Hmmm. The holidays are a great benefit? Not really. Many primary teachers are 'thick'? I doubt that too. To get a degree in education, then achieve QTS separately and be observed constantly is not easy. To have no work-life balance because you're planning & marking until 10pm and have your holidays dictated to the point that even going to a family funeral/wedding is difficult to arrange - that's not a benefit.
I would love for those who constantly bemoan teachers to actually spend a day in our shoes... too many parents don't give a damn about their own children so we end up filling parts of their role as well as trying to educate them & extend their minds.

Perhaps you should check your facts before you make such sweeping (& inaccurate) comments. Teacher strikes are very rare - and entirely optional. If teachers strike, they lose a day's pay. There is no easy option as a teacher, you would never become a teacher for an easy life or just 'for the money'. It takes dedication and some serious balls to work in some of the tougher secondary schools.
Don't tar us all with the same brush.

my my, someone must have been fined a lot then, stop taking your bitterness towards teachers out on a deals forum it has nothing to do with this deal to orlando,

wow! someone got the cane/belt a lot at school :confused:

This deal is not expired, you just need to go to Thomas Cook's home page and enter the dates ect and it's still available at the same price.

me thinks " Common Sense " was in a boarding school in the 60s or 70s, and was a few teachers " pet " that's why he hates teachers, must bring back his childhood memories

​with parents attitudes like yours, its no wonder kids behaviour is atrocious. you taught your child to have no respect for their school, their teacher and their classmates education. Well done you on producing a child that can do well in exams. With pressure falling on them from you to do well they must be having so much fun as a child. As well as saving for their University fees, add a bit to the pot for counselling because they will sure as hell need it the way your parenting sounds.

Happy for you. If you read my reply properly, you should have been able to note that I was bringing this 'discussion' to an end.

Sorry, is this Reddit or HUKD?
Can you take your arguments elsewhere please (PM each other) - some of us would actually like to talk about this deal, and some of us really don't care.

WEBSITE LINK LEADS TO:

"We're sorry, we didn't receive a response from our system, please try searching for your holiday again.
If you still experience problems, please call 01733 224 808 (Mon – Sun: 8am – 10pm)
[Error Code : 500]"

You make me very sad. I would seriously consider moving abroad if people like you were in charge of anything other than a keyboard on a computer.

Perhaps if you researched more widely instead of attacking primary teachers (I am actually a secondary teacher but am trained in both areas) you would understand that school doesn't start at 9am and end at 3pm. Hours & hours of extra time goes in, from marking & planning to attending meetings, parents evenings, open evenings, meet the tutor evenings and all sorts of other things that you wouldn't even know about from up there on your little soapbox.

Leave teachers alone unless you have something constructive to add. You have made yourself sound like a pompous fool and added to the argument that it is mostly the parents who are damaging the future generations by undermining those who dedicate their lives to helping them.

Good for parents who want to take children out of school and pay the fine!
Perfect for those at private schools who may have an earlier and longer holiday.

If only teachers were fined when they went to strike.
If they are not happy with their jobs, why not resign and find a better paying job?
Nobody forces them to try and teach!

I would simply refuse, resign and find another job. If I was not capable of getting a better job I would accept the new conditions. There is no need to strike. Most "professionals" work extra hours "unpaid". They are not paid by the hour.

Primary school hours are often 9am to 3:30pm. A standard job is 9am to 6pm. This leaves 2.5 hours for marking a day, which is not required on top of long holidays. Let's scrap the long holidays or teachers, default to 5 weeks a year and force teachers to attend school to "prepare" for lessons at school. Why is the UK so poor in world tables? Poor teaching!

Will you take your worthless opinions about the pros and cons of teacher blah, blah elsewhere please...this is deals site NOT the House of Lords

No you don't have to be a miner first but it helps! If you know the job, you will do a better job of managing the people. FACT. Hence the Educational government do a terrible job as they have never worked in a school.
If you love children, you do what is right for them, I agree, we don't like to strike, and its not all about pay, if your pension you paid into was threatened to be reduced or taken away would you just let this happen? If they demanded in your job you work many more hours for no additional pay, would that be ok? I don't believe you would just sit back and allow that without a fuss.

*​BIDMADS more commonly these days. Indices is the concept taught not order.

Be careful not to sound like a thicky.

​Gold star for you! You have issues though this is a thread on Orlando...on a deals website...pay for a therapist if you need to rant :wink: heat for price

​Im going to butt in at this point without finishing the thread and say this:

Great teachers are leaving the profession at a fast rate. 50% polled last year reckon they'll leave within the next two years.

Why do you think that is and what do you think that leaves behind?
Why do you think there are large recruitment drives for teachers recently?

My wife is an excellent teacher and I have had the privilege of watching her teach multiple classes. She is one of those strongly considering leaving and it really torments her that she wants the best for our family but wants to keep looking after 'her kids'. It really burns me to the core that the complete lack of empathy from the vast majority of the public and parents on some very serious issues is allowed to continue.

Not being able to have any other time off is difficult. Just because my wife is off work didn't mean she gets to spend any large amount of time with the whole family as it's difficult for me (and no doubt others) to get time off from my work during school holidays.
Marking is about 30 minutes a night (once home at six-ish).
Teaching is a real job FFS what is wrong with you? Would waitering or cleaning or nurses or bin collecting not be real jobs to you either?
You telling your child to ignore authority figures is going to come back around and bite you in the ****, that was insanely stupid and completely disrespectful to the teacher. A simple chat with the teacher would have had that resolved in seconds as BODMAS is not difficult once explained. Most primary teachers don't need to know it so they don't quite frankly.
CPD is an ongoing party of a teachers life, so again GTFO!

Note: The fines will never be enforceable as long as you can reasonably argue that during the child's absence from school they received an education. That can be at home or on a holiday (not sat on a beach) but enjoying things and having experiences they otherwise wouldn't have.

PS Good deal and would pull my daughter out of school to go, but then my wife would still be at work teaching kids.

BODMAS is primary school maths and not for a training day. If they do not know this, they should not be teaching.
Children learn their alphabet before they go to school. Teachers do not need to be taught the alphabet during training.
Seriously, this is their own error.

When a teacher cannot calculate of 17% of 50 in 5 seconds mentally, I wonder why they teach.

(A child who prepares for the 11+ will tell you 17% of 50 is the same as 50% of 17, which is half of 17, which is 8.5. It will take him 3 seconds). Many primary school teachers cannot work this out.

[quote=hanzy101]

Wow! Inset days are lazy days!! More like heart breaking safeguarding training, new curriculum maths/english/science training. Do it in holidays.

Holidays where you come in for a lot of it to prepare and hundreds of pounds of resources bought from your own pocket to teach other people's children. Are you at school 2 weeks at Easter, Christmas and 6 weeks in summer? Really?

Missing your own children's bed time to go to meetings to insure you are helping another child the best you can.
Incredible pressure day in and day out. So do other professionals who do not get 13 weeks holidays. Sob story.

Starting wage of just over £20,000 and for Lsa and teaching assistants just over £11,000 and similar working conditions. Teaching assistants are not teachers, they are poorly educated. £20k is a typical starting salary for a graduate.

Why shouldn't teachers strike for the rights to their pension or for fair pay? We still need to survive and pay the bills and will one day retire. We still paid into that pension they are trying to take away.

Because you are paid above minimum wage. If you think you are worth more, leave and find another job, if you can.
You are employees and you need to do what you are told. You have no right to boycott Sats.
If you cannot follow orders you should leave.


Until you work a week in a school you have NO idea!! So a head of a mining company has to have been a miner first. What nonsense. If you love children, you would never strike. You know what your salary is. If you do not like it then walk away and get a better job!

Not a bad price, but then and around another £2000 for park tickets and car rental !

For a minute I thought I'd clicked on the comments page on Mail Online by mistake as opposed to a post about a cheap holiday in Orlando.

Kleenex are on offer at Tesco. Sounds like you could use a few.

No I'm totally with you!

I'm not even a teacher, I am a one to one, for an Autistic child, which if these ignorant people understood means I do not get paid for my '13 weeks holiday' as it is pro rata, I work stupidly hard day in day out and it makes me so cross when I hear people slating teachers when they have no idea.

Behaviour may be worse in schools now but a lot of that is because parents give nothing to children when they get home, we are the only stable, safe place for a large number of children and our jobs are a million miles away from 'just teaching!'.

My heart is broken daily hearing children tell me things I wouldn't wish on any child ever, dealing with children that have never been read to or taught basic colours or numbers by their parents.

I work hard for very little money because these children mean the world to me, and I give my love and attention to 30 children every day, like a mother, teacher, care giver and more.

If only you all took the time to truly understand what we do every day, to realise the teacher your son got who was 'thick' may be a one off or their own training wasn't adequate and it was not their own error.

We can't know everything, we are human and make mistakes, please tell me you have never ever made a mistake in your own jobs ever and I would be extremely shocked!
We learn with the children sometimes as curriculum and the world changes very quickly and regularly, we have fun learning together and laugh at our own mistakes.

Parents can get fined if they say they are going on holiday as opposed to telling lies and saying the child is ill. Currently, if there is 90% attendance fines should not be paid as the High Court case was won.

The comment on teachers going on strike does not need answering. If you do not work, why should you be paid. It's not a fine. Ah, teachers ring in sick to be paid.

The parent fines are related to teachers in academies, as they are not under local authority control. The school can elect not to inform the local authority or the Head can provide permission.

Orlando... Zika virus... Maybe that's why is so cheap.... :wink:

see you kept having a go at teachers and didn't comment on my post which explains that these fines have nothing to do with teachers or the school but the local authority. So technically both the parent and the teachers are fined when they take their kids out or take a strike day as they don't get paid bet that makes you a little happier tonight. Oh and I am not a teacher.

Wow! Inset days are lazy days!! More like heart breaking safeguarding training, new curriculum maths/english/science training.
Holidays where you come in for a lot of it to prepare and hundreds of pounds of resources bought from your own pocket to teach other people's children.
Missing your own children's bed time to go to meetings to insure you are helping another child the best you can.
Incredible pressure day in and day out.
Starting wage of just over £20,000 and for Lsa and teaching assistants just over £11,000 and similar working conditions.
Why shouldn't teachers strike for the rights to their pension or for fair pay? We still need to survive and pay the bills and will one day retire. We still paid into that pension they are trying to take away.
Until you work a week in a school you have NO idea!! We do this because we LOVE helping your children not for any other reason but we still deserve to be treated fairly and paid fairly.

No work-family life balance with 13 weeks holiday. Really?

So if a primary school teacher teaches "haitch" does that make them thick?
If they do not understand BODMAS, does that make them "thick"?
If they struggle with year 6 maths Sats, does that make them "thick"?

I say it does. I stand by my observation that many teachers are "thick".

A degree does not mean much. David Beckham studies may be more difficult. Many primary school teachers do not even have an "A" level in maths, never mind an A grade at GCSE. Many barely achieve GCSE grade C in English/Maths. This is just not good enough.

Marking, really, it's often done online, so there is little marking.

Work-life balance? Get a real job if it is too hard and see how hard others work and bring work home without 13 week holidays.

I didn't care about teachers. I told my child that his teacher was "thick" and not to listen to her nonsense.
She tried to correct my son's correct calculations as she did not understand BODMAS.
He was told primary school was for fun, home was for education and after preparing for the 11+ year 6 was a holiday.
It's sad when children are faced with "thick" teachers who do not even realise they are "thick".

There are some teachers who are very good and intelligent.

Teachers should be forced to sit exams every two years to ensure they know what they teach. I bet many primary school teachers would fail GCSE maths. Many professions have to undertake continuous professional development.
Many 11 year olds taking the 11+ would pass a GCSE maths exam.

Yes, I am a bad parent. My son passed his 11+, scored high Sats results and just completed his GCSEs. He did fine, with 11 GCSEs and 2 AS levels all at A/A* at age 16. He went to an exam factory school that plays the system to be top of league tables. A* in extended project qualification and A in General Studies at AS at the age of 16 provides a huge number of points in league tables. Unethical teachers playing the system to top league tables. No child needs so many GCSEs.

Since over 25% of GCSEs are marked at A/A* a grammar school student really should not achieve any less than A/A* with the odd B. :wink:

school teachers are better paid than what they were years ago... fact
school teachers get inset days to have meetings and prepare..... fact

childrens behaviour is downright atrocious these days compared to old..... fact
wouldnt want their job no matter the pay..... fact

this deal is a bargain.... fact
coming back Christmas day is unfortunately the deal breaker

cheap as french fries

Hmmm. The holidays are a great benefit? Not really. Many primary teachers are 'thick'? I doubt that too. To get a degree in education, then achieve QTS separately and be observed constantly is not easy. To have no work-life balance because you're planning & marking until 10pm and have your holidays dictated to the point that even going to a family funeral/wedding is difficult to arrange - that's not a benefit.
I would love for those who constantly bemoan teachers to actually spend a day in our shoes... too many parents don't give a damn about their own children so we end up filling parts of their role as well as trying to educate them & extend their minds.

What does rare mean? Once in 5 years? There were strikes last year and this year. Check your facts before making false statements. If teachers go on strike, of course they should lose pay. The reality is many academies don't bother to deduct pay. Schools under local authority control may deduct pay.

Teaching is not poorly paid nor a very hard job. The holidays are a great benefit.

Sadly, many primary school teachers are "thick" (not all). Many cannot do basic maths and struggle with year 6 Sats tests. 10 year olds have to correct teachers. Many are so stupid they teach children that the eight letter of the alphabet is "haitch" when any fool knows it is "aitch". A teacher has a responsibility to teach correct English. If a child wants to say “haitch” like an idiot, they can, but teachers should always speak correctly in front of children and not teach nonsense. Will teachers start teaching children it is acceptable to say, “I don’t know nothing?” This, of course means they know something!

I have never been fined and kept my son off school for 1 week in year 6 many years ago as he asked to stay at home to prepare for the 11+. A primary school child can learn more at home in 1 week than 1 month at school. The teachers moaned and sent me a warning letter on how important year 6 was. I laughed and did not tell the school why he was off. Yes, he got a very high 11+ score and 99% in maths year 6 Sats (as I taught him).

Why can children go on one-week school trips during school time? If such holidays are acceptable, then why cannot parents take children out of school when they wish? Forget the Rugby tour or trip to Wales or Iceland, just take children on your own holiday at the same time. What can the school say?

If a Teacher strikes they lose a days pay. on your maths that is far more than a £60 fine...

my my, someone must have been fined a lot then, stop taking your bitterness towards teachers out on a deals forum it has nothing to do with this deal to orlando,

This is subject to appeal and the Government is paying the legal costs of the authority.

Actually, I was never caned. I was a good student who rarely missed school at a time where lazy teacher days aka inset days did not exist.

The average salary for a secondary school teacher is almost £40k, which is an equivalent of £50k of job with standard holidays.
Anyone who is not happy with their terms and conditions should resign. Strikes are a 20th century concept as we now have minimum salary with health and safety protection.

£310 per person I think.h hot if you can getaway.