To ask teachers - if you could take a holiday in term time, would you?

[Allofthetimeithappened]

I’ve obviously no way of policing the replies but I’m a teacher and I would if the option was available.

YABU - how awful, no.
YANBU - off like a shot.

YES.

My holiday in August is costing me £3k. The SAME holiday in September is £1k. In fact, the hotel we wanted to stay in originally is £2k during term time but £10k in August

DH says he regrets marrying a teacher until I remind him how much we save in nursery fees

I also don't care about taking my kids out during term time. The experiences gained from going abroad, and doing all the activities that go alongside are soooo important. That can't be taught in a classroom. Also, I teach two core subjects and my SIL teaches the other, so I'm quite certain that my kids would catch up (in English, Maths and Science anyway).

Irt cover, I'm very lucky that all the lessons in my school are centralised.

Literally all the planning is done down to a T. Very minimal adjustments need to be made for our individual classes. We have an amazing department. I'd happily cover for my colleagues where I could if they went on holiday, as I know they'd do it in return.

I was also going to comment the same, great for the teachers but depending when the teacher takes it, it’s very very disruptive for the kids. My school has lots of long term teachers and in primary had consecutive teachers taking LSL. Depends if they get a decent substitute teacher really but it’s still disruptive.

I'm also amazed that the UK doesn't have long service leave for everyone. It's wonderful !

And the idea of fining parents for non attendance of their kids, is completely foreign to me. It definitely doesn't happen in Oz. My cousin took her kids out of school for a year, so the family could caravan around the country and learn about their home land. The school actually encouraged it, and the family had a wonderful time.

Yes I absolutely would, especially in Primary.

I'm also amazed that the UK doesn't have long service leave for everyone. It's wonderful !

Why are you amazed @ShippingNews ? Long service leave only exists in Australia and New Zealand, and for historical reasons dating back to colonial times. It was to allow government workers to sail back to their home countries on a visit every ten years.

It's not the UK that's out of step here. You just happen to live in one of the only two or three countries in the world that DO have it.

It wouldn't bother me, I've never paid over the odds for a holiday so it wouldn't make a difference.

@ShippingNews

”And the idea of fining parents for non attendance of their kids, is completely foreign to me. It definitely doesn't happen in Oz. My cousin took her kids out of school for a year, so the family could caravan around the country and learn about their home land. The school actually encouraged it, and the family had a wonderful time.”

That’s a completely different scenario though! And one that does happen in UK schools too, without fines.

Hell yes!

(But sadly in reality it would never be feasible)

@ShippingNews “And the idea of fining parents for non attendance of their kids, is completely foreign to me. It definitely doesn't happen in Oz”

ABC news says otherwise? Has this been reversed?

Not in the UK but if we complete an online course (20 hours ) during the.summer we get 3 discretionary days during the year. Not the same as a holiday but definitely a cheaper long weekend .
I think If I ever brilliant my children to Disney or anything like that I'd use some of the 10 unpaid days leave. It' would probably work out cheaper.

How many other jobs dictate EVERY day off you are allowed to have? Is it more common than teachers realise? I'm not sure. Not that many?

Teacher retention may improve if there was a way of creating (even minor) flexibility. Maybe a TA that gets extra pay to be a cover supervisor?

Maybe there’s something in the idea of not all schools having the same hols.

Teachers and parents wouldn’t be so ripped off by holiday companies compared to others.

Would also help non teachers at work, as it’s always a pain managing people’s holiday requirements in the school holidays (notice I said a pain and nothing dramatic like “a nightmare” - I admit it’s not a huge deal)

Secondary teacher here, and I would in a heartbeat. Not just because financially it would be cheaper but also because it would be easier for DH to "match up" (his job has quite a few families working for them so it is a real struggled to get time off in hols (though this would mean ignoring the fines, but tbh these are still cheaper than the premium you pay on summer holidays).

My main reason as well is just that it is so much quieter everywhere: don't get the queues, the struggle to park, the over crowding that term time brings and the amazing ability my colleague seems to have to go on holiday anywhere and still bump into a student from the UK 😂 just feels nice to really enjoy a place.

My only argument against is that most, if not all, partners are actually pretty much stuck in the same position as us so would open open a whole can of worms if we could "skip out " in term time but their children couldn't and they didn't get the option...

@Testina I agree with you. IRL, I have never heard a teacher say that their salary would be X full time, but they are only paid Y as they don't get paid for school holidays

In reality like all employees, Y is their salary and that's what they get paid

I used to work in a business where we had to take our holiday at fixed times and the whole place shut down. Whilst it felt really restrictive it was so nice going on holiday and the work stopping and it not falling to a colleague or waiting for you went you got back.

if you said “teachers would you like to be able to take holiday during term time, but colleagues would have to use free periods to cover lessons, would you like this?” That would be a more realistic scenario and i think would give you different answers

No. It’s part of the deal and there’s no way I’d want to leave my classes to go on holiday. When I had COVID and was off for 10 days it was a nightmare picking everything up again.

I’m an escapee teacher and being able to look at holidays outwith the double/triple price time has been one of the greatest luxuries 😍 when I was teaching we always said at my school that we’d gladly lose a week off the summer and each person could choose when in the year to take it

That's a good idea on theory but how would that work for families that have children at different schools, sometimes even in different towns/counties? Then throw in parents who are teachers to the mix who would also be at different schools to their DC, 2 if both parents are teachers. You could end up in a situation where nobody I nthe household is on holiday from school at the same time.

I was a primary school midday supervisor on minimum wage and we were refused term time leave from our 1 hour middle of the day job by the governors.

Didn't stay in that job long, and "strangely" they can't fill the posts. All school staff would like the flexibility, but, unfortunately, inflexible comes in the job description.

The lack of flexibility around working hours is one of the reasons I left. My kids aren’t at school for much longer and I don’t want to be tied to school holidays anymore 🤷‍♀️

Yep. While I found it irritating to be confined to certain holiday dates and not being able to attend weddings and funerals, at least I got paid reasonably for it. I thought it much more unfair for my poorly paid TAs and other non-teaching staff.