To avoid drip feeding, I am in Switzerland, not the UK. But I am gutted and need a little moral support…
my contract says I have to hand in my notice before 31st March. I told them in November that I was considering my options, signed my new contract on 25th February and told my head the following day. I had Google translated the contact as my French is ok but not fluent.
I was asked to attend an urgent meeting where they critiqued my performance (two parents said I had made a surprising comment, one last year and one this year). They never asked where I was going, or why I was leaving. They said they felt I was not as invested in the school this year (but had no evidence, and I commented back on this as I am VERY hard working!) and that my sick leave had been high (I contracted RSV in January and had two weeks off, plus my son had an incident of illness and so I took two days off for that in February). They asked if I was ok tk work until the end of the school year, and I said of course. (I had actually been offered a January start, but said no, as I didn’t want to leave my current students mid year).
anyway, they told me today that I will not be paid over the summer. apparently it is three months notice, and so when our school year finishes, they will stop paying me on that day.
It seems the contract was designed to avoid summer pay.
I have been at this school for 7 years and worked so very very very hard. I gave them early notice as it is hard to find anglophone teachers in this area at the moment, plus I wanted to honour the contract and do the right thing. My previous school paid over the school holidays if you stayed the entire school year, and I assumed tbis was the same.
my lawyer has looked over the contract and it is so vague, that he said my best bet is to imply that it would cost them moré to have this case thrown out of court than it would to pay me over the summer.
TFIF…