To be worn out by the mismatch between annual leave & school provision

[Yellowlegobrick]

25 days. Like most people i get 25 days annual leave.

School holidays plus inset days needs 65 days cover.

There are sod all good options to cover it locally. There'll be a football camp 20 mins away for 3 days 9 - 2.30, a forest school doing an odd week 9-3. The bigger camps are massively oversubscribed, don't run for the whole holiday and you sometimes can't get a place.

Aibu to think there needs to be a formalised, centrally managed system to acknowledge the gap and provide better coverage?

Even if DH take all our annual leave separately, we can't cover it all, especially not when we lose at least a couple of days each per year of annual leave covering days the children are ill.

Its a constant annual stress, i find myself filled with dread when the letter comes from school: end of term, finish after lunch at 1.15.... there goes another half day 🙁

Parental leave, childcare shares with friends, discuss with work about WFH during the holidays/hours not the normal work pattern.

Yanbu, it's a nightmare. Is there any negotiation for unpaid leave?

I'm lucky in that I've maneuvered myself into a role where I work 9-3 5 days per week term time and 2 days per week during the holidays. I'm expected to check emails and do odd bits other days during the hols but it's a work where I can type situation. I really don't know how the majority of people cope

Yes I totally get you! I've always thought this but honestly can't understand why it's still a thing. So stupid!

Our after school club covers the early finish.

I was thinking this the other day. Football club runs 3 non-consecutive weeks through the summer 😵‍💫 and it’s 9:30-4. How is that any use to most working people?

You can cover the majority of it by taking leave separately though?
Make arrangements with friends to do child care swaps?

And just book the oversubscribed clubs the moment they open for bookings?.

Before school club/after school club. Holiday clubs. We have never had any family help and have always managed. Some people work part time, or term time, or they work from home. Alternate shifts etc.

I mean I’m not sure why people don’t factor this in.

I think there should definitely be some kind of council-run provision widely available. So much childcare in the UK seems to be based around there being family members available who don't work, which is increasingly unrealistic.

Seems so tricky, this is why we are debating only having one because I don’t know how we will cover it between us in the future

Unless we all move to your school I'm not sure how helpful that is.

There are plenty of options near me but it's the cost which is prohibitive for me. Two DC in holiday club costs more than I earn, so I might as well take unpaid leave.

I’m going to be a real grump and say if you think it’s bad with neurotypical children, try having a child with Sen and working. There is absolutely nothing that caters for children with Sen and if you’ve got a child with complex needs you’re utterly screwed. I work but it’s term time only and mainly remote working. I’m very lucky as there are barely any of these roles about (I don’t want to work in a school).

How old are the children? On my side of the Atlantic, summer camps seem to be a major thing, as school summer holidays run mid-June to beginning of September and most people don't get more than 2-3 weeks vacation from work. They are hideously expensive though.

yanbu. It’s really tricky, but one summer will come when your youngest is at secondary and you’ll be able to leave the kids at home for the day. In the interim, I agree it’s a huge source of stress

YANBU. This is precisely why I gave up on having an interesting career and instead work in a dull-as-ditchwater term-time only office job.

@SweetSakura You can cover the majority of it by taking leave separately though?
Pretty miserable to only take separate annual leave from your spouse though.

It is a big part of why I am a SAHM, pir youngest is 7 and has SEN, there is one week of 10:30 - 12:30 club at the very beginning of the holidays and only 15 spaces, no other provisions at all, less than a quarter of what is offered for mainstream school children 🫠

Can't you or your DH wfh in the holidays? That's what we do. I only go in 1 day a week anyway but during the summer they are happy for us to be 100% wfh. Saves us a fortune on child care.

I got lucky at primary where there was an external company offer wrap round and holiday care year round. They closed for a week in summer and a week over Christmas. No other school nearby had that.
But once DC were in year 4 plus it was a battle to get them to go.

I’m going to be even more of a grump and say try being a single parent.

We’ve got 3 extra days at Christmas too. So they finish really early and go back late with no holiday club provision any where. 3 weeks off. Have no idea how we will cover it.

Sympathy for things such as early finishes on the last day of term, inset days, or things where you are pressured to attend such as perhaps sports day.

However, the amount of school holidays and their timing has been the same probably since before you were at school.

Because:
1 - not everyone can afford to work part time
2 - not everyone has a partner to rely on
3 - not everyone can work from home

Its not that people dont consider it, but also that not everyone has the privilege do be able to not work very much (or at all), or be at home.

I would love to be able to do my job from home a couple of days a week. However, unless you work in an office, thats not possible. And thats quite a lot of people, if you consider those in education, health, hospitality, arts and events,etc...

Its hard, and it is not hard because people didnt consider it would be hard.

And what if you dont even have a spouse?!?! (though yes, pretty damn ridiculous suggestion)

@Britinme summer holidays are 6 or sometimes 7 weeks long. I know from Phineas and Ferb you get 104 days which is probably why there are summer camps. We have half term breaks so 6 or 7 weeks of school then a break traditionally of a week. That is a week off in October, 2 weeks over Christmas as that is the end of a term, 1 week mid February, 2 weeks at Easter and 1 week in May plus summer holidays mid July to beginning of September. Plus each school has 5 random "inset" or teacher training days where there is typically no childcare provision.

There needs to be some sort of overhaul of the whole childcare system, we need to facilitate people being able to work and affording childcare. It is completely shit. It is all well and good saying it is fine when they are in secondary but we are talking about leaving 12 year olds home for 7 hours alone for weeks on end.