[Closed] working as a teacher & attending funerals

For heavens sake, your wife is a teacher and gets loads of holidays already. Could she not have arranged for her grandparent to die at a more convenient time?

school not shut cause of the snow?

Didn't think it was an area thing, was down to discretion of head.

Why don't schools employ temps / floaters to cover for staff sickness and leave? Its not going to work for some subjects but surely the current situation is worse.

sicky emotional stress take a week that will teach em.

unfortunantly not bruce - she had most of last week off for snow - im due home next week and my van is stuck at the house with no hope of getting it out ...

snows ripped all the guttering off etc

[img] [/img]

should i get the aa out ?

Tell her to take the class along as part of the RME curriculum?

Why don't schools employ temps / floaters to cover for staff sickness and leave?

Aren't they called 'supply teachers' ?

Part of the deal of being a teacher I'm afraid, pretty damn hard to take time off during school time unless close relative concerned & as it's your gran rather than hers....

its her grandad - my grans was 3 weeks ago ...

should i get the aa out ?

I get the impression youre in Scotland, if youre not too far from Aviemore ive got some chains and a shovel that might help.

I simply wouldn't give them the option of not giving me time off.

lol i have chains and a shovel and some old carpet - when i get back to the uk i intend to dig it out and leave it up at the road - maybe - might just leave it stuck and use the fat bike ! - that photo alone is a good excuse not to go to the office !

My girlfriend (NHS employee) had to take annual leave to attend her grandad's funeral earlier this year. My boss (cooncil) gave me the day off so I could go. Didn't have to take leave. Showed a fundamental difference in attitude and I don't think the GF will ever have much respect for her boss as a result.

[i]Surrounded By Zulus - Member
I simply wouldn't give them the option of not giving me time off.[/i]

+1, I would bet all my bikes that if it was the Head Teacher's grandparent that had died then he/she would take the day as special leave without a single moments thought. What is good for the goose etc.

Echoing the experiences of trail_rat when living and working in NYC my father had a cardiac arrest. I think I got the phone call at 4-20pm local time - I was on the 6:30pm flight from JFK to MAN.

In the NHS you are entitled to special leave for imnnmediate family - parent / sibling / child. For others is discreti

Work told me my grandfather wasn't a close relative when he died so I couldn't have the shift off.

That said I took two days off as special leave to look after the kids when my Mrs appendix burst after child birth , they were refused and taken off my next years entitlement and I had a written warning 😉 nice

Right enough, when my Dad died I just said 'Im going, i'll sort out the details when I get back' Didn't give them the option of complaining, and no one mentioned using annual leave when I returned.

Work told me my grandfather wasn't a close relative when he died

That really is absurd. Who doesn't go to their grandparents funerals because they don't consider them to be close relatives ? Everyone goes to their grandparents funerals. And any employer who has a problem with that must have gone to the Ebenezer Scrooge school of industrial relations.

The thing is that there are some staff who when they ask for something, you just say 'yes', and others... But you must have consistancy, especially if you've many staff and low grades/pay.

My rule was always to think, what if it was me - and go from there.

And tbh most of the people who've worked for me would automatically put in a holiday request for anything like that, and then I'd usually 'file' them and just ask them to make up the time.

When my dad died they ordered me a taxi to take me home and told me to take as much paid leave as i needed. That is how companies should treat people that work for them.

Surrounded By Zulus - Member
I simply wouldn't give them the option of not giving me time off.

And walk straight into a disciplinary on your return. Teh rules are clear. Grandparent is discretionary leave.

Some things are worth getting a disciplinary for and sometimes the rules are stupid and inhumane.

Take some sick leave?

I was told by 2 teachers this very evening they can have up to 26 weeks sick leave a year.

firestarter - Member
That said I took two days off as special leave to look after the kids when my Mrs appendix burst after child birth , they were refused and taken off my next years entitlement and I had a written warning nice

As for the OP - I think the question is really can she justify it (in her mind) to the parents (or pupils) who's education is disrupted? I think most people would accept a grandparent - but I don't see anything wrong with the head needing convinced it was important to her.

Is it because you/ we have four grandparents, thus a lot of (paid?) leave could be needed?

i find it crazy that my work flys me across the world to attend my grans at a cost of thousands

I agree.

I've had to miss an aunts funeral because she died at the wrong time of year, but for a grandparent any school should be willing for one day at least. If not you can self certify for up to three days, "I can't cope..." should suffice.

[i]I was told by 2 teachers this very evening they can have up to 26 weeks sick leave a year.[/i]

Or more likely, they get 6 months paid sick leave before seeing their pay cut?! You still have to justify the absence, if I have two absences (even just a day each) within a couple of months, I am hauled up and put on a monitoring system, don't know what its called as they change its name every 3 months! However, luckily my boss is very good and I've not needed to take any sick leave for the last 4 years or so. (I'm not a teacher)

When my missus was rushed into hospital with emergency pancreatitis, I asked my boss if I could bring forward my already booked fortnight holiday by two weeks to look after our daughter etc.
She answered simply with a one word reply of 'No'
In the end I had to take unpaid leave up to my due holiday.
edit<I'm not a teacher but thought I'd just show the kind of people who 'manage'>

My work doesn't count grandparents as close family either.

I think not giving paid leave is ok, but you should be able to get the time off whether through annual leave/unpaid leave etc.

Terry; I have never heard of a headie who would refuse that request,may be she has to log more development hours,but hey-ho.

i'd ask for it off/ book it as leave and i'd be attending.

if they refused the leave i'd tell them i'd still be there and i'd deal with the fallout later.

really sad if some people (managers) really think that that sort of thing is on.

I'm lucky enough to never have worked somewhere where a compassionate leave/ short term request for funerals would be an issue.

I've had time off for a friends funeral, had to get it passed by the head, walked in she said was he a close friend, I burst into tears, dont think I ever answered the question and I was going anyone no matter what they said.
I'm sure your wife can take it unpaid.

I've had time for a close friend - discretionary as already mentioned, but a good head should surely use their discretion for a grandparent?

Can't she just pull a sicky like most teachers do on a daily basis? or better still go off for 2 weeks with emotional stress? Isn't it written in every teachers contract that they must have at least 4 weeks sick leave per year?

🙂

I.m a teacher and have had a few family issues this year - miscarriage, wife ill through pregnancy, child having an operation, and a new baby and my head has been brilliant - no questions asked just given me time off. Done the same for others as well. This is one of the reasons that I am staying put, and don't mind putting extra effort in, despite quite a heavy workload - makes all the difference knowing that if I need family time then I can have it. Its how the world should be.

Can't she just pull a sicky like most teachers do on a daily basis? or better still go off for 2 weeks with emotional stress? Isn't it written in every teachers contract that they must have at least 4 weeks sick leave per year?

That's why I was back at work on Monday, in Somerset, after a general and 10 stitches in my knee in Bangor hospital after a crash at Cwm Carn on the Sunday 🙄

ow. you alright?

depends on the person, but my 2p

One of my direct reports; his wife was taken ill last week and had to go into hospital, where she has now been stabilised and finally yesterday had a stone removed from a bile duct. They have an older son (10 or 11 now) a 7 year old daughter and a 3mo baby.

My report asked if he could have short notice holiday from next year's entitlement as all this year's is gone apart from Christmas. I tore him a new hole for even asking. In circumstances like this I told him, he should do the important stuff for his wife and kids, and then if he has spare time ensure nothing goes so badly wrong that he can't pick it up when things get back to normal, and that anything that can't be done in the meantime either delegate it back up to me or palm it off to one of his colleagues. I know he'll make as much time up as he needs to in order to keep the boat afloat so i can trust him with it.

In any case, in a situation like this I'd be so distracted i'd be a liability at making any important decisions.

It might be different re: how closely I'd watch the situation if it were another of my reports but I'd still give the time off for free without question. If a manager can't see this, they shouldn't be managing.

I work on the principle that the action of asking for compassionate leave justifies its granting. Emergency care, funerals... nobody's mind will be on the job at hand. Most people will make up the time, and my attitude is the same as theotherjonv's.

For the teacher going to a grandparent's funeral, since I was brought up in a large part by my grandparents, I'd challenge the notion that they are not a close relative, tell the head I was attending and face the consequences. I'd also not be in any state to face a class of children. I can sadly say that from experience!

YOu guys make me laugh

On the one hand you kick up a stink about how lax things are in the public sector with super holidays and pensions and how none of us are worth two beans and on the other kick up a stink because a teacher has to justify time of [i]with pay[/i] for a grandparents funeral! Not that she didn't get it but she had to justify to her boss having the discretionary time off.

How many of you have any contractual entitlement to compassionate leave with pay?

Which way do you want it?

[i]fatblokefromwarwick - Member
When my missus was rushed into hospital with emergency pancreatitis, I asked my boss if I could bring forward my already booked fortnight holiday by two weeks to look after our daughter etc.
She answered simply with a one word reply of 'No'[/i]

Am I the only who thinks that these may have been the last words the said boss ever uttered.

Her response seems so wrong on so many levels it almost seems absurd

moneys not the issue - in my case we would have gladly had it as unpaid leave if it was an option .....