ARmy Rumour SErvice

No dramas, just wandering about your nickname... it is used for certain Scalie backs north of hte border too.

Nope, on herrick I was working with balloons, it was either this or 'Winnie the pooh' ;)

I have flicked through this debate again, there doesn't seem to be any mention of what the teacher in question does, persec I guess, but I too am puzzled as to what their school does on a weekly basis that requires this member of staff to be present until 19:00hrs plus. I cannot imagine that there are any pupils present at that hour, unless your man is moonlighting with the CCF.

A cursory glance at my local schools has all gates locked, and staff carparks empty, by 18:30hrs at the latest, unless there is a parent's evening being held. The head may be a knob, but it does seem a bit unusual. Did this start before or after your original post?

Maybe he's on detention.

Originally Posted by Praetorian

Ok, what the fuck has the head got him doing until 1930? I've my suspicions that your soldier may be exaggerating and talking out of his arrse, theres only so long a departmental meeting can go on for.

A meeting (parents evening aside) going on until 1930 on a weekly basis would be highly unusual, even unique. Certainly not something i've ever come across or heard of before. Usually a 3.30 finish, 4 pm start with a 6pm finish would be par for the course.

Praetorian, Chef, Jimmy's Best Mate: I don't want to cause an outbreak of trembling bottom lip, so here's an explanation in nice mode.

First, the guy in question is one of my soldiers. I know him reasonably well (certainly better than I know my priest and much better than I know my bank manager) and am (I think) a reasonable judge of character: based on his performance and his efforts to attend, he seems to be a good bloke. He is a teacher, a volunteer reservist, a husband and a father; to the extent I can tell, he passes the integrity test.

Second, and more reliably, perhaps: let's look for inconsistencies and discrepancies in his story. Bear in mind that this soldier does attend on the training evenings (as I have already said); the issue is that the head's scheduling decision ensures that he is regularly 30 minutes late each week. If he were looking for an excuse to bunk off training evenings, then perhaps inventing a weekly duty at the school would make sense. But why invent such a story in order to explain being late? And most importantly, why do so when he was asking me to get involved and to contact his head - i.e., inviting me to expose the "lie"? Is he like an adulterous husband who, deep down, wants to be caught? Unlikely.

Third, and most importantly: his boss has confirmed to me in writing (via email) that this guy's weekly duty evening clashes with our training evening. That corroborates the teacher's own statement. Going behind that statement would require me to visit his school on a training evening, or approach other teachers or students at the school, or contact his wife. That visit is not something I ought to delegate, as the person in comms with the head is me and I reckon it would antagonise the school if I started sending underlings to spy on it. I am a subunit OC and have 91 other soldiers to worry about; I must strike a balance between evidence-gathering in this particular case and in looking after the other blokes. And I am not sure how well a surveillance op/investigation conducted by a TA unit would go down, if its purpose was merely to confirm the facts and deductions outlined above.

Seriously, the usual test for evidence is the balance of probabilities. Is it more than 50% likely that my soldier is lying? On balance, no. Is it more than 50% likely that the head has it in for the TA? Based on his unwillingness to release this teacher for 5 days' unpaid leave and on his decision to schedule this teacher's duty day so as to clash with TA training, I would say that it is. That is corroborated by other matters I have not mentioned, such as the tone of his emails.

Bloke's a cock.

Purely out of interest doctor, I don't suppose you could drop a subtle hint either on here or through pm as to the rough locale of this school? I also wonder whether there is anything in his contract that you could consider using as the basis of a request for slightly more lenience on the schools part. I'm fairly certain that my contract says something about 'reasonable duties out of normal working hours,' depending on the soldiers union he might be able to suggest that it is reasonable to expect the school to make an effort to change his 'duty evening.' The only reason I can think of for the school not doing this might be that he is required to supervise a particular sporting activity or something similar but there should. Be a way around it.

So far, there has been no poster who is in a position to change anything and for the sake of one known instance, and probably a handful more, it seems likely that nothing will change. Other teachers in a similar situation will, presumably, either have jacked the TA or moved on to a different school where their time off can be covered - or, maybe, they've given up on hopes of progression in the TA and are, with their CoC's support, happy to freewheel at a junior level.

The TA is supposed to be growing. With that should come a greater abundance of training courses, ranging from basic soldiering to technical training. That's going to require an upheaval in the way that courses are run - no longer will one or two courses per year be sufficient to channel all the new and progressing soldiers through.

It seems like an opportunity to step back, see what is required and actually plan practicable training methods based on the requirements (including availability) of the TA, rather than shoehorn everybody into Regular Army lesson plans. It shouldn't be difficult once the required mindset has been adopted by those at the top.

Suggestions? Training by Regular personnel - assuring the availability of instructors throughout the year. Courses run almost back to back, maybe a fortnight between courses for the relief of the instructors. Centralised training (and this could include an opportunity for Annual Camps for those who really can't make it with their own unit) - so that soldiers have a wider range of dates available.

It strikes me that the Independent (local) units should follow an example that is current with many Specialist (or nationally-recruited if you prefer) units. For years, Specialist units have lobbied their Regular counterparts to adapt training procedures to fit around TA availability and, despite many moans and teething problems, have been largely successful. It's time for Independent units to dispel the notion that their soldiers are merely anonymous cannon fodder and lobby for training based around the individual.

Well If the TA remains as is (local units etc) it will be a wasted chance, the TA cannot compete with the regs for time in green so perhaps we need to change our reserves and the way we use them?