Class Tutors

RealJohn

I was wondering if anyone has any experience of turning down the role of class tutor, or saying no when asked. To the best of my knowledge, it's a voluntary role, since the inspecterate don't allow timetabled hours to be used for the role of class tutor (or so we've been told).

I did it for many years, but got a year off last year, and now, I've noticed I've been put down as a class tutor again this year (without having been asked). Am I within my rights to say no, and if so, what is the best way to approach this?
Aside from losing some of my "goodwill" with the school, is there anything I should be wary of? Frankly, the school has pretty much used up all of their goodwill with me, when it comes to anything voluntary. I also found the extra few minutes a day last year to be greatly beneficial to my own general wellbeing.

I'd appreciate people's thoughts.

techteacher

RealJohn wrote: »

I was wondering if anyone has any experience of turning down the role of class tutor, or saying no when asked. To the best of my knowledge, it's a voluntary role, since the inspecterate don't allow timetabled hours to be used for the role of class tutor (or so we've been told).

I did it for many years, but got a year off last year, and now, I've noticed I've been put down as a class tutor again this year (without having been asked). Am I within my rights to say no, and if so, what is the best way to approach this?
Aside from losing some of my "goodwill" with the school, is there anything I should be wary of? Frankly, the school has pretty much used up all of their goodwill with me, when it comes to anything voluntary. I also found the extra few minutes a day last year to be greatly beneficial to my own general wellbeing.

I'd appreciate people's thoughts.

I think you can refuse but you will loose the goodwill... I can see a lot of unpaid roles on the agenda for our next staff meeting and the newbies being asked to the extra work for free

mtoutlemonde

techteacher wrote: »

I think you can refuse but you will loose the goodwill... I can see a lot of unpaid roles on the agenda for our next staff meeting and the newbies being asked to the extra work for free

Well just to answer your point re becoming school union rep. It is important to note that no teacher should undertake ANY work that previously was done by a post holder. I would be advising your colleagues, newbies or whoever that if the do such duties, they are weakening the unions stance and pay restoration will not be the only problem post 2011 grads will have.

Re class Tutor - I did it once and enjoyed it. I would definitely not be doing something that was assumed I would do/without asking. I would be refusing in my place as well being, goodwill and helping someone out are non existent. Look after yourself.

am_zarathustra

It's timetabled in our place, so a tutor has 40 minutes a week with the class, counts towards your 21.20. I think, given the amount of time it actually takes in our place, it's the least that management could offer!

Bobtheman

If you are not on the promotion thread mill it's completely your own choice.
I only do it because I give reports to other tutors.
However after my current group leaves school I will opt out.
Every year the department turn the screws further and we say " turn them again!"
As to goodwill ? You are paid to teach . Nothing else.
Teach your children well. That's it.
Look at all the thanks we got last ten years. Do you want me to list them all ??

TheValeyard

am_zarathustra wrote: »

It's timetabled in our place, so a tutor has 40 minutes a week with the class, counts towards your 21.20. I think, given the amount of time it actually takes in our place, it's the least that management could offer!

Same. It's counted. You can do bit of wellbeing while doing the role.

It's not optional

Treppen

It was Timetabled in our school but dept inspector said no... So now it's a "wellbeing class" :pac:

I enjoy it, it's a chance to advocate and give voice to some students who might be afraid to go near a Yearhead or principal they've never met.

When students come to me with a general complaint though I urge them to take it up with the school students Union first.

Treppen

If you are permanent then. No probs with giving it up.but probably forget about future posts.

alroley

It gets counted as one 40 min class per week in my school.

Alex86Eire

I find being class teacher so time consuming. It isn't timetabled for us at all so its very hard to find time to deal with issues cropping up.

Mardy Bum

Alex86Eire wrote: »

I find being class teacher so time consuming. It isn't timetabled for us at all so its very hard to find time to deal with issues cropping up.

What does the year head do?

Alex86Eire

Any issues you can't deal with go to the Year Head I suppose. You go to them for advice too if you need it.

Mardy Bum

Alex86Eire wrote: »

Any issues you can't deal with go to the Year Head I suppose. You go to them for advice too if you need it.

The management structures in some school seem to be built to solely serve AP1 post holders and reward them for previous service.

am_zarathustra

The new system should hold AP1s to account to some degree. The reports and staff input on what the titles and responsibilities seen to only be enforced in some schools despite the fact that there is very clear guidelines and a fairly concrete circular around it

pandoraj09

Mardy Bum wrote: »

The management structures in some school seem to be built to solely serve AP1 post holders and reward them for previous service.

I've been an A post holder for 27 years. I used to be on 18 hours so there was some time to do the job. Then there was much talk about making sure we AP holders really worked hard for our money so the duties were increased but in voluntary secondary schools no time allowance any more. So last year I was Year Head of 3rd year and 5th year for my post. On Thursdays and Fridays I had class all day apart from recess/lunch. I used to spend a lot of time at my door talking to teachers/students/management about issues that had arisen but that I couldn't deal with as I had no "free" periods. Parents would call me on my work phone and I'd let it go to voicemail or go out on the corridor to see what they wanted. I couldn't meet parents on those days either.
Every day I was supposed to follow up on lates, which meant lates in the morning and after lunch, also follow up on those who did't attend lunch detention and those who went missing in the afternoon. Literally impossible.
I used to check the VS ware comments in the evenings and write a list of parents to call for the next day.
Some tutors were great, others would remind me that I was getting paid for the job and they weren't so refused to help out.
Our parents still have no access to their child's vs ware comments which often meant me printing them off and posting them home. Printers often out of action/no paper/no toner/nobody willing to order any.
Then there was uniform....
Then there were kids coming to be all through the day with their problems.
Then kids were sent to me for misbehaving.
The list goes on and on.
The old A posts, many years ago, used to be a kind of reward for long term service. We had a "quizmaster" and a "chessmaster" as A post holders.
There is certainly no sense of being rewarded anymore. It's a huge job. I'd give it up but with only a few years to go, I wouldn't give anyone the satisfaction of seeing me resign.
When the Principal and/or DP headed off on inservice training days I used to act up for them, with all my classes!!! I'd be run off my feet all day.
Having received a very hard proverbial slap in the face at the end of last year, when I'm asked to act up this year, the answer will just be "no".

r93kaey5p2izun

I enjoyed being a class tutor, but it counted for a 40 minute period on my timetable. It was 50 mins contact time (5x10) plus all associated time spent sorting issues and contacting parents. I had no problem doing it because I felt it was fair - it amounted to similar workload to a 40min class plus prep and corrections. If it was unpaid then no way I would do it. I would feel for any Year Head snowed under with stuff that needs to be resolved during school hours though. I hope those YHs advocate for tutors to be paid for their job so as to ease their burden. That system worked very well in my school, which was a very "rough" DEIS school with a huge amount of incidents and problems to deal with.

Mardy Bum

pandoraj09 wrote: »

I've been an A post holder for 27 years. I used to be on 18 hours so there was some time to do the job. Then there was much talk about making sure we AP holders really worked hard for our money so the duties were increased but in voluntary secondary schools no time allowance any more. So last year I was Year Head of 3rd year and 5th year for my post. On Thursdays and Fridays I had class all day apart from recess/lunch. I used to spend a lot of time at my door talking to teachers/students/management about issues that had arisen but that I couldn't deal with as I had no "free" periods. Parents would call me on my work phone and I'd let it go to voicemail or go out on the corridor to see what they wanted. I couldn't meet parents on those days either.
Every day I was supposed to follow up on lates, which meant lates in the morning and after lunch, also follow up on those who did't attend lunch detention and those who went missing in the afternoon. Literally impossible.
I used to check the VS ware comments in the evenings and write a list of parents to call for the next day.
Some tutors were great, others would remind me that I was getting paid for the job and they weren't so refused to help out.
Our parents still have no access to their child's vs ware comments which often meant me printing them off and posting them home. Printers often out of action/no paper/no toner/nobody willing to order any.
Then there was uniform....
Then there were kids coming to be all through the day with their problems.
Then kids were sent to me for misbehaving.
The list goes on and on.
The old A posts, many years ago, used to be a kind of reward for long term service. We had a "quizmaster" and a "chessmaster" as A post holders.
There is certainly no sense of being rewarded anymore. It's a huge job. I'd give it up but with only a few years to go, I wouldn't give anyone the satisfaction of seeing me resign.
When the Principal and/or DP headed off on inservice training days I used to act up for them, with all my classes!!! I'd be run off my feet all day.
Having received a very hard proverbial slap in the face at the end of last year, when I'm asked to act up this year, the answer will just be "no".

Of course some schools go the other way and really make teachers earn their money and these are in the majority now. I was speaking in relation to the OPs school and others in which the YH is less involved in the day to day.

You shouldn't have to cover your own classes if acting up for the day I'm pretty sure.

RealJohn

Mardy Bum wrote: »

Of course some schools go the other way and really make teachers earn their money and these are in the majority now. I was speaking in relation to the OPs school and others in which the YH is less involved in the day to day.

You shouldn't have to cover your own classes if acting up for the day I'm pretty sure.

Just to be clear, I didn’t say anything about post holders. The year heads in our place do a fair bit of work. The AP2s seem to be getting off very lightly though.

Found out that I’m having one class timetabled as ‘wellness’, which complicates matters, if it is actually one class period on the timetable, because that will still mean I don’t actually have free time to follow things up (ringing parents etc.) and won’t have any time allocated four days out of five. It it just means I’ll have 31 periods on my timetable, and the other 40 minutes is to do class tutor stuff, I could accept that, but I suspect it’s the former, and that makes refusing to do it far more complicated.

am_zarathustra

pandoraj09 wrote: »

I've been an A post holder for 27 years. I used to be on 18 hours so there was some time to do the job. Then there was much talk about making sure we AP holders really worked hard for our money so the duties were increased but in voluntary secondary schools no time allowance any more. So last year I was Year Head of 3rd year and 5th year for my post. On Thursdays and Fridays I had class all day apart from recess/lunch. I used to spend a lot of time at my door talking to teachers/students/management about issues that had arisen but that I couldn't deal with as I had no "free" periods. Parents would call me on my work phone and I'd let it go to voicemail or go out on the corridor to see what they wanted. I couldn't meet parents on those days either.
Every day I was supposed to follow up on lates, which meant lates in the morning and after lunch, also follow up on those who did't attend lunch detention and those who went missing in the afternoon. Literally impossible.
I used to check the VS ware comments in the evenings and write a list of parents to call for the next day.
Some tutors were great, others would remind me that I was getting paid for the job and they weren't so refused to help out.
Our parents still have no access to their child's vs ware comments which often meant me printing them off and posting them home. Printers often out of action/no paper/no toner/nobody willing to order any.
Then there was uniform....
Then there were kids coming to be all through the day with their problems.
Then kids were sent to me for misbehaving.
The list goes on and on.
The old A posts, many years ago, used to be a kind of reward for long term service. We had a "quizmaster" and a "chessmaster" as A post holders.
There is certainly no sense of being rewarded anymore. It's a huge job. I'd give it up but with only a few years to go, I wouldn't give anyone the satisfaction of seeing me resign.
When the Principal and/or DP headed off on inservice training days I used to act up for them, with all my classes!!! I'd be run off my feet all day.
Having received a very hard proverbial slap in the face at the end of last year, when I'm asked to act up this year, the answer will just be "no".

Same here, 3rd and 6th year year head. I'm also in charge of ICT and assessment. ICT was a killer this year but I'd been doing a lot of work over the last couple of years thankfully. I was teaching 24 hours a week too.

We have to present to the BOM this year twice in the year. In line with the circulars our titles were moved around. I'd somewhat agree with the AP2, the singular role generally assigned is not comparable to 2 whole school (ICT etc) and 2 specific (year head) our AP1 posts have but, in fairness, I knew the job when I applied. A couple of our AP2s are unreal too, work so hard.

I'd wonder in how many schools are the new arrangements really being enforced? I think it helps that all the staff decide the roles and there is a perception of accountability.

jayo76

A

joebloggs32

I have been a tutor for 17 years straight.
There is little or no thanks from management for it. I would say however that the appreciation from many students over the years does help. Its amazing to watch kids develop and mature as they move through the school.

However, my big gripe is the Department Head position. We are treated like its a paid post like they have in the UK.
The work now bring demanded has mushroomed, and if you get an inspection you will have two weeks from hell in the lead up to it.
I always insist on being referred to as subject co-ordinator as it implies your not in charge, however I think some actually want the title of Department head and the gravitas that goes with it.

RealJohn

joebloggs32 wrote: »

I have been a tutor for 17 years straight.
There is little or no thanks from management for it. I would say however that the appreciation from many students over the years does help. Its amazing to watch kids develop and mature as they move through the school.

However, my big gripe is the Department Head position. We are treated like its a paid post like they have in the UK.
The work now bring demanded has mushroomed, and if you get an inspection you will have two weeks from hell in the lead up to it.
I always insist on being referred to as subject co-ordinator as it implies your not in charge, however I think some actually want the title of Department head and the gravitas that goes with it.

I agree, regarding the relationships you develop with students but there are negatives too - I’ve been to far too many funerals of parents of students in my former tutor groups, siblings of students in my former tutor groups, and most difficult of all, more than one of the actual students in my former tutor groups. Death is part of life, but I don’t think there are many jobs where you develop fairly close relationships with people, that then exposes you to so many people dying. My school related funeral count is higher than funerals of all other groups and activities I’m involved in combined, and the majority of them relate to my tutor groups.

I also agree on the heads of department issue, but we rotate ours every year anyway, so nobody gets lumped with all the work every year.