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’s a one off that can’t be helped and I’m sure you’d prefer your children to be taught in decent buildings even if it is a huge inconvenience.

If staff have to facilitate the move, what else can they do? They won’t be able to afford the overtime if they asked staff to do it in the holidays.

I was going to say there's a good chance it's to do with building works or similar which they've now been told will take longer/start later/have extra stuff needing doing.

Local school had a 3 week half term at no notice (Friday of half term) once. Parents linked up and shared childcare using parental leave mostly.

I wish I could do this. I’d even offer to go in over Easter and move boxes myself if I thought they would give us a day back 😆

I just don’t understand why they can’t do it classroom by classroom and have the kids in school still. I can’t wfh and you’ve hit the nail on the head, I probably wouldn’t give a shit if I had someone at home to look after my kids.

It's not paid for childcare. They don't owe you the days.

yeah I guess one day to pack, one day for the movers and one day to unpack. Super annoying for parents though

@ThatDoesntWorkForMe as a SAHM myself I never had a problem offering to look after my daughters classmates if their parents needed help.
Not all "school mums" hate each other 😂

@greencrab unfortunately I’ve already used a few days this year for an unwell relative and I’ll be skating on thin ice to request anymore.

What do you mean you wish you could do this? You can - all you do is talk to the school. As a lone parent I find that most settings completely don’t think about the impacts their actions have on lone parent families, so you have to spell it out to them and talk to them about what they suggest you do. They might even offer a solution like keeping one classroom running for families in similar situations.

I think legally / hr wise you are allowed to take time off to care for dependents. I am not employment law specialist though

That’s a good suggestion

Thanks helpful @RabbitsEatPancakes. Maybe you could signpost me to the rules around shutting schools and what constitutes reasonable notice, as this was clearly the point of the thread.

Sometimes it’s unavoidable. The school I work in had to put back the start of term because some building work (very much needed building work) over ran and we needed that extra couple of days to get the school safe for pupils to return.

Well they can hardly help it then, can they?

The reason would be considered exceptional circumstances. What are you expecting them to do?

Classroom by classroom would have taken 102 days where l used to work. And that’s just one day for each classroom. 3 days ( one to pack, one to move and one to unpack) would have taken near in a year.

And who is covering the classes of those packing? And what are the kids supposed to do when they need specialist equipment like DT or science? Wait a year?

@EasterEvenLonger you need to talk to other parents as I expect others will have the same problem.
If you then talk to the school en mass then the school might be able to help come up with a solution.
Does the school have WhatsApp or Facebook groups? Put a message on there about this if you don't know many other parents to talk too.

The thing is @Needmorelego the school is very resistant to feedback and if they are within their rights to do this, I’d rather not. I don’t want to make a name for myself.

Ffs. It's clearly an unexpected event. These things happen. You really should have put that in the OP.

I would put money on that being a stay at home mum who has no idea about the world of work.

They have and have to persuade and get permission from the LA.

why are they moving?

I mentioned it within 3 minutes of the OP. Does the reason for closure impact on the rules around notice period?

Rather than looking up rules and rallying other parents, just have a simple calm chat with school to explain the difficulty you’re facing because of the lack of notice, and see what they say. You’re not going to make a name for yourself unless you’re militant about it. The worst that will happen is they’ll say they’re really sorry and can’t offer any solutions. Then you’ll need to sort it out with work.

I doubt it's extra days off for any of the staff. I've never worked in a school but I've worked in hospitals that were moving into new buildings twice and it was an absolute nightmare. Lots of people assumed we'd all got days off because routine surgery and clinics were cancelled during the move, but we were in helping with the move and I'd rather have done a normal day's work for sure.
Of course teachers don't have ill people to move but even without that, just moving all your stuff from your familiar environment and setting it up so that it works in a new one is time consuming and hard work. Even if they have removals firms in to physically transport things between the two buildings I would imagine the staff will have to pack up their classrooms and then unpack everything at the other end and that's not a 5 minute job.

Go to the Governors or your local MP if the school won't listen to concerns.
If lots of parents do this as a group then you "won't be making a name for yourself" - you'll be one of many.
Edit: As some has just said - do this in a calm way. Don't go in all angry.
The issue is many parents will need childcare due to work responsibilities so can the school help with a solution.

Annoying for you but their reasons are entirely reasonable, it’s school not childcare so I don’t think you’ll be ‘owed three days back’.