Can someone with Mr Chris's mobile number SMS him and say "Hey, you've got a time-dependant PM!"?

Ta.

Kids go back today...oh fucking wait...they tacked on all the boy's teachers training days on to the end of the school holidays meaning he goes back in another week. I love him dearly but for the love of god what was wrong with the idea of tacking them on to the end of Christmas or near Easter when it's cold, nasty, and the buses often can't get the kids to school?

Because then they might not be able to get the full complement of teachers in to give them the training they need to provide an education for your offspring?

If they can't make it in then take the days out of their holidays? When school is closed to students they all have to make the days up the next year anyway. Quite why they can't do teacher training during the holidays regardless is just stupid and entirely the union's fault. Primary school teachers piss and moan about pay but then work 8:30 to 3:15 and get three months off a year, and don't tell me they use all this time for prep as most of it is just picking from a list or recycling what they did last year and they give any homework to mark to the TAs. The Boy may go to a special school but good lord his class has 6 children, 3 teachers and 3 TAs so it's not much different for them.

Did he? Ooops

My GF is a primary teacher and she is in work for 8 and finishes for 5. Then has prep and planning to do fro her next lessons which she has to do at home.

I believe they do PD days during the holidays, hence the schools go back on Tuesdays round here and the teachers have been back in since Friday.

Decca you seem to have no tolerance at all for other people if they don't fit into your routine or view of life.

No, you doof.

I think that the idea of adding training days to the holidays is a logical exercise in putting all time off school into one simple manageable block. When I was at school, PT days popped up here and there, with odd days (sometimes in the middle of a week) which for my parents with 4 kids split over two schools was a nightmare when trying to get childcare sorted.

Oh, he went there! uhuh, no way, girlfriend! *snapsfingers in face*

oh, I was quite happy as I thought they would not be making another series..

You heartless beast!

Watch an episode... then you will agree with me.

We will march on Disney with
Petrol
Matches
& Chocolate fingers

Oooh, chocolate fingers? I'm in

Disney is miles away, can we just go to the post office down the road, instead?

Plus of course, teachers don't have the luxury of being able to take a holiday when they want. All of their holidays have to be on a fixed schedule, which isn't always good.

Agreed. I'm married to a teacher and I don't like having to pay almost double for my holiday.

I am dating a teacher... so I know I won't be getting cheap holidays again

But they chose their career so fuck em...

I can't muster up much sympathy, I'm afraid.
Do they spend more days at work or not at work during a year?

More days at work.. I am sure.

What? They get the kids to do all the work.

Lecturers are worse than teachers. They get the standard 20-odd days of, plus all bank holidays, plus 2 weeks at Christmas, plus 2 weeks at Easter, plus no teaching from the end of June until late September, during which time they are expected to be engaged in 'research activities' which naturally can be done from home.

I took the day off so I could see my best friend, over from Japan. My manager initially said no, but I got the violins playing and she caved. Then I got an email from my friend, telling me that he's not available today. Not gonna see him til he goes back.

Still, I've got the day off work...

You try going 8 weeks with a disabled child with two hours of respite and then tell me how charitable towards the NUT you would be.

Talking of tolerance towards others - the idea of 6 weeks summer holiday in itself is insane in a country that is known to have harsh winters - fine if you live in london because the transport networks are not effected but the fact that the poor people of the highlands are made to stick to it is remarkably unfair, especially when you factor in the hours they get light in the winter. Give them time of in the summer, that's fine but make it shorter and stagger it so that the whole country isn't off at once. Plus there is the fact that a long break like this hinders children's ability to learn, they did a study and most teachers spend a good few weeks re-teaching all the stuff they forgot during the holidays.

The school year in Australia runs from Jan-Dec I believe. So even there they have summer off.

Isn't that just a regular year?

So you would rather have the 6 weeks holiday in winter? Rather than the two, so the kids can't even play out?

It has always been 6 weeks hasn't it?

Also, if you only had a couple of weeks off in the summer, then every single family with kids who wanted to go on holiday would have to go at exactly the same time. Assuming they were travelling to somewhere in this hemisphere, of course.

Plus, how would the kids help with the summer harvest if they are all in school?

Oh, and any Senior BA's kicking about that want a job? My place is in desperate need...

Well if they've got a problem, and no one else can help, maybe they should hire the A team.

Beating the much anticipated "MaliA Monthly" (an upmarket lifestyle journal for space pirates, featuring articles mostly about himself) Jordan launches a magazine about, um, her. Articles such as "The meaning behind my tattoos","The truths and the lies" and "My favorite accessories" it's destined to probably sell more than PC Format.

'Am I old enough?'

Dammit, Zardoz beat me to it, knew i shouldn't have wasted those precious seconds on google image search.

Hmm, just got invited to a conference call, and then roundly ignored when it was time to go on the call. The other chaps are calling off their own phones instead.

Can't help but feel a little unwanted.

That is silly....


I normally get, why didn't you come to that meeting... It is normally because I was not told about it

Beer fridge in the Brewtility room in new place has been vetoed on grounds of 'space'.

Challenge accepted.

BA?

I did wonder. I assume he's going for 'Business Analyst'.

?

Probably with a standardised testing system the exam board wants the kids to all take the test at the same time and not to have to write more than one test per year. That's probably the main reason, otherwise you'll have the people in the north getting the questions before the exam from the people in the south.

I was indeed. Knowing what I meant was the first test for any applicants...

Any excuse to post this which I did years ago whilst bored and haven't touched since, but led to lots of people on Myspace leeching that picture of Mr. T from my server.

One positive benefit of forgetting to cancel a large catering order for a conference we cancelled ages ago is that I can have free sandwiches for lunch.

STABBY

And deserved!

++ungood

I want to kick about all of our BAs, if that's any help?

I used to be a BA. Then I got made redundant in a mass clear-out and accidentally fell into risk management. I have a fairly healthy dislike for both of them...

Make it three weeks off in the summer and (as I said) stagger it from June-September throughout the country and in London itself, people could still go away and it would make it a lot easier for working parents in London as daytime childcare would be easier to get and would probably drop in price. Exams could happen in June. Our schools give you one week including bank holidays off for Christmas, there have been years when Derbyshire has broken up on the 23rd of December. Why isn't that a two week holiday is beyond me. I'm not saying children don't need time off school, just that we don't need to base time off on a agricultural system that became archaic when the army gave out tractors to farms during the second world war.