...to think teachers DO get paid over the holidays?

I hope someone more in the know than me will help clarify this but I think with the teachers' strikes it had to be clarified how much they should lose for not working for one day. Was it salary divided by 195 teaching days or salary divided by 365 days in the year. I'm fairly sure they decided salary/365 which implies that technically we are paid for holidays but the salary takes into account that some of that's working and some's not so averages it out across the year.

Anyway, I'd just like to remind people there is a massive shortage of teachers in this country, so if you think it doesn't sound too bad and the pay/working conditions sound pretty good actually, then please do consider doing an ITT course next year! You are desperately needed!

One big impact it has is on maternity pay. I'm going on maternity in November, but I can't accrue holiday like every other profession. By Easter next year I will be on SMP, so despite the fact I will have 'wasted' 3 weeks of school holidays, I want get that money back. For an average paid teacher taking a year off after having a baby that's about £2.5k they miss out on.

We get paid for 195 pupil contact days. Plus 40 days holiday.

The rest of the year is classed as 'School Closure Days'. These days are unpaid.

We are paid an annual salary. It is divided by 12. We receive this monthly.

If you wanted to increase the number of pupil contact days you would need to take away some unpaid school closure days. This would cost a great deal as these are currently unpaid.

YABU to try and compare a teacher contract to a normal contract. Teachers are contracted to a number of hours per year plus as much time as reasonable to get the job done

Surely that's the case for many/most salaried job though? Certainly when I worked in financial services I was contracted 9-5 but there was an expectation that you'd work late/at the weekend if necessary.

In the vast majority of circumstances, a teacher who resigns for the end of the academic year will be technically employed until 31st August, and get paid for August, yes.

Exactly. I don't know anyone who just works 9-5. Everyone I know in a professional career has opted out of the working time directive! I actually used to work in an office with sleeping pods so we could all work overnight and through to the next day with an hour of sleep. I averaged 70 hours a week for my first 2 years! Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against teachers - apart from the victim complex some seem to have. Teachers really don't have a monopoly on hard work!

@BB2818

As a recently retired teacher I came on here to make the same points you covered so well.

In the vast majority of state schools, there are only 3 days a teacher can leave their job:

December 31st (notice given by the end of October).
April 30th/or end of the Easter holidays, whichever is earlier (notice given by the end of February).
August 31st (notice given by the end of May).

So if you leave at the end of the academic year, you do get your August pay packet, because you have already earned that money. In theory, if you were leaving teaching, you school could stop you taking a new job during that time, as technically they still employ you.

If you move to a new school, they start paying you from September 1st.

I left a school at Christmas that had one weeks holiday at October and two at easter to one that had two at October and one at easter so from the half term and easter holidays I had 2 weeks off rather than 3, still got paid the same as everyone else though😡

It's why teachers want September babies, they can be paid over the summer pre-baby, have baby, then return to work mid July to be paid for summer post-baby so effectively have 12 months mat leave but only technically take 10.5.

I agree with you too they get 12 pay cheques and pay days a year. It’s the support staff who only work term time who suffer and don’t get an august pay day :( which must be hard to manage cash flows.

Yes.

I think there's massive confusion here with TAs or support staff and Teachers. There's so many different contracts in education esp now with the unqualified teachers in the mix as well.

It's safe to say no one is paid for more holidays than they're entitled to. It's the same statutory entitlement as everyone else in a contracted role in the UK, but it's is paid pro rata for the most part.

I don't know any teachers that don't work in the holidays. Almost all who work in secondary schools that I still keep in touch with, are answering emails!

I’d be interested to know the number of TAs that get paid for holidays. That certainly doesn’t happen in my LA. I’m paid for 39 + 5.6 weeks. Plus a small amount extra for length of service.

But I know this wasn’t really your point.

I do see your point actually but I’m not sure of the semantics.

I think it all boils down to people who say teachers get 13 weeks of paid holiday a year. Which isn't true.

As a TA I get paid for the 39 weeks I work plus 5 weeks holiday. The other 8 weeks I guess are just unpaid holiday. My salary is divided by 12 months but its not 12 months work of salary (understandably as I don't work for 12 months!)

So yes I'm paid OVER the holidays but no not paid FOR the holidays.

Does that even make sense? Do I need to get back to work 😂

Honestly many many professions are like this. It's the world of work these day. Not right at all but I know of nobody who only works their contracted hours.

So a teacher on M1 gets £30k, and that is divided into 12 chunks and paid throughout the year.

However, it's based on an overall contract which specifies that the teacher works 195 days of the year (190 contact days with students, 5 inset days).

The published salary for teachers is what we get paid. For TAs and some other support staff, the published salary on the advert is often pro-rata'd to take into account holidays.

But if the government decided actually students should have 200 days of contact time, then teachers would expect their pay to go up proportionally.

When I lived in the states the teachers literally didn't get paid over the summer break. The salary was paid during teaching hours only. Most of them took on summer jobs because of that.

As in common with other salaried positions teachers are paid monthly - if a holiday falls in that month then that is the way it is , for all positions not just teachers.

Or if instead of being paid at the end of the month, your salary was split up and paid in the form of daily pay transfers to your bank account.

You could work Monday to Friday but get a wages every day including Saturday and Sunday. Same amount of money received overall but people could say ha, you get paid for weekends.

I think it just means they get longer holidays than is typical (with the provisio that of course teachers do carry out some work over the "holidays").

When a teacher stops work or changes jobs then (as far as I know?) it makes absolutely no difference in terms of their pay at what point in the year they stop. They get paid up until the time they stop work and no more. They don't get paid extra if they stop being employed shortly before the holidays, which they would presumably need to if they had already completed all their paid work for the year and were having the associated pay spread out over the whole year.

Yes OP you are being unreasonable… yes teachers do get paid over the holidays. However this pay is based on working 39 weeks a year (with standard holiday pay - this doesn’t increase with service). Totalling 44.6 weeks per year paid. This pay is spread out evenly over a 12 month period. Also bear in mind we don’t get a choice when we take our holidays and limited to the most expensive times of the year.

I am a teacher and have spent 6 full days in school setting up my classroom this Summer. An unreasonable amount writing an entire subject curriculum (probably 2 plus days). Then long term/medium planning for this term, teaching 3 year groups and oversee nursery. Probably about 3-4 days (maybe more). And that’s just the Summer holidays!

Question is OP would you work 12 days unpaid? That’s not including additional work I do in the evenings, parents evenings, performance, residential trips, other half term break tasks. Remember I am getting paid 39 weeks to work and 5.6 weeks as holiday - like you I should not be required to work during this holiday.

Yes they get paid all year round. Not the same as TA's who get a pro rated wage.

Well yes, they're salaried workers.

Who is suggesting they don't get paid for the holidays?

You’re making a false equivalence.

The comparison here would be - do people continually say to those people working until the job is done ‘oh but you only work 9-5 and you get all those weekends off’