To not want schools to give up summer holidays

[littleblackdress04]

Just read in papers that it’s been proposed that kids go back to school in July/ August

I think this is a rubbish idea - if it’s going to be that long then just let them have a ‘normal’ summer and go back in September.

Kids have been cooped up because of this- I’d want to take mine to the hills, go camping & let them have some freedom. Then start school in September. This isn’t a holiday for them - it’s a horrible stressful period of being cooped up & not being able to live their normal lives.

While school gives a structure and is important, so are proper periods of holiday.

I’m really against the idea but aibu? Be interested to hear other thoughts. I’ve not been particularly worried about the kids education- they will catch up in time and it will be fine

I would prefer it if they went to school. We have lots of green space here for them to play in during lockdown but they massively miss their mates and the routine. Plus from a Coronavirus perspective surely if schools are open over the summer this will provide a more controlled release of lockdown, as opposed to bored free ranging families ploughing down to the coast etc and losing all the benefits of containment within a week.

Actually teachers are paid for their holidays. Their contracts are based on an annual salary which is divided by 12 and this is their basic monthly salary. Just the same as anyone else on annual salary.
So teacher holidays are paid leave, not unpaid leave

FrippEnos - it's actually the same company that provides before and after school clubs that run the holiday clubs in my area. So they wouldn't miss out after all. Strangely enough, they are held in school premises....
But yeah go on, have 6 weeks holiday because you work incredibly hard! Enjoy your staycation. I personally would like to take my holidays when it is safe to travel and visit places without restrictions. You know, help other sectors to make some much needed money. Some people on here are incredibly short sighted, corona will be part of our lives for the foreseeable future.

@Wills - you mentioned that you have a dd doing IB?

I'm an IB teacher & examiner. All exams are off & students are being assessed via coursework/IAs.

Might be worth chasing your school for an update - this info came through some time ago, alongside igcse cancellation.

I hope that's good news for your dd - it isn't for all of my students 😬.

For goodness sake, schools are NOT closed and the idea of being open through the summer is not OK. The teachers at my school are all working hard as it is and, because most teachers still have work to do during the holidays, they are doing so over what would have been the Easter holidays. Everyone who is able to work is on the rota to have the children of key workers in the coming weeks.

At February half term I worked on school work for three of the five days and I've been in school every day until last Thursday. Consequently I've had four days holiday since January. I'm back in school tomorrow and every day for the foreseeable future. Many school staff (including the support staff...our caretaker and cook have been amazing for starters) are going to be mentally and physically exhausted after all this and they do deserve a holiday. So do the children of key workers who are in school every day. It's a bad idea.

Our teachers are still working , in school for vulnerable kids and key workers kids . Putting content online for kids at home. They are also working right through Easter.
I’d love it if my kids could go back for a week or so just to touch base with friends and staff finish up one year and get ready for the next . But really I think the teachers are going to need a break assuming they are not working through the summer as they are now.

@PurpleCrowbarWhereIsLangCleg - THANK YOU!!! V. grateful for that. She's actually only in year 12 BUT she a serious anxiety sufferer and also can't cope with what the yr13s NOT doing their exams might mean for her. She's of the opinion that they might make her do year 12 again.

@pammy50 teacher are paid only for that statutory minimum holidays of 5.6 weeks. So their salaries are for 195 directed days in school plus 5.6 weeks divided by 12 months.

@FrippEnos I appreciate you didnt mean to criticise but there are other comments on the thread that have @LaProfesora for example

Over the summer I will be taking dc on a well deserved holiday if movement resumes. I may also have to use up credit notes etc from May half term.
I don’t need the schools over July or August so I can go back to work but what I will need is holiday clubs to run. Which I think
They might
If schools go back at some point in the summer term. If schools don’t go back til Sept I can see holiday clubs not feeling confident to open.

Teachers aren't paid for their holidays.

It's just divided into 12 as that's easier for monthly payments.

Butteredtoast55 - welcome to the real world. This is exactly how much someone else is working with the statutory holiday allowance of 20 days plus bank holidays... and people who work in care will also have 12 hour shifts and work on a 24/7 rota. Teachers are not more / less special than anyone else.

Return to what though? My 16 year old would have left by then and would start 6th form in Sept.

Ylvamoon

FFS stop bleating on, and making shit up as if you know how other people think and feel.

You haven't even addressed the point that I made about nurseries and care centres being open. Just that they are in the same place.

You are just attack, attack, attack because people want to be paid for their time and are pointing out that it would turn the term in to a stupidly long one.

But please continue to goad.

Sinuhe

Teachers are not more / less special than anyone else.

No-one has said that they are.

@Johanna06

Excuse me?! Where have I criticised people on furlough?!
All I've said is that I'd rather be on furlough if it means that this will limit the amount of vitriol that I, as a teacher, have to put up with.

I said not one bad word about people on furlough. Why would I? It's not their fucking fault!

I would be happy with either outcome to be honest. I don’t think going back to school will be such a bad idea from a personal point of view, because I do worry about all of this making my children fall behind. They’ve done no where near as much work as what they’d do at school while they’ve been at home, and I worry about what affect this will have on them.

Then at the same time it would be nice to have a few weeks of freedom and fun before they go back to school.

I’d be happy with either.

pammy50 - they really arent paid in the holidays. They have a very strange 'directed hours" contract based on 190 days on site
Its confusing to understand. But even if you wont accept teachers arent paid in the holidays, surely you can see that admin, TAs, lunch time supervisors, cateres all quite clearly have 39 week contracts give or take a week. My role is advertised with FTE and pro rata rate.On site we would have 9 teachers on a day, 2 admin, a caretaker, 9 TA/SEN support, 3 kichen, 4 lunchtime - so maybe twice as many non teachers in.

I've also said it would be easier to just furlough us like most other people. Then the shit aimed at us might stop.

It’s also worth remembering that schools do t only need teachers to run them.
A change of dates would involve cleaners, caretakers, governors, speech therapists, social workers, caretakers, cooks, catering suppliers, stationery suppliers, physiotherapists, safe guarding officers, crossing patrol workers, support assistants, school bus drivers, sports coaches ...... need I go on!!!!!!!
Oh..... and many many teachers are currently still working in school AND delivering a near full time virtual time table whilst also looking out for their own self isolating families!!
Do you think they’ll need a break? I do!

"The only profession I've come across doggedly sticking to working only to what they are paid for is the teaching profession."

Yes, that’s me... I have delivered food to pupils, negotiated free WiFi and data for a couple of families, found regular food parcel deliveries, sorted toys for a family’s garden and been in school to support children who needed to come in. I do feel very lucky that I have my salary, I will do whatever I can to make it a good and safe experience for my pupils. I am already planning how we return to school and support our pupils in the transition.
People like the above poster don’t make me regret my career choice, they just make me wonder what on Earth happened to them to make them so bitter and delusional!

It would be far, far too expensive, not just in terms of paying the teachers and staff, but also because it's another kick in the teeth to the holiday clubs and paid childcare which operate over summer, which are already teetering on the brink.

Plus many parents would not send in their children, so we couldn't teach anything to a whole cohort. Too many ifs and buts. I think the summer holidays will be the time when lockdown is gradually released.

I love how most people say ‘kids need that 6 week holiday’ without appreciating that many will be in long day childcare for most of it because most of us work. They won’t get 6 weeks of holiday at all unless they are over 12/13 and can stay alone or they have a non working parent.

No one needs a six week bloody holiday. No job, no matter how stressful or how long the hours. Most professional people I know are doing 8-6 daily with evening and weekend work, with only 5.6 weeks of statutory leave PER YEAR. Why do teachers need more (in one go) than the entire annual entitlement of most working people after 4 months of doing no real face to face teaching at all?

Teachers really risk losing any empathy or sympathy from any other working person if you roll that argument out.

And I know you aren’t paid for it but you don’t ‘need’ it at a time of bloody national crisis when everyone needs to compromise a bit to get the country back to normal.

Namechanged, your childcare issues are not the problem of schools, teachers, or the other children who attend school.

School is not your childminding service.

And actually, I think the people who want to get the kids back in ASAP and forgo holidays are colossally selfish.

Namechangedforthisreply7

everyone needs to compromise a bit

Where is the compromise that you are suggesting?