To feel that this email is intrusive

[Thornyrose7]

I am due to start a new teaching contract at a new place of work in September. I am not new to teaching, I have been doing it on and off for 15 years with breaks and maternity gaps.
I have my new timetable and some details about the coming year which I am planning to look at the week before my contract starts and do some planning then. My summer is taken up with children's activities, weekends away etc etc.
I have just received an email from a teacher who is also due to start the same time as me. I believe that she is an NQT. We will be sharing responsibility for one course. This teacher wants me to send her my planning and scheme of work and wants to discuss next year.
AIBU to feel really intruded upon?
I believe that teachers holidays are sacred and if you want to work over summer that is a personal choice.I am also annoyed that she has got hold of my personal email, when we have never met.
I don't want our working relationship to get off to a bad start, but I am not sure how to respond!

Poor NQT. She's in a panic.

it's not being "panicey" to not want to leave ALL your planning, down to even an outline of which topics are being taken by whom, until the week before term!

OP might be able to work like that, but many people wouldn't be able to relax and enjoy their holidays until they at least had some basic info and a rough plan

Ok. So consensus seems to be that I am perhaps unfair to this NQT.

However, I haven't actually replied or not replied yet to this email, the AIBU is just about how I feel. So some of the comments about' hope you are not teaching my kids etc feel a bit harsh.
I think it just comes down to the debate on whether teachers should be working in the holidays and also email manners. If this email had acknowledged that it was the summer, I probably wouldn't have felt like this!
Also, I have not yet started this job! So I am not being paid to work.And no, I don't have a scheme of work to hand, it will be new to me too. But thanks for your responses. As, I've said, I will plan with this teacher, just not now.

If I was the OPs colleague, I would at this point send the following to HOD:

"as OP is unavailable for planning or email comms over the holidays, I have decided to plan X part of the program, hopefully it will not be duplicated by OP when she returns in September, does that sound okay to you?"

Unfortunately, a NQT probably won't know enough yet to cover her own ass this way! I feel sorry for her

One email during the course of a 6 week holiday and you feel intruded upon? Do get over yourself.

and also email manners. If this email had acknowledged that it was the summer, I probably wouldn't have felt like this!

by sending an email rather than putting you on the spo with a phone call, it is acknowledging that you can respond in your own time. That's half the point of email.

As, I've said, I will plan with this teacher, just not now You are basically saying that your time is more important than hers if you will only communicate with her in the part of the holidays that YOU want to do work in, this making it impossible for her to get started

Have to say, glad you're not my colleague. If you are going to get that fussy about when you are and are not paid to work, then maybe teaching's not the job for you? Just can't see how you can leave initial planning to the last minute, whilst settling into a new school, and teach effectively.
This should have been sorted in July.

Really, this all makes you sound a bit..up yourself...Her manners aren't up to scratch, she wasn't apologetic enough for having the temerity to interrupt your sacrosanct holiday ( - Jesus Christ, you wouldn't like my job then when I always, without fail, get disturbed with one thing or another while on hols), She's an NQT so should be bowing down to you a bit more?

It's all just a little bit off TBH.

How the heck do you think this course you SHARE is going to go when you can't be bothered to plan until the last week of the holidays and the NQT is completely unable to properly because YOU are refusing to share any information?

Will you both just turn up at start of term and wing it?

Don't be so stupid or selfish!

I think I'd be concerned about how this will sound to other colleagues in your new school. The NQT would be perfectly placed to get in touch with the HoD if she doesn't hear from you, and a comparison is bound to be drawn. Do you want to be in the wrong side of that comparison? For the sake of a quick friendly email, I'd say it wasn't really worth it...

i think it comes down to the debate on whether teachers should be working in the holidays

I'm always at a loss on these threads to understand why teachers seem to think they're a special category. I don't know a single group of professionals who don't expect to work either outside of their weekly hours or during weekends and/or holidays.

Anyone who thinks you should have sorted out their planning in July at a new school is crackers

DH is moving job this summer. He's still working for his old school and will be going in next week for A level results day to number crunch/analyse for a couple of days and then GCSE results day the week after. Then he will analyse those results.

His old school is still paying him to work for them up til 1st September.

He won't even know what he's teaching at the new school til then - and he'll have a week to prepare before students arrive.

Ok, feel like I am getting a bit flamed now, but I guess I did ask. It has given me some food for thought, I may have come across as a grumpy old bag😁.
However, it is just not possible for me to send this teacher what she wants,it is not done yet. I think this did spark some anxiety, I have full on child care commitments this summer and a week away. That is the way it is. I am not uncaring, I am not sitting on my bottom planning to wing it at the end of summer.
I am going to email her and give her a date when we can plan. This will be well before the students start.
Thanks again.

So, indulge me here, how is she meant to do her planning, when you haven't agreed who is doing what?

What if she has plans the last week of the holidays?

And there are plenty of professionals who don't work outside of their paid hours, other than in exceptional circumstances

Which ones are these? need a career change

I had a similar email last summer; I replied just saying that I wasn't planning until far nearer the time, but was planning with starting with x topic, told them to start with y topic, and suggested we sit down on the first day back to discuss. She probably just wants to make sure she's planning the right thing.

My DS is a teacher , and he's been doing bits and pieces of planning for next year as he'd rather do it in small chunks , also he's away volunteering with a children's holiday charity nearer to the end of the holidays , I think it sounds quite sensible to do it little and often and I doubt it's anything to do with the teacher being an NQT ( my DS is not) .

Can you tell us how she replies?

Nice thread on results day. Sacred my arse. Teachers who do it for more than the child friendly holidays and maternity leave are interested in their work. I'm married to a headmaster. I can't recall a day where he doesn't need to do something or gets an email or call.