With less than 24 hours to go, Angus Council has yet to finalise plans for a controversial in-service afternoon which could see teachers take part in “life-enhancing” activities originally rumoured to include go-karting and walks in the countryside.
As reported in The Courier last week, the work/life balance day will see teachers from three of the county’s eight secondaries take part in “team building and development” opportunities which education chiefs insist will help aid cross-curricular working across departments.
However, parents from across the local authority area expressed their outrage at the plans last week claiming that, although teachers would have to fund the activities themselves, it was unfair to the taxpayer to allow them to participate in such during school hours while they were being paid.
When asked for a detailed breakdown of the events programme last week, Angus Council officials said that this had not been finalised. And the local authority now admits the itinerary won’t be completed until some point today.
However, there has been a suggestion that teachers will now not be allowed to take part in activities with no obvious educational value.
An Angus Council spokesperson said final discussions on the format of the afternoon were continuing throughout the course of Wednesday. She added, “Generally speaking, any activity would have to have an educational basis and be part of curriculum development. The programme has not yet been finalised.”
Pupils in Angus will not attend school on either Friday or Monday both of which have been earmarked as in-service days since the beginning of the academic year.
Friday morning will be devoted to considering improvement plans for individual schools, whereas Monday will be spent looking at the implementation of the new Curriculum for Excellence.