To ask teachers if you just accept the inflated holiday prices?

[justoneofthoseyearsagain]

Is there any other way to bring costs down? Looking at a UK break at Christmas and it’s £1600 - the following week it is £600. Obviously not much you can do but does sting a bit!

That wasn't the point I was making. What I was responding to was being told with a pre-schooler I can take cheap holidays out of term time. But I was saying I can't because I am paying £77 per day childcare which wipes out any holiday budget. So I haven't been able to take advantage of cheaper holidays. Now childcare stops and we have that extra cash back, we're stuck with holidays in the school holidays.

Oh, I remember 'factory fortnight', aka Wakes Weeks, the whole town became a ghost town in the 50s and 60s, the first Saturday saw hundreds of coaches lined up to take families off to the seaside! We used to get last week in June, first in July which was often Wimbledon and I would be annoyed to miss watching it on TV.

It's simple economics, in the same way that flowers rocket in price around Mother's Day etc., market forces.

What does this mean? I'm not sure I understand the post...are you implying school support staff don't go on holidays? Because I'm pretty sure I just got home from one...have another booked at half term, and another at Christmas!

Scottish school go back in third not second week never before the 14th not in past 25 years. This year teachers were back in 12-13th kids back Wednesday 14th. They generally break up on last day of June and are off for July and first two weeks of August generally any flight after 20th August in Scotland will be cheaper

Yeah there’s nothing I can do about it so I obviously just get on with it. It’s a downside to the holidays but we get a lot of holiday so it’s worth it. Also I don’t ever find flights are madly expensive but maybe that’s the places I go - we always fly easyJet and we did two weeks in Italy this summer which was lovely, just had to obviously save and plan in advance. We’ll go away somewhere else in October but flights are currently £30 if you wiggle the timings right so it’s ok. I’ve also literally never known any different as I worked in schools straight out of uni!

I think disrupting learning IS sufficient reasoning though.

The school will quickly be able to calculate how many hours of learning periods will be lost to how many students, which of those are exam classes, extra duties/clubs etc would be disrupted and the cover costs. In fact the cover costs alone would be justification enough in the current funding crisis.

I think it's very different from parental leave as that can be covered by a fixed term contract or some sort of mid term arrangement within a department- not the same at all as covering for random weeks holidays here and there.

I've always just viewed it as a payoff for getting more holidays and getting the holidays off with my kids.

you can look for teaching jobs in the areas of the country (East Mids, Kent etc.) that have different school breaks. My DC go back the week of the BH, and finish 2nd week of July, so we can usually get our main family holiday a bit cheaper if we go straight away as school finishes. You can sometimes get the October half term mis-aligned too, which saves some money but means there's not much open.

I'm hopefully switching to training to be an accountant. I worked in this area before teaching (many years ago) and have now restarted exams, hoping that I'll be able to land an entry level job somewhere and work from there! I left accounting as a youngster as I wanted something more active, but after 10 years in teaching, I'll happily settle for working at a computer all day if it means I have more flexibility in all other areas of life.

I thought that parental leave was for emergencies, like your child being in hospital, their school is closed and you can’t get child care, child being ill, not just fancying a cheaper holiday.

But teachers with kids are just as likely to be paying for uni too?

You could go longvweekend then depending on your days?
UPS3 is good salary though am sure you can afford school holiday prices.

My youngest is just about to go to uni. Eldest is already there. I’m school admin term time only so very low paid. This didn’t matter hugely when they were young as the advantages of being off in the school holidays with them balanced out all the (many, actually) disadvantages. We never could afford to go abroad so just went self catering for many years, often with family to make it seem less like “same shit, different place”!

Gradually it has become a huge general ball ache having my kind of job. Started with them not wanting to hang out with me much during the holidays by about 14. I don’t know many others who are term time only so rarely was off at the same time as others so it got quite boring.

As they’ve become older teenagers the holiday restrictions have got REALLY annoying. It’s not just the inflated prices. It’s the choice about WHEN you are off. You can’t even do weekends away with your other half easily, or some weddings, as no chance of a half day on Friday or Monday. It’s quite restricting. I’ve done the 6.30pm flight and late night return on a Sunday (or Monday if BH) and it’s fucking rushed and tiring once you get to a certain age . If you go by car somewhere you can’t get very far in a couple of hours. or you end up getting there well after everyone else in your group has arrived and you feel you’ve missed out . For my mum’s big birthday family weekend I was the last to arrive and first to leave, just because I don’t have an annual leave allowance.

With 2 young adults at uni whose start and ends of term don’t align with mine it’s annoying if you want to pay them a visit during their term time.

it’s other things as well, can’t take any time off to go to a funeral (without a load of hassle), take a parent or other relative to a health appointment, go for a job interview without your manager knowing, sit in the house for a tradesman etc.

But yes, the school holiday price difference is now much worse than it’s ever been. much worse. (Thankyou, dynamic pricing). And when you do go away everywhere is chocka and full of kids, which you no longer want, but neither are you ready for a Saga holiday 😆

for anyone working in a school for childcare reasons (especially if in a low paid role) my advice would be to get out before you get to this stage! As it stands now I’m hoping to retire early in a few years (thanks to an inheritance, no thanks to my extremely crap local government pension!) and I relish the thought of affordable holidays at the dates of my choosing, when it’s much less crowded.

Exactly @dollybird It's not a race to the bottom. Everyone has it equally bad.

Food for thought @CurlyhairedAssassin

I have to say I've never found it that bad but like I said mine are still school aged.

I have lots of teachers friends always off in the holidays which helps.

I have never not been allowed to go to a funeral, so I think a lot depends on the school in question.

Sadly my days off are Tuesday and Thursday so not possible.

They don’t need to “discount” to attract the people who are able to holiday then. The people who ARE able to will just go then anyway, obviously. Why would they choose to go during school holidays when it is crowded everywhere, often badly behaved children screaming, or the weather is far too hot.

it absolutely IS down to dynamic pricing, and the fact that attendance rules are getting tighter (supply and demand). I’m involved in school attendance and even I think it’s getting silly.

@BiscuityBoyle as you have to book it at least 21 days in advance and all employers (not just schools) can suggest alternative dates for it within a 6 month period, then it can’t be just for emergencies. You also have to take it in periods of 5 days, so at least a week off work and a maximum of 4. It’s different to taking a short-notice day off as your child is sick. Legally every parent in the country is entitled to 18 weeks of unpaid parental leave before their child turns 18.

As I’ve said upthread, my husband will be taking a week next year whilst I’m on maternity leave. We will go on holiday out of term time. It’s actually in the LA’s parent policies booklet they sent him home with when he applied for his 2 weeks paternity leave as an option. They are treating it the same as his paternity leave in that a cover has to be found, but at least with this week they know exactly when it is. Paternity leave is an estimate at best!

Not all teachers will choose to do this so it isn’t the big disruption people are claiming. Many won’t want a week of no pay, others will think it’s too disruptive to their own teaching. Others will have children in school themselves so won’t do it because they can’t set a bad example of taking their own children out of school in term-time. It will be a feasible option for a small number of teachers with pre-school aged children but it is an option they are allowed to take if they want to.

Don’t forget that school holiday times also include 8 bank holidays (which I assume you can also add to your leave allowance? Depending what job you have of course) Many non school staff work flexi and can also accrue toil. If you’re a school staff subtract a week off the total “parental” school holidays for INSET days which school staff have to work. Plus, the main thing is, non term time only
holidays are PAID. they give you some money towards the childcare that you do need.

When I was on a “TTO plus a week” contract I worked it out once, the difference between the actual number of days off between me and people I knew who had normal jobs (but whose leave allowance was maximum as they’d been there a long time.). I got about 3 weeks extra. Big deal. And don’t forget that term time only staff’s holidays are completely unpaid, remember. They accrue a very small amount of “holiday pay” just by working, as anyone does, but that small amount just gets paid as part of their salary. No real advantage when you consider how restricted you are the rest of the year.

for some TAs, it’s really very difficult as not only are they term time only but they also don’t do a 9-5, BUT are still expected to work beyond the time that the children leave school . Which means they still have to fork out for morning and school clubs or a child minder, whic often means paying for a full session when you might only need An hour or even less.

Many TAs I know do it for the vocation. It’s completely shit pay and it is VERY restrictive.

OP, definitely look to change your days off in the future, and get a Monday or Friday off.
we have Friday off and have headed to the airport after work on a Thursday many times.
late flight and strange night time taxi rides but then wake up Friday morning on holiday!

pupils were back on 13th Aug in my local authority area and the neighbouring one.

I left the country on that date 😂

Ooh, what kind of places?

What rules?

Yep. Charity worker here.

No, that would be emergency dependency leave. Unpaid parental leave has to be applied for in advance - you have to give at least 21 days notice, I think.