Headteacher says I can't go on holiday

[Scuzzymummy]

Ok so this might not be a problem in a few weeks and please please believe me when I say I have done everything possible to ensure my pupils have had my attention and expertise when needed during lockdown. I have recorded lessons, marked work, given feedback etc... I know lots on MN have some very strong feelings about teachers at the moment 😬.
So I have a holiday abroad booked for the 18yh August. I have been hanging on and hanging on to see if we can go. We are so desperate for a break- who isn't- but my headteacher has emailed today and said that of quarantine measures are still in place in September then holidays at the end of August need to be cancelled. What do I do, I know I need to be back in September, god knows I want to have actually children in front of me not a bloody screen. But if we cancel we will loose hundreds and hundreds plus the holiday. We can't change the date, my husband is not able to change. Help!

My school has asked that we don’t book new holidays that wouldn’t allow us to get back for the beginning of term but have specifically said that people who have pre booked holidays can go.

@Nihiloxica - very goady and aggressive. My school is honouring pre booked holidays. You also have a very skewed view of teachers’ unions which are pretty moderate.

The money is paid. You may or may not get it back, depending mainly on what FCO advice is on the departure date. I know it's easier said than done but try to forget about it. You'd face the same position however much you'd paid.

If quarantine measures are still in place, then it basically boils down to two options. You can skip work in order to go on holiday, or you can do your job. Laid out that way, I'd say it's obvious that you shouldn't go.

It's harsh for you. You're now in a position where because of new laws your job and the holiday you already paid for are incompatible. But that's not your employer's fault.

Moderate unions don't block children's access to school.

The teaching unions have set themselves up in opposition to the welfare of children.

Dumbest strategic move by a union I've seen.

@Nihiloxica how is this derailing helpful to the OP?

If you are a teacher in England, you don’t get paid for holidays and therefore it’s not directed time? X

It's not just your head teacher. My husband got the same letter and said don't book a holiday abroad for us at the end of August. Can your union advise you seeing as it's a national letter.

I think it is your responsibility to be ready to be at your job at the beginning of the schoolyear.

Can you fly back via Dublin?
You don't quarantine if flying in from there

The "Dublin dodge" loop hole has been plugged..from the latest version of HMG guidance on quarantine:

"You will not need to self-isolate for 14 days if you’re travelling to the UK from within the Common Travel Area, that is:

the UK
the Republic of Ireland
the Channel Islands
the Isle of Man

However, if you arrive in the UK and have been outside the Common Travel Area within the last 14 days, then you will need to self-isolate for the remainder of the 14-day period, starting from when you arrived in the Common Travel Area."

So following the logic of eg @Durgasarrow, people whose jobs can’t be done from home are lesser financial citizens than those who can. They must forgo a holiday booked and paid for in good faith, with no compensation because a condition might be imposed that affects key workers far more than non-essential workers.

That seems like a great way to show appreciation to nurses, doctors, teachers.

Workplaces do not have a right to dictate what someone does in their free time. But there may be a case for saying that if a person knowingly does something that results in their taking two weeks off work, they should lose pay for those two weeks (not least because the school will need to pay a supply teacher).

So following the logic of eg @Durgasarrow, people whose jobs can’t be done from home are lesser financial citizens than those who can.

No. she is saying that jobs that cannot be done from home involve some downsides. They do involve upsides. as well. I am a self employed freelancer and yes, my job can be done from anywhere and I can choose my hours and days of work. This also means I have to compete with people across the world (not just people in my local region), I have to file my own taxes, I have to do my own paperwork, my income fluctuates a lot, if I am sick I not get paid at all, I have no paid holidays, I do not enjoy the kind of relatively good job security that a teacher or police officer generally has.

That doesn't mean that I am better or worse off than a teacher or police officer--just that our jobs are different, and that all jobs involve easy bits and difficult bits. We weigh these things up when we take our jobs on.

I think that if the teacher was OK with foregoing two weeks pay and a supply teacher was found, then their taking this holiday should be OK, though.

I work in a school and the LA HR have sent very clear guidance about this. If the holiday was booked pre COVID - we have to allow staff to quarantine and work from home for this time period.
Any staff who have booked since Covid will have to stay home unpaid. Can you contact HR and ask their advice?

They either pay to cover your cancelled holiday or pay for a supply teacher. You shouldn't be out of pocket for this as you didn't know about it when you booked. Equally, you could quite easily have gone on holiday in normal times and come back needing weeks off with a broken leg or similar.

I would be extremely disappointed if my children were unable to go back to school in September because their teacher was in quarantine after her summer holiday. No way would we be allowed to do this in the NHS.
On a more positive note I suspect things will have changed by September.

1. things could well have changed by then
2. your school is being unreasonable and you should go.

You should definitely go on your holiday. Neither teachers or pupils should have to cancel holidays booked pre covid due to quarantine. I imagine that the government will not persist with quarantine at the end of August if they want all pupils and staff back in school at start of term. You could say to your head that if quarantine is still in place large numbers of pupils won’t be in either so the teachers in quarantine could remotely teach the pupils in quarantine at the start of term. If Croatia doesn’t have restrictions lifted your holiday might get cancelled as your insurance would be invalid so I think you will probably have to wait longer unless you can postpone that holiday till next year and book a country like France this year.

@pixley have you actually been told that NHS workers have to cancel holidays and lose the money they have paid as I highly doubt this is the case. I expect they are exempt from quarantine.

I would plan to go, and wait a few weeks to see any developments before notifying headteacher that I would not be cancelling a holiday booked pre COVID during my holiday period, and they didn’t pay me enough to be able to afford that kind of thing.

Isn’t quarantine here directly comparable to being told to isolate after contact with track and trace? It’s to the same end...

And I thought nihiloxica was funny . Children should be back in school.

If teachers are due back on say 1 September, then any teacher going on holiday abroad after 11 August (4 August if gone for a fortnight) wouldn’t be able to start back in time. I would imagine a fair number of teachers will have booked a break.

How is the school supposed to cope with a lot of teaching staff not back at school for the start of the new term?

Here’s hoping most teachers are going to countries with which we will have travel corridors

It’s too early to say, because we don’t know what the situation will be in August.

Remember though, that at present UK Government advice is not to travel. So regardless of whether quarantine restrictions are eased, travel insurance will not be valid in the event of any difficulties, which goes way beyond Covid.

Don't whatever you do cancel now, anything could change between now and mid August - people who are jumping the gun and cancelling their holidays too far in advance will often lose every penny unfortunately.

You have to wait until nearer the time to make a decision - for you, this may be early August, a lot of the time, you can't be certain what the position will be more than 2/3 weeks ahead.

And if your HT wants you to cancel, they need to pay your losses, which I assume that they won't. Your travel insurance is unlikely to pay out either - they expect your employer to compensate you if they cancel your prebooked leave, which is what they're effectively doing.

You do get some specialist policies that would provide this cover, but this is likely to be for employees of emergency services or military, so unless your DH works in these sectors, probably a non starter.

I'd wait and look at the situation in a month or so, and seek advice from your union, lots of teachers are likely to be in this position, so they're bound to come up with a policy and provide advice on this.

How are they going to enforce this? If quarantine is at home, then surely people just won’t do it? It’s not like they take you to a prison from the plane.

I think a lot of people just...won’t.