Why do school s insist on having the 6 week break in August...

[EezerGoode]

Why not have a week of every month? Or just allow each area to set its own holidays..we could all then go on holiday in June or may ,when there actually was nice weather..and it would be cheaper..we all seem to accept it often rains in August..meaning we pay top whack for holidays when it pisses down....so what is stopping headteachers spreading the holidays throughout the year so we can take advantage of decent weather and cheaper prices??!!

I was lucky with the timing of that pregnancy, wax, not so lucky with the next one. I belive in normal jobs you accrue holiday throughout maternity leave and can add it on at the end of your leave to extend it.

Yes, you do. I was off so briefly that it didn't seem to make a lot of difference :) and I used my holidays so that I had some time of with full pay. that was in the days where all go got was statutory mat pay, about £35 a week iirc I was off for 4.5 months with DS1 and 5.5 months with DS2 as he wouldn't take a bottle and as you weaned at 4 months back then, it gave a chance for him to be on a good feeding routine before i went back.

Dumbledore don't you think that this 5.6 weeks of paid teacher holidays would be mentioned clearly in the terms and conditions?

We are contracted for 1265 hours across the year and paid for 1/12th of those hours every month.

In Ireland the summer holidays are different to the UK.
Secondary schools are off from end of May/ beginning of June til the 23rd onwards of August.
Private primary schools approximately the same - back late August.
State primary schools called National schools get summer holidays at the end of June til the end of August.
I feel children in UK get a very short summer break.

Wax what I was trying to say was that holiday accrual doesn't work in the same way in the private sector for maternity pay, so it probably wouldn't apply to resignation dates either.

yeah, I get what you are saying. It seems for ease that they just split the salary into 12 and it really doesn't matter then when you go as the hours are spread over regardless of when you are on holiday. It's a bit bizarre but it clearly makes it easier to calculate- it's like a yearly contract that doesn't give annual leave so much as it gives you periods of time where you aren't obliged to attend work.

Cauliflower- well if you're right and none of our holdays are paid then the government is breaking the law as teaching is not exempt from the working time directive and teachers are entitled to 28 days paid annual leave, we should go on strike.

The working time directive also says a break of 11 hours between shifts, maximum 48 hours per week and rest breaks.

We had to sign to say we were okay with not abiding to the working time directive in a previous job.

They've probably deducted the holidays from the amount of hours before you see them. So the amount quoted up thread is net of paid holidays.

EIS website - direct quote.

^Salary payment and calculation

Initial salary placement and progression is set out in SNCT Handbook

Generally salary is paid in 12 equal monthly installments. Where someone joins or leaves during the school year the method set out by SNCT for calculations of salary should be used by both your old and new Authority.

A full time teacher is employed for 195 days - 190 pupil days and 5 in-service. There are 40 days of paid leave with the rest of the holidays being deemed "closure days" with no payment. Payment is therefore calculated on a (195+40)=235 day basis with holiday pay being accrued at 40/195=0.2051 per day worked.

Therefore for a partial year, the first thing to do is count the number of days of the 195 you will actually work. For example, if your joining date is such that you will work 100 days of the 195 then your salary earned for the year will be roughly: Rolling up holiday pay into day rate = 100/195 X £salary point.^

We are employed, in Scotland, for 190 pupil contact days; 5 in service days and 40 holidays. Therefore 235 days a year. The rest of the time is made up of 104 days weekend and 26 days school closure.

40 days paid holiday- 8 working weeks.
26 days school closure - 5 working weeks plus a day.
In total it is the 13 or so weeks of holiday.

Full time and part time permanent staff recieve 12 equal payments which take in to account the 235 paid days (school day, inservice and holiday).
Supply teachers are not paid over the school holidays but their monthly pay is slightly higher as they still accrue holiday pay, it just isn't paid in the same way.

Italics fail.

Sounds like you get that in Scotland then.
Don't think it's the case in England.

Thinking a bit outside the box here but if you have children In Two different schools (infants and junior or juniors and secondary school) wouldn't it be awful to find one child is having a four week summer and a four week Christmas break and the other is having 6 weeks for summer and 2 weeks at Christmas.
You'd still need childcare for 6 weeks in summer and need 4 weeks childcare at Christmas. It's tough enough when they break up and return out of sync and you have to sort childcare for the other child.

Cauliflower as Wax is in Scotland, and made it apparent in one of her posts, then why continue to argue with her.
If we get paid for our holidays and you are upset you don't, bring it up with a union, don't try to argue about it on MN.

Yes that would be really hard to manage.

I think it's good how they do it in France - the country is zoned and holidays fixed.

Christmas is a couple of days shorter, 2 weeks for February half term. No May half term and break up at end of first week of July.

Here's the plan

@wishforsnow Blimey who is taking anal leave Peachlimeorange !

It's all the people who go to Centerparcs.

Holly how many weeks in total do the kids get in Ireland? In Scotland it's 13 weeks, 6 or 7 weeks in summer, 2 or 1 in October, 2 at Christmas, 2 in April plus odd days 2 in September, 1 in November, 3 in February and 3 in May. Some of those are inset days but still. It's a lot of days.

Whatever you do with the dates of exams and terms - and it has to stay in kilter with the rest of the world places at University should be offered after A-level results for the following year - gap year for all - with the financial commitment postponed as long as possible. Some would cancel or just not show up - but they would correlate with those who start but drop out, disappointed and in heavy debt.

And stop asking candidates what school they are at - it can be a code number - or whether their families went to university or what they do for a living. Consider candidates on their merits and their A-levels without social engineering.

There were a few schools trialing 5, 8 week terms with 2 weeks break inbetween and a 4 week summer break.

I had holidays like this in the 90s!

But if they move the holidays to june/july, then that will become peak season instead for the expensive holidays. And if the school year dates get shifted a month running august to june, will the birthday cut off to get into the school year have to change too? It could really mess things up for parents whose kids arent currently at school if their kid would make the cut as one of the oldest in the year currently, but a shift would have them not start school now til a year later than expected/planned for. They would have to come up with an extra years worth of childcare they hadnt planned for, put off returning to work etc. Plenty of parents plan pregnancies to have kids a specific school year gap between children.

A nearby school started a 5-term year ages ago, I think, in the hope that all the local primary feeders would follow them. They didn't and in recent years it has caused them (and more to the point, the local primaries) huge issues with attendance as parents take younger children out of school in the 'cheaper' weeks of the holidays given by the secondary. Obviously attendance is a huge thing in England at the moment.

The other problem has been that the secondary with the 5-week terms struggled (more than normal) to retain teachers and no one with their own children wanted to work there as they could work elsewhere and save themselves hundreds of pounds over the year in childcare. They ended up only having younger teachers (who appreciated the opportunities for cheaper holidays) but stayed for just a year or two. The ones I knew who left were saving for a house and didn't want to go on holidays anyway!!

Anyway, the school has now finally decided it wasn't working and as of this September, will be reverting back to a three-term year.

MrEBear
I'm not sure exactly as it differs slightly but primary children get all of July, most of August. Usually a week in October. A fortnight at Christmas. A week in February and a fortnight at Easter.
Secondary schools get all of June, July to approx the 22/23/24 August. Then similar to primary school hols for the rest of the time.
Tis a wonder our children know anything

I think 4 weeks in the summer is sufficient but I am maybe being purely selfish as it's costing me a fortune in childcare for 7 weeks which is near enough what they have had in Scotland