To think it is a choice for teachers to work during summer holidays?

[antelopevalley]

I know five teachers in primary and secondary schools. During this summer holiday, two are doing work during the summer holidays. These two teachers are younger and very ambitious. The other three openly say they are doing no work over the summer.
So AIBU to think working over the summer is a choice?

My teacher friends when they were within the early years of their careers worked during the summer. Now they’re more than 10 years in and established with their plans etc, they won’t touch it as much. Still prep etc. but won’t have the requirement to go do similarly when they were younger.

So I could choose not to work over the summer. But I have a new class and a new stage and if I do nothing, I’ll not even be half a step ahead of them when we arrive back in class. Working now enables me to decide what I’m doing in those first few weeks and for me, makes the transition for the new class much more successful.

Teachers always maintain that they do work in the school holidays.

However, in my 15 years of helping out at out-of-school clubs, i've not once seen a teachers kid attend.

Don’t you think teachers could work at home with their children present?

If you are experienced you will have less prep to do. If you are moving year groups and or classrooms, I think you would struggle to do no work at all. Quite often teachers will work the first and last week of the holidays. I think primary and secondary teaching is very different and hard to compare (not saying either is easier). Also it depends on your personality, some people struggle to switch off (lots of non teachers work extra hours and during holidays).

I'm working in a holiday club at the moment and a number of our attendees are Teacher's children and its up to about 25% in the last week of the holidays,

The younger ones possibly have ages/sets they have never done before, so have to make all new plans. The others probably can reuse previous plans, with only minor adjustments.

Or maybe some are happy/ able to work longer days during term time, and others want to get some work out the was now.

Until I was in senior leadership I never worked over the sunmer, except perhaps between my trainee and NQT year and that’s because I was excited.

I knew the subject, I knew the schemes of work, and even as an NQT I was very much “chalk and talk” - very rarely used PowerPoints etc. No interest in making the classroom pretty. So yes it was a choice; but not a choice that everyone could/would want to have made.

If we choose not to work then we are choosing to be unprepared, they are setting themselves up for later stress. I’d also imagine they have little or no responsibility within school and therefore are more able to coast. Schemes of work tend to need changing yearly so being established should make no difference.

Oh well that proves it then

An ex was a secondary maths teacher and a SENDCo, if he hadn’t worked in the holidays there would be children who either didn’t gain an EHCP or their EHCP would have taken even longer to be finally awarded.

Maybe because they take their kids into school with them? That's what I do. Or set up playdates/grandparent visits so I can go in without disruption. I don't know any teachers that pay for childcare in the holidays, but every teacher I know goes in at least 2/3 times over summer.

I would typically use some paid for childcare, but not full day holiday clubs (as not necessary). However, I'm mostly doing admin such as my tax return that I don't have time for during the term. I would generally dp the equivalent of a week at the beginning of the holiday doing things like UCAS references and a couple of days at the end getting up to speed for the new term.

I also ensure I do some reading in my subject.

I don't spend weeks though - that would be insane!

Depends on their teaching style I guess

I’ve been teaching 10 years. First few years I was excited and spent ages setting up my classroom. More recently I’ve done a day just to get displays up, tidy the room and so on. This year I’ve moved classrooms so will need 1-2 days to get it sorted. If I don’t, then I’ll have about 2 hours of paid time after training on the inset day to arrange the tables, put up backing paper, print display lettering, put up the displays, throw out crap left by the previous teacher and sort the crap I’ve brought from my old classroom. Or I could let the children come in to a completely bare classroom, or one with last years displays still up. Not ideal really. So I really do need to go in for a day or 2.

I'm a secondary teacher and I'll probably work for 2 weeks of the holidays. I've been teaching for 12 years, but there's always something to update or an exam spec change to sort out. Plus there's new paperwork to be done (which no doubt will all change again in 18 months time when new OFSTED expectations are updated.) I could 'down tools' and refuse to work, but I'd just be stealing time from myself in the autumn term- I've made my peace with the work I do in my own time, there just isn't time during school hours to get everything done that is expected of you.

I'm neither young nor ambitious. I'm going in to see the year 11 on results day and go to my new classroom and take down a display.

More important for me is decent break away from the relentlessness. I like to show my face at result for the students, most of whom are lovely human beings who I have a had a privilege of working with. most.

I can see if you are new to teaching you may have to do more work than experienced teachers, or of you have extra responsibilities that you are paid for.

Not sure what this proves? Why would I send them to holiday club when I'm working at home?

I could choose not to work this summer.

I'd be royally fucked come September if I made that choice though.

Ha ha ha! I rewrote an entire y10, 11,12,13 in the holidays over the last few years. It was hell.

Of course it is usually a choice. Also working into the evening until 8 or 9 or 10 or 11, is a choice and working at weekend is a choice. Each teacher manages their workload as is best for them.
However, I have directed activities over the summer so it isn’t really a choice. Although there is a choice of when over the holiday some of that directed work is completed.

My Mum was a teacher and brother used to go to paid football camp so she could work (I used to be happy amusing self with friends) She used to work at dining room table part of every hols.

I'll work evenings in the last two weeks of the holiday.

We have to reformat all of our powerpoints this year for some bs reason, nothing to do with the students but so that we have a corporate look, so I'll have to do that. Even if we don't generally use powerpoints we have to have a front slide for every lesson now in a specific layout instead of just writing the title and date on the board.

I've got my class lists so I'll go through the SEND needs and start putting together my seating plans for years 8-11, year 7 I'll do alphabetically until we have the data and change it in a few weeks once I've gotten to know them. I'm teaching in different rooms so need a seating plan for each room layout.

I know which units I'm teaching so I'll start to modify the first 2 weeks worth of lessons. I'm teaching lots of lower ability groups this year so I'll spend some time researching different methods for teaching key concepts that will work for the students I have and building suitable worksheets for them.

If you don't work over the summer you go back, get given a ton of reading material you have to read on Inset, you go in unprepared, the first week back I'm always shattered so won't want to work in the evening and I can guarantee that I'll be ill before half term so if I'm prepared now then I don't have to cram it in to the first couple of weekends when I have lots of birthdays and other events and can recover when the inevitable viruses start to hit in October.

Definitely you're more keen at the start of your career! And also it takes longer to do planning and things so you tend to spend longer in the holidays. Now I'm 13 years in, I can do a lot of it more quickly as I know what I'm doing. I haven't done anything yet, but I will spend the last day or two getting some planning done, just to ease the start of term.

I have known teachers who have done absolutely no work in the summer holidays, including one who went away on the first day of the holiday and didn't come back until the day before the start of the new year. But I'd be feeling stressed if I have nothing done in the last few days of holiday. Each to their own.