I blocked my Headteacher on WhatsApp this week

"right so we agree that it is not the same as being on leave as per other professions, that teachers can be contractually expected to carry out certain tasks in school holidays"

Only if they are sLt. ( Which op is not)

You are being paid and are under contract. They would be in their rights to withold your August pay if you dont so what you were supposed to before leaving for the holidays

right so we agree that it is not the same as being on leave as per other professions, that teachers can be contractually expected to carry out certain tasks in school holidays and the central question is whether this tasks falls within that category and would be considered "reasonable". 👍🏻
That then depends on a number of factors and the specific context which we don't have enough info on in the OP

"Are you disputing the contract says this?"

No I am disputing your understanding of those terms and conditions and your Interpretation of the term reasonable.

Even a previous headteacher has stated that only slt can be directed to back into the school and assigned tasks over the holidays.

The SENCo should be completing this paperwork if so. It’s literally their job and why they get an allowance. This is not the job of the class teacher let alone an ECT.

For non teachers, Heads just don’t contact staff who have left in August. They certainly don’t WhatsApp them! The OP could be on her honeymoon or trip of a lifetime for all she knows! If the managers didn’t ensure this paperwork was completed then it’s down to them to do it now. The SENCo will have to pick up the slack.

Teachers who are leaving return lanyards, laptops etc and are logged out of every IT system. You leave and that’s it!

But her contract hasn’t ended. It’s a big differnt. A doctor would take annual leave.

Then the senior staff at school should have planned ahead accordingly and ensured she still had the equipment to do so and the time to do so given that she could have been travelling abroad for the entire 6 weeks. They are trying to cover their own mistake by shoving it onto a frazzled new teacher.

If the doctor was still training and there was a more experienced doctor meant to provide regular guidance about things like how to complete referrals and make fine judgements then I wouldn’t expect them to do it without that oversight, no. I’d hold the practice manager to account. And I wouldn’t expect that doctor to do that work in their holiday.

under the standard maintained-school conditions (the School Teachers’ Pay and Conditions Document) in school holidays teachers are still under a professional duty to work such additional hours “as may be needed to enable the effective discharge of the teacher’s professional duties.” This is often referred to as reasonable additional work.

Are you disputing the contract says this?

That means some work during school holidays can be expected, provided it falls within that professional obligation. Examples might include:

• lesson planning,
• marking,
• preparing resources,
• or, in some circumstances, completing statutory paperwork such as SEN documentation.

• how much work is involved,
• whether it is an isolated occurrence or a regular expectation,
• whether it arises from the normal responsibilities of the role,
• and whether the workload is proportionate.

"Again. You can be expected in your contract to do "reasonable additional work" in the school holidays."

Again. You are wrong.

Again. You can be expected in your contract to do "reasonable additional work" in the school holidays. It's not the same as being on leave in a different sort of job.

under the standard maintained-school conditions (the School Teachers’ Pay and Conditions Document) teachers are under a professional duty to work such additional hours “as may be needed to enable the effective discharge of the teacher’s professional duties.” This is often referred to as reasonable additional work

I agree.

Wow. Even taking the contract, rights, should haves and could have out of the equation, do you not feel a moral responsibility to your pupil? Imagine if your doctor decided not to bother sending that urgent referral to a specialist that they said they would do for you, took a 6 week holiday and then quit. You would be livid..quite rightly and take appropriate steps of complaint. Just do it OP.

We still don’t know what the paperwork is! Or whether the OP primary or secondary (which makes a huge difference in terms of how significant her imput is if it’s a report about one specific pupil). If it’s a hugely significant piece of documentation and the OP has not had guidance from their ECT mentor to complete it then it is completely reasonable to tell the HT that she is only prepared to do it with that persons support and after the holiday. I would respond to HT’s WhatsApp with a brief unemotional message stating your professional boundaries and pointing out that you didn’t have appropriate support from your mentor or induction tutor. It’s really unusual for a HT to request this sort of thing and over WhatsApp so I am guessing primary and an enormous oversight that they’re trying to correct.

I probably have responded in the wrong way.

Probably??

Of course it’s not illegal to give poor references. And in the of text of employment law, something would be “unlawful” not “illegal”

I think you’re letting your anger at that school cloud your judgement here. It may be the summer and it may not be your directed time so they can’t force you to do it but on balance I think it would be the wise thing to do.

Doing that paperwork isn’t about them it’s about the pupil. You might have issues with SLT but do you really not want to do something to help support a child?

Even if we take the child out of the equation, if you have any plans on staying in teaching you will need that reference and you have likely burned a bridge there in a way that will be very hard to explain to a future employer. Even if you don’t stay in teaching other jobs might want them as a reference and they might just decide not to give you one after that. It’s totally up to you how you handle it but I would suggest being the bigger person on this one. It’s a few hours of your summer that could make a big difference going forward.

Your contract is until end of August so you’re not done yet. From what I understand you’re also still being paid?

Exactly the line I took in my last year ( 19 years secondary). The look of shock when a year 11 boy knocked on lunchroom door wanting a word and I told him certainly but in half an hour when I had finished my break

People moaning about the use of WhatsApp, if the OP had been emailed to her school email and not seen it, what then? It's highly likely she never would have checked. Some places get rid of email access from the start of the holidays too.

Right now she is , but who knows how she will feel in the future, when she's had some time to recover from the bad experience.

This. Seriously OP, this is nuts.

"I'm not a teacher but generally speaking, you need to consider yourself and future career"

OP is going on supply. Unless the reference says she is a danger to children she will have zero problems getting signed up by agencies or work from schools.

Op is bring made a scapegoat for the incompetency of those who managed her...

I would arrange to go back into school when the school is open next. Spend some time in school getting the paperwork completed then you can leave without having to hang onto school laptop. The head will give you a reference for any future work (even if you don’t stay in teaching - so try not to annoy them too much) Apologise and say that you opted out of the WhatsApp chat as you had left and didn’t want to be included anymore.

For something as important as this, which definitely been done during term time,I would get laptop back and finish the paperwork. It’s not fair on the children affected by your failure to complete important paperwork.