Some well-informed debate here. My comments to the original poster should have been taken with the tongue firmly in cheek - yes, the hols are great but they’re thoroughly and utterly needed and deserved. I do teach. In inner-city Manchester. It’s fucking hard. Absolutely relentless pressure and the bar gets raised incessantly by non-educators. I’ve done many other jobs, dug roads, built hospitals, worked on oil rigs and none, not one, comes anywhere close to the demands of teaching. I moved from engineering to education for several reasons, primarily about helping the poorest, most desperate kids. Teaching in Ancoats is no bed of roses but the kids, by and large are the bees’ knees - parents are a TOTALLY different kettle of fish. I moved to a school in “measures” in Wythenshawe six years ago and it’s equally tough - and rewarding.
The job has changed massively, even in the relatively short period I’ve been doing it - 8 years. We are now social workers, physicians, nurses, psychiatrists, sports coaches and from time to time we get to teach. I keep getting told poverty is no barrier to success and that my kids in Ancoats/Wythenshawe should do as well as the kids in Didsbury/Richmond etc - utter fantasy and nonsensical. I’ve had kids come to school with no bedding, no wallpaper, no food, no underwear, no love. Day in day out. And I’m expected to overcome all that and deliver kids who can hold their own against the sons and daughters of the well-heeled. It’s led to a climate of fear, of Manchester teachers working ridiculously long hours in the hope we can get these kids to scrape the attainment barrier. And if we fail - all the teachers’ fault. I’m a Deputy head and I’m expected to put these “underperforming” staff through the fucking mill with endles targets; moving of goalposts. I try my best to deflect the pressure I’m getting from above, to dampen the yoke of expectation, but it’s fucking hard.
So, yes, I do treat myself to a bottle of red now and again and yes, my wages are paid for by the state, but forget not, I too pay tax, I too give my pound of flesh to the common good. But when your profession is constantly undermined (“ we don’t need qualified teachers” - funny, replace teachers with airline pilot, doctor, nurse - would you?) and you’re asked to work even longer, harder and for less, it’s small wonder we have reached the end of our tether.
Incidentally, OP - “Teachers dispute settle?” should read “Teachers’ dispute settled?” - weren’t you taught grammar?!?
And finally, if anyone feels I paint a false picture of teaching, you are very welcome to train, to experience the “coal face” then decide if you want to join us for our "holiday-fest", "gold pension-filled" career. Or, like most of those who bleat about us, will you stick to the Daily Fail version and yada yadda from the sidelines?