AIBU not to go to work during the holiday (teacher)?

[Namechange7000]

I'm a teacher in a village primary school in England but I'm not originally from the UK. Since arriving in England I've only worked as a teacher and I can't tell if my work's expectations are normal for here or not.

We have today and tomorrow as inset days and the children come back to school on Wednesday. Before the summer break the head teacher told us that we couldn’t afford cleaners over the break and that there wouldn't be much time for classroom setup on the inset days and hinted that we should come to work during the break to do it. But by the time the email was sent (end of June) I had already booked my flights to spend the entire break in Australia. My parents live in Sydney and we haven't seen them since before covid so I really wanted my dc to spend some time with them and obviously I wanted to see them too. We had a lovely break and got back to England on Friday so I'd have time to recover from jetlag and be ready to start work today. We got the inset schedule emailed to us on Sunday and there is literally no time scheduled for classroom set up and no planning time. We have back-to-back meetings from 8.30 - 17.00 with an hour for lunch both days but actually today's lunch break was only 40 minutes because the meeting ran late. I had to leave by 17.30 to collect my dc but even if I didn't, the school building is only open until 18.00.

At 17.00 this evening I was in my classroom frantically trying to sort things out. I've moved year groups so I had to move classrooms and there was a summer camp using my new classroom for a month. The previous teacher had to shove all of the teaching materials, toys etc into the cupboards before the break to prevent the summer camp from using them. My manager came into the room this evening and commented on how messy and not ready it is (the furniture is all over the room wherever the summer camp left it, no displays backing paper up, no interactive learning wall displays, no materials out, no book corner set up, no role play area set up, I haven't put the children's names on their pegs, trays, exercise books etc). I explained that I haven't had time to do it but that I'd stay as late as I could and do as much as possible before leaving. She reminded me that we were warned that there wouldn't be time to do it during inset. I explained that I had already booked our flights to Australia before that email was sent and that we couldn't reschedule them that late even if we wanted to. She then said that I should keep in mind that it was paid holiday time and that it is my responsibility to ensure that the classroom is ready before the children arrive on Wednesday. There is no way I can possibly get the classroom ready to the expected standard in time because the building is not open long enough. I will go in at 7.30 to do an hour before inset tomorrow and Wednesday and dh has managed to rearrange his work hours for tomorrow so I can stay until 18:00 and I'll work through my lunch break but that’s still only 4 hours and it’s much, much too much work to do in that time. For context, the example classroom we were all taken to look at as part of the training today took the teacher 6 full days to clean and set up during the break and that wasn't finished. We also only have 1 printer and 1 laminator in the school so there are long waits to get access to them.

I am so stressed and I feel like I’m already failing my class and my own dc. I’m already behind and overwhelmed even though it’s the first day of term. I had a panic attack this evening. I feel like this is my fault for not knowing that I was supposed to work for a week during the holiday but no one told me until it was way too late. Is it common practice here to work during your holiday if it is a paid holiday? I have a salary which is paid in equal instalments throughout the year so I was fully paid for August even though I didn’t work a single day. We have similar arrangements in Australia but my schools there always gave us time to do the admin and class setup before the children arrived (and didn’t have such specific requirements regarding classroom setup). WIBU to go on holiday and not go to work to clean and set up my classroom during the break?

Teachers do have set hours. It is set in their contracts - 1265 hours over 195 days.

Coming in during unpaid holidays is voluntary.

Is it common practice here to work during your holiday if it is a paid holiday? no it bloody well isn't, at least not outside of the teaching world. Teachers need to remember how short in supply and valuable they are, and not burn themselves out.

@Libertyqueen My HT is not the kind of person you could have a heart to heart with. He is very professional and nice enough but he isn't really very approachable.

Did you tell your teachers that they would need to work during the break or did they just know it from being a student teacher? With hindsight I can see that they hinted, but the hints were vague and too late.

YABU and YANBU.

YABU for not sorting out your classroom and displays during the holidays.

YANBU not to clean, that is not part of your role.

Live and learn and, this week only, grovel a bit and apologise!

I started back on Thursday. I didn’t get near my room until this morning and went straight into form activities.

We don’t get paid for August - it’s been said time and time again on MN threads but still some people don’t get it.

That aside, even if you had been given both INSET (training) days to set up do you really think you would have got everything you mention done in that time? We all know that stuff like that is in addition to paid hours - shouldn’t be but it is.

You were wrong to think that the entire 6 weeks were yours - 4/6 weeks tops.

We have a massive problem now in the UK with teacher recruitment and retention.

Schools can't hire teachers. Lots of us are finding that are children are in oversized class taught 'temporarily' by TAs.

This is the reason!!!

The expectation that teachers work voluntary unpaid hours and no one is even appreciative.

Who'd be a teacher

I genuinely think we would not even be having this conversation if the vast majority of primary teachers were men as opposed to women.

I don't want some underpaid Saint teaching my kids. I want someone who focuses on the important stuff and doesn't do their job out of obligation. Someone who can go home and have some down time and come back fresh in the morning.

Oh, shush.

Nobody else does that. And if they do they're daft.

OP, just get stiff together, give it to your TA and ask them to print and lam it.

And I've been teaching many years and didn't go in during the holidays because I have a life. I'm paid 1265 hours over a year. I already exceed that during term times.

Teacher bashing is getting tiresome now
Surely the good people of Mumsnet have better things to grumble about.

Why did no-one tell her that was the expectation then I wonder? Why say xyz in the contract but expect something different...

Ah op I’m sorry you’re in this situation. It is sort of the norm unfortunately and you seem to have found yourself in a school that takes it to the extreme. That plus the unfortunate room moving / late communication has just created a bit of a perfect storm for you right now.

Deep breath, prioritise & focus on the really, really important must be done before the children arrive jobs first. The rest you can get done over the next week or so.

Do you have a TA or allies on the staff who will give you a hand? Write a list and just work through it bit by bit.

You should not and cannot be expected to go into school during your holidays. It is not part of the 1265, so is not directed time. You did nothing wrong.

I haven’t been into school during the holidays for years. I run a large faculty in a secondary school and certainly do not expect my staff to be in during the holidays. SLT should have managed your INSET time better to allow for preparation time.

Ex teacher here.
The summer before my first official teaching job I did this. I went in and spent hours and hours making beautiful decorations and displays.

But in the end, all that really matters is students work. So I revised my own strategy to have 5 clear display boards, (one for each year group/ secondary teacher), that we spent an entire year filling with work.

It was such an achievement by the end of the year and so much better than fancy printed posters stuck up.

Anyway rant over.

I did not sort out my classroom and displays over the holidays. They can hint all they want it’s not a priority for me, they aren’t paying me, and I don’t believe a child’s education has ever suffered because they had last terms display up for a bit. Luckily it’s only one SLT member who hints.

I used to be a primary teacher. I would have to go in for a good 5 days or so in the holidays to get all the new backing up on the walls, arrange tables, get the books ready, pegs ready etc etc. it shouldn’t be expected because you don’t get paid for holidays. But sadly it is. Teaching is a bloody nightmare- you have my sympathies.

Wait, grovel and apologise for working her contracted hours in return for her contracted pay?

For god's sake do NOT grovel. Don't debase yourself.

The poor OP found out she was changing key stages too late to do any practical preparation in directed time or even in the evenings prior to the holidays. That is really bad management. Not the OP's fault at all and not something she should be "grovelling" about.

I think most teachers realise that a certain amount of preparation is essential for a good start to the term. And yes I would say it is expected.

Yep, if I was keeping the same classroom is probably go in for a day beforehand (in addition to doing my planning at home)' But moving classroom is a two or three day job at least.
No we're not paid to do it, but it comes with the territory.

But there's absolutely no way you could have known that of course.

I world strongly advise having your own printer and cheap laminator (and a trimmer) though. When I had family at home, I wanted to get back home promptly, so the more I could do at home, the better. Queuing for the printer and laminator at the end of the day was just wasted time. Obviously I didn't do class sets of stuff at home, but display printing and laminated resources, yes.

Just to add that no you shouldn't be expected to clean.

@Connie2468
Why did no-one tell her that was the expectation then I wonder? Why say xyz in the contract but expect something different...

I don’t know one teacher who doesn’t know that they are expected to plan, prepare, design and put up their displays, organise their classroom in room heir own time.
Hardly any time is built into the working week for that kind of thing. Certainly nowhere near enough to even do a basic amount.

@Meem321 We don't have a class TA. I think only reception classes do. My class is year 1 and once the children come back we will have 3 mornings per week of TA support. But the TA is in the inset training almost all day tomorrow too so she can't do classroom work then either and I don't think it would be appropriate for me to ask her to stay even later. The TAs are already very annoyed that they have to be in 8.30 - 17.00 today and tomorrow. We have one session that they won't be attending tomorrow but they have other whole-school things to do during that session.

I'm a secondary school teacher and I've only been into school during the summer holiday on results days - not to "work" but to congratulate my students on their results.

In my school the INSET days at the start of the school year are an opportunity for SLT to share exam results data and other info with us, refresher training on safeguarding and behaviour policy etc, department meeting time and time to review data on our new classes, plan and tinker about with classrooms as needed. Classrooms were cleared out before the summer term ended to allow cleaning staff access to deep clean the school.

Management at my school recognise how hard we work during term time and encourage us to relax during the holidays.
The primary teachers I know work at schools with a similar ethos and haven't been in during the holiday, although I expect that they may have done some planning over the holiday (it's tricky to switch off completely!)

I suspect your union rep would take a very dim view of this expectation to work during the holiday and would be happy to discuss the issue with management at your school.

You are not contracted to work during your holiday. Every worker in UK is entitled to 5.6 weeks statutory paid holiday per year and you cannot be expected to work during this time. Teachers contracts don't cover the entire year - you're paid for 39 weeks (term time and a week inset) and your statutory holiday entitlement, but you're unpaid for the rest of the weeks (although salary is split over 12 months).

If the Head expected you to work during the summer holiday, they're either asking you to work during your statutory holiday entitlement or to work unpaid.

This doesn't stop teachers all over the country working during their holidays or working unpaid, while the rest of the population call them lazy. You don't see many other professions who work for free or in holiday.

Op I'm a teacher and funnily enough I didn't go in this summer at all for the first year ever!!

My school was closed for the last 3 weeks and I was away the beginning of the hols and then I got covid and was really poorly.

My Co teacher (and SLT) messaged asking if I'd gone in.. I hadn't and neither had she! It was liberating after 15 years of teaching for us to actually reflect on what IS the difference in having displays up vs welcoming thr children and including them in part of the the set up!!

Your holidays are not paid., is it state school? Please say you are in a union! And contact them!!

Your school sounds toxic!

I haven't voted as I'm not sure if you are asking if it is unreasonable to expect teachers to do the moving classes / setting up rooms during the holidays (Yes, it is unreasonable)
or
if you are asking it is is what teacher normally do (Yes, it is)

Teachers do it because it makes your life easier at the start of term which is always hard work.
The school can't make you but , as you have found out, it makes life very very difficult if you haven't sorted yourself out before the dc start.

INSET is literally short for IN SErvice Training - so it is reasonable to expec that is what INSET days are used for.