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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:
Whyarewehardofthinking · 04/08/2022 21:34

Well it depends on the job. I'm in for 6 days of the holidays; both results days, both embargoed results days for data processing before the students get them and then we have 2 days of SLT meetings before the inset day.

I generally work from A level results day at home for a few hours a day, apart from a couple of days out with the family. If I didn't I'd be flapping like an idiot in the first few weeks plus I'd be working excessively at thr start of term. I do anything to avoid working more than 60 hours a week (which is the usual in my role).

generalh · 04/08/2022 21:35

I have to create 2 lessons for the new term. It may take an hour or two. Every thing else is ready for the new academic year. I may pop in to se the head to discuss options bit that is it.
I may look over things before we return. I have been teaching for 21 years so they may be the difference

justfiveminutes · 04/08/2022 21:35

Most teachers work a bit in the holidays. How else do you read the files on your new class, plan for the first few days, do your new term displays, move classrooms, print peg and book labels, sort new resources etc

I wouldn't say it was a choice. All of these jobs need to be done so it's either in the holidays or in the evenings in the last days of the summer term.

But I don't know why people are so interested in what we do in the holidays as we don't get paid for the holidays anyway.

generalh · 04/08/2022 21:36

Thatswhyimacat · 04/08/2022 19:14

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

So does my head of dept

CatLadyDrinksGin · 04/08/2022 21:42

I’m support staff and I’ve been in work or working online two days per week every week of the holidays so far (and no it’s not in my contract).

transformandriseup · 04/08/2022 21:53

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

This is funny because as kids this is what we did while our mum went into school and prepared the classroom for her new year group. She was a teacher in a different school to the one we attended so the PP who posted the above may not know if the children's parents are teachers or not.

Mosschopz · 04/08/2022 21:53

It’s like any job…put the hours in (and that means holiday working) when you’re new, chasing a promotion or are close to the top. In 26 years of teaching, I’ve probably NOT worked (for 1-2 weeks of the holidays) for about 2-3 years in total…but then I’ve been promoted several times and am now a deputy. This summer I’ve worked the first two weeks and will spend the last week of the holiday working…so three weeks off.

Iamdonewiththis · 04/08/2022 21:56

Yep -"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."

I have family members and neighbours who are teachers from head to a couple of years in and NONE of them work in the summer holidays. Is the one you know truthful. What on earth is there to do? It's a myth that has been peddled for years, don't fall for it.

KindergartenKop · 04/08/2022 21:57

OP, are you jealous of the holidays? There are lots of opportunities to train as a teacher if you also want 6 weeks of not working in the holidays 😘

switswoo81 · 04/08/2022 22:00

generalh · 04/08/2022 21:36

So does my head of dept

Show quote history

Oh the good old pre children days when I would head off the day after finishing and arrive back a day or two before the new term. Can barely get to Tesco now!

Anyway look I'm not in the UK so my standards are soooo much lower but I take one day to buy all the stationary for my class( have to go to a specialist shop) and another day to stick names on tables and coat hooks tidy up a bit. But I never put up displays before the kids come in.
Would be different if moving rooms .

I also do an online course (20 hours) every summer but that gives me 3 flexi days to take when I want the following year.

polkadotclip · 04/08/2022 22:01

Hellothere54 · 04/08/2022 20:36

I’ve been teaching 8 years and it took me a week of not quite full days to back 8 boards, (admittedly I’m still rubbish at this so it took me a while alone!) put up the displays (which are quite prescriptive in my school), cut and laminate any bits I had forgotten/missed, label all the trays and pegs, clean my new room, move my stuff from one classroom to another. Most of my colleagues were in for this amount of time too. Admittedly there is lots of socialising and chatting and popping in and out of each other’s classrooms which is choice, but there is no way I could have walked out on Friday 22nd July and not gone back into school until the inset day where (if we are lucky) we will get an afternoon in our classrooms. It’s not a choice, but I also don’t begrudge it as it’s sort of fun slamming tunes on loud, cleaning and scrubbing, organising and creating and socialising with my colleagues - I just see it as part and parcel of the job. Have one more display to do but it’s a joint one with my partner teacher so we’ve set aside the last two days of the holidays for that. Will prob do one day a week of planning as (yet again!) we have changed all the planning for this coming year so I can’t use any from last year!

Hi, am really interested in this. In our school the walls are blank at the start of the year and then displays are made as the children do drawings etc.

I genuinely don't understand what benefit it is to the children to have loads of displays up (of what?) that just blend into the background.

Do you think it is useful to the children?

Also , I dress events as part of my job, and it would take a couple of hours max to put up displays etc. In a room the size of an average school hall. I'm very fast, probably, as I do it so much though.

whatkatydid2013 · 04/08/2022 22:01

Teachers on the whole have a challenging job and do at least some work during school holidays. In spite of that they will on average still get a lot more holidays than majority of people and it can be annoying many of them won’t acknowledge that. My parents and my brother teach. I hear endlessly about how they have to help him out with childcare and housework and things as his job is so difficult. Their inability to see crazy work expectations are a common thing among professionals that I am actually able to understand and sympathise with can be frustrating (particularly weeks like this one where I worked 27 hours over 2 days when I’m meant to be off on unpaid parental leave because of illness in the team and a project cutover). It’s a choice that my brother works in his holidays as much as it was a choice I worked this week. You don’t actually have to do it but not doing it impacts your work when you get back and probably impacts on your colleagues (& students) too.

diamondpony80 · 04/08/2022 22:03

Teaching is the kind of job that you can never do enough prep for. I used to be a teacher and didn’t do much work during the summer (very hard to do none at all), but I know I’d have done a better job as a teacher if I had.

justfiveminutes · 04/08/2022 22:16

"I genuinely don't understand what benefit it is to the children to have loads of displays up (of what?) that just blend into the background.

Do you think it is useful to the children?"

School policy dictates many aspects of classroom display - if your SLT want and expect displays, then you have to do them.

I really don't understand the interest in what teachers do during their unpaid holidays. What other profession is asked what they do during their unpaid hours?

Teachers so often feel that they have to justify the holidays and, when asked, answer honestly on the whole. Some work in the holidays, some don't. Again, what other profession, when saying what they do during their unpaid hours, would be told that they're lying. Why would we?

DelurkingAJ · 04/08/2022 22:17

DH has always had to work in the holidays. First as a new teacher, preparing materials, then as he became more senior he got more advanced sets and had to prepare for those, then it fell off a bit and he just had ad hoc new specifications to deal with. Now he’s in charge of exams and spent a week dealing with proofreading a year group’s reports plus SLT meetings, he’ll be in three times for external exam results (two days for each set as they’re released to schools the day before results day) and then back in a week before for SLT strategy days, new teacher orientation and whole school INSET. We use childcare to cover all of this!

echt · 04/08/2022 22:19

Iamdonewiththis · 04/08/2022 21:56

Yep -"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."

I have family members and neighbours who are teachers from head to a couple of years in and NONE of them work in the summer holidays. Is the one you know truthful. What on earth is there to do? It's a myth that has been peddled for years, don't fall for it.

Well bully for you.

Doesn't make others liars, nor working in holidays a myth.

Ilikecheeseontoast · 04/08/2022 22:22

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.

I take my children into school with me. They play
on the playground, in the music room, on the computers etc whilst I’m setting up my classroom.

echt · 04/08/2022 22:25

antelopevalley · 04/08/2022 19:00

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.

Paid or not, unless a teacher is SLT and upwards, their contract is the same as other teachers. Also, paying more does not necessarily translate to time/adequate in which to do the extra responsibility.

Noodledoodledoo · 04/08/2022 22:25

I don't do much but potter with my children around to get a few things ticked off my to do list for next term. Secondary so a bit of gained time in the run up to the end of term but not much due to covering other staff/invigilating due to staff shortages.

My own children either come in, or attend short clubs not full day holiday clubs as I don't need full days and when it was limited last year felt bad taking it.

I may go in towards the end as I was told I was moving room with 2 days notice at the end of term so all my stuff has been hurled into boxes and will need sorting. Boards will need to be done as we have open evening within the first 2 weeks - by the end of a year in secondary even if the content is find the students have picked at them so they are ripped and damaged!

Hercisback · 04/08/2022 22:31

Sod working in the holidays. I worked enough during term time.

Depends on the individual and their work life balance that suits them. I want 6 weeks headspace. Others don't. Live and let live.

Jolinar · 04/08/2022 22:32

I think it depends on the school.

DHs school was insistent on a newly decorated classroom every year, with 3D display. One year he did mount Olympus and a minotaur as they were doing the Greeks as their year topic, another year it was space and a whole 3D rocket solar system.

Lots of it was done at home, and could be done with kids (though we didn't have any) and lots of the teachers took their kids in to school when they decorated and set up the classroom. Lots of our teacher friends drag their kids along now.

Curioushorse · 04/08/2022 22:32

Shout out to my fellow examiners! I've marked until I'm going insane today. At least three hours each day this week- and it'll be more at the weekend when I have childcare.

Just saying..,,

(And if you're marking my subject you know we still have literally tens of thousands to go. Holy shit!)

Hercisback · 04/08/2022 22:33

School policy dictates many aspects of classroom display - if your SLT want and expect displays, then you have to do them.

They don't have to. If push came to shove its an admin task and they could refuse unless given specific time (not PPA).

However I appreciate many won't do this in fear of the potential repercussions.

ihatebojo · 04/08/2022 22:34

I work weekends when DH is about over the summer, except when we are actually away on holiday. But I am very conscious that it's my DC's holidays too and if I go to work during the week to prep, then they have to go too. So I do it this way.

flumposie · 04/08/2022 22:35

The exam board that I teach has changed texts for both the GCSE and A level courses. I have to create new resources as a result. I was unable to do this all of this at the end of term as I had exams to mark for all classes. Plus the exam board still hasn't released their key fact sheets for teachers for the new texts.