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Speaker 1: The school strike for climate has happening today, the last

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Speaker 1: day of term. David Seen was on a warpath about it.

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Speaker 1: He says kids should be in school learning, protest in

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Speaker 1: the holidays. I next Monday, he reckons, same goes for

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Speaker 1: teacher only days during term breaks. Only please, this is

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Speaker 1: part of a plan to turn around the awful attendance record.

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Speaker 1: Linda Stewart is the Main Road Primary principle in west Auckland.

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Speaker 1: She's with us this morning.

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Speaker 2: Linda, Good morning Maunna Ryan.

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Speaker 1: What's wrong with a teacher only day being just in

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Speaker 1: the breaks?

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Speaker 2: Well, I think there's an interesting, sort of in complex

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Speaker 2: situation here because I know in our school that our

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Speaker 2: teachers are basically limping towards the end of the term.

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Speaker 2: It's been a really hard term. We've had a lot

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Speaker 2: of teacher illness. But apart from that, it's our teachers

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Speaker 2: are working really really hard in a situation where overall

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Speaker 2: the underresourced for the sorts of needs that we have

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Speaker 2: in our schools, and so it's been a rare, really

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Speaker 2: hard term. So I would expect that they need some

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Speaker 2: time to recuperate, then they are back in their classrooms

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Speaker 2: preparing for next term. So our teachers don't have long

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Speaker 2: holidays as some people would think.

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Speaker 1: I have how long I'm here just so weak? How long?

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Speaker 1: Because it's twelve to thirteen weeks off, how many of

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Speaker 1: those would be full days of work?

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Speaker 2: I would think that most of our teachers are back

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Speaker 2: in school and working hard for probably if you think

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Speaker 2: about the annual leave that people take during a year,

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Speaker 2: I would think that our teachers are either on professional

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Speaker 2: development or in their classrooms preparing teachers. Actually it's not

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Speaker 2: a job, Brian, it's a service that we do.

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Speaker 1: I'm just wondering how much.

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Speaker 2: Not actually well understood.

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Speaker 1: But we'll tell us twelve to thirteen weeks off, how

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Speaker 1: many weeks doing full time work.

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Speaker 2: I think it would look very different in different places.

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Speaker 2: And I think it's a hard question.

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Speaker 1: For me enough, and it's different for everybody, Linda, But

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Speaker 1: can you not see the point that there is room

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Speaker 1: for teacher only days to take place in the breaks

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Speaker 1: without disrupting parents. Surely you want your students to have

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Speaker 1: as little disruption as possible.

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Speaker 2: One of the things that happens, Ryan, is that that

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Speaker 2: already happens. There are already staff only days in the

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Speaker 2: doom breaks, but the teacher only days are often teacher

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Speaker 2: only days that are given to us by the Ministry

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Speaker 2: of Education, and then we make up. We have to

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Speaker 2: do a certain amount of days per year, and we

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Speaker 2: make up any days that we take that are over

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Speaker 2: and above that we make up. So I think there's

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Speaker 2: a real atmating standard.

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Speaker 1: How how long can we just be honest? Do teachers

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Speaker 1: get more annually or more time off them than we get?

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Speaker 1: You know, we get four weeks sore at my school

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Speaker 1: or a couple of weeks, whatever it is. Teachers get

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Speaker 1: more than that, don't they.

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Speaker 2: It's very interesting, Ryan, because if that was the true

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Speaker 2: case of teaching and learning in this country, you would

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Speaker 2: have cues of people who are lining up to be teachers.

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Speaker 2: At the moment, we can't get teachers in our classrooms.

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Speaker 2: We can't get relievers in our classroom. So if that

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Speaker 2: was the reality of a teacher's life, we would see

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Speaker 2: a very different scenario. And I think that's the issue

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Speaker 2: that we've got at the moment. There's a real lack

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Speaker 2: of understanding from some of our politicians and certainly from

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Speaker 2: some of our journalists around the reality for a teacher.

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Speaker 2: I ask you to come into our school and see

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Speaker 2: what our teachers do, and then say that our teachers

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Speaker 2: don't deserve Monday and Tuesday of this week of next

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Speaker 2: week to actually recuperate from some of the ween doing.

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Speaker 1: Linda, thank you very much for your time this morning.

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Speaker 1: Linda Stuart the May Road Primary Principle in west Auckland.

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