Holiday entitlement?

[Yetiinspaghetti]

Please can someone help me with this - I’m about to take a role that’s not in education for the first time ever so I won’t have the luxury of the holidays.

I would get 26 days a year plus bank holidays if full time but I am actually working 6.5 hours a day, four days a week, so only 26 hours.
How do I work out my pro rata entitlement? Do I only get about 12 days a year? I’m going to struggle with that - how do people manage?

Keep in mind Op, holidays/leave have to be approved. Sch breaks are always busy with colleagues, who are parents, also needing time off. If there are a lot of you asking for the same time off, a few will be unsuccessful. I came a cropper a few times with this and had holiday refused, i also had no help at all.

I look back now and cannot believe how unbelievably hard it was for me to work full time ( 8.30-5pm) and manage on 26 days hols a yr, as it was then. My childminder/s was/were also prone to unreliability and cheap term time holidays, leaving me with no choice but to take additional unpaid leave during term , which in turn annoyed all my colleagues ! It became untenable for me so i eventually remortgaged to give me a lump sum to live off and left work for a few yrs to be a ftm.

I work in a sch now, and only have 1 teenager left at home. Have found term time working made my life so much easier, in terms of when the kids were younger. Albeit the pay less as pro rata. If, like me, you really have no help, staying in education may be a better bet for you.

"They won’t close between Christmas and New Year".

Op, you need to consider this as my childminders and subsequent wrap around care usually closed for these 2 weeks but i still had to work. Dc's dad did some childcare but he also had to work and often on call so i could not rely on that.

@Yetiinspaghetti

Yes. I’m confused over the bank holidays 😂 I’d need to use a day and a half to cover the bank holidays? Is that right? If I would usually work them? I’m considering Friday as the day I’m not in because it tacks on to a long weekend.

As does Monday...and by having Monday off you will have more hours to use when you want them instead of having to take them for bank holiday....no brainer....I have Monday’s off!

This is what I wondering. Maybe I should just accept I’m better in school for another few years.

You could try asking for flexibility with your days/hours. I have it in my flexib!e.working agreement that I can work 3 long days instead of 4 short which makes holiday club cheaper

Ask them if they can be flexible. I used to work 4 days a week school hours but I would work my day off either side of half term and take it as time in lieu in half term week. In the summer hols when ds was at holiday club I would work longer hours those days so I’d rack up extra hours and then take them in lieu another week. It is always worth asking, they can only say no...

@Yetiinspaghetti i would love for you to take this role as you clearly want to and very capable but, i am just being honest about my experience.

Your experience could be different, but i think you genuinely do not have any childcare support, like me and i know how that impacts over the years.

My Dc's have benefitted from having me here across all sch holidays when they were younger and were struggling with all the various childcare options i used to have to put in place. My eldest was 8 when i secured a sch role and while i have sacrificed my career and what i could have earned over the yrs, the kids were /are happier. I am glad i am still around during holidays for my youngest, even though they are 14 now, i am still here all holidays to be with them and make sure they are ok etc. The alternative being they are home alone all day.

I also like that while term time is busy, mentally and emotionally demanding , i can look forward to the holidays to de stress , chill out and be avail for my own children who need me as much as the children i work with.

I was offered a role in school which I turned down in favour of this but now I’m not sure I’ve done the right thing.
I don’t want my children to be unhappy and it feels selfish. I’m concerned my children will just be shoved from pillar to post.
It would be easier if I had some childcare in the form of grandparents but I don’t.

Confirming what some others have said.

1. Add 26 days to bank hols (let's say 8), so total of 34.

1. Then multiply by 4/5, as you're working 4 days a week.

1. This gives you 27.2 days allowance. Ignore hours, since if you take a day off you're taking 6.5 hours off not 7 or 7.5. If you want you can calculate in hours and it would work out the same, it's just easier to count it as days.

When there's a bank holiday on one of your working days you take it out of your 27.2 days holiday; if it's on a day you're already off, ignore it.

I've been doing this for years and understand it much better than our HR .

@Yetii you have to decide what is best for you and your family.

I personally had no immediate family, my DM and DS ( mental health issues) and DF not present and then passed. My grand parents were in a diff country.

My circumstance may be different to yours. I really was very alone and found working 52 wks a yr nigh on impossible with young DC's. ExDH helped where possible but did not worry himself overly about childcare generally. He had is job and on call hrs and childcare was " my "
issue.

I think i expected
people and friends to rally around me and reciprocate all the childcare i had given them but that never happened. In my case, my DC's were moved from childminder to childminder and i had had enough of the poor basic care they offered my DC's. My childminders cared for their own kids. There was really no love there for my children, my children were £835 per month to
them and thats it.

Colleagues also frustrated with me when my DC's were sick, when childminders DC's were sick, when child minder took her kids out of sch for term time holidays at short notice. All the time i had to take off. I was pulled in all directions.

The after sch club i then put DC's so over crowded. Crowd management , not child development. I just had enough of trying to be all things while watching my children unhappy.

If you have no support OP , working 52 weeks , with only 26 days holiday per annum, will be hard and you will be heavily reliant on people , who are not there to help.

Thank you - so basically if I don’t work Mondays then that day isn’t taken out of my holiday?
So I have 27.2 days a year but if I don’t work Mondays then none of the bank holidays that fall on a Monday are taken out of that holiday entitlement? Is that right?
So August bank holiday Monday, Easter Monday, the may bank holidays - none of those would come out of my holiday entitlement?

I’m happy with the wraparound care having used it when I was working in school - they will only be in half an hour before school and half an hour afterwards.
I don’t know what the holiday club is like there though.
I was hoping to book an extra day off a week - so only work three days - over the school holidays. I think I’ve got one day covered by a friend. So that would leave two days for holiday club.
I never really appreciated what a nightmare this was. I do feel horribly guilty about my children and I’ve not even started yet.

So I have 27.2 days a year but if I don’t work Mondays then none of the bank holidays that fall on a Monday are taken out of that holiday entitlement? Is that right?

Yes, that's correct. Only bank holidays when you would normally be at work come out of your holiday entitlement.

"I think I’ve got one day covered by a friend".

Take into account friends circumstance may change in time and they may not always be avail. More prudent to arrange contracted childcare to accommodate your job and hours as currently stands.

Don't count on being always able to book annual leave in the school holidays.

Any leave is at the discretion of your employer, and it's likely that many many others will also be trying to book leave in the school holidays.

Some employers don't allow leave at certain busy times of the year at all like Easter - tax year end.

I get 7 weeks leave - only 3 of those are guaranteed in school holidays.

I'd find out their policy on holidays in school time

They know I’ve children and I think will be sympathetic - also although not in school my job is linked to schools so I’m actually anticipating it may be busier in term time - even if not term time only.
I guess I give it a go and if it’s impossible then I will have to stop.