[Closed] Teachers hours

I don't normally post on education threads but this one is of interest.

I work in a large secondary with around 100 teaching staff. Some arrive just in time and leave on the bell, this does annoy me. The majority don't do this.

Personally I leave the house before 7am and have a 10-15min drive to work. I work from the moment I get into school, through lunch time and normally get home well after 6. 7pm has become the norm. I am on the SLT so don't have as much planning as others, my partner teaches more classes than I currently have and spends at least 5-6 hours on a weekend planning/marking/prep.

Our school has just moved to a new build. During the summer I had one day off and worked two of the weekends to ensure that the move was successful. I don't know how much harder I could work.

Its all a slightly daft debate this anyway. Only those who have taught 6 50 min lessons in a day can have any idea what its like. Certainly there's no time for posting here!

As a final rant - my parents taught me to read and helped with Maths and spelling. These days too much responsibility is devolved to schools by parents.

It's more than just helping with academic subjects though.

Drives me into a gibbering frenzy when I hear my kids didn't get to do a proper days lessons because some parent has not taught their little treasure how to behave in school so the teacher has been on riot control dealing with one or two little scrotes rather than educating the rest of the class.

The biggest problem I have is that teachers seem to come over as though they are the only ones that have to take work home, deal with stressful situations , work late or have targets to achieve etc etc they aren't.Much of this thread is taken up like many when it is about teachers with teachers telling us how hard they work.It may come as a shock but I expect you to work hard and no I don't have a problem with your salary, the amount of holidays you get or your expectation of a reasonable pension.

that teachers seem to come over as though they are the only ones that have to take work home, deal with stressful situations

I dont think anybody on this thread has said they only work 20 hours or that they have 6 months holiday have they?

I think you missed my point because I over egged the pudding to highlight th e fact many accuse them of not really working. You then did not comment on the thrust of my point or my counter to yours

D-
see me after class

I think you missed my point because I over egged the pudding to highlight th e fact many accuse them of not really working. You then did not comment on the thrust of my point or my counter to yours

D-
see me after class

Well I dont appear to be able to teach you or get you to respond to my point. However I have managed to make you attack me rather than my point. You must be proud of this surely?

Perhaps I am just one of the bad lazy ones rather than it being due to what I have been given to work with 😉

I have made my point and am not really interested in gently insulting each other but thanks for the offer to meet me by the bike sheds but i shall decline.

Im really not attacking you or teachers, as I initially said I haven't a problem with your holidays,salary or the expectation of a good pension.Im just pointing out how teachers seem to come over on this thread and many other connected to teaching.

Please tell me you aren't a teacher junkyard

did some one else do there grammas bad?

I work in an independent school. Did 1.5yrs in state and got fed up buying my own glue sticks and scissors for activities. The behaviour I could cope with/manage - it was the chronic underfunding that got me.

So really Wilshaw can say what he likes as he isn't my Chief Inspector... Thank god. Doesn't stop me thinking he's a moron though.

GB

Ed2001 - Member

It may come as a shock but I expect you to work hard ....

Why do you expect teachers to work hard, assuming that hard is more than normal ?

I just expect them to work normally, or do you think working at an average intensity should be reserved for other professions ?

Im just pointing out how teachers seem to come over on this thread

most of the teachers i have met in real life have trouble leaving that dictatorial talking down to children thing behind once they leave the school gates, which is why they often seem to socialise together.
i did some work for a school once and the teacher that took me to the cafe over the road told me to "watch for the traffic" " mind the step" " cross now" "ask for a receipt"
felt like saying "give it a rest, i'm not a child" instead i put a stink bomb in her handbag and reported her to ofsted for inappropriate touching in the stationary cupboard

I only slip in to that mode when i am with a moron who need such guidance...often they are too dumb to see they need help with even the simplest tasks and get a little emotional and upset.

Bless them and their cotton wool heads eh.

it is easy to do this sort of thing but somewhat pointless

Ed2001 - Member
Im really not attacking you or teachers, as I initially said I haven't a problem with your holidays,salary or the expectation of a good pension.Im just pointing out how teachers seem to come over on this thread and many other connected to teaching.

I'm afraid your point just doesn't make sense in the context of the usual teacher bashing lazy bar steward threads.

it is easy to do this sort of thing but somewhat pointless

why do it then? it's obvious you recognise the fact that a lot of teachers do this 'talking at' thing.
they need to learn to stop being so institutionalised.

I only slip in to that mode when i am with a moron who need such guidance

still got the tufty club badge, not been run over or had a near miss yet, must have had a good teacher. 🙄

I'm afraid your point just doesn't make sense in the context of the usual teacher bashing lazy bar steward threads.

why do it then?

it's obvious you recognise the fact that a lot of teachers do this 'talking at' thing.

How on earth can you conclude that?
that is the opposite of what I think
😯

why do it then? it's obvious you recognise the fact that a lot of teachers do this 'talking at' thing.

arrh bless, were you bullied at school too?

anagallis_arvensis - Member
arrh bless, were you bullied at school too?

This is never going to make a teacher look good, especially when defending their profession.

It is daft to say all teachers do this

Who said all teachers do this?
Is that true?

you should try being a lecturer in an fe college; this term, i have doubled my course size; i run a course that has 64 students,have exactly the same standards to meet as schools,the course is equiv to three A levels, have been graded as good and outstanding for 15 years, with one satisfactory grade in that time. i start at 8.30, leave at 5.30 most days, never at 3! teach all week, with 3 hours admin.

we teach the kids who the schools, dont want/fail or choose to come to us, we often turn them round and exceed national benchmarks.

and for that i get less holidays than school teachers and earn under £27 k.

and it can be the best job in the world, until you walk out the studio and into some manager who makes you feel like you have just trodden in a piece of dog shit...

I dont really care about looking good or defending my profession tbh. The guy obviously didnt get enough hugs as a kid or is terminally stupid. I am presuming of course he's an adult. If he is under the age of twenty i dont mind him being stupid.

This is never going to make a teacher look good, especially when defending their profession.

arrh bless, were you bullied at school too?

Teaching is tough, time consuming and long hours.

Most of us do care about the children.

I'm at a new school and feel sorry for the kids as most of the
parents don't give a 5hite.

I'm playing councillor all the time and referring abuse all the time.

Talking down? I tell my students to hold their heads up high.

Bit fed up with poor behaviour and the lack of school support.

All my classes are moving forward now and suddenly they are putting a mentally disturbed child in a class who
will get A's and I'm now worried about their safety as I'm told he is violent and will run around shouting beep beep?!

Bring back hard old fashioned respect and discipline or welcome more city violence.

Need the career advice financing to return.

Mr Smith I am sure you wish to comment now on how you got my entire position completely wrong and completely misunderstood my point...what no you want to troll on and continue the dance...sadly you now have to dance alone.
I was only joking when i said moron , can I apologise for that.

You see some things you certainly would rather not as a teacher Frankenstein. Maybe you'll find roadrunner will be fine. Sometimes things just click with certain teachers and certain kids.

I'm not sure the old days were better though

as i'm having five minutes off from marking the work of little people i thought i'd have a look at stw, whata mistake a to make a!
i came to teaching from engineering and love the job to pieces, when little johny or whoever says, oh yeah i get that sir it's worth the world. when i get to break up girls ripping hair out of each others heads it's not so good. (that is a tiny percentage of the time but alarmingly more common than it should be)
counselling, all the time, caring (hopefully), feeling undermined (certainly), the new satisfactory etc is utter BS. I do leave at 3 some days, hand held high and waving. but two nights out of four i run after school clubs, one out of four we have a meeting and the other is used for revision classes. i usually get there at half seven ish and most days work through lunch.
i do remember though working twelve hours as an engineer and getting four weeks holiday a year!
i love teaching and the time it gives me with my kids, ofsted is an evil which we need, but they do need to leave us alone to get on with doing our job. the majority of us work flipping hard and care.
oh and to the politicians, we (the teachers) are TRYING to shape the future.

Teaching is the most awesome job ever...if you have a great school, great colleagues and enjoy the company of kids. I take great pride in being a teacher and I really enjoy it, which is why I chose it as a career. The holidays are tops, about 17 weeks paid a year, and in the last 7 years these have included paid for trips to Verbier x4, Aosta Valley x1, Cyprus x2, Berlin x4, Krakow and Auschwitz x1, Chamnonix x1 plus DofE expeditions twice a year in the UK. I get to coach rowing and netball, train 15 year olds in weapon handling, read as many books as I can get my hands on and indulge my passion for my subject (History).
We all have our choices; mine = winning.

Its worth some people on here remembering that most teachers have as much if not more influence on our childrens future as we do as parents.

Be grateful for good teachers and their relentless efforts and hope they are rewarded well so they can be happy and motivated to continue doing what they are doing.

Be grateful for good teachers and their relentless efforts and hope they are rewarded well so they can be happy and motivated to continue doing what they are doing.

+1

And let's identify and remove/retrain the ones who are absolutely crap. They do exist and they need identifying and retraining/removing, because they are damaging the reputations of the good teachers and failing to help their charges to achieve their potential.

And let's identify and remove/retrain the ones who are absolutely crap. They do exist and they need identifying and retraining/removing, because they are damaging the reputations of the good teachers and failing to help their charges to achieve their potential.

Indeed, but the tricky part is finding others to do it who are better.

Lapierrelady, do you work in state school?

Is overworking and underpaying teachers really going to give kids the best education?

And this "everyone must be good" policy seems to be the exact opposite of what the Conservonazis want from GCSE and A level grades where they want kids to be marked as a C grade despite being as clever as a B grade kid from 10 or 20 years ago.

No....not since training. But no qualms about doing so in the future

and I also work Saturdays and usually 3-4 Sundays a term

Fair enough, I wouldnt want to work in the private sector. I was just looking at all those trips, its one of my bugbears when state schools, like the one I'm at, organise ski trips for the lucky few. I think thats very wrong.

I wonder if you would have the same views if you worked at a state school? Out of intrest do you get the same pension and how does pay compare?

Teachers...

Amazing how many post on this forum at all times of day..

My 15 going on 16 yr old recently showed me a piece she'd had marked excellent, They're, there & their were all spelt 'there'..

Say no more really, they just don't make em like they used to imho and as to working hard I wish it were mandatory that they had worked in a proper job in the private sector first, then maybe they'd realise how life aint as bad being a teacher as it might seem to them currently.

Yes there are no posts at all from the private sector here during work hours just teachers everywhere.
Thankfully no one here cares about grammar either

It is alos just possible that the teacher is aware of the work standards of your daughters peers, the criteria by which to assess and is able to asses progress by your daughter over time and give an appropriate mark.
I assume you would hate for the person without a "proper job" to turn up at the "real world job you have " [ it would probably frighten them would it not?]and start telling you why you were doing it wrong and why they know better.
I never knew the only true way to understanding education and standards is to not work in education but to do a "proper job".Who knew eh

I can only really add to this discussion from an slightly unusual perspective, but still relevant...

I've helped "build" (doing the legals, not actually touching dirty mud and bricks and stuff, it would ruin my shoes) quite a few schools over the years (somewhere around 30 in the UK and about to close another few in Ireland next month). I get to deal with (generally indirectly) the teachers and other people who help us turn a building into a school (if that makes sense).

These are voluntary posts on a committee/board, filled by teachers of the current/new school who are there to voice opinions on issues to do with the construction (normally fitting out) and management of the school. It's good to get a view on how something will actually work on the ground, rather than in a contract or a designers drawing.

The people who take these positions are often exactly how I remembered my old teachers - patronising, stubborn and unable to keep their emotions (anger/frustration) under control.

However, in almost every school we've built across the UK and Ireland, including the large numbers we currently manage, there's a recurring theme...they all genuinely care about, and are willing to really fight for, the welfare of the pupils. It can be quite a heartwarming sight when you've got a teacher sitting in on a meeting at 6pm, giving a demonstration as to why a particular door or bit of furniture won't be suitable and won't leave the room until they're sure everyone has understood their point. It can be annoying at time (can't really blame them for not being able to understand the economic or practical realities though, they're only telling it how they see it), but you can't fake that level of commitment to pupil welfare/teaching standards over a long construction and subsequent maintenance period.

I've had one guy literally throw himself down a set of stairs to try to highlight circumstances where a device used to get disabled children down stairs in an emergency might fail. It got to the stage where we had the MD of the company that manufactures the product fly in from Germany (with his 20st rugby playing son) to demonstrate how well it worked. I remember cursing that teacher every day until we had the issue resolved, but had to admire his concern for a bunch of little turds that probably didn't appreciate him at all 🙂

Like most jobs, my hat goes off to those who actually put the effort in.

As for more pay...you get enough 😉

I do not read this as a criticism of teachers. Rather it is a simple question - would giving schools the ability to set pay levels and to discriminate between teachers depending on their performance (however defined) lead to :

1. "demotivated teachers, staffroom resentment and recruitment problems" (NUT)
2. "motivate teachers, create incentives to improve standards, assist recruitment" (Government plans)

Of course, this gets muddles up in more emotive subjects at the margin (poor teachers hiding, long holidays etc) but these seem to be red herrings in comparison to this simple, central issue. Is equality paying everyone the same, or is it paying them according to their contribution (again however defined)?

Personally, I would be happier to see teachers who are willing and able to extend education beyond the passing of current styles of exams [and, dare I say it, willing buy books that go beyond merely passing exams (sorry 😉 ] encouraged with (among other things) the opportunity to earn more than those who are not. But I know that this puts me at odds with others on here! 😉

Indeed, but the tricky part is finding others to do it who are better.

That starts with the process of recruiting students post A-Level and changing the perception of teachers and teaching.

Igrf their not all that bad!
Rogerthecat someone should tell that they're Mr Gove

Personally, I would be happier to see teachers who are willing and able to extend education beyond the passing of current styles of exams [and, dare I say it, willing buy books that go beyond merely passing exams (sorry  ] encouraged with (among other things) the opportunity to earn more than those who are not. But I know that this puts me at odds with others on here! 

so would I but unless league tables are junked its not going happen.