Teachers and accruing holiday on maternity leave

[bubbablubber]

Does anyone know how this works? I can't seem to find the answer anywhere

Thanks

I think you'd have to have a look at the detail of a teacher's contract to do a proper assessment of the situation.

I suspect given what has been said about pay and the NUT advice, that teachers are not actually given 'holiday' (why don't I call it 'vacation' for this post to avoid confusion) for all of the 'school holidays'.

I suspect that teachers are given 28 days of vacation a year (as required by law) and that those are designated within the school holidays. I suspect that the rest of the school holidays (if it is unpaid) is just a non-working day. So just like some people work three days a week, and the other week days are just 'non working days', teachers work for blocks of time and then have blocks of non-working time.

If that's the case - so they are not on paid holiday during the school holidays but just not required to work- then they would not be accruing anything which could be tacked onto the end of maternity leave, provided that they got the 28 days of 'vacation' in both the start and end years of the maternity leave.

That's just a bit of a guess based on what's been said above though.

I am a teacher just returned from mat leave and I received about 58 days accrued leave, some which I took to extend mat leave and rest in pay. Was off for a full year but on 0.8 contract fte. Am in Scotland though are rules different?

The law isn't different, but the contracts might be, as might be the stance the authorities have chosen to take. The Scottish government does seem quite keen to take the line of least resistance on a lot of things (e.g. prisoner's votes), but perhaps that's a bit off topic and political.

The above advice is only applicable to England and Wales. Scotland is different.

Thanks for the replies! I wish I was in Scotland, so can anyone tell me what I am entitled to if any? If I can accrue leave whilst on maternity and I leave in March should I not be paid for some of the hols that fall in my mat leave e.g Easter or summer hols? So confused and my late preggie brain is not helping!

RibenaBerry, I think what you have said is correct, and is kind of what I wanted to say but my addled PG brain couldn't put it quite so elegantly.

No you will not get paid for Easter or Summer because you have already had 28 days off (October, Christmas, February)crap but true.

Actually October = 5 days, Christmas = 10 days and February = 5 days. So maybe you should get paid for 8 days . I won't because I'm not finishing until half-term in may so must add Easter onto mine.

I don't think we accrue anything. Hols are just part of the maternity leave (in the same way as they are just part of the job)

I'm due the first week of the summer holidays and most people (even the headteacher!) have said 'ooooh, that's the worst time' because of maternity leave.

Then I had one of my colleagues say 'how lovely, a summer baby! you can sit outside in the sun with them' and it put it all back into context. Allatsea is right; we can't complain about holidays (even though we do work through at least some of them) and I'm so delighted to be pregnant that I'm not going to fuss over them.

(Though I will be coming back to work the day before a half term so that I get full pay for that week!!!)

Sarah - thanks. It's a bit of a guess, but I think it's pretty likely that a difference between 'school holidays' and what's actually 'holiday' for employment law is at the root of it.

Again, I'm not sure if this was different my being in Scotland, but before the change in EU law for my first ML, I was allowed to add 2 paid days of accrued holiday per week of school holidays missed to my ML.

In Scotland you can currently accrue days but they're trying to cut it down/get rid of it with all the budget cuts they're currently trying to get through. I'll be starting ML just before the summer holidays, bit annoying if they manage to change it before then.

I know this is a really old thread now but i’m replying because it’s still obviously relevant to people searching for answers while they’re on maternity leave now!

The NASUWT publish this guidance:

“England and Wales National occupational scheme entitlement Where a teacher’s conditions of service incorporate the Burgundy Book and STPCD there is no holiday entitlement. Instead, the contract simply states the number of days a full-time employee is required to work per year. Where maternity/adoption/paternity leave is concerned, there is no distinction between term time and the school holidays. A teacher can therefore begin and end their leave during holiday periods. It is possible to begin leave at the start of a term and return at the beginning of a school holiday. A teacher, therefore, is unlikely to have a year when they do not get the minimum requirement of 5.6 weeks (28 days) leave under the Working Time Regulations 1998.”

As I understand it, this means employers can require teachers to take their holiday allowance in the school closure periods (ie the remaining school holidays) each side of their maternity leave, whether the teacher likes it or not!

Thank you @KThomas10 that's really useful x