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?

We have an above and beyond award at our school and it does wind me up. Our school is relatively good at giving sufficient time and resources, however a)everyone does at times go above and beyond and b) we shouldn’t have a culture of above and beyond being the expectation, of course when a particular child has a need or a circumstance requires it we should all roll up our sleeves, but it shouldn’t be an every day expectation.

I think you need to directly tell the headteacher that you come from a different country where things are done differently, so subtle hints and unspoken rules just aren't going to work on you. If he wants you to do something that's not in your contract it needs to be explained clearly, and with enough time for you to plan for it, otherwise you can't be expected to somehow "just know".

You have no way of knowing if every other teacher (or the majority) did the same though. There are also staff who want it to in during the summer. When I have gone in, it's been a bit of a break from the dc to be honest! I think a whole week is taking the piss.

That's shocking and disgraceful! And pretty disingenuous.

The thing that a couple of PPs have mentioned about this not happening if it were a male dominated profession, is so true. A friend of mine works in a primary school, and she always jokes about the "one lazy male teacher" in every school, who always seem to get promoted to deputy head 5 minutes after they've started, while all the female teachers are working their butts off, and get criticised for not doing enough. I'm convinced this is why the workload pressures in secondary are not as bad, or as ridiculously pointless as in primary schools - it's a more even mix of male and female.

Also, OP, I used to be a secondary school science teacher (managed to escape this year), and secondary schools are absolutely desperate for physics teachers. We kept advertising, but no one ever applied. Definitely look into moving to secondary.

And leave your current school anyway. I worked in 6 schools during my teaching career, 4 out of those 6 were toxic in some way, 2 schools were great places to work. There are a lot of toxic schools out there, but there are diamonds in the rough, you've just got to find a good one.

I think the problem here is constantly that the perception of teachers is different to the reality.

It is perceived that you get the school holidays off with your own family. Rightly or wrongly, that's the number one benefit of working in a school for 95% of staff. However there needs to be some recognition that it's just not true. Of course they need to work more hours than the children are present for, that's just so bloody obvious. Just like doctors work more hours than they are actually face to face with patients.

If everyone acknowledged that then it wouldn't come as a shock that yes teachers have to find some childcare for say 5 days before Sept term starts. If that time were blocked for planning / classroom prep etc and it was consistent around the country then it would negate all this drama every bloody year.

Or alternatively just accept busy terms & quieter non-term time like university staff do. Standard holiday allowance to be taken outside of teaching time.

Both of those options involve treating teaching as a valuable professional role rather than an easy option for those who want to spend the holidays off with their own families. There are far easier options if that's you're aim by the way!

I don't need to work for 5 days in the summer to view my job as a professional role.

I just asked retired secondary head DH if he used to expect staff to come in during their holidays for this of thing. ‘No way!’ . He recognised that some chose to do so but certainly no expectation.
Get on to your union rep, OP, join if you have to, and get them to explain to your head about directed time.

How ridiculous @bumpytrumpy - secondary teacher here. Very professional, don’t see teaching as an easy option/childcare . Don’t need your be in for 5 days in the holidays to do a good job.

*to

Not an English teacher, I hasten to add 😂

Whether it’s become the norm to come in and set up your classroom during the summer is irrelevant. If it was so important you should have been allocated time to get it done.

I didn’t get my timetable until the last day of school. The expectation being that I then use my holidays to plan. I never do. It’s not because I don’t care about the kids, but because every year since I’ve been teaching the expectations have piled on and nothing has been taken away.

Everything is “it’s just a little job, it won’t take long”, except I know that all the little jobs add up.

I explicitly ask what needs to be prioritised and focus on that. This year I moved classroom, my displays need to be changed to match the others. I’ll get to it, when I get to it.

There should be no shame or guilt or negative feelings associated with sticking to your working hours.

It’s not a voluntary role; if they stopped paying me. I wouldn’t do it. Treat your job like a job.

No need to grovel OP!

I was a class teacher for 15 years and would always expect to go in for a few days in the last week to get my classroom ready. INSET days are for teacher training and development, not backing boards and labelling books.

In my opinion it's up to you how you manage your time, if you want to go away for the whole summer holidays then go away, but make sure your work is done before you go so that you are prepared. If you don't do it before then be prepared to work abit when you are on holiday, thats what happens in almost any other job..

It may be normal but it shouldn’t be. Cleaning and making a classroom useable should not be a teacher’s responsibility. Holidays are for rest. We do enough planning etc in that time. Caretaking isn’t in the remit.

Hahaha I am going to think of this when I’m next in a Twilight. Some of the SLT seem to role playing being in NATO tbh.

Surely then teachers are actually quite well paid part time workers?

At my job we sometimes have to work nights and weekends to prepare big presentations etc. It's overtime so technically we could go home or not show up but then we'd have less time to prepare and end up stressing. Sounds like this is the same predicament.

All the teachers I know spend a couple of days getting their classrooms done. I’d just do the best you can. Furniture and big things first. Whatever you don’t finish get the children to help. Could they design name plates to be laminated for their pegs? Base it on your term topic theme! Names on wall with blutack until this is done. Cosy corner with fairy lights and a big plant or two. I know a teacher with potted lavender in the calm corner.

you can achieve loads in a few hours if you calm down and focus.

Teachers shouldn’t have to go into school to work during that holiday and a head teacher can’t direct you to do so. However; I taught for 35 years, mainly in primary although I did some secondary teaching.
In all that time I have never known a teacher that hasn’t gone in to sort their classroom or one that hasn’t spent at least a full week of the holiday doing school prep (most spend about half the holiday).
I was surprised to find that secondary teachers spent less time in school in the holidays than primary, (apart from the English department for some reason - they seemed to spend about the same amount of time as primary teachers.) even though secondary teachers were expected to be in school on results day and sometimes the days around that.
It shouldn’t be required, but it is unfortunately now a standard expectation.

Insett days are almost always just that- training days- with no time for prep or classroom cleaning.

@Avocadont77 well said!

Our LA advertises all full time teaching jobs as part time (32.5 hours).

I think 30 hours+ counts as full time work? Although I guess with the longer holidays it averages as ‘part time’. Or it would if teachers were working 30 hours a week term time - which obviously they don’t. I think it’s more like 50? 7.30 until 5.30 is pretty common isn’t it. Maybe 9 and a half with a half hour lunch? So still easily 40+ hours.
That’s without extra work in the evening and weekends obviously.
I agree, the way it’s calculated seems kind skewed and confusing anyway.

@georgarina when you do the overtime, do you get paid for it, or is it just something that you work on for free to make the job go more smoothly? And if it’s unpaid, how many hours of your own time are you willing to give up?
There’s no overtime for teachers, and even as the “part-time” job that @southlondonerhere suggests ( ie no pay for holidays, although it can be over a 60 hour week during term time), the pay doesn’t begin to match that of other professionals with similar level qualifications.

@Zonder It is. It's part of the non directed time we are contracted to do.

If it is a non-directed expectation she cannot be directed to do it. She can choose to do it and can choose when and how she does it but she absolutely cannot be directed to.

@georgarina when you do the overtime, do you get paid for it, or is it just something that you work on for free to make the job go more smoothly? And if it’s unpaid, how many hours of your own time are you willing to give up?

Unpaid. It's not every day or week but works out to much more than OP is talking about. It's just worth it to make sure things are running smoothly and everything it set up and ready for a client presentation. That's generally preferable to running around last-minute and being stressed.

So yeah you could say 'this is my weekend, I'm not doing any work until 9AM Monday' but when there's a specific thing to get ready for ie first day of school, it's probably worth it to yourself to put in the extra hours and make sure you're relaxed and prepared.