Are Primary Schools permitted to close at 11 am on the Friday they close for Easter?

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camellia

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Am I the only working parent who wonders why teachers are allowed to/get away with taking a half day (should that be a quarter day??) immediately prior to getting two full weeks off?

I work in a relatively small company so when I take two weeks off it takes me about six more to catch back up with my workload. I have to work extra hard befor ean after the holiday. In fact I rarely take two weeks together as it is not worth the hassle of trying to catch back up. The contrast with teachers is stark. I certainly would not get away with finishing up on the last day at 11 am. I would love to see my bosses face if i tried.

I appreciate that the holidays are part of the job, so fair enough, BUT given the general economic situation, it seems a bit rich that pepole who were due to strike on Monday last over the general unfairness of their treatment etc etc etc are about to take off for two full weeks, shortly after midterm, with the benefit of being paid for a full days work on Friday as they tear out of the carpark at 11 am! 11 am!

Is it too late to re-train I ask my self ????

Never mind the inconvenience caused to those of us who have arrangments in place for collecting our children at 2.30.
 
Re: Are Primary Schools permitted to close at 11 am on the Friday they close for East

Simple answer to your question:

No ... schools are not allowed to take half days.

We don't. But I think we are amongst the few rather than the many.

Our view is that the pupils are entitled to their full compliment of school days.

A half day here and a half day there ..... all add up!

We'll be working a full day next Friday.
 
Re: Are Primary Schools permitted to close at 11 am on the Friday they close for East

Is it too late to re-train I ask my self ????
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I doubt it. Unless you are close to 65 and/or don't have the academic qualifications and/or don't meet the interview requirements.

Marion
 
Re: Are Primary Schools permitted to close at 11 am on the Friday they close for East

Schools are not a childminding service. You are responsible for your children when they are not in school even if it is inconvenient.
 
Re: Are Primary Schools permitted to close at 11 am on the Friday they close for East

anorakphobia, that's a bit harsh and not especially helpful. at least camellia has a job and is trying to pay her way and dont forget the tax she pays goes towards teachers salaries !
 
Re: Are Primary Schools permitted to close at 11 am on the Friday they close for East

at least camellia has a job and is trying to pay her way ...the tax she pays goes towards teachers salaries !
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True ... but teachers pay tax too and so would be paying a contribution towards their own salaries. Are you suggesting that teachers don't pay their way?


Marion
 
Re: Are Primary Schools permitted to close at 11 am on the Friday they close for East

yes of course teachers pay tax too ! - but i think choosing to close a school at 11am is a bit much. maybe we should all finish at 11am that day and get a full days pay for it.
 
Re: Are Primary Schools permitted to close at 11 am on the Friday they close for East

We don't know how many schools are closing at 11 am. I doubt there are many others in the country doing this.

I am also sure that many teachers and other workers would love to finish at 11 am on that Friday and get paid for it.

What school is it? Is there a particular reason for this school to close at 11 am?

It certainly seems an unusual time to close.

Marion
 
Re: Are Primary Schools permitted to close at 11 am on the Friday they close for East

dont they usually close early and have in service stuff after? so the children are the only ones getting off early
 
Re: Are Primary Schools permitted to close at 11 am on the Friday they close for East

Are you sick of highly paid teachers? Teachers' hefty salaries are driving taxes up and they are only working 9 or 10 months a year!

It's time we put things in perspective and pay them for what they do - baby sit!

We can get that for less than the minimum wage!

That's right. Let's give them €3.00 per hour and only for the hours work; not any of that silly planning time, or any time they spend before or after school. That would be €19.50 per day (8:45 to 4:00 pm with 45 minutes off for lunch - that equals 6 1/2 hours). Each parent should pay €19.50 per day for these teachers to baby sit their children.

Now, how many do they teach in a day...maybe 30? So that's €19.50 x 30 = €585.00 per day.

However, remember they only work 180 days per year!!! We are not going to pay them for any vacations. LET'S SEE....That's €585 x 180 = €105,300 per year. (Hold on! The calculator needs new batteries).

What about those special education teachers and the ones with Masters degrees? Well, we could pay them minimum wage (€7.75) and, just to be fair, round it off to €8.00 per hour. That would be €8 x 6 1/2 x 30 x 180 = €280,800 per year. Wait a minute! There's something wrong here! There sure is!

The average teacher's salary (nationwide) is €50,000.
€50,000/180 days = €277.77 per day/30 students = €9.26/6.5 hours = €1.42 per hour per student - a very inexpensive baby sitter and they even educate your kids!

What a deal!
 
Re: Are Primary Schools permitted to close at 11 am on the Friday they close for East

Thanks for all your responses

Paddybloggit - If you are correct when you say they are not allowed to do this then how can they get away with it? This school also closes at 1 PM one Wednesday every month to facilitate a staff meeting.

Is there a mechanism whereby I can complain about this practice to the Dept of Education?

Lex Foutish - You obviously had fun with all your calculations but you missed my point. I do not consider that the school is a childminding service nor do I expect teachers to be paid by pupil etc etc. However I would respectfully sugget that 50K a year for 180 short working days, even allowing for prep work etc is not a bad daily rate, compared to a job paying 50K where you are expected to work approx 46 weeks of the year. My point is that it is unreasonable, unfair and, dare I say it, selfish to finish at 11am, while presumably being paid for a full working day.

PS Even my children don't get it...........they can't see the point of having to get up early and go through the whole morning routine for barely two hours in school
 
Re: Are Primary Schools permitted to close at 11 am on the Friday they close for East

camellia Padybloggit is wrong. Each school is allocated a certain number of holidays during the school year and it is up to themselves when they take these. So a school is perfectly entitled to take a half day (which means taking half a day from their remaining holidays) so long as they don't exceed the quota for the year. Quite how they can finish at 11 as opposed to 12 (am guessing we're talking primary school here so normal "full" day would be 9-3?) tho I'm not sure - 9-11 doesn't sound like a half day to me!
 
Re: Are Primary Schools permitted to close at 11 am on the Friday they close for East

They probably still cover the compulsory number of days which they are required to teach. They may take a half day here or there but lose a day or two of holidays somewhere else throughout the year. Isn't that one of the things school inspectors check?
 
Re: Are Primary Schools permitted to close at 11 am on the Friday they close for East

camellia said:
Thanks for all your responses

Paddybloggit - If you are correct when you say they are not allowed to do this then how can they get away with it? This school also closes at 1 PM one Wednesday every month to facilitate a staff meeting.

Is there a mechanism whereby I can complain about this practice to the Dept of Education?

Lex Foutish - You obviously had fun with all your calculations but you missed my point. I do not consider that the school is a childminding service nor do I expect teachers to be paid by pupil etc etc. However I would respectfully sugget that 50K a year for 180 short working days, even allowing for prep work etc is not a bad daily rate, compared to a job paying 50K where you are expected to work approx 46 weeks of the year. My point is that it is unreasonable, unfair and, dare I say it, selfish to finish at 11am, while presumably being paid for a full working day.

PS Even my children don't get it...........they can't see the point of having to get up early and go through the whole morning routine for barely two hours in school
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Just a bit of fun, Camellia. It's an email that was doing the rounds a few weeks ago. ;)

Lex.
 
Re: Are Primary Schools permitted to close at 11 am on the Friday they close for East

Lex

Sorry! I always have my sense of humour removed before i start giving out. Didn't see the email before so thought you were 100% serious. Amazing how it is possible to manipulate figures to support almost any argument isn't it.

Cranky Camellia
 
Re: Are Primary Schools permitted to close at 11 am on the Friday they close for East

ANORAKPHOBIA said:
Schools are not a childminding service. You are responsible for your children when they are not in school even if it is inconvenient.
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Very helpful to the discussion as always Anorakphobia.

Its very hard for parents to organise childcare for unsuspecting days like these, but I am sure the school staff are using the time for the benifit of the school, like an in service day, etc.
 
Re: Are Primary Schools permitted to close at 11 am on the Friday they close for East

Our school also closes at 12 noon on Friday - they always do before every holiday - and believe me the teachers will not stay in school any longer then 12 noon that day :) that's a fact - I am living in a small town...

Camellia I feel your pain but now hear this one

I have my kids in an after school facility which operates until 5.45 p.m. every evening - now the manager has decided that during the summer holidays she is only operating until 4.15 - sometimes I feel like the only working mother in the world :( who has problems with this.
 
Re: Are Primary Schools permitted to close at 11 am on the Friday they close for East

Its highly unlikely that the school has gone over the allowed holidays here but has just broken them up in a way that is inconvenient to the OP.

Lesson for today class : Should have been a teacher.
 
Re: Are Primary Schools permitted to close at 11 am on the Friday they close for East

Marion said:
We don't know how many schools are closing at 11 am. I doubt there are many others in the country doing this.

I am also sure that many teachers and other workers would love to finish at 11 am on that Friday and get paid for it.

What school is it? Is there a particular reason for this school to close at 11 am?

It certainly seems an unusual time to close.

Marion
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I think it's rather the norm unfortunately - even when I was a child - ok that was in Germany but anyway :)
 
Re: Are Primary Schools permitted to close at 11 am on the Friday they close for East

Apologies for beating this to death but could someone confirm how many full days primary school are required to be open?

I have just counted the working days per the school calendar 08/09 and they are due to work 184 days. That includes at least 3 days finishing at 11 am; last day before Christmas, Easter and Summer holidays.

Thanks
 
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