Mat leave - do you have to go at a holiday point?

[toadstool32]

Ie end of a half term/ term? I get it's better for the children for someone new to start with them after a natural break. I'm due in February and ideally I'll (crawl) make it to feb half term but that is literally 39weeks. How bad would it be to go two weeks earlier? (Early years teacher)

It's not bad, you go when you need to.

No you can go whenever you want to.

But if you do go before a hol, don’t start your mat leave until after the holiday (provided baby doesn’t arrive during the hol). Maximise your leave.

@ProfSprout yes I'll aim to start it after half term

You can leave whenever you want, and if memory serves me correctly, return on any Sunday. So leaving the final day of half term and ‘returning’ on the first day of the summer / October / Christmas holidays could work.

Sunday thing no longer applies.
Leave on any day you like, return any day you like.
If your due date is in half term put the due date.
If it's after half term and you dont want to come back put the 1st day of new half term.

EYFS teaching while pregnant is so hard. This is your time to put yourself and your little one first.

Look at this way, if someone else comes in before half term, they have two weeks to get to know them, a short break and they can start the new term on a positive.

Choose whenever you like.

10% of babies arrive before 37 weeks, and plenty more before the due date, so ask yourself which is better - a planned handover a couple of weeks before half-term, or a short-notice one a little later.
For early years, I'm not convinced being tidy about terms is best anyway - it may be better for little ones to have already got to know the new teacher before the break, and you probably don't have the same "starting a new topic" issues that older year groups have.