AIBU to think that a headteacher shouldn't go on holiday during term time

[iwenttohollywoodtoo]

I found out today that the headteacher at DD's school is on holiday abroad and won't be in school until tomorrow.

Technically she has only missed two days so AIBU to think this is out of order, especially given that the school has a policy of not authorising holidays for pupils.

Like many other parents would do, I booked a flight a day earlier when we went away at Xmas (at significant extra £), to make sure DD didn't miss school .

I am to be honest. AIBU?

'shocked'?

Get a grip.

I truly hope the the HT in question is on holiday somewhere hot, getting off their face every night and comes back to school utterly knackered from to much vino collapso.

Lets face it, there are those on here who simply want to moan because their requests were denied.

Lisbeth, you might like to be told why your hairdresser was away, but you'd have no right to insist.

And if all his appointments in one day were told, that'd be 8 people or whatever. Not 300.

So according to some on this thread I should be able to tell the pupils in my classroom that your child (as an example) has to rush out because

1/ Have a weak bladder
2/ A family member has died
3/ They are pregnant
4/ They have an invisible disability
5/ They have started their period

Because (after all) the other children have a right to know why their education has been disrupted.

Those who think a teacher's private life and their reason for an absence has anything to do with you as a parent....

... do you have so little trust in your child's school? If so, why don't you remove them from that school? If not, why not trust that the same school is capable of making a decision about their staff?

You want the info to fuel the gossip, not to stop the gossip. Hey, did you hear Mrs X is off for medical reasons...well, could be this...could be that...saw her in Sainburys other night...can't be that serious....maybe she's had a breakdown.... Mr Z is off for personal reasons....well, I did always wonder about him...reckon he's been messing about with that new young teacher...bet his wife's found out...

In the eighties, I was unemployed.
I worked and was paid in kind.
At the time, the goods I received as payment was food.
I declared this to the DHSS and was told that they had no facility to deal with this, partly as the value of the items varied vastly from shop to shop and also payment in kind wasn’t viewed as a monetary wage.
Does anyone know what the rules are today? August 2021.

While I agree that it can be irritating that teachers are taking holidays during term time, and until I’d met my DH I would’ve agreed it’s cheeky when they get all summer to go away… but living with someone who’s a teacher, I can honestly say it’s probably a well deserved holiday- if that is why she’s off. My DH (assistant head) regularly works during school holidays/weekends, and regularly attends meetings during holidays and long after school has finished for the day. He’ll be sat working well into the late evening answering emails and completing admin type jobs. He doesn’t get any overtime for those extra hours either. He’ll often work all day without so much as a lunch break as he’ll be on break duty, lunch duty, covering lessons for staff who are off due to sickness/covid isolations, and then he’ll have meetings after school too. He doesn’t get a full summer holiday either as he has to be back in for results day, and then staff meetings/training leading up to the new term, as well as all the prep that goes into starting a new school year. His job stresses him that much that throughout term time his hair thins. Over the summer holidays it starts growing back and is lovely and thick as the new school year starts- all to thin out again when he’s back at work full time . I don’t know many other occupations that dictate when you can take leave (and then expects you to work during that time anyway), regularly requires you to work through your lunch and work overtime without being paid any extra. So while it may be annoying that you can’t take holidays during term time and the headteacher seemingly can, it’s only two days.