Can School Extend Easter?

[EasterEvenLonger]

My kid’s school had published Easter holidays as:
Mon 7 April - Tuesday 22nd April

They have written today to extend it to:
Friday 4 April - Thursday 24 April
An additional 3 working/school days

I can’t list all the reasons this is a fucking nightmare for me. Can they just announce this without any consultation and just 3 weeks notice? They haven’t taken any subsequent days off to compensate. It’s an additional 3 days.

YABU - of course they can
YANBU - no they shouldn’t be able to do this

It will be teacher training days I'm imagine which they can add on

They can add on INSET days, but this should’ve been communicated at the start of the year. It’s extremely short notice.

State or independent school? Indies can definitely do this. Don't know about state: aren't the holidays normally fixed by the county Council?

This can & does happen. As per previous poster, training days can be added at short notice

Inset (teacher trg) days. Some are always left floating tbd nearer the time to be used

Have they said why they've done this?

It'll be teacher training days but most schools wouldn't set these less than a month in advance. Or have you missed these dates previously and not made the connection that they're attached to the holidays? Our school often state the holiday dates as Monday - Friday whatever but then when you look at the list of training days realise they're actually off the next Monday as well.

Surely they should already be in the calendar.

It’s a state school. It’s to do a move of stuff from one building to another. It’s not being labelled as “Inset” days by them. The inset days are already in the calendar.

That is odd as term dates are usually published over a year in advance.
Could you ask any of the other school parents if they could take care of your children for those days?

Certainly not left floating in our school, we always get the dates at the start of the year. Interesting that other schools don't do this!

Sorry I should have put the reason in the OP, I was trying to keep it succinct. It’s definitely not teacher training.

We had this one year when there was building work added on to the end of a holiday.

Not at my kid’s schools.

If it's a building move, then I can see why, they might not have known much earlier to be honest. Our school tried to do this over the weekend, but equally not ideal if you are the teacher involved.
I think you just need to chalk this down

We had this too this year. New build and staff had to move all the boxes.

That's the reason then. Staff will be working to pack and unpack ready for the start of term. They will only have been able to make dates official when the site's been cleared to do so and won't have had standard notice.

They have just informed parents today of the additional 3 days. Definitely not missed them. Like most working parents I’ve planned my annual leave like a military operation and there’s no clubs operating on these days. Hence the absolute rage frustration I’m feeling.

Sounds like they are using the move as an excuse for some extra days off! But I’m probably being cynical!

Could you ask any of the other school parents if they could take care of your children for those days?

I expect the SAHM’s are already cringing in anticipation of more of these messages.

I guess I’m after the ‘rules’ if that is the correct word. I would have thought they would have to give us 3 days back. Appreciate I know nothing about how these things work in practice, hence the thread.

It's not extra days off for the staff. They still have their standard holiday and they can't do it safely with pupils on site.

Is it because they've had some RAAC related issues or similar and need to move things about at short notice? I get that it's inconvenient and difficult but sometimes this kind of stuff does just happen and schools are run by normal humans. They can't just make stuff magically happen. It's not really in the job spec to be hefting piles and piles and of stuff around but they'll be in doing it.

Yes they can. I had this when l was teaching. It’s authorised by LEA.

Totally understand the frustration - booking childcare is difficult and not everyone has a support network. Regardless of whether there any rules about this, I’d ask school what they suggest you do given the lack of childcare available at this short notice.

We had an extra two weeks over Easter for a building move and demolition, it was before COVID so there was some extra homework set on an online platform but it wasn't taken very seriously.

Can you take some unpaid parental leave, you are just within the required notice period (https://www.gov.uk/parental-leave/notice-period)