Baker days - bah!

Schools go back today after the Christmas break - so why am I sitting here at home looking after my grandchildren? Because it's a feeding Training Day, that's why! Now I've nothing against the concept of training, even though from what I understand these days are not so much about learning to do the job better, but more about disseminating the latest Government ideas on what should be taught, and how, but what really gets up my nose is that, when teachers get 13 weeks holiday a year, surely training time should be taken out of that, and not out of term time. When you realise that most teachers only work a 6½ hour day anyway, the situation becomes even more annoying. And just to put the icing on the cake, training days tend to be sprung on you at short notice. And before teachers start bleating about the amount of work they have to do at home, they're not alone in that. I imagine most people in managerial positions find it necessary to do that - I certainly did. I don't envy teachers the instability caused by constant Government "initiatives", and certainly the general lack of respect for authority these days makes their job more difficult, but even so, on the whole, they've got a pretty cushy number compared with the outside world.