Election Year or Fear!

[Geoff Parkstone]

Hmmm…so we’ve gone from ‘I thought MOST teachers had second jobs’ to…20 years ago we struggled to find teachers and TA’s to staff holiday clubs.
As I’m sure you know the situation for TA’s is very different from teachers. Unlike teachers, the former are not ‘salaried’ throughout the year and seeking alternative employment throughout the summer is consequently not uncommon, they may therefore have made other longstanding arrangements.

Beyond that I’m amazed that, in a small primary school you were awarded the somewhat grandiose title of Chair of Finance and I also suspect you may have misinterpreted commitments as ‘work commitments’. Many teachers have ‘commitments’ during the summer but they are more typically of the holiday or child care variety - also applicable to TA’s - and a very far cry from demonstrating your initial claim that MOST teachers have second jobs.

It seems our two accountants both, somewhat surprisingly, seem to struggle with the concept of ‘most’.

Why would it surprise you that the only accountant on the governing body was awarded Chair of Finance? Would it have been better had the reception year teacher representative be given the role?

Maybe our governing body was organized differently as a small school with no administrative staff with any financial background so needed free external aid when budgeting and reviewing expenditure etc

Anyway the point was and is, based on that experience, I observed all staff getting alternative jobs during summer holidays (no idea if a second job during term time, although I saw a couple the other side of the local bar at times). I've no reason to assume it's any different now as most teachers claim to be hard up (well everyone does, not singling them out)

[ramAnag]

Why would it surprise you that the only accountant on the governing body was awarded Chair of Finance? Would it have been better had the reception year teacher representative be given the role?

Maybe our governing body was organized differently as a small school with no administrative staff with any financial background so needed free external aid when budgeting and reviewing expenditure etc

Anyway the point was and is, based on that experience, I observed all staff getting alternative jobs during summer holidays (no idea if a second job during term time, although I saw a couple the other side of the local bar at times). I've no reason to assume it's any different now as most teachers claim to be hard up (well everyone does, not singling them out)

In no way am I questioning your ability to do the job, I’m just questioning the role. In my experience the initial matter of budgeting would have been done by the Head/SMT and the Bursar/Secretary and then, having ‘split’ the budget accordingly, would have been passed down to departmental heads.

At some point in between the budget would have been approved by the Governors but they would have had nothing to do with the minutiae involved.

Because such a vast proportion of the budget goes on salaries - more a comment on schools being underfunded than staff receiving excessive wages imo - ‘splitting’ the budget isn’t the most arduous of tasks and, as an accountant (a coincidence rather than a prerequisite) you would have less idea than the average departmental head on where what was left might be best spent.

Interestingly you’ve now moved in the opposite direction to AF and gone from ‘most’ staff having second jobs to ‘ALL staff getting alternative jobs during summer holidays’. That’s a scenario I do struggle to recognise.