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 🙁

I can empathise. My employer has a hybrid working policy which states that working from home shouldn't be used as a substitute for childcare and employees are expected to put provisions in place.

I was allowed to wfh last Friday when my Y3's teacher was on strike (my YR was still in, fortunately) but that was a one off because childcare wasn't available and my Y3 can happily entertain himself for a bit. I'm not sure my team leader would have agreed to it if both of them were at home. Also I find attempting to work whilst they are there quite stressful 🤦‍♀️

I sympathise op. I'm a single parent so it's still a bit of a juggling nightmare but I'm fortunate enough to live in an area with lots of choice of holiday clubs.

I live in Denmark. Kids who go to the before or after school club have a place at the club during holidays. Please don't hate me but in my county we don't even have to pay for it in July. It's lack of political will in the UK. I'm surprised there's not more commercial camps springing up if demand is so high.

I'm not sure it is that easy or profitable (few jobs in childcare are) otherwise lots of people would surely be doing it?

In our town there used to be a really popular family run activity club that you could do for half days/school days or full days 8-6 but it closed a few years ago. My DC don't need childcare anymore but AFAIK no one else has started anything similar. To be fair a few of the schools had full day holiday clubs that were not overly expensive but they did get booked up quickly.

I was in a term time only role when eldest was first at school. I didn’t work much when she was preschool age as it’s virtually impossible to find childcare when your children has physical disabilities and SEN. When youngest was preschool and at a childminder, I had to pay a retainer during the school holidays. As a non teaching member of staff you also get pro rata but non-negotiable holiday hours.

We massive struggle with holiday clubs where we are located, our nearest only offers one day a week

Can you and your husband look at changing your hours/shift pattern if you’re both full time to have the majority of your hours set with some flexi

I work Monday to Thursday set (30 hours) and 4 hours flexi a week. This works in both my companies and my favour. I tend to build the 4 hours up throughout the month and work them remotely of an evening in my busiest week of the month or work a Friday. However I don’t work those flexi hours on a Friday in school holidays.

Even if you both remained full time with 30 hours fixed and 7.5 hours flexi this would give you two days cover in the school holidays each week before applying annual leave

As a teacher I totally agree with all of this, I find it hard enough to cover my own childcare during term time.
6 weeks is also too long for the children to have off - there’s a reason behaviour is a nightmare in september! I think we should have more terms with 1/2 week breaks in between and perhaps 3 weeks for august when it’s hot.

My NCT group organised a child sitting bank. You put up the cover you needed and then someone would do the sit. You would then pay in points. By sitting you earned points. I covered loads of holidays like this. I had one friend that we used to do 2 days a week each.

People need to help each other out more, or pay for camps. I sent mine to PGL for one holiday, but that cost a bomb.

My son is due to start school in September. I know that I'm lucky as I am a teacher myself so I will have the majority of the holidays will him. However, I can totally see where you are coming from. Im a single parent with no family nearby. All my friends are teachers too. I work in a different county so the term dates are sometimes different and im dreading having to deal with this as there is no way I can afford it and I cannot take holiday in term time. Im having a nightmare just sorting out the 4th and 5th of September at the moment. His primary school helpfully suggested that he joins me in my classroom up to 31 teenagers (he is 4). This is why I u ent quit teaching like I would really like to. There's no way I could manage the holidays. Im intending to offer to help my sons friends parents if they are having childcare issues in the holidays as I will be at home anyway. Im hoping that in return someone will help me with inset days. Good luck to everyone looking for solutions. I'll keep my 🤞for you all.

I agree.

And those who suggest WFH, I would say this doesn’t really work very well for the kids or the employee. What will the kids do all day on their own?

I had this issue for years and in the end opted for getting paid a pittance in a term time only job.

I do feel a bit sorry for all the kids whose parents are rejoicing at not needing childcare as they can WFH now. They have a mind numbing summer of ipad and being ignored ahead.

Yes only the rich should have children 🙄

What Oysterbabe said. I get that it may be necessary, but it's pretty shit for everyone.

Having children isn't a lifestyle choice. It's a biological imperative and literally (actually literally) necessary for the survival of the species.

Wearing crocs is a lifestyle choice.

HOME COUNTIES!!!!!! there are loads of holiday clubs available for you, just use Google FFS

The home counties covers an enormous area, how on earth would one know what's available in the OPS specific town

Of course it’s a lifestyle choice! I disagree with the poster who suggested people don’t “sit down and plan”. I think people are aware of the costs and the ball ache of finding childcare during holidays etc, but like to vent/moan about it, because things are pretty shit childcare-wise in this country.

If you’re Home Counties I’d bet there is some 8-6 provision somewhere even if you need a longer commute. London and Home Counties seem to be in a better position than many other areas of the country.

Some of the larger chains might work for you eg ultimate camps, barracudas, camp Beaumont. Also look at any of the private schools near you. The best provision near me is at the private schools.

Well only people who can meet the children's needs should have them.

Yes, although when I was at school a lot more families could get by with only one earner or one very part time earner. Which made childcare easier even for those families who did have two earners.

I thought I’d planned pretty well for having children. But the thing that really took me by surprise is the timing of holiday clubs. The fact that they run 9-2 or 10-4 if you’re lucky. They’re not for working parents. I don’t really know who they’re for.

I totally agree that having children is a lifestyle choice, but I suspect most people do understand the costs and the difficulties of having children (though they may underestimate them). Venting about a rubbish situation is not the same as being incredulous at finding yourself in it.

Welfare benefits policy has changed in the past ten years.
Ten years ago - single parents, majority mothers were entitled to income support and were not required to do paid work.

I say paid work because raising a child is work.

Somewhere in the past ten years the tories have ceased to recognise child rearing as work and put immense pressure on every woman.

I say woman because rarely if ever are men placed in that position.

Just out of interest, who’s funding you to work part-time? Or is it a very well-paid part-time job?

It is very hard.

My career took the hit and I did nights for years with no progression so I could be there for the dses. In the school holidays DH and I would split annual leave and my mum and dad would have the dses for the odd week.

My health really suffered as well doing nights and I’m not sure I would make the same choice again but it certainly made childcare easier! There are no easy options unless you have willing and able grandparents or lots and lots of money from what I can see.

I love this. Who do you think will run the economy once you retire? Other people's kids, thats who. It's not a lifestyle choice at all. Let's just all stop then. Oh hang on, that would be the end of humanity. Have a word with yourself.

Agree with @StormShadow that's its impossible to plan ahead to the degree that you'll know what clubs or holiday childcare will be available (or how booked up it will get) in x years time when you might need it.

Not only that but with the CoL crises, (or covid meaning some people might have changed jobs or careers) families that might have originally envisaged having one parent at home or working pt, might now need both parents working ft. Then they would be in an unexpected position of needing 6 weeks of ft childcare that they hadn't originally planned for.