Law on teacher's resignation?

no but i know lots of teachers who do!

Not sure that they form a coherent group aka , the academies. Some were set up under the last gov with a fanfare and a fancy new building - sometimes the existing head was got rid of as the schools were doing badly. Some are existing successful schools that have been allowed to "go it alone" and get their funding directly from gov instead of LA. Some are failing schools that have been recently forced to become academies "with a sponsor" in other words an organisation that acts in the place of a local authority. I know of one small school that was handed over by the local authority to a sponsor because it was in a dismal state and the LA no longer have advisers etc to help it. Five years ago the LA were recruiting a big new senior team of directors and assistant directors, all on big salaries. Then the advisory team were all made redundant, quickly followed by disappearance of the new directors. i think it is down to the one director of childrens' services now and she also oversees social work.
None of the academies have radically departed from the basic teachers pay and conditions deal I suspect or the unions would have been vying to see who could scream loudest about it. I think all academy means at the moment is that they are not in the direct control of an LA. Although LA still have some responsibilities e.g. to make sure there are school places for all children.
Yes deeda it does sound like that department is in a mess - glad your SIL has made a decision he can live with.

Just put of interest has anyone here actually worked in an academy?

I get the feeling that they've got a lot of ideas about what they'd like the college to be doing, but haven't got anyone who knows how to make it all work. The result is that the people at the sharp end get thoroughly demoralised.

There is something seriously wrong in that college.

My son in law was originally in the US Navy [granjura] When he moved over here he decided to do an engineering degree and worked in aircraft maintenance for some years. He was working for the MOD but decided to move into teaching, teaching the theory of flight and aircraft maintenance.
He went in today and handed in his resignation saying he would leave at Christmas - but would be using his remaining paternity leave. Apparently one of his colleagues has already resigned and the third member of his department is only waiting to hear the result of an interview before he resigns. Can't help feeling there must be something wrong when a whole department wants to leave.

True, the year we were in special measures was a total pain for head as there were about 4 different people monitoring several times a month. Since then the school improved steadily year on year, and got a Good from ofsted but due to the ever moving goal posts we never quite got above "floor standards" - 1% below when the school finally "closed' and reopened as an academy.

Before I left it seemed to me that OFSTED and HMI beat up the head and SLT to achieve unachievable targets, they then beat up the teachers to achieve unachievable targets and the teachers were then expected to beat up the children to achieve unachievable targets.

Metaphorical beatings of course.

The pressure in 'failing' schools (the ones that used to be satisfactory i.e. doing their job) is incredible. Inspections, observations, extra meetings, extra work, extra everything. I know of one school where the head emails her staff up to 10pm and expects them to brief her on what action they've taken by 8am the following morning. No one dare dissent as they're all terrified for their jobs and nervous wrecks.

It is interesting (or maybe not!) that the guys at the top refer to themselves as things like Senior Leadership Team. I still think good management is fundamental - understanding how the whole structure functions, applying legislation effectively and humanely,integrating the indeivuals who make up the staff, helping staff to truly function as a team - not a collection of individuals with their own ideas of how it works etc After training as a manager with M&Swhere she managed a satellite store in Leeds, DD became an extremely successful Operational Director of an international financial recruitment agency, running a high-billing team and leading them to their success. She is now back at university retraining as a secondary maths teacher - I fear she will either be a Deputy Head within 5 years or out of a job because she will have told the "management" about their ability to organise social occasions in breweries! ( Given her background she was even asked for advice in her feedback from the Birmingham University selection panel) Too often the people at the pointy end have (is this the Peter principle?) risen to the level of their own incompetence.

There seems, in the education world, to have been a big emphasis on "leadership" gracesmum . Now, in my book, leadership and management are different things. Leadership all about strategy, vision, inspiration and other waffly stuff. Management a set of skills.
So people traipse off to do the expensive college of school leadership training without ever doing basic supervisory/management skills - how to talk to staff, set them targets, give them feedback, stick to the HR policies etc. I used to refer to management as "the M word" because nobody wanted to talk about it. We lead, coach etc but professionals don't need management, surely? Bit of a dirty word isn't it?
The long hours culture is alive and well in many work places - it is the internal culture of the organisation in the main - but sometimes whole sectors are infected with it.

One problem is I think, that schools are managed by people who are not necessarily good managers. I am not advocating a two tier system as in the NHS but better training for the people in charge toenable their staff to achieve theor best, not covering their (the managers') own incompetent backs by generating more and more procedures. When I was "in charge" my guiding principle was helping my department to succeed - to make it possible not to set insurmoountable barriers in their way in the form of yet more box-ticking, unreasonable deadlines, or impossible expectations. If I saw someone was having problems with deadlines or coping with the workload, I would sit then down and ask what would help them to get there, whether short term help, protecting non-contact time, help with prioritising, adminstrative help (we had an admin assistant) or even just discussing the next step. "Management" in my school preferred the big stick method - let staff make enough mistakes or miss deadlines then throw the book at them. My approach was just how I am, with the added help of reading some of DD's M&S management manuals as she was on the M&S graduate training programme! at the time!
There seems to be a growing culture in this country, and not just in the public sector, of having to be seen to be the first in to work and the last out, of sacrificing family and private life to the corporate demands and then facing being thrown on the scrapheap when you have given the best years of your life to your work. Not a healthy state of affairs.

You couldn't do that in a school where OFSTED and HMI are peering over your shoulder every day. Everything has to be present and correct and available at a moments notice.

I loved teaching. I hate what it has become.

I was a teacher in a comprehensive school. and after 2 bouts of stress related illness I was determined that the job was not going to finish me off and managed to reduce my workload.
Each morning I checked my pigeonhole and dealt with anything I thought important. Some things at this point were "filed'. Others were left until I was asked twice and they were dealt with immediately.
About 7 years before I retired my HoD instigated yet more paperwork to be placed in a filing cabinet when done. I quickly realized what a waste of time it was as no-one ever looked at it again and so for 7 years I never did it. She never knew that my 'vital' notes were missing !
It is relatively easy to cut down the paperwork and concentrate on the things that really should be taking your time. You just need to work out what really is important.

Gracesmum talks a lot of sense- and I have witnessed many colleagues who worked very long hours but not particularly effectively, and often to hide a sense of insecurity. This may well have absolutely nothing to do with this particular case, but it is a fact- and not just in teaching.

I was lucky in a way to go into teaching late- I went to Uni when our youngest started school. So I had to be absolutely organized about how I used my time, and learnt to teach very well and effectively, but without re-inventing the wheel every day. It really did concentrate the mind. One of our young teachers had a nervous breakdown after having her first baby. She was so used to have tons of time to prepare every lesson, make new worksheets, acetates, powerpoint lessons, games, individual activities for separate groups, for each lesson (secondary)... and when she suddenly didn't have the time to do that, despite increased experience, she crumpled.

How to organise one's time and select priorities is a huge factor in being successful, in any job with responsibility. As said, this is a general comment, and not about this particular case. Although it may well be a factor too.
What did your son-in-law do before?

Much too late now for the school to recruit someone- so what are the kids supposed to do in September without a teacher? Those rules are there for a very good reason. I am sure none of us would like to ever face the situation where our children and grand-children have no teacher at the beginning of the year.

I worked in a primary school. I was a full time class teacher plus subject leader for PSHCE, MFL, Humanities, Global and SRE. This was after my load was reduced. So on top of the usual overload of planning, assessing etc there were policies to write and update, resources to take care of, support to be given and awards to be worked towards (a huge amount of work).

This isn't an unusual workload in a small primary as there are so many areas that need to be led but so few teachers to lead them. Needless to say we didn't get paid more for all this extra work and responsibility.

Sorry if I sounded unsympathetic, Deedaa, I didn't mean to be but I can remember colleagues who seemed to work 24/7 without necessarily making inroads on the work because nobody had shown them how to work smarter rather than harder - which should be the remit of a good HoD or manager. There are of course black spots in the school year when one is marking late into the night - I also used to do exam marking for GCSE and A level exam boards and that was a particular bottle neck. "New" teachers are back at the stage I remember from the 80's/90's where you had to "invent" all your lessons instead of accessing prepared material, which us old hands felt a waste of time, like reinventing the wheel and of course you have to write detailed "lesson plans" (again, the more cynical kept these to a minimum unless OFSTED were lurking) I think I blame teacher trainers who seem to be very naive and don't realise that if teachers do spend all these hours on lesson preparation they will soon burn out. Teachers' hours and conditions are often harsh, but so are they in industry or other areas for those who want to succeed. I see my SIL regularly leaving home at 6 to catch the silly o clock train to London or flight to somewhere and not getting home until 10 or later at night (or staying away). He is on call even on holiday and his Blackberry/iPad/laptop whatever goes with him- although admittedly he receives a telephone number salary in exchange for that. Don't get me wrong, I am not knocking teachers or anybody in the public sector - hospital doctors work equally punishing hours - is it just a symptom of our society today?

My DD was expected to return to school at least one evening (7-9pm) a week for Senior Management meetings, staff reviews, curriculum planning meetings etc. She only had Good Friday and Easter Monday off during the Easter Holiday. Yet when she wanted a morning off, to attend her son's school prize giving (he was getting an award) this was refused

Just seen your post gracesmum the discussion about hours has been rumbling on for quite a while and it's taken a lot for him give up and apply for another job. Having come to teaching late he's always been very conscientious about his work and put in a lot of work at home with projects and lesson preparation.

Apparently I have ben misrepresenting my Son in Law as he tells me he is not a teacher, he is a further education lecturer. As some of his students seem to be about 14 I hadn't really taken in the further education bit. The late night working he was doing was a lot of end of term marking. One of his colleagues spent several nights sleeping in a hotel because it was easier than going home.
He's hoping now to be able to use some of my daughter's spare maternity leave and cut down on the amount of notice he has to work. He won't be paid for it, but would get some time at home. Being 10 years older than my daughter he is reaching an age where he does need to take notice of his health.

Most of us used to go in during the holidays, that's no big deal, many office workers have been known to do the same e.g. at weekends, but I maintain that unless one is an NQT or a PGCE student on placement, it is possible to do the work within a reasonable length of time . I have also marked coursework into the wee small hours on occasion, exams, orals likewise but more often at home as the caretaker would have kicked us out long before 10 o clock. Due to my HoD's prolonged periods of ill health I was acting head of a large MFL department for the best part of 2 years with 2 supply teachers filling in long term so I was planning their lessons for them and still made a point of being out by 7. I do agree with what Aka says about academies though and aslo about schools in special measures - they are a law unto themselves and not a good one. However to get back to the OP, did your SIL have this discussion about his timetable before the summer resignation date? If not, I think it is only fair not to leave his present school up sh*t creek by breaking contract.

Vampire is correct, it's happening and teachers are being required to go in during the holidays too, and not just on the odd day. It seems to be all take and no give especially in the academies. It will implode before too long.

It's not right but it's happening more and more.

'taint right though vampirequeen governing bodies have a duty of care and if the teaching staff have to work until they drop, this is a breach of that.

I can understand how he is working until 10 at night. The workload is so huge now that you can't complete it all within a reasonable time. There is no work/life balance anymore.

The pressure put on teachers is one of the reasons I'm so ill.

Yes surely these days any decent school has some schemes of work on the server that new teachers can draw on, rather than having to prepare everything from scratch (like what I did...)
But the additional workload now is assessment which every child having their performance tracked to determine the progress they are making against expected progress. At any time a child should be able to tell you something like "in English I am working at a 3c, my target is a 3b and to get there I must work on punctuating my sentences" That is what oFSTED expect. (summative and formative marking/assessment)

That could take a while if you had a lot of secondary classes because you don't just put a tick at the bottom any more.