To ask teachers if you just accept the inflated holiday prices?

I was also going to mention taking unpaid parental leave if it works out that the loss of pay is worth the lower cost of the holiday.

I've not done this myself yet but I'm planning to, and know of other teachers who have used unpaid parental leave to go on holiday to avoid inflated prices and very busy, crowded periods at some destinations.

Pisses me right off. Friends of mine in nhs/ council roles with pretty healthy leave allowances get to stay in nicer places for lower prices. And they get to go on more holidays. No one really seems that bothered about taking kids out during term time.

Yes I know I chose to be a teacher etc, but dh didn't really get much say, neither did the kids! Having said that, I was 22 when I went into teaching and not really planning on it being a career, so I want thinking about how it would affect me long term. And holidays pre kids were relatively cheap for dh and I.

Could you take a week of unpaid parental leave? We’re expecting our first baby in a few weeks and my teacher husband plans to use a week of unpaid parental leave (the one where you can take up to 18 weeks before the child is 18) so we can have a cheaper holiday during the nursery years. We want to go to Greece and it was coming in at £6k in half-term, but only £3k if we go 2 weeks before. Even being on UPS3 with a TLR, my husband won’t lose £3k in wages with one week off so we should still make a good saving.

I'm school support staff and it's just part of the job. You get more leave but its not flexible. Sometimes that's great. Like at Christmas when there is no arguments in the team about who does the Christmas day shift.

It's also good when you have children but lots of teachers work before and after they have children that need childcare so there's no cost to offset for them.

But now I don't have such a childcare need, the unpaid leave and lack of flexibility isn't enough to keep me in the job going forward. Support staff have different contracts so our pay is pro rata.

What else can we do?

Now I don't mind because I have school age dc so have to go in the holidays anyway. Once they're older I imagine it will grate a little more!

But I get 6 weeks off with my kids and don't have the headache of childcare in the holidays like a lot of other women my age so it's swings and roundabouts.

My top tips for cheaper holidays are:

1. go at Easter
2. go the last week(s) of August (when GCSE results are in) I’ve found that a great way to save money. Some counties are back at school already and lots of families need to be home/around for exam results.

You don’t think teachers pay for nursery full time? I was paying for 4 days per week (I’m 0.8 hours) 52 weeks per year. No term time only options in the better nurseries around here.

It’s funny I was thinking about this last week .

I typed out a big list of where people go/ what they do but it felt far outing .

I will say the single t a s as a rule , don’t go away at all , only the ones with a partner footing the bill manage it .

also , for a big birthday in a few years , I am really keen to do a few weeks in Canada. I have priced up hotels , flights , food , sightseeing, car rentals ect . The price difference between going in the summer holidays and a later time in the year , is well over half my wage .

it gave me food for thought.

They are not paid. Our wage is based on 195 working days across the year, it is split across 12 months. We don’t get paid for the holidays.

Tbf parents who aren’t willing to take their kids on holiday during term time have to pay inflated costs. I don’t like mine missing school so yeah we pay inflated costs like everyone else.

It's swings and roundabouts. I can get much cheaper holidays in term time but my annual leave allowance is 5 weeks which is less than your summer break alone.

Technically yes. The salary isn't pro rata even though you are paid for hours worked ( unlike support staff).

You can do the off season places. City breaks in the week, beach resorts in the winter or spring. Rome in August is traditionally quiet because of the heat especially the first two weeks. That's cheaper and it just means getting up early and not going out in afternoon, it's still great.

Do a less well known theme park like Phantasiland ( Germany) rather than Disney in the holidays especially if it doesn't coincide with theirs.

I will always be tied to school holidays too op, because my dh's company employs parents with school age children we are restricted to company shut down during school holidays. The complication was that two of the wives worked together elsewhere, but they weren't allowed to take holidays at the same time!

No one is whinging. Someone asked a question and people answered. Everyone has said that it’s just part of the deal. No one is whinging.

Think how much you save on holiday childcare over the year and offset against extra amount holiday costs.

Same issue for many working parents. At least teachers can use any of the school holiday dates so have the choice of 12-13 weeks to go away rather than 5-6 weeks of the year that other parents have. And even then your leave isn’t always granted as your first choice of dates. Plus teachers have the advantage of knowing well in advance ie years of when the holidays will be so can potentially take advantage of booking early. Many working parents won’t even know if they have Christmas off yet and a lot certainly won’t get 2 weeks leave. I would offset the cost mentally by knowing that you don’t need to pay for holiday childcare

Don’t know what I pressed there or why my post has been hiidden. Was just a p s to my post above.

Also, try to fly on a Tuesday rather than Saturday. Book with people like Expedia where it’s less package based.

Thing is, I don’t really look at the cheaper price because I can’t go at that time, dont torture yourself. Try some less typical destinations. Barcelona wasn’t very much, neither was Sevillre. Think outside the box.

Northern teacher here. One tip if you’re northern is to have your holiday late August and drive into Scotland for your flight out. Their school holidays end earlier than the English ones so you can get a good deal around late August. Likewise for half terms or even Easter look at other areas of the country and fly from those airports instead.

Generally though, we only take a foreign holiday every second year as it is pricy.

I am actually being made redundant so won't be teaching in September for the first time in my teaching career. We are going to go for a week away in a nice hotel somewhere in the uk and hope it will be a bit cheaper than usual! I will hopefully never do this again so it is a chance for a silver lining I hope!

Teachers seem to think they are the only people who work hard

I really don't know how you can know what anyone thinks, but I've never heard a teacher say this or seen it written. Ever.

DH is a teacher. No kids, so it is somewhat annoying to still be restricted to school holidays, but it is what it is.

We do consider when the schools in other countries break up. Where DH works now the school holidays start in late June so we often go to European countries where the holidays start later to take advantage of cheaper accommodation early in the summer. When DH worked in England we'd go to Scandinavia in mid-August, when the schools there had already started again.