Good ideas for teachers' summer holidays?

[chicaguapa]

I don't know if I've put this in the right place, but here goes...

DH has just gone into teaching and we're approaching a 6 week school holiday. We're not doing much this year holiday-wise, but it has got me wondering what holidays teachers go on, when they have all that time off.

I'm not talking about ways to get cheaper holidays, but ways to take advantage of having 6 weeks to spend on holiday as a family. For example, DC old HT has a caravan in Abersoch and he goes for the whole summer, which sounds great. I quite like the idea of spending a few weeks travelling around France in a motorhome, but they cost a fortune to hire.

Before I get flamed, I know it's not really '6 weeks holiday' and that teachers have a lot of preparation/ work to do etc. But it's still a chance to go on an extended holiday instead of the usual 2-week breaks.

[LucindaCarlisle]

Go and ask this question on the www.tes.co.uk forum.

A word of warning. The way that teachers talk about Parents on that forum is rude, nasty and disgraceful. The language can be unacceptable and ripe.

[chicaguapa]

Thanks. Am intringued. Surely teachers are parents too?

[cazzybabs]

Some of us are married to "normal" people with only 4 weeks of holiday a year... thus we get to look after our own children similar to non-teaching parents

[LucindaCarlisle]

It is probably fair to say that most decent teachers avoid the nasty threads. On that other Forum.

[MrsC2010]

You could look at heading over to the the continent in the car and go camping? You could travel around for a fair while.

We'll probably do similar, maybe next year (both teachers, though I will be off for a few years with our soon to appear first child).

[gerontius]

Not unacceptable and ripe language Lucinda! Thanks for the warning! I will stick to MN where no-one ever swears!

[Lucycat]

Dh and I are both teachers and we do the 3 weeks camping in France thing - most people that we seem to meet over there are also teachers!
We will be home in the middle of ASugust though for A level results day.

Be aware though that your dh will need to lie in a dark room for the first weekend of the summer break - my dh doesn't seem to rememeber talking to me in the evening at the moment he's so exhausted.

[Hulababy]

I was a teacher and now work as a TA, so still get the holidays. However, my DH is a solicitor and doesn't get the holidays - so we get a two week holiday abroad, and then me and DD do lots of days out etc th rest of the time.

[MrsC2010]

Haha, the TES site can be quite full on in some forums, enterntaining reading if you've got the guts.

[Lucycat]

Exactly waswondering! My dh nearly got a job in a different school earlier this year which would have meant that the dds, me and him would have been in different Local Authorites - with different half terms and Easter - and overlapping by a week at Christmas!

That's when childcare for teachers becomes a nightmare!

[duckyfuzz]

we are both teachers, our holidays overlap for 5 weeks as we're in different LAs, DTs are in a third LA, so not a full 6 weeks together. We are spending a few days at home to relax, then having a few days camping down south to see friends and family, then back for a few days at home, then a weekend in scotland, family reunion (other side!) then off to france, travelling down over 3 nights, 2 weeks there, travelling back in time for the bank holiday, then I'm back to work, folloed by DH, followed by DTs a week later - the time soon disappears!

[chicaguapa]

I'm reading another thread at the moment and am dreaming about buying a VW campervan and just taking off in that.

[Breton1900]

"The language can be unacceptable and ripe." Not unlike Mumsnet then!

Teachers don't actually have the full six weeks as "holiday" in my experience. The first couple of days after terms ends is spent sorting out classroooms and often entails chasing KS4/KS5 kids who have still not completed course work. The rest of the first week is spent psychologically unwinding and catching up on sleep, then there are about three weeks or so to relax when, hey presto, it's time to start thinking about planning for the new term.

For many teachers the last week of the holidays is mainly spent in school moving into new classrooms and/or replenishing wall posters, displays etc, tidying up cupboards and store rooms, picking up the emails that will have begun to arrive from other colleagues, obtaining timetables and class-lists and making notes on new pupils with any special needs, learning problems, behavioural issues, submitting requests for photocopying, and so on. The August Bank Holiday weekend is the last gasp of freedom before it's back into school (often the first day is an INSET day) and then the merry-go-round begins all over again!

[woahwoah]

Well, I'm a teacher but my DH is not, so usually we have 2 weeks away at the start of the holidays, then I have a few days at home catching up on household jobs that don't get done in term time. Then I'll usually visit my parents for a few days, before spending the last 10 days or so of the holidays working (either paper work at home, or getting the classroom ready). So really it all goes very quickly. Certainly there aren't many quiet days! In the days when my DCs were little, obviously I was looking after them in the holidays.

As I don't have a job to go to in September this year (just finished covering a maternity leave), I have no planning or preparing to do. It feels amazingly liberating, and I'm just starting to realise how much of the holidays I usually spend thinking about school.

Not sure I'll be so happy when everyone else goes back to work, though..

[qumquat]

I get very bored and lonely, and do lots of school work! (skiving from it right now). OSrry, feling jaded right now, I spend thw whole summer looking forward to being back in school, then wonder why I wasted my summer come September! (no DC yet - I guess the summer will change alot when/if I do!)

[Iloveclimbinghills]

Like many teachers my husband is not a teacher, we have our two weeks away. I usually have family staying for a week. As a senior teacher I have to be in school for one of the weeks of the summer holiday.

I am studying so quite a bit of time is taken up with catching up with that as well as plnning for next year which is my whole holiday accounted for.

[Iloveclimbinghills]

Sorry that wasn't what you asked for.

DH is going to take a week's unpaid leave next year and we are going to do 3 weeks travelling around France in a motorhome. As you say I was surprised how much it is going to cost.

We are lucky that we live somewhere rural and beautiful so sometimes during a holiday we will go camping - just dd and I - and DH and will join us in the evening for a few hours or at the weekend.

I also have time just to be with my DD as I have very little family time during term time. So we make clothes, build things, garden, go to the beach, climb hills and bake.

[cornsilk1010]

we do 1 or 2 weeks somewhere as dh is not a teacher. I have loads to do...

[kritur]

I spend a fair amount of time doing voluntary work in my holidays.... I canoe and kayak as a hobby and a lot of my friends work in the summer and I volunteer with them, often working with young offenders and special schools which really opens my eyes.

Otherwise I try to get a decent trip in, mainly camping as it keeps the cost down. This year it's canoeing a few lochs in Scotland.

[EndoplasmicReticulum]

I'm married to a normal person. I suggested he could retrain as a teacher so we could have all that time off together, and his response was 'no thanks, I'm not crazy'.

So we usually have 2 weeks off together visiting family, then I have 4 weeks with my boys, having fun. My parents are retired so we do things with them too.

I actually get more like 8 weeks (independent school) - which means I have 2 glorious weeks where I am not at school but boys are (state school). This means I can get most of my planning / schoolwork done before they break up and can then spend time with them.

MIL invited us to come on holiday with them, but they usually go in June. She was surprised that the cost was twice as much in the holidays. I'm not.

[zirca]

I do first week and last week in school, at least one other working from home. DH not a teacher so same family holiday time as anyone else really.

[mrz]

TES has a "bad language" filter Breton so not at all like MN

Holidays - go into school at the beginning and end -catch up with friends and family I've ignored during term time - catch up with housework I've ignored during term time - day trips perhaps a couple of long weekend - walk the dog in daylight.