To think school heads should be contactable in school holidays

[EloiseMinch]

A secondary head is likely to be on 70k+ and a primary head of 50k+. Those are high salaries for positions of senior management responsibility. AIBU to think they shouldn't just cut off completely in the school holidays?

Maybe some heads really are working in the holidays but I know the head at DC's school definitely doesn't. She is, for example, completely uncontactable from the end of one term to the start of the next.

I think the vast vast majority of people are happy with teachers having their working hours & holidays & tbh think they should have better conditions & are grateful for all the hard work they do. All the teachers out there - thanks for all you do. I’d give you more time off & pay you more if it were down to me. Ps I am not a teacher!

Perhaps the head is on holiday.....everyone is entitled to a break.

Does the OP realise how knackered kids are by the end of every term? It’s not primarily for teachers that the holidays are 13 weeks. Every single class I taught last week was full of utterly knackered children.

Plus. Did anyone mention it’s unpaid

Really?? how would you like it if you are on holiday and work contacted you? I don't think you realise how hard a headteacher works to run an entire school, not to mention the extra governors meetings which can run late into the night.

Education is not an emergency service.

Ooooh that should be a t shirt Odd

Do the job and see how you would feel? As someone who works in a school I know that the head and leadership team is working the throughout the majority of the holiday as are office staff and should you need to speak to one of them about a genuinely urgent matter they would be available to you.

You are completely clueless as to the unbelievable amount of work that is involved in being a headteacher. Ours works at least 12 hour days, is often in at weekends. Does lots of social evening for PA to raise money. All in her own time. She has 3 kids of her own and runs an outstanding school and fab place to work. She never gets a lunch break either. So is well deserving of her 13 weeks break for parents like you. She is actually in the school every holiday working through the mountain of paperwork that she couldn’t do because she was dealing with ridiculous demands from idiot parents. She is a social worker, parenting guru, OT, psychologist, unpaid babysitter and only paid for one of those roles.
With people making uniformed and idiotic statements like your post it’s quiet obvious why we have a huge recruitment and retention problem with headteachers.
The problem with this type of attitude is typical cheeky fuckery, I don’t have what you have so i’m Going to sulk/whinge about it. Rather then work to better standards for all you want to tear others down.
This type of post really boils my piss as I know too many headteachers have to leave the profession due to stress related illness.

Yes you are: what could possibly be do urgent that you’d need to contact them during their holiday?
There would be an office email address in any case which I expect would be monitored in case of any “urgent” enquiries such as yours.

Yes! My husband is a headteacher and needs a break to stop going insane from all of the responsibilities! What planet do you live on? They also have families and need time off like everyone else, regardless of salaries?!!! I can’t believe someone would suggest this. Why on earth do you need to contact them in the holidays? Why don’t you go and have a go at the job and see if you need a mental break from it because until you do you have no opinion on the matter. It’s people like you that completely crush the profession and don’t seem to show one bit of gratefulness for what teachers and Headteacher’s do for your child. I constantly worry about my husband as he is pulled from pillar to post constantly from staff, parents, children, he never stops. He loves his job but I am glad when the holidays come because he needs to mentally switch off or he would be just drained.

I have the utmost respect for teachers and the job they do, it must be so tiring and I've no doubt the 6 week summer break is the ideal time to recharge their batteries ready for them to restart the year full of energy.

I help out in my daughters school for 2 hours per week and after doing that I need a sit down and a coffee so I take my hat off to teachers doing it day in and day out. (And I'm a staff nurse in a very busy ward so I do know what hard work is!)

OP YABVU. Teachers do not have a normal 9-5 they work many evenings and weekends and are committed to supporting pupils and parents during term time. The head should have a protected holiday from parents like you!

There's no point in answering this thread now - the OP fucked off long ago.

Well I Hope she got the message and has readjusted her thinking!

If you’re that jealous, get a job in a school.

But be warned, yes you get 13 weeks off a year but any, ANY time off requests during term time are very much frowned upon.

So, try explaining to family members that they can only be ill during school holidays. That any dental work, hospital appointments or doctors appointments need to be in the holidays or after work time unless you are actually dying.

If you have a big birthday where family want to take you away, make sure that’s in the school holidays too, and if the washer/car/anything breaks down and you can’t get a repair booked for the weekend, better make do without it until the school holidays!

Many caretakers do work during the holidays too.

Some of the comments here clearly show why headmasters and teachers need and deserve a 13-week break from dealing with parents.

OP you are coming across as quite a nasty person. I am an ex teacher. It is the most stressful, time consuming job. I have friends still in education at various levels of seniority, including Senior Mangement. Trust me, they work the majority of their holidays and when they do eventually get a break, they are physically and mentally exhausted. Rather than hound this head, whom you personally dislike, why don't you do the sensible thing and go to either the Governors or the LEA if you feel your concerns are not being escalated appropriately. Rabble rousing on here is a shitty thing to do.

Everyone has to have a holiday and you are only one parent among hundreds. If they all contacted her about little things she would never have any time off . I’m sure if it was something major she would answer

I am a teacher.

Our headteacher is in school for around half the days of the summer holiday because, as you say, the school still needs to be run in the holidays. Our office staff do not have the six weeks holiday, they take calls and messages and pass then along - if the headteacher feels it is urgent enough to warrant an immediate response (though I can’t see what would) she would be able to get in touch. Most parent related things will wait until September, however, as the Heads use the summer to analyse the data from the past year and devise an action plan for the next year, address staffing issues, ongoing child protection and social service meetings, budget calculations, and arranging professional development visits for staff meetings and development days.

They deserve what precious break they get. There isn’t much of a holiday any other time of year.

I was only a teaching assistant, and if you think that teachers (well, the ones I knew, and I knew and met a lot!) get that 13 weeks to do sweet fanny adams for the whole time you are so mistaken.
Teachers get paid utter shite for the amount they do, I used to watch many a teacher and Head give up so much of their personal time to ensure things went well, staying until the early hours sometimes (I used to work with the kids that boarded through the week) and they would come into the school on holidays too to prep.
What on Earth can be so important that you need to disturb anyone in the holidays??

For the umpteenth time... we do not get 13-weeks holiday... we get 4-weeks like everyone else... the 9-other weeks are subject to pro-Rata salary calculations and mean a £3/4000 drop compared to a full time wage.

Until this thread, I never realised that. I get 6 weeks paid holiday (the basic where I work is 5 weeks, and staff get another week after 5 years service). We also have the option to "buy" another week, with the deduction for the unpaid week taken monthly. It's a tiny amount of money when spread out like that, so most of us now get 7 weeks.

I think it's very mean that teachers only get the legal minimum. Unless things have changed since I left local government, staff start with 5 weeks leave there. Imo it's unfair that teachers get less holiday than the wages clerk who sorts out their pay.

i think yabu. why shouldnt head teachers get peace and quiet during the holidays?? our head teacher is great she has a young child to look after. she doesnt finish work at 3:15 when kids come out of school she is often in meetings hours after the bell goes. why should she spend the holidays working???

OP
YADBVVU

1. No, the head should not be contactable (despite the fact most are in one way or another and spend the vast majority of their ‘holidays’ and every evening in term time when they go home) in their holidays.
2. Hourly rate, if they, and teachers were able to clock on and off, would barely be minimum wage.
3. There are plenty of jobs out there for teachers and heads....for some reason very few people want them....go ahead and get yourself a lovely high salary with generous allocation of 13 weeks holiday (as you have stated) and become a teacher then head yourself.
4. You sound an absolute nightmare. I’d guess the head is well aware you are (repeatedly) trying to contact her over an issue that (you feel) hasn’t been dealt with to you satisfaction. She is probably grateful for the 6 week excuse to not speak to you about it again.
5. I would look a little closer to home about the issue here, reading between the lines, it sounds like your son is finding it really hard to be resilliant when faced with disagreements with his peers...not aided by the fact that you seem to enable this by steppng in to every dispute and demanding the school ‘sort it out’ Give your son coping strategies, build up his confidence, stop fighting all of his battles (with the wrong people)
6. If you’re that bothered and dissatisfied with the school, take your child out. Move him to a different one, or, home school. That way, you can keep him in a little bubble away from conflict and disagreements and have as many holidays as you like.
7. Pleas stop teacher/head bashing, we are battered and bruised enough by the end of term. Stop trying to blame everyone else for your parenting shortcomings.

Peace out ✌️

So what do you honestly need to contact a head teacher about in the middle of August? I'm actually intrigued!

Irrelevant how much money she earns. Maybe you should consider the extremely long days she works when in school, not having a lunch hour, eating her lunch on the way home in the car, dealing with bratty kids & entitled parents who think she should be contactable during her holidays. Really OP get a grip 🙄

PS sorry if I’ve repeated anyone else’s posts, I only got to page 8, I didn’t have time to read the full post.....have far too much school Work to do ready for the enslaught in sept! 😝