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

if you book time off do you like to go into work and do work when you’re having a break and not being paid for it?

The teachers won’t have had a choice in the school closing, that decision will have come from above. Now they will need to pack and move their classrooms and all the resources and equipment as well as set up a new classroom for the children. Sadly it’s annoying for the op to have to rearrange childcare but it’s exceptional circumstances and can’t really be compared to doing some marking and planning.

When the school I worked at moved buildings. We were allowed extra days without students. But it was with special permission from the DoE. And I think it was quite last minute a) because it was a new build and didn't know when the builders would be finished. It's hard to predict. B) the permission for extra holidays took a while to come through.

don't teachers get paid for holiday? Do full time teachers get paid holiday? Or are they really unpaid for 13 weeks of year??

I think it’s really unreasonable of school.

I dislike this narrative of “it’s not childcare”. It really is. These days it is as most don’t have a housewife sitting at home waiting for their kids to return.

and yes… I often work beyond my “paid hours” and during holiday. It’s the reality of my job (private sector)

They can’t do this for no reason but they can close for exceptional circumstances, examples of this could be snow for example. My school moved to a brand new building and we were closed for a week as we needed to pack up, move furniture, put furniture into new classrooms etc and then there was training we needed on some aspects of the school building. We also had to do things like carry out risk assessments, check everything was working and get the building team to come and fix the things that inevitably stopped working once we started using them. It wouldn’t have been safe or practical to be moving things with the students in school, risk assessing that would have been a nightmare. We also wanted to make sure staff were comfortable with the layout of the school before bringing students in. We did some of this in the holidays too but obviously the school couldn’t expect all school staff to work more than a few extra unpaid days and so needed to plan in extra days where staff were in school without the children.

That's crap op sorry. Is there any chance you can change your annual leave days so you are off those extra days and use clubs for the "regular" days in the holidays. I realise you have probably thought of this already.

Ignore the "school isn't childcare" camp. Life isn't really set up for working parents, particularly single ones.

Very odd. Holidays, inset days and teaching hours are all set at the start of the year I think - does this mean they're cutting a holiday elsewhere in the academic year to account for these days? I'd be miffed, like you.

Support staff aren’t generally paid through the holidays. It didn’t stop most of the support staff I work with giving up a few days of their summer last year to help put school back together after work. Sadly the work overran so we still had to close the school to pupils for a further 3 days - staff were in working hard getting everything sorted for the children to safely return.

It sounds like it's one of those things that need to be done.
Would've been better if the teachers could've done it over the Easter holidays and got paid for it or leave back, but they probably wouldn't have been happy with that either and would likely have their own childcare issues.

Having been through this process, yes it will be Teachers and support staff doing the moving.

So if your employer decided to move premises and they told you that you needed to use your annual leave to help with the move you'd think that was reasonable, would you? Thought not.

Me too.It took a whole week and despite having planned it for months,it was still chaos. Every school undergoing refurbishment/rebuilding work or moving into a completely new building would ideally like to have it done in readiness for the new school year in September,but everyone's at the mercy of the contractors!Nothing ever works to plan; in our case,we were 7 months behind schedule and moved back in during March.

I feel your frustration when I first read your Op I didn’t understand the 3 weeks notice as schools plan their timetables not taking into account emergencies or INSET days which are planned in advance.

However to those who think it’s a jolly jaunt or that they could come in on the holidays. There will be issues with insurance and building contracts if they are moving from one building to another. The LEA would have been consulted as well as the school and also the timings of the 3 days may have been chosen as the lesser or two evils. They will have Sats coming up if primary, the autumn term is a nightmare for all sorts of issues to go into now, if it’s secondary they’ll want the classrooms and stuff sorted before the start of the summer exams.

It would have not been done lightly and whilst I wouldn’t call it an INSET day I suppose they have used their allocated time to cover the three days -
As a primary school teacher and parent I can see from both sides for working parents it’s a nightmare but it’s not done on a whim and the pitfall of not having a SAHP / Nanny/ family nearby etc etc, the manner of schools and the 21st century leaves a lot to be desired.

As a teacher I can’t take a day / afternoon off to attend my children’s sports day or nativity. It is just one of those things, it’s crazy

You've answered your own question - they're taking an extra 3 days to move buildings. Special circumstances. Pretty reasonable. What's the big deal? They can't move shit when the kids are in school so when else are they supposed to?

I'm in Scotland so might be different but we have a building move coming up and the school will be shut for 3-5 days. They are hoping to give some notice but it depends on the council's availability. It's high school thankfully so no childcare to sort.

When my kids' school burned down several years ago there was no school for a while but that is a pretty unusual situation thankfully

It can't be a phased move while the kids are in school due to the absolute myriad of health & safety rules in place. And it's not as simple as just carrying boxes- it's large furniture, electrics, etc. Totally impractical to do whilst open to the kids. They won't have taken the decision lightly & would have had to get it approved by the school governors & local authority. (I'm a Teacher.)

I find all the “school isn’t childcare” comments pretty privileged to be honest. I know it isn’t. But I have to work and my hours are based on my children being in school. I have a set number of days AL. I can’t just magic up another 3 out of my arse. Holiday clubs are already extortionately priced and not available for these days. I cannot wfh. Not everyone has that luxury.

I don’t have a big support network or extended family able to help.

I appreciate those who explained school can do this. It still feels pretty shitty but as I already posted I’ll have to ask around to see if there’s anyone else in the same position that we can share with.

Saw your follow ups - and we just had a pta meeting to discuss this so assuming it's the same as in Scotland yes - they can do this and no - they can't leave the school open when there are movers and workmen and endless disruption and no - the teachers aren't going to have an easy few days and no - there's not much anyone can do about it. You'd have known there was a new building being built so I'm sure you knew they'd be moving into it at some point. The notice is unfortunate but unavoidable for all sorts of reasons.

Loads will be in the same boat so maybe reach out to the after school club and see if anyone is free to watch a group of children for the day? Or group up with some other parents and hire someone and split the cost? Or split the days with another parent?

Having had a large rebuild in my school, yes, I had to apply and be given permission by the LA to close to pupils for the extra days required to safely manage the move. Children’s safety being absolutely paramount. Full risk assessments in place.

I was reluctant about the timing of the closure ( OFSTED inspection due), but the H&S executive threatened to close the school complelely (as in for months, during the build) if I had not agreed to the timing and to following expert H&S rules including requesting the extra days around the holiday. All children would have been moved to other schools and other school sites until the build was complete.

For the closure time, it was all hands on deck, for staff working alongside a professional team of packers and a moving company to move the heavy boxes.
There are H&S rules about the weight that staff can lift and heights that can be climbed.
Many of the resources had to be stored off-site. Staff had to work through their curriculum plans to keep resources needed to deliver the curriculum for the duration of the build. ( we did manage to mix up some boxes, leaving us without any reading books…and had to go and beg more from other schools).

Classroom and hall doors had to be sealed to prevent dust and asbestos leaking across the school during the build.

New fire exits had to be put in place too, cutting through walls to make exits, all before the children could return.

Sorry we couldn't provide childcare too 🙄 @EasterEvenLonger - 😵‍💫 - keeping children safe and the school closure as short as possible was the priority!

(And my husband and I both work full time and are immigrants so have no childcare. I had to take unpaid leave when my kids' school was shut. Just unavoidable sometimes unfortunately)

I've been through similar and I'd be surprised if they could do it in 3 days!

I thought moving house was stressful, it was nothing compared to moving school buildings. I hope I never have to do it again. Some people are talking like the Teachers at OP's school will be on a 3 day jolly. I can't imagine anyone preferring to spend 3 days clearing out cupboards, packing boxes, filling skips, hauling furniture around, unpacking boxes and cleaning over 3 normal days with the kids in school!

@JaynaJae bore off with the childcare comments.

If your work told you to come in on dates you were not paid for to do a task that is not in your job description and would be physically draining, dirty and difficult, would you?

If your child's teacher spent the first two weeks back after Easter winging it on no planning, nothing marked and mainlining caffeine because they hadn't had a break due to coming in on unpaid leave, would you be understanding?

I'm guessing no 🙄

Yeah, that just doesn't happen!

As if the average teacher can dictate extra days off regardless.

It appears the reason is to facilitate moving to a new build, or similar. These will have been agreed with the LEA or Academy Trust.

The teaching staff will, almost certainly, be in school during these days.

So you expect staff to work unpaid in their holidays, moving the school? And still get their planning and prep done?

Also, many may well be away, or looking after their own children? And yes, whilst still prepping for next half term.

It's a strange system that's been explained over the years.
Teachers receive pay every month including over the holidays.
However, they receive payment for a certain number of directed time, plus something like 4-5 weeks paid holiday and bank holidays. The rest is unpaid.

Like many professions, teachers will often work outside these hours and during their paid/unpaid holidays when school is closed to children. It is pretty much impossible to not work behind directed hours as planning time within those school hours is minimal.

I totally sympathise OP. This would give me the utter rage.

Our school has 2 weeks half term at Whit which is supposed to be a nice cheap week to go abroad in, except if you have children in another school as well, like I do, you can’t go away but also there is no childcare available as everyone else is in school… winds me up something chronic but everyone else loves it…. until they have children in secondary school, or if they work in another school in the area. And we know about that holiday in advance!