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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

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

213 replies

antelopevalley · 04/08/2022 18:41

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?

OP posts:
Newrumpus · 04/08/2022 19:12

DenholmElliot1 · 04/08/2022 18:45

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.

Always?…

I have never put my children in a club. I always work in the holidays…

HPandTheNeverEndingBedtime · 04/08/2022 19:14

Oh and in terms of childcare, when DD was younger I would work on the days she was with her dad or my parents would take her. This year she's gone to a couple of days of tennis club but is older now anyway so doesn't need direct supervision and is quite happy to have a few hours to herself, and if I don't need to concentrate too hard on the task Ill sit in the living room with her.

Thatswhyimacat · 04/08/2022 19:14

My mate who is a teacher goes abroad every year for the full summer holidays.

Perfect28 · 04/08/2022 19:18

I'm in the start of my career and won't be working during the summer. I might go in for a day to sort my classroom and desk. So what? I don't think it reflects your ability or impact.

PeachCottonTree · 04/08/2022 19:19

I’ve moved classrooms this year. My stuff was moved on the very last day of term when the previous teacher was able to move her stuff. We get two in-service days at the start of term and one is always meetings and training. There’s no way I could set up my classroom in a single day.

I could chose not to go into school but day 1 with my new class would be chaos as nothing is in the right place and I only have 2/3 of the desks and chairs I need. Even my colleagues who have stayed in their classrooms have been popping in over summer. There simply isn’t enough time allocated to setting up a classroom for the new year.

MsJuniper · 04/08/2022 19:20

I am a relatively new primary teacher but am also moving classrooms and taking on a subject lead role in September. I will have to go in a few times and work at home at least a few days or I will be massively unprepared in September (including for Inset day which I am leading part of). I've been in once so far and am now having a couple of weeks' break.

If they are moving year group or their school changes its curriculum, I can't see how even an experienced primary teacher wouldn't have to work in the summer (I'm sure this is also true of secondary colleagues for different reasons). In fact most of my more experienced colleagues have been sending emails and using Google Drive in the last few weeks that tell me they are working on their planning too.

Oh and either I take my children in and they watch movies on the computer or else DH/DGPs help out!

PeachCottonTree · 04/08/2022 19:21
  • choose!
AntlerRose · 04/08/2022 19:23

I cant think why anyone would do work that didnt need doing to be honest.

InChocolateWeTrust · 04/08/2022 19:24

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

This, I've got 4 friends who teach, all talk a lot about how much work they do, but they are all regularly at extracurricular activities from 4 or 4.30pm daily, are often free for social stuff of an evening, use no holiday childcare. 1 goes to Spain for the full 6 weeks every summer!

They are all experienced teachers - 15 years plus. One is my sister, I lived with her in the early years and she worked much longer hours then, exactly as I did in the first 5-8 years post graduation when I was learning the ropes & trying to prove myself. Teaching is not unique in that.

Juicesausagecake · 04/08/2022 19:26

Pinkflipflop85 · 04/08/2022 19:02

I could choose not to work this summer.

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

Me, too. And once exam results start coming out (A levels, first), then I am back in.

Dahlietta · 04/08/2022 19:27

I cant think why anyone would do work that didnt need doing to be honest.

I do work in the holidays that doesn't need to be done. Some of it makes life easier when term starts and some of it is just comforting, like nesting when you're pregnant Grin.
DH and I are both teachers though, so we never use holiday clubs. We just take it in turns.

Jalisco · 04/08/2022 19:28

I am not a teacher, although I trained as one the year after Margaret Thatcher was elected. Saw the writing on the wall and got the hell out. I don't know any teachers - everyone I know who was a teacher got the hell out. So I have no agenda here.

Teachers professional grades were calculated, and remain based on, term time weeks plus a few weeks for preparation. Then that was divided out to provide a 12 month salary. So basically they'd have to be paid something more if that weren't the case. So if your salary was based on several weeks a year not being paid, would you work over your unpaid holiday?

If you think it's such a cushy number they are always looking for new mugs people to become teachers

ClocksGoingBackwards · 04/08/2022 19:28

DenholmElliot1 · 04/08/2022 18:45

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.

Teachers at my school bring their children in when they work at school over the holidays getting their classrooms ready. They hang about in the library or go on the playground equipment.

Other work that teachers have to do to prepare can be done from home.

Tallerthanmost · 04/08/2022 19:30

I'm a teacher, but secondary level science.
I don't work over the holidays, otherwise they wouldn't be holidays.

We manage and rewrite schemes for the department on a ongoing basis. Generally tbe last term running up to July is quiet - kids on study leave etc - so an extra flurry of work happens then.
I'll be in for gcse results (but that's not work, that's just a nice day)
We have about a week of inset befor pupils start on 1st September.

Effectively my hols are 28th June to 21st of August. Love it.

Poppitt58 · 04/08/2022 19:32

I don’t do loads but it’s expected that I can teach in my classroom and that I have something ready to teach. I’d rather have the first week ready to go, rather than scramble around in a disorganised mess.

I got organised and did lots in the last few weeks of term, however if I was moving classrooms, I genuinely wouldn’t have a choice. You have to move your stuff from your old classroom to your new classroom, if you don’t, you’re not going to be popular with your colleagues.

AgnestaVipers · 04/08/2022 19:33

It is a choice, yes, but I suspect you mean something different to me.


  1. Teachers might be skint, so supplement mainstream with summer schools/clubs

  2. senior leaders have made the choice to be available in the holidays, in exchange for higher pay

  3. Classroom teachers might be so into their jobs they make extra work for themselves

  4. Some people make a choice not to work in holidays because on balance they value their free time over the perks that come with doing extra.

Pinkflipflop85 · 04/08/2022 19:33

We have a lot of staff who are parents. The children all come in to school as well while we are working/moving classrooms/doing prep etc. The older children keep the younger ones entertained, they get lots of pe equipment out or play in the eyfs area and staff around the building keep a general eye on proceedings.

StaunchMomma · 04/08/2022 19:34

I can tell you it was absolutely not a choice for me when I was teaching. Every year we'd all be given something to do over the summer, some of which took me literally more than half of it.

I don't teach anymore but saw one of my friends yesterday who is a department head and she's given herself 4 weeks hols then knows she'll have to work solid to get everything done before going back.

Pretty standard in secondary, for sure. Seems less so in primary (if my son's school is anything to go by - his teacher has had the same year group for over a decade and has churned the same old shit out every year - I'm sure her summers were more chilled than mine were as a teacher but I can also confirm she is SHIT at her job!).

WibblyWobblyLane · 04/08/2022 19:41

I don't work a single day over the holidays. The last week of term, I plan for the first week back. But this is wholly down to the school; my school gives us 2.5 days off timetable on that last week to update displays and organise the classroom etc and get admin done. Those who don't have year 7s will also have orientation day free, and the vast majority of year 7 form tutors were year 11 tutors last year, meaning they've had more non contact after study leave, and our school won't use us for cover then either. Very few schools have a work-life balance policy so good, hence why there's a recruitment and retention crisis. And those teachers that are working in the holidays, you shouldn't be judging them but thanking them, because it means they are putting your child's education first.

chosenone · 04/08/2022 19:45

Of course it's a choice. They're holiday's, unpaid leave, most if it! You would have tonbe very organised bit to anything over the summer in the early years. I've been teaching 24 years and always do a bit of work over the summer. I have to read a text book and 2 new plays this summer, I could do it on the beach/plane, but it's still work. I also check work e mails and update PowerPoint (from home) as and when I fancy. I finally feel relaxed enough to concentrate on planning work.

kateandme · 04/08/2022 19:46

Those that I know will go in the evening for the last few weeks of term. Then a few times back and forth during.and then a steady few hours at the end.otherwise do it from home.

Willyoujustbequiet · 04/08/2022 19:49

My two best friends are teachers and they both take 2nd jobs entirely unrelated to teaching as they found they got bored during the summer.

TailSpinner · 04/08/2022 19:51

Depends what needs doing. I’ve been teaching for nearly 10 years in primary - most of them I’ve bounced around year groups so then there’s more to do, new classroom and new planning to do mostly. This year I’m in my third year of teaching year 4, I job share and we haven’t changed classrooms or moved any topics around, so there isn’t much I need to do. But I do like to get some bits done in the last week at least to just get my head back in the game. But no for most teachers it’s not a choice as such - things need doing. It’s like saying it’s your choice to do housework if you live alone. It’s not going to do itself, and if you let it pile up for long enough you’ve got a massive job on your hands. So it would be a bit of a foolish ‘choice.’

AgnestaVipers · 04/08/2022 19:52

Boredom: an aversion to one's own mind.
Gabor Maté

CentralPerk18 · 04/08/2022 19:54

It depends. Some years I have been assigned big jobs to do over the summer eg. Writing a scheme of work. This year I am choosing to do a bit of work but it's only because if I didn't do it in the holidays it would just make more work for me in September. It's the same amount of work whether I do it now in the holidays or in September. But I know September is busy with other stuff so I do any bits I can in the holidays to spread the workload. I also like being prepared as I can be for my new classes in sept so I'm not starting on the backfoot.

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