Can anyone help with term time working?

[christmasiscoming25]

I am about to move to term time working in an office role. Can anyone tell me how this works with holidays? Do I just have a pot of 13 weeks holiday I agree with my employer? Or is it totally fixed non working weeks? I couldn’t work out how it works when school holidays vary and I’m happy to take some weeks in term time so that other colleagues can take off if needed

You don't get to book term time weeks off on a term-time only contract, your holidays are the school holidays.

Usually, in terms of pay, they take the 52-week full time equivalent salery, divide it by 52 and times by 39 (to pro rata to TT only), add on what holiday pay you would be entitled to. Then divide the total by 12 and that's your monthly top line salary.

So you get holiday pay, also get 13 weeks off work, but don't get to pick or choose when your holidays are.

But how does that work when school holidays change? Half term is much earlier this week. And what about popular periods like Christmas? I assumed having some leeway on this would be helpful. I don’t want 6 straight weeks off without doing any work - it will be hard to do

Schools always open exactly the same number of days per year. It's always 190 days plus 5 inset days.

Whenever school holidays are, you aren't working. Your wage each month will not change regardless

You need to find a non term time contract if you want holidays all year round and not in the school holidays. However you'll get a lot less leave

But term time jobs operate during school terms. If you don’t want six weeks holiday, then a term time job is not the right thing for you perhaps.

can I just clarify this is not a school role at all? This is an office role that has nothing related to term time. So there is no need for it to be so rigid. I wanted to know how other offices work

Whose idea is it to move to a term time contract? It sounds like you don’t want to?

It’s not about not wanting 6 weeks in a row. It’s about being courteous to my colleagues who also may want time in the summer and making sure I can check in with my clients at some point

Are you asking in terms of pay? Or boredom?

I'm the summer 6 weeks holiday, your pay will be the same even though you are not working.

If you will get bored in the summer holidays, most school staff save projects to do - decorate, do up the garden, big creative projects. Or you could find a summer volunteer position or side hustle if you really cannot think of a way to fill your time

(What actually happens is many school staff still do some working from home I'm the holidays, because there is never enough time to get everything done at school)

I’m guessing this is not in a school office? I would assume you have 13 weeks holiday (paid for 4 weeks or whatever) and basically take off the weeks that match your kids holidays. Do you have kids because if not, why do you want to work term time? It impacts pay and flexibility of holidays.

If you are working in a school office then it will be when the school holidays are and that will be fixed. Some staff have contracts which are more flexible e.g premises staff because it's easier for them to do big maintenance jobs in the holidays when no one is around. But if your job is answering the phones and dealing with school admin there won't be any in the summer.

Do I have kids? Of course I do. Although luckily in my company anyone can take term time working kids or not. Lots of people do it to take account of being a carer for older relatives

Didnt you make a flexible working request? As part of this your employer should consider the impact on the business and can decline if it's too large.

Did it not cross your mind to ask this before you applied, let alone signed the contract?

Just to clarify it is an office role. Nothing to do with schools or education or anything else. It’s a 52 week a year service closed on bank holidays only

It's still a term-time role.

Why did you accept it if you had no idea what it entailed?

I think if people are taking it to care for elderly relatives you are confusing it with part time flexible working. Term time is exactly what it says, reduced hours that are term time only to allow you to care for your children in the set school holidays.

Where do you live where school holidays vary so much? They're set by the county council aren't they? only variable one is Easter really

Oh

It is still a "term time contract" though? This will mean you are expected to book off your children's school holidays, and will be able to.

Sounds like you want to approach the employer and ask for a 39 (or whatever) per year contract, but not tie it to term time. You could ask?

You being given a TT contract means your employer has planned for you being off work 6 weeks in summer, 2 weeks Christmas and Easter, half terms etc. The employer must have worked out staffing so that this is possible, and also allow recruitment of women with younger children - which is nice to know happens.

I think you are going to need to discuss directly with your place of work.

The general assumption will be you will want to be off when the schools are closed, to deal with childcare.

It could well be worth offering to work a week in mid August, and see how it is recieved. Noone here can tell you how your boss will react to that suggestion.

We have term time workers and every year they have to specific their dates for that year. If we need to be flexible with it, we will do it offline. Some don’t take all the time as non paid as they also get AL to take (as term time is non paid) so some use that AL for some 1wk holidays and then get paid. They ask in advance and we gaurantee they can take AL then.

I understand that you work in a job and have a term time contract. This means you have school holidays as your leave and work during term times. If you want to negotiate a different contract or vary the terms you can request that. Your work sounds very accommodating so worth pursuing

They are super flexible as long as it works for the office as a whole. I just wanted to be fair to others in the office during peak summer leave as it can be a bit tricky. I am always happy to give and take with leave to help others out. I don’t really need to ask my employer because they are happy with whatever - I really wanted to know how other offices work

Your employer sounds like they'll be very accommodating. Others are less so especially if a number of staff are already part time with certain days off or on term time contracts. There's not a standard approach but generally I'd expect any team member on a term time contract to stick to it but I'm not your manager

I’ve never seen anyone in a term time only contract where they can spread their weeks off out across the year whenever they like - if not in a school (where your holidays are their holidays) generally it aligns with whatever the local school holiday dates are. You could possibly request the holiday dates for your child’s school if it differs from the local council. School holidays move a bit but are generally roughly the same time and in the same pattern each year. You would have to ask your employer if they allow flexibility, which maybe they do if they allow people without children to request it, but the point of term time working is to only work during term time.