Easter holiday

[beesbugsbutterflies]

Teachers, If you are working next week during the Easter holidays, do you claim for extra hours you've worked?

None of us are in EVERY day so we’ve been told we are effectively already getting time off in lieu so no extra payment for Easter Holiday or the Bank Holiday I am working.

I’m a part time TA also. I only work my contracted hours the day I work. We’ve been working one day a week on a rota. Not open for Easter break. When we go back we will work in weekly blocks.

Reasonably large secondary. Only a handful of staff needed in daily as it is, with the rest WFH. Considered opening for the Easter 2 weeks except the bank hols but actually not opening at all now.

We have all been rota’d to have a two week break, just not necessarily during the ‘official’ two week window. I’m off now but have worked 10-12 hours this week so far because shit has happened and it’s not fair to leave a skeleton team to handle it all. I won’t claim because we’re all in this together and when I’m on the rota I’d like to think they’ll have my back too.

Our school asked for volunteers for Easter and is paying staff who volunteered on a supply basis.

We were given a rota covering 6 weeks, we have 3 teams working and each team is only in for 2 of the 6 weeks, we were asked to choose which weeks we would take as holidays and which we would work at home. We are classed as on call for sickness etc.. during the home working weeks.
Our head has been brilliant sorting all this out, the next time I am in with my team we are actually only working 3 days each in school due to numbers.
I am usually full time but am finishing at lunchtime each day as we have different activities in the afternoons.

If I happen to get called in over my 'holiday' then that is fine by me and I will not claim time or money back. We need to work together and support each other like we never have before.

I'm happy to volunteer, I think it's the least I can do in these exceptional circumstances, when NHS staff are unable to take any holidays, having to go in all hours etc AND they are exposing themselves to the virus. To be fair,I've been turned down because they need very few staff and can manage with just SLT/MLT, but if they rang me up to do the bank holidays at short notice I would - every day is the same anyway at the moment!

We are on a rota, but we have such a big staff, and so few pupils in, that it's mainly SLT/MLT covering with a couple of other teachers. A couple of TAs volunteered on the first day and they sent them all home because there were just too many staff for pupils.

Thankyou for helping. I'm a GP one school near me isn't offering any holiday cover so my 4 other colleagues who have school aged children are struggling. Even more so as their partners are hospital doctors on the front line so their leave has been cancelled so they can't even take week about.
Helping us work is great but I agree you need to be paid for the holidays. NHS has cancelled the Easter weekend but they are using that money for us to pay our staff for coming in on the weekend.
I suppose we are lucky as we have jobs and pay but each job has its stresses and strains.

Our rota is staffed only by volunteers. Noone is told they have to go in.

I'm doing a day, I have a good TLR and the head has asked SLT and higher TLRs (HOD/HOY) to cover the Easter break, which I'm very happy to do. After that I'm in for another 2 or 3 days, so no, I'm not claiming extra money!

Independent school here. No extra pay. Everyone who can is on the rota during the holidays covering half day slots. I'm down for 4. No extra pay. School is struggling to survive financially as it is. Jobs will be lost so you kind of feel you have to volunteer.
We're also pretty much working solidly throughout the 'holidays' preparing our remote learning and responding to parents' queries.
No extra money anywhere. More likely to be asked to accept a 20% pay cut.

I'm fascinated that some people are saying about extra pay when we are having a national crisis. We are in on a rota but still get a total of 10 days off at some point.

So, you are getting the time back instead of being paid. What's the difference? In a national crisis shouldn't you volunteer to not have any time off, if you feel like that about people wanting to be paid?

Thank you for the replies so far. I volunteered to go in as it helps to have a familiar face for our pupils who have additional needs.
I have no intention of claiming for this, but wanted know what others did, as this falls in 'holiday' period. We had a rota system for past couple of weeks and hopefully after Easter holidays.

We aren’t volunteering or paid extra but am happy to go on the rota-as are all staff except one person. I suspect they would complain about anything though!

I’m amazed people are being paid for this. I actually think it’s outrageous. Teachers/TAs are working, yes, but nothing like normal teaching & we’re safe at home with our families for most of the time in secure jobs.

Really? Given that most teachers will not be called upon to work in the holidays do you not think it would be fair to offer something to those who do? We were offered a day in lieu, for example.

TA pay is shite and I'm amazed you wouldn't want them to get extra if they did extra work.

I'm in for 3 hours, I don't think I'll be paid, I'm not expecting it and I'm looking forward to it really. I don't think our TAs are in, they've been tasked with contact calls for to vulnerable kids who aren't in. Only people who volunteered are in, but looks like everyone not in the shielding group has volunteered. I'm assuming all other support staff are being paid.

But it isn’t extra work. If you’re on a rota you’re off most of the time anyway. Teachers are working from home - are TAs? (Genuine question£

@Mistressiggi it obviously depends on your situation. All of our teachers are in at some point - there's no 'most' teachers being off.

And there is a fair point about teachers working from home - much easier to assign jobs for them at home whereas it's a lot trickier thinking what TAs can do from home.

We need two groups a day, two lots of staff (am and pm as we are offering wrap around not just school hours). That's 20 members of staff is no one comes in twice (unfortunately management are on a smaller rota of their own so are in more often)
There's just under 100 teachers in the school, so that's 80 who won't be in over Easter - so I think the 20 would deserve a half day back at some point!

saltycinammon when you aren't on the rota to be in school, you are working from home. So still working every day. What is hard to understand about that?

I've not been asked to go in (I would, if asked) and I'm not on rota til next Wed which would be my working day anyway. I'm desperate to help and do more and have said I'll cover for anyone, and I would not expect to be paid.
(School were wonderful with me when my DP was dying last year, I'd like to repay their caring kindness)

@mistressiggi I just find it v hard to believe that working from home is anything like comparable to usual workload. Half a day back at some point - whilst on lockdown or back in school? I just think it’s petty.