Loose Women talking about teachers' holidays

Time to stop calling it holiday and call it Work from Home.

Having said that lots of people work hours like that, especially in professions or management and get called upon out of hours or whist on holiday. Now we have mobile phones there sent much escape.

It’s other factors and pressures that make teaching such an undesirable choice for many.

Yes this is why so many are leaving due to the huge amount of overtime they have to do. Gone are the days when my teachers gave an average ability lesson and then sat marking yesterday's books, while we wrote it up and answered questions in our books. Plus they have to deal with violent pupils, and those with quite severe learning disabilities at the same time.

As well as all the work that needs doing during term time, I needed to spend time in the “ holidays” too. Sorting stock and materials at the end of term and before the new term, reading set texts, preparing schemes of work as well as my individual lessons. I usually had two weeks proper holiday, two/ three weeks visiting relatives, some time catching up at home. The rest was not holiday, it was school work.

Yes, both ours are teachers, one A level years the other special needs in a SEN school. Both are on their knees already and half term is another 8 or 9 days away. In that half term they have to write assessments for each student with deadline day being the last day of half term. So no half term then. On top of being on their knees this week there was a full on OFSTED inspection. My job was hard but never this hard.

We were teachers until the 90s. It was hard enough then and the admin was a lot less. We worked in the evenings and even when away on holiday we were still looking for useful teaching material. Teaching was always hard work.

Now our DiL is a teacher. She's busy most weekends, evenings and large parts of the holidays as well as having to cope with reception children in nappies.

It's not surprising that teachers burn out and leave the profession.

I heard an MP in parliament today state that Breakfast Clubs were good, but notes should be taken to check on possible problems at home, possible poor feeding etc . Teachers are not child minders, social workers or substitute parents, we are teachers and would like to do the job we were trained for,but the state is demanding more and more while giving more to feckless parents and less to vital services.
Glad I am retired; I loved the teaching but not the social work.

eazybee
Check on possible problems at home, possible poor feeding for children who turn up to have feee school breakfasts?

How popular do you think that would be with the parents?
Checking would probably take from the school budget, in which case it won’t happen.
Or the LEA would suck money out of schools to pay for it, in which case it might.

Did Loose Women comment on the fact that teachers know all about how expensive it is to take holidays during the school holiday periods?

I used to use up at least one half term 'holiday' each year taking a year group abroad for the entire week. Don't remember much in the way of thanks from the parents either.

The 12 weeks holiday nonsense is as nonsensical as the “start at 9, leave at 3.30” rubbish.

As well as all the perpetration and marking there are the various events, parent consultation evenings, open evenings for prospective parents, leavers celebration evenings, the residential trips, pressure to offer guided revision in the Christmas and Easter holidays, being there on results day to offer guidance, showing support for sports teams, music and drama productions.

Oh gawd. I won’t watch Loose Women imo it is just awful.
Just leave the teachers alone is what I think.
Those who are resentful because school teaching seems such a cushy number should maybe train and do it themselves.
What are they: educators?…. or social workers and nurse maids.

As I’ve said often before; very soon they’ll be tucking their pupils up in beds at night and reading them a bedtime story if they get co-opted into any more parental responsibilities.

I thing the Loose Women are employed just to stir people up.They annoy me, full of their own importance, and not particularly bright.

Such a public demonstration of ignorance is deeply depressing. My DGD comes from a family of teachers at all levels and has discounted teaching as demanding too much for too little other than the satisfaction of seeing a child thrive. Not sufficient reward for total commitment, and so a potentially excellent primary school teacher is lost. Would sentence all the Loose Women to a term in a tough secondary school - most would last a week at most.

As a now retired teacher of over 40 years and now a school governor it is very wrong to say that teachers get a huge amount holidays. Teachers have never had to work harder than than do now. They wear so many caps especially that of Social Worker. I am proud to have been part of the profession and support all teachers.

Don’t you just love people who have never been a teacher telling teachers what they do or don’t deserve?
My OH had his eyes opened when he met me and still talks about the hours I spent planning, marking, discussing , sorting even during the holidays. Loose Women presenters have no idea ☹️

Totally agree as I am retired secondary teacher and you have to prepare lessons for all abilities,it's not just primary teachers... Lesson prep/ marking etc was mostly done on a Sunday! You neverget time to do all that as you are teaching and lucky if you get 1 non teaching period in a school day. It is about 12 weeks though. 6 summer,1 October,2 Chrismas,2 Easter + public holidays and mid term. I don't think I ever had one summer off etc as you are either in school preparing for new term or doing forward planning or as I did QA or marking exam papers, being on National Exam Team etc..Some people just see teaching as a babysitting service with babysitters getting lots of paid holidays and 'only' working 9-3.30...if only! I was generally in for 8am and usually not home till after 5pm plus all of the above! When people usedto comment negatively on my job and think it was a 'cushy number' my reply was always'You could have chosen teaching as a career too!' No reply....

Absolutely correct, I’ve watched my daughter for years do exactly that day after day, week in week out. Often well into the night, having to respond to frequent e-mails at all hours from parents, who I might add are not always pleasant. It’s a thankless job and the demands from above are getting worse. There are also ‘New Initiatives’ from ‘The Department’ that must also be implemented pilling on the paperwork too. The pressure is getting out of hand.

Anyone that owns their own business.

Regardless of the number of holidays they already get or don't get I don't think teachers should be allowed days off in term time, for the simple reason if the pupils can't have holidays during term time then why should teachers be allowed to.

My DD and her DH have left teaching. I used to worry about her as she was constantly exhausted working evenings and weekends.
They didn't get six weeks holiday in summer as there was a lot of prep to do before the new term.
Any holidays they had they really needed.

missdeke

Regardless of the number of holidays they already get or don't get I don't think teachers should be allowed days off in term time, for the simple reason if the pupils can't have holidays during term time then why should teachers be allowed to.

No teachers I've known have been allowed time off in term time. It would have to be exceptional circumstances to get time off.

My DD is a PSA in a primary school for precisely the reasons above. She has a minimal amount of paperwork and nothing during the holidays. However she gets all the in-class “agro”, is bitten, (once necessitating a visit to A & E) scratched, slapped and kicked every day, does playground duty every day and gets paid a pittance. Some teachers get the agro too and they don’t have work free holidays …

I did take one week unpaid leave to take my mum and dad to see their son in Australia 20 years ago !!

Worked fot local authority. 4 weeks holiday. After staying in office until 8 pm when computer system shut down for backing up drove home (20 mins) to continue working until 12 - 1 am. Husband had made meals, I scoffed within mins. This was the norm. If I wanted to be sure I had a full evening off I took annual leave. On one occasion sat at airport for 3 hours awaiting holiday flight doing reports and emailing them to work. A lot of people do more than their 8 hour shift five days a week.