A WIVELISCOMBE School’s 95-minute “team building and staff well-being” activities for staff during a term-time training day on Friday has been criticised by one of the parents of two students at the school.

Martin Tier has accused Kingsmead School of doing “this rubbish at the expense of our children’s education.”

In a letter to the school, he said: “I always assumed that the point of these days was to further your knowledge and to aid in the education of our children.

“However, it has been brought too my attention that this inset day will include such arduous tasks as yoga, glow-in-the-dark table tennis, bread making and badminton. Seriously?

“You have half term the week after; Why not do your leisure activities then?“

Mr Tier, who says he and his wife had to pay for childcare on the inset day as they both work, said he appreciated teaching was ‘very hard’ but added: “Come on. You get more holidays than God.

“I would kill for a five-day week and six weeks off in the summer.

“If I wanted to take my children out of school for a day of ping pong, you’d quite rightly say no. Possibly even issue me with a fine.”

However, headteacher Mark Williams has defended the team building and said that schools have to take a number of inset days during the academic year and 95 minutes given to team building and staff well-being is not “disproportionate.”

He added: “This is especially the case when you consider the amount of time given freely by teachers to run sports clubs, public speaking teams, trips abroad and many other opportunities for young people.

“The workload of teachers is well documented and is excessive, which is why staff well-being has become a big issue nationally, as a response to the large numbers of teachers leaving the profession.

“Furthermore it is well documented that the corporate world uses teambuilding events as part of staff development. It seems a shame that when public services try to use creative ideas to support staff well-being, they are criticised and ridiculed.”

Mr Williams said that the sessions support Kingmead’s ethos of “Achieving through Caring.”  

The inset initiative, when students are given the day off, includes sessions in areas such as safeguarding, learning and various subjects, as well as updates on the new curriculum model and paired lesson observations.