee or lunch break. Many days she wasn't even able to take a toilet break. Not acceptable in any job, IMHO

mate - I've worked 36 - 48 hr shifts in the past. I still sit down and eat at some point.

None stop? Bollocks!

Not none stop. I've certainly worked 36 hours without sleep on occasion, stopping to eat. Then grabbing 3 or 4 hrs sleep before going back.

This is not routine, 1 or 2 times in a 12 month period. Not unusual for my industry.

The reason I call BS on teachers routinely working 60 hrs per week, is that working 60 hrs per week every week is exhausting and almost impossible if you have any kind of other responsibilities, travel, cooking, cleaning, kids etc.

In an offshore environment, a 84 hour working week is normal and you also get meal breaks, so probably more like 77, however, this is normally for a 2 week or max 4 week period and you don't have anything else to do, no cooking, cleaning, laundry etc. It's also followed by a matching leave period.

The reason I call BS on teachers routinely working 60 hrs per week, is that working 60 hrs per week every week is exhausting and almost impossible if you have any kind of other responsibilities, travel, cooking, cleaning, kids etc.

VVVVVVVVVV

I'm not aware of any other profession where someone who has never done the job, thinks they know everything about it!

I've been a passenger on a plane, doesn't mean I know how to **** fly it!

Sleeping at work now there's a novelty.

Sleeping at work now there's a novelty.

Not really.

Air crew, marine crew, fire fighters, offshore workers. Probably a few more.